February 2013 Grocery Challenge

Natterjack88

First shop of new challenge done yesterday. Spent £13.53 in Lidl and £33.99 in Asda. So total of £47.52 leaving a couple of £ left of weekly budget. Going to do a meal plan and inventory of cupboards today, doubt we'll need anything else this week, if anything will just be milk. Did get an £8 Wilkos gift card for a complaint so will use that for the shopping stuff for the month and take it out of next weeks budget I think. Will then transfer £8 towards debt!

malamay

I'd like to stick with £150 for February. We have a pretty full freezer still, but want to eat more veggies/healthy things in Feb!

AimingForBetter

Hi all

Could I be included for £350 for Feb please.

I do one main shop and one top up when needed (milk as and when) so I tend to only need to shop every 2-3 weeks.

Over the last few months I have been following the GC by keeping a track of spends and notes myself so far I've managed to reduce the spend from around £450 purely by being more in control and not buying stuff for the sake of it.

I aim to reduce this further (down to £250-£300) with more focus on mealplanning and keeping better track of what is in the stores. Will also continue to do more homebaking and batch cooking for the freezer too, while keeping a look out for the bargains when I am out.

Will get sig up and running later.

Thanks everyone for your tips, ideas and support.

AFB

tessie_bear

hello am now in feb as have done last shop of jan...i am going to try and save a bit on the gc front to fund a few outings over half term....still using up the stocks to keep spends down but have a bit to use up so will carry on with that into feb

might have a cheeky visit to waitrose tomorrow for a free cup of tea and a look what is reduced

take care tessa

Mrs_T_M

Figured out that we either need another freezer for batch cooking and ys stuffs or we need to eat everything in the freezer before buying ANY more food (other than milk and eggs).

Did a shop in Morrisons late last week (£16.85) and a shop in Sainsbury's last night (totalling £21.77, but using £20 in nectar points - had an extra voucher - so only paid £1.77). I'm still working out the spreadsheets and making sure I've still got all of the receipts from January before I update my signature for total spends.

Solstice_3

Florenceem wrote: »

What about HM wedges - cheaper and healthier than chips.
I made this tonight -

Thanks for posting that, was going to have chips with our Steak tomorrow night but no room in the freezer for them! Will ask DH if he minds having wedges instead, he should be fine as he likes them anyway. Will save me some money too

cosette wrote: »

I chuckled at this too. My teenage son goes busking regularly and has discovered that if he buys something cheap (bar of chocolate or similar) and then puts ALL of his busking money in the self check-out to pay for it, it spits out his 'change' in the largest denominations possible, so he ends up with notes and 'big' coins rather than loads of coppers and silver!

I always seem to get lots of 20p more for my pot I guess

Sazdaz wrote: »

I would like to be put down for £30 this month, as run down the freezer almost, so going to finish that and then defrost it as making awful noise. Also got quite bare cupboards.

Decided I wanted to try and make my own bread but there is so many receipes out there not sure where to start. I dont have a bread maker and dont really want to spend any money on one at the mo.

Have you thought of trying soda bread? It's a no rise bread, you just mix the ingredients, knead for a few minutes, shape and put in the oven

Need to update signature and get on track now, been feeling rough and tired last few days, yesterday was self inflicted though lol. Went out in the driving rain yesterday for and stopped at Asda on the way home around 5pm, never go shopping at that time usually as that's when I am making dinner. Anyway got lots of YS stuff including mini naan breads and muffins for the freezer and some fruit and veg Two spends to update £7.65 on 26th and £18.33 yesterday, nice 64p APG voucher from that one! Not sure if I've added A&C to my total, will check and update Hoping for a NSD today but depends on reductions at work tonight.

JellyBox

So, not the best start to my first GC! We began the month with no bread, so both had to buy lunch. I got flustered and suckered in to a Meal Deal (shocking!), £3 down the drain, OH managed much better with his £1.80, but still, nearly £5 wasted on nothing. :mad:

Last night was an emergency trip to Mr A for basic essentials, £14 worth, (£8 though on 2-3 months of loo roll!). Today has been the weekly shop, which was another £35 (rounded up to account for not knowing the pennies for yesterday). This means that day two of the GC and we've already spent a whopping £53.80. Oh dear :eek:

All that aside, after today's cooking session, I will have a well stocked freezer and should only need to buy small amounts for me for the rest of the month, then just OH to worry about!

Florenceem

Popped in Al.. today for eggs and satsumas - they had the SS Broccolli - didn't have it in yesterday - so I spent £2.73. Well stocked with eggs now in case I get the urge to bake.

chairing555

Hi all,
I would like to join the forum, can you put me down for £180 please for a family of three - hubby, baby and me.

peony40

Hello, I'd like to try again in February! Been rather a disaster up to now I'm afraid.

Off to menu plan for the week, I am going to try and budget weekly to see if this helps me manage, so please can I be removed from the monthly list and put on the weekly list? £40 a week please.

Many thanks for all your help.