October 2012 Grocery Challenge

retepetsir

Still spending too much for the 2 of us as my other half likes impulse food shopping at places like M&S as 'the fruit is nicer'. Well it will be, it's twice as expensive!

Struggling to get the food bill under £300 per month at the moment (Ideally I'd like it around £200ish) and that's with no alcohol (we don't really drink).

We must spend around £20 a week on fruit and veg as she likes to buy things like blueberries (£4 for about 400g), raspberries, pears, etc.

I'm sticking to cheaper fruit like bananas just to help!

So I'm not sure how we're going to get this bill down, we shouldn't really be spending that much a month as we're looking to try for a baby soon so could do with saving some money!!!

[Deleted User]

DM went out this morning and spent £7.52, had to get a few bits, hadnt realised how bare the cupboards were!

did find 3 tins of carrots in the back of the cupboard, will make shepherds pie/cottage pie this week and put them in with that. will do for a couple of mid week meals that way as we have two packs of mince in the freezer and got more potatoes in the shop this morning.

Barbeduk

retepetsir wrote: »

So I'm not sure how we're going to get this bill down, we shouldn't really be spending that much a month as we're looking to try for a baby soon so could do with saving some money!!!

The trouble is that when you are child free with a disposable income you just can't imagine it'll ever end! You will not believe how expensive kids are, even when you're trying to bring them up MSE style. Learn from our mistake, save more!

katholicos

Barbeduk wrote: »

The trouble is that when you are child free with a disposable income you just can't imagine it'll ever end! You will not believe how expensive kids are, even when you're trying to bring them up MSE style. Learn from our mistake, save more!

Spot on!

And the cost just as much/more, the older they get!

Bless them.

:beer:

In other news.....last night i made 3 more weetabix cakes. DS and DD ate the choc i was going to put in them but i stirred in a tin of cranberry jelly and also adapted it slightly in adding eggs to the mixture. It is so moist and flavourful and filling. Lots more sliced up fr the freezer!

My DD and DS don't even know it is made with weetabix yet, and i don't plan on telling them as neither of them particularly like weetabix :rotfl:

they love this cake/teabread though! And it is so economical.

What else... Oh yes...i am going to do some sorting out and make an inventory of what i have in my cupboards/pantry and freezers. The other day i went out to buy something (can't remember what it was now) and a day or so later, discovered oi already had that particular item in the house already. DOH!

Just had a nice piece of weetabix cake with a cuppa tea with my morning cocktail of tablets! Yummy! (the cake, not the tablets!)

Bluegreen143

Well i haven't been on for a few days been very busy. Spent £5.08 a few days ago on deodorant and coke for OH, bringing my total so far to £98.66. I have ordered a MR A delivery this morning for tomorrow, with the guide price at £55 including delivery. It's OH's week to do the budgeting next week (means I can't go over that week as any overspends he buys out of his own pocket) so this leaves £10 in case we need to pick up anything during the week. Should be OK but I don't think we'll ever be able to reduce further as it is now really starting to be a struggle whereas it was easy to reduce every month to start with!

retepetsir wrote: »

Still spending too much for the 2 of us as my other half likes impulse food shopping at places like M&S as 'the fruit is nicer'. Well it will be, it's twice as expensive!

Struggling to get the food bill under £300 per month at the moment (Ideally I'd like it around £200ish) and that's with no alcohol (we don't really drink).

We must spend around £20 a week on fruit and veg as she likes to buy things like blueberries (£4 for about 400g), raspberries, pears, etc.

I'm sticking to cheaper fruit like bananas just to help!

So I'm not sure how we're going to get this bill down, we shouldn't really be spending that much a month as we're looking to try for a baby soon so could do with saving some money!!!

It's just the two of us (and a cat) and we don't include alcohol, takeaways or eating out in our total - if you look at my sig you'll see that only a few months ago I was spending £300+ every month and I'm now down to £220 a month.

Hope to reduce a wee bit more, but what has really helped me is being organised and accepting that I have to spend time on being OS - e.g. I shop every week now instead of as and when, I bake bread and make soup for lunches every Sunday, I am merciless about using up leftovers. Also I used to be too snobby to buy value products but now I embrace them. Ketchup, mayonnaise, bran flakes, washing up liquid, tin foil, pasta, butter, chopped tomatoes - so much cheaper to buy value. But it is very hard when your OH is not on board, I could reduce further but he is frankly not that motivated too and wants to buy nice things with his money. Good luck!

EDIT £20 is a lot to spend on fruit & veg, I spend around £10 a week and we eat loads as I used to be a vegetarian and still only eat meat twice a week. I am totally strict about getting five a day, and I won't eat tinned or much frozen veg, however I managed to save a lot when I stopped wasting stuff - freezing leftover bananas, making soup from wilted veg - and I also buy a bag of apples and bananas every week and other fruit only very occasionally as a treat. OH doesn't eat fruit so admittedly that keeps the bill down. Tbh I just used to buy way too much veg, I am better now at judging how much we actually need and I also make sure to buy a mix of some veg that needs eaten quickly e.g. salad and some veg that keeps longer e.g. carrots and trying to eat the salad first iyswim. HTH

tattycath

I need to do a full inventory of my cupboards, as I'm always buying stuff then realising I already had it in the cupboard. :mad:

Godiva500

Last spend at approved foods for me today - £40. It was things that we def use and need eg rice, catfood, toilet rolls, cleaning stuff etc. but that is it now - it gets to be too much, and as i am decluttering, I am filling up again with food stock! These extra buyts have put me well over budget this month, so will try again next month, without AF.
I still have 1 more normal weeks shopping to do at Mr A.

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Went to T's yesterday - £18.66 spend - thanks to whoever mentioned about Dr Fizz - DD loves the branded version, but this is a very good lookylikey and much more :money::D

Small shop at S's this morning of £4.70.

Have some friend visiting this week Tues/Wed - will be making butternut squash soup for the first time - I do like to live dangerously and try out new recipes on random guests :rotfl:

Have a great weekend everyone.
Coxy

pinkypig

Just done what I hope will be my last shop of the month. £23.20 in Mr M and £8.11 in Ald*, which means we should come in significantly under budget :j:j:j:j

Will def be doing this again next month as it has really helped to focus on what we actually spend. The difference is amazing. We've spent less and I've got loads of good stuff in the freezer and cupboards which should give us a good start next month. I can now order heating oil with out stressing about scraping the money together :j:j

Thanks for all the brilliant tips :T

PP

Suffolk_lass

Barbeduk wrote: »

Can't remember who posted about chick peas but you can get 400g cans of KTC chick peas at morrisons for 25p at the moment (usually 33p). Naturally they are not with the other tinned pulses, they're in the world food aisle. We use them all the time in curries etc.

I'm one of the chick pea posters. Thanks very much:T

SL