May 2007 Grocery Challenge

EagerLearner

Just over £25 yesterday - not a bad start for bulk shop with Tesco.

Longer month but fingers crossed we will do it - problem is coming up with varied and healthy ideas... we just came back from Milan for birthday treat for Mr EL and the food we had was not healthy... :rolleyes:

samsampotts

Right! I kept an eye on this thread last month whilst adding up what I spent on food just for me and my OH - OMIGOD!!!:eek: I can't believe I spent about £400:eek: :eek: That's got to stop so this month I'm in :T

My budget for May (starting Monday 30th April) is £230

The figures below may not seem like a great start but my freezer is well stock with meals for the month so following weeks shouldn't be so bad. I did a great deal with Tesco online. They sent me a £10 voucher if I spent £50. On the website, your total is given for the items in your trolley regardless off offers. So I limited myself to only buy things on offer and as soon as my trolley total reached £50 I stopped. This meant I could use the £10 off voucher, plus, when all the offers were taken into account, I saved a further £10! so £60ish worth of shopping for £30ish, can't be bad.:T

Have spent a further £1.04 at Asda since I did my signature, will update it soon.

Good luck this month everyone!:D

rosieben

I lost my focus on this for the last few weeks because life got in the way; I still tried to be careful with my spending though and came in little over budget though not too badly.

My budget for May is £80; I have good stocks in my cupboards and freezer so hoping to come in well under that.

gems2381

Hi all, been reading this board for MONTHS but I could never sign up to post till today!

Going to have a go at this months challenge, my aim is £200 for two adults and my shopping is being delivered from Tesco tonight so I'll know exactly what I've spent then.

Welshlassie

Hi all
I've been aware of this challenge for some time, but as Dh does all the cooking it has been difficult to "encourage" him to participate, but this weekend we sat down and worked out how much money we were goiong to have while I was on maternity leave and realised actually how much we spend on groceries each month for 2 of us, was down right disgraceful (probably around the £400 mark) so we sat down and did a fortnights meal planner and then ordered if from Tesco, just fruits, veg, milk and bread to get next week then. Total came to just below £60. Therefore our budget for this month will be £280, will then reassess next month.

Some of the stuff we ordered from Tesco didn't arrive (was due to be included in dinner that night), we managed without it and got it refunded along with the mozerella that exploded so save an addition £3 there. I will update my signature when I get home with the exact total spent to date

Quite excited about this, is that a bit sad!!

dm1465

Just cleared out cupboards, have enough rice to sink a battleship, made meal plan till end next week, then went to Lidl and Wilkinsons. Hopefully apart from fresh stuff this should do us till then.

Shortie

Hi Elfinwings. Thanks for that. I'm really trying to reign in the spending right now

thriftykatie wrote: »

I love food shopping so I like to have my weekly fix!

Yup, I'm guilty of this too... both our parents could never understand how we could happily spend 2 hours in Mr Ts when we had more time on our hands... I stil do enjoy a good nose around the shops too

mikeD

Hi all you nice new people. Hope you all save mucho dinero!

I did the usual under budget thing, but am not very proud about it as I obviously set my budget too high as I said last month.

For May I will reduce it to £55 per week :eek: and hope for the best.

Are there any other blokes out there on this thread, or am I an endangered species

lil_me

Well I have decided to try changing how I buy, been doing little and WAY TOO OFTEN! This was the whole idea of buying a new fridge freezer, more storage (Which is huge, emptied old ones which were full into it and looks bare!) So have ordered for a delivery of basics this week, then will go to farm shop Friday for meat and stock up (only open 2 days a week as he's also the farmer) then get F&V delivered weekly, milk every other day, so fingers crossed this will help reduce the spending. Best add what has been spent so far.

aqv1957

Hi Tracey,

I'm new to this - my first post!! - but I've been a quiet little saver for a long time. You've inspired me to do more "use up the stores" cooking now. Our weekly budget (for 3 adults and whoever drops in) is £45 - food and cleaning stuff. One thing I do that saves loads on meat is that I've befriended some of the stallholders at my local farmers' markets (where I have a stall, too) and asked them to save me bones that would otherwise be incinerated. I know this sounds disgusting, but it's just things like neck bones (in BIG chunks), leftover bits when venison gets butchered,etc and there's loads of meat on them. Plus, of course, they're free! I pop them in the pressure cooker for 30 mins, strain off the stock for soup and pick the meat off when it's cool. From one batch of lamb bones I can usually do three meals of some kind for the three of us - Chinese-style lamb, lamb with apricots, hearty lamb and veg soup, etc. etc.
YOu don't have to have a stall yourself to benefit from this - my friend heard what I was doing and now she's a regular bone-picker! The farmers are usually really glad to have someone to give the stuff to rather than wasting it - and you know where it's coming from!

Angela