January 2013 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Just back from the shops and the final shop of January - spent just over £19.
Its taken me up to £137.43 - £12 over budget.
Could have been a lot worse though.

See you all over on the Feb thread

hedgesparrow

I've really struggled to keep up with this thread - hope everyone has had a good January. we've spent over our aimed £40 - we've spent £51.70 this month and I think that's it - we can wait till Fri. I'm still fairly pleased though because that's a lot less than normal.

Lolkat

A NSD yesterday for me. It was snowing really hard when I left work. I wasn't going to divert anywhere to shop. It was get in the car and drive, just hoping that it wasn't too bad on the roads. I got home eventually.

I get paid on Friday the 1st Feb and have one more weeks shopping to get before then. I probably could stretch things and cupboard cook for evening meals but I am running short of other things. I've run out of bread. Coffee is looking a bit low and 2 yogurts won't survive the weekend which means none for Monday at work. I am such a creature of habit when it comes to my lunches.
I'm going to a friend's for her birthday party tonight and we're all going out for lunch tomorrow. Then to the cinema to see Les Mis. So I might need bread for a snack when we get home tomorrow. Given there's been snow, I'm expecting the town to be a bread free area and will call into S or T on the way to Manchester tonight. I'll be in a hurry so no browsing

Billie-jo

Florenceem- sorry to hear about your loss. Nice to 'see' you on here again though.

Walked round to the local shop this morning due to the terrible snow we had over night and have now spent £173.95 out of the £200 so just £26.05 left until the 31st.

Ellieseleven

Last grocery shop for January today, needed quite a bit of stuff after being frugal throughout the month so spent £67.66 bringing our total so far to £210.33 - £29.67 under budget and hoping for the last few days of January as NSD's

Also, got some vouchers for the new Aldi near us - four weeks with £5 of £30 spend:)

I've enjoyed taking part in the Grocery Challenge and hope to do as well in February;)

StressedSteph

Well I think I have failed the January challenge.

We are a family of four and I attempted to only spend £50 per week (£200 per month)

Well My total is £221 so that works out to be £55.25 per week

Could have been worse I suppose.

I used to spend £70 per month but wanted to push it a little further.

So I have saved £59 this month from trying this challenge :T

jem1980

Weekly shop done, and we are slightly over budget - hopefully the last shopping of the month but maybe not. Managed to buy some toiletries on my Advantage card which saved £8 cashflow.

Todays shop was basically:
Mr T: delicate laundry liquid, suet x 2, shaving balm (on offer). Total £6.70
Al*i: fruit & veg, 4x milks, eggs, sandwich fillings, raisins, sausages, butter and corned beef. Total £21.89

Making corned beef hash and dumplings tonight, yum yum!

Am having a slight "Old Mother Hubbard" feeling this week, looking forward to the Feb challenge so I can stock up a bit next week. Am doing some cheaper meals this week, e.g. egg chips and beans, pasta and sauce etc. I am going to try and plan Feb's meals with this in mind, so we have a mix of cheaper meals and treatier meals right to the end. Phew, I know why they call this a "challenge" now - it's not easy!!! TBH, the toiletries and cleaning stuff really throw me off course as they are pricier than I thought.

Sig updated, hope everyone's had a good month overall.

lbnblbnb

Have got a lemon drizzle cake in the oven baking, part of my campaign to avoid the family feeling deprived. When I got the ingredients out I thought I would be short, but when I measured them had just enough SR flour, just enough Demerara sugar, just enough (ancient) ground almonds. Very chuffed, cleared out the cupboards a bit!

lbnblbnb

I think I will switch over to the Feb thread. My GCSE runs 19th Jan to 19th Feb, so mostly in Feb! Good luck to the end of the month everyone.

Florenceem

lbnblbnb wrote: »

Have got a lemon drizzle cake in the oven baking, part of my campaign to avoid the family feeling deprived. When I got the ingredients out I thought I would be short, but when I measured them had just enough SR flour, just enough Demerara sugar, just enough (ancient) ground almonds. Very chuffed, cleared out the cupboards a bit!

Bossy Florenceem here - is the oven on just for the cake baking. It is thrifty to fill the oven - ie bake when dinner is cooking.