March 2013 Grocery Challenge

charleybabes

morning all..

havnt been on here for ages and ages... but our baby is due in about 7 weeks and we are having to make cut backs..im not working now and we are having building work done on the house so every penny counts!!
need to get my head into more frugal living and trying to save as much as we can

this week we decided to go to a l di to do our weeks shopping as we have been doing ocado online and was spending about £100 week so i thought we could go to aldi and get about a £50 shop in thus banking the other £50,

we ended up spending £124 :eek:
i dont know how we managed this i had wrote a list out and meal planned for the week..but i think it felt like a holiday shop so we were putting all sorts of extras in....obviously not a good start to our old style living!!

so now we have been left with about £20 to live on for the rest of the week and were unable to put any money into the saving fund!

really want to pull back for next week and really save some pennies, any extra money has got to go in to our loft fund ( We are having the loft turned into a bedroom for our two boys )

can anyone give me any tips on how to get my shopping down to atleast £50-60 a week..this is for four of us..me my hubs, and our two little boys who are 4 and 6,

can it be done ???

Pink.

Hi charleybabes,

I've added your thread to our Grocery Challenge thread where you should get lots of help and support from others in the same postition. Please read the first few posts for lots of ideas and advice.

If you have a look at Martin's Budget Planner, that should help you to find out if/where you are overspending and give you ideas on how you could cut back. There is also his article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries.

Meal planning is a good way to save money. To get some ideas and help with this, have a look in

The Complete Menu Plans Collection

Also there are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals .

Good luck with cutting back and I hope you enjoy this thread.

Pink

ikkle87

charleybabes wrote: »

can anyone give me any tips on how to get my shopping down to atleast £50-60 a week..this is for four of us..me my hubs, and our two little boys who are 4 and 6,

can it be done ???

Make a list of whats in your freezer and cupboards and try to make a list of meals out of what you have in already.

Have a look at your receipt and see if you can see where the majority of your money is spent? Is it snacks, fruit, pop, meat, veg etc? See if you can swap brands if possible? Could you bulk out meals with veg or pulses? Eat non meat meals. Jacket spud, cheese and beans is a fave in our house and nice and cheap to make. x

charleybabes

hiya

ive just gone through my reciept and made a star next to things like cleaning products , bottle of wine, biscuits.. things that are non essential and things that i wont need to buy for a good few weeks again and it brought my list down to £65, so i spose if i keep going i should be able to get a decent enough food shop for around £50 next week

Florenceem

ikkle87 wrote: »

Make a list of whats in your freezer and cupboards and try to make a list of meals out of what you have in already.

Have a look at your receipt and see if you can see where the majority of your money is spent? Is it snacks, fruit, pop, meat, veg etc? See if you can swap brands if possible? Could you bulk out meals with veg or pulses? Eat non meat meals. Jacket spud, cheese and beans is a fave in our house and nice and cheap to make. x

Next time you shop - take a list with you - that you have written after writing out a meal plan - and keep to the list.

Florenceem

charleybabes wrote: »

hiya

ive just gone through my reciept and made a star next to things like cleaning products , bottle of wine, biscuits.. things that are non essential and things that i wont need to buy for a good few weeks again and it brought my list down to £65, so i spose if i keep going i should be able to get a decent enough food shop for around £50 next week

Wine - pregnanacy and alcohol don't go together. So if wine is for oh - let him do without as you are having to.

becsxxx

K9sandFelines wrote: »

50p spend on DM for Aldi voucher, though not 100% sure i will be able to use it!

Thanks for the reminder - had forgotten it was today!

Spends to report for me from yesterday:
£14 in Ald1 on veg, fresh stuff and nibbles for guests (entertaining again this weekend!)
£9.67 in Sa1nsburys, nearly £6 of which was on fish. I did get YS multigrain bread for 15p, TTD cheese scones (mmm) for 15p and 6 pork steaks for £2, so am pretty content overall.

We will get the Aldi voucher and do a top up shop on Sunday which will last the rest of the month, so am hopeful at coming in on budget for our first month. Would like to reduce the spend next month as we are away a bit and not entertaining as much - let's not run before we can walk though!

Off to update siggy...

charleybabes

Florenceem wrote: »

Wine - pregnanacy and alcohol don't go together. So if wine is for oh - let him do without as you are having to.

you are right there.. i had bought a bottle for my collection ( for once the baby is born,) ,and hubs bought a bottle of red so these are non essentials.. but then it does last him all week so dont want to feel a meany by depriving him!!!

JellyBox

Totally lost track of receipts and exact amounts, since last check in I've bought meat for weekend roast, veg and a full weekly shop. Approximate spend £35 all in, but going to add £45 on to guessed spend just in case I've missed anything. Going to round everything up, putting me at £125 of my £160. I've not got much more to buy this month, so feeling quite pleased with that, and next month I am going to be totting up all receipts, so will know exactly where I am!

xxlouisexx56

Spent £20 yesterday, today will be a NSD but tomorrow I plan to go to MR T for a half leg of lamb which is super reduced to £4 per kilo, reduced from £10. Will stuff that in the freezer for Easter Sunday will also need more milk. Always more milk!