July 2013 Grocery Challenge

joanne109

Payday tomorrow (15th) and I'm restarting my month to run from 15th to 15th. It's easier to keep track of that way.
Looking forward to rebooting.
I'm still sticking with £500 per month

Have a good week all

Joanne

lushlifesaver

NSD today, will need lettuce and milk tomorrow other than that should be alright for most of, if not all, the week unless bf fancies something random for tea one night!

Teg-Rem

can anyone tell me how u get these "vouchers" from tesco that help you save so much, we use our local one most days but all we ever get is the odd 7p off voucher at the till for a comparible shop etc. eg a £24.60,shop reduced to £1.10 aka billie-jo. ??

SilverBird_2

Spent £12.03 last week while on holiday - a few bits from Mr M and ice cream from L1dl.

[DH saw me packing the groceries that I'd been buying ready for the holiday and said to just take the essentials as he'd been saving so that we could eat out and make the most of our holiday. (Would have been nice if he'd shared this with me sooner but not to worry as the cupboards are full and so won't have to spend as much for the next few weeks!!!) Apart from making toast for breakfast, only heated a ready-meal curry in the microwave and some breaded fish in the oven. Found some nice places to eat at without breaking the bank. Totally spoilt! Wonderful! Could get to like this! Weather was very warm - have photos of the thermometer showing 34C. So, we've enjoyed a lovely, peaceful week by the seaside in Somerset - our first holiday for at least 20 years! It's DH's birthday today so will be going out for a meal (have discount vouchers!) then it's back to the normal routine.]

Suffolk_lass

lbnblbnb wrote: »

...We have been incredibly lucky and a kind friend has given us tickets for Latitude next weekend - I don't know if it is possible to eat frugally there! Off to search for any advice...

If it works the way most do, you can easily take your own food as food is expensive (averaging £8 each for a meal this year - eg fish and chips) - being Latitude I think there are more healthy options but prices are the same. We were at Hyde Park last week and all drinks were £5 except water. We took flasks of ice and topped them up 1 at a time by sharing and managed to keep cool. They don't like you taking your own drinks but DH and I are older than your average concert attendee and we managed to persuade the bag searcher that it was innocent.

A blanket is worth taking too, if you're resorting to a pack-up

Have a fab time
SL

Suffolk_lass

Welcome back elsiepac - good to see you! - Re your bread glut, why not make breadcrumbs with some (especially as they get stale) and freeze them in a plastic bag so that you can "tetris" them into a gap - then you can sprinkle them mixed with grated cheese when you are making gratins

I've had a NSD this weekend and had salad of pick and come again leaves, with grated beets and carrots from our garden, with left over new potatoes made into potato salad (also home grown) and eggs while DH was fasting yesterday in preparation for a procedure today. I've got raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries, currants and rhubarb at the moment so only apples, peaches and cherries for the fruit bowl and milk and eggs to buy (plus the "grocery" things to replenish). This month is still looking achievable

Keep going everyone
SL

CountingPennies

Well.... time to dig out the receipts and assess the weekend shopping damage I'm not so worried this week. Yes i know i've overspent, but i still haven't spent anywhere near as much as usual, and i realise that as this is the 1st time at this challenge its gonna give me a starting point of how to assess for August, and how i really need to start meal planning! :rotfl:

So here it goes....

Home Bargains, a spend of £7.39p, but that included kids nivea sun cream (gotta come of out shopping budget, no other funds), a 7 pack of chewing gum for DH for work and some sweets for the kids for the weekend (much cheaper than local shop and still some left for next week).

Aldi, a spend of £11.77 on alcohol for Mr CP and milk. Also bought some crisps for £2.69 the day before but can't find the receipt so i'll add that too (gotta be honest with myself or there is no point is there).

Iceland, a total of £30.25p which includes lots of ice pops and ice cream (cheaper than ice cream van), 8 pints of milk, bacon, pre-packed meats, mico meals for Mr CP for work, 4 loafs of bread, 2 packs of bread rolls, cheese and a few freezer bits.

Tesco, a whopping spend of £53.47p!!! :eek::eek::eek: However, this include 3 boxes of 24 cans of diet pepsi (£12). Bought these for our day trips out in the summer holidays with the kids. It works out at around 16p a can, and my kids love drinking out of a can. They see it as a treat. They have been packed away out of the kids sight and will be brought out next month :cool: Also included veg for yesterdays lunch and there is enough for at least another 3 meals, dog food, razor blades for Mr CP (£5.99 FOR 4 :eek:), hot dogs and fridge stuff, oh and a large value chicken.

So that is a grand total of £102.88p :eek::eek::eek: Much more than i though now i've actually added it all up. Oopps! Its this BBQ weather. I'm gonna have to come up with alternatives I think. When i look at the whole picture, i can easily say around £30-£40 of that is on alcohol, razor blades, sun cream and some bits put away for holidays. All things i don't spend a lot on very often.

So that brings my total to £349.61/£500, so basically £150 needs to last me 2 weeks. Now i've seen that wrote down, i think its possible!

Before this challenge i used to spend around £100 per week on a big shop. And that doesn't include all my top up shops (which was just habit buying) on stuff i didn't even need. I would say i was easy spending £150 per week, sometimes more if i had just been paid. This challenge has made me so much more aware of how I was shopping. I know i still have a long way to go in terms of meal planning, and trying to have more NSDs but i'm feeling very positive at the minute about it all.

Thanks everyone on here for your encouragement, support and ideas. Your all fab

pixiedust09

Morning, Blimey its hot. I'm back from a weekend caravaning in the New Forest which was soooo nice, really didn't want to come back and go to work this morning. Hope everyones staying as cool as they can :cool:.

Popped to A*di's this morning and spent £28.66 the best low spend yet , already updated my signature. Went spectacularly over budget last week though, so very unlikely I'll stay in July's budget, only £8.86 left , must try harder next month. Off to catch up now.

Edit. Just realised I didn't deduct the extra bits I bought at A*DI last week that were not from the grocery budget, Compost bin £9.99, plastic cereal boxes £4.99 and a tray £2.99, which is a total of £17.97 to add back to the grocery budget. So I have £26.83 left :j. Will update sig again.

joanne109

Post payday shop today and went all out on yellow stickers
M and S - s chicken pies, pork shops and smoked haddock chowder pluse some cheese snacks for the kids - £14

T3sco - crisps for packedlunch, snack a jacks for me to snack on at work, oo rolls and YS liver £7.63.

Apart from fresh fruit and veg which I'll pick up when the market closes on Weds, I shouldn't need much else this week

Off to update sig

Joanne

Billie-jo

Teg-Rem wrote: »

can anyone tell me how u get these "vouchers" from tesco that help you save so much, we use our local one most days but all we ever get is the odd 7p off voucher at the till for a comparible shop etc. eg a £24.60,shop reduced to £1.10 aka billie-jo. ??

My vouchers for this shop were actually Tesco club card points. I still have £41 left. M&S vouchers were given to my son as a Christmas gift when he was out in Afghan and every year DH gets some co-op vouchers as he used to work there.
The M&S had been in a drawer for a long time as completely forgot them and the Co-op vouchers now stand at £140 left.
Also if you are in Britannia/Co-op you can join the membership scheme (completely free) every time you purchase something from a co-op store you get points and at some point in the year they are converted into coupons (rather like Tesco club points) these can either be spent in shop or banked. Small leaflet explaining about it in stores.
DH card allows 10% off as well as he is an ex-employee.
Most years there is nothing we can think off that we want for either Christmas or birthdays and so the kids insist on giving us Tesco gift cards - have £85 if not more and also have £50 of Matalan vouchers somewhere and a book token.
Have just realised I am rich :rotfl: thanks for asking Teg-Rem as you have made me realise I really ought to spend a few of them more often just in case.