October 2013 Grocery Challenge

meg72

2childmum wrote: »

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I have a question for those with more experience than me. Imagine I arrive at the last week of the month with just enough money in the kitty to buy what I need for that week, but discover amazing offers on stuff I don't need right now, but will use over the following month - and I have some money from else where I could spend on it - is it better to stick to each month's budget (and so not buy said offers) or is it better to go over budget and buy them? Which saves most money long term? And should I then start again with the full budget the following month, or take off the overspend from the previous month? I appreciate I am fortunate to be able to do this when so many others would have no extra money to spend, but I am trying to work out which would save money long-term. It seems to defeat the point to set a budget but then happily overspend it each month!

Some offers are just too good to miss and if you have the money I would say buy it. If its needed for the next month then I would take off the overspend. I don't think theres anything wrong with starting on next months budget a bit early if its saving money long-term.

Bluegreen143

2childmum wrote: »

I have a question for those with more experience than me. Imagine I arrive at the last week of the month with just enough money in the kitty to buy what I need for that week, but discover amazing offers on stuff I don't need right now, but will use over the following month - and I have some money from else where I could spend on it - is it better to stick to each month's budget (and so not buy said offers) or is it better to go over budget and buy them? Which saves most money long term? And should I then start again with the full budget the following month, or take off the overspend from the previous month? I appreciate I am fortunate to be able to do this when so many others would have no extra money to spend, but I am trying to work out which would save money long-term. It seems to defeat the point to set a budget but then happily overspend it each month!

It's up to you how you play this. Some people are happy to buy the offers then take them off the next month's spend if that's when they'll spend them.

Personally I almost never go for them - I prefer to stick to each month's budget (and haven't gone over budget since January looking at my sig so it must be working!). If I think the offer is that worthwhile (e.g. on coffee or razors, both things we tend to buy expensive brands of) I will rejig the shopping list/put other stuff back to fit them in (often the new budget is only a couple of days away and then you can restock), but I don't go over budget.

However I tend to buy value/savers of most stuff so don't get swayed by offers as they're still more expensive usually. If you often use branded stuff it certainly makes sense to buy when it's on offer - just, like you say, there's no point setting a budget then going over all the time. Maybe set aside say £10-20 p/m that can be used on offers guilt-free so you're not continually going over your budget? HTH!

Annie_99

Im feeling very down today.. I cant seem to stick to my monthly budget and have been looking at all your posts for the last few months reading and reading but still cant myself stick to it..
I do a food inventory and batch cook, walk from shop to shop to get the best deals but im still spending £600/£700 a month... I know i buy christmas presents, or help my kids out with a tenner here etc but my money is all over the place and i cant seem to get this figure down.
We are a family of 4 adults and a grandson who is 6 and lives with us..
I guess im asking how do you manage on such low budgets and stick to it xxx

K9sandFelines

Spends today .... £4.11 in Mr M : ice cream (Friday's are ice cream night here), spreadable butter, fizzy water, and two kg bags of YS grated carrots that were 50p each - bargain! Both DDs will eat these as is, cooked, or i can freeze or put in soup/ariabatta; and i actually have no carrots in, so couldn't pass them by.

In the C*-*p, i spent £7.95 on toilet roll : YS haddock fillets, YS cherry tomatoes, massive box of tissues (only 50p ( maybe end of range???), a cheeky bar of a new flavour of Cadburys creation, cookie nut crunch (this will be consumed on Sat (which is treat night) or put away for near Christmas). Also bought crisps and milk.

Think i got alot for my money today and i am hoping to be able to hibernate for most of the weekend now, once the school run is done!!

£12.06p to add to sig.

I'm noticing without using AF and the lady who delivers bulk cleaning stuff, my shopping is so far alot less by just incorporating offers as i go along and spreading it out. Also trying to order all cat food from Z**plus and not buying it from SM , as when i do that i am adding it to GC total. Still thirteen days to go though and £100 left, but mentally £80 as i have been trying to reduce spends to £360 but kept going over. Really hope i can crack it for once this time.

Nelly11

Hi all,
well I have just 3.75 to last through until 25th!!
I really want to do this and there is no reason why I shouldn't, we have loads of food in the freezer, the large freezer is emptying sloooowwwllly, it now just has two drawers of food for us to work our wat through.
I seriously need to cut back on shopping, debts are piling up, only 3 days a week of work, which is still too much after serious illness and operation but darent have any time sick as I fear getting the sack.
Today is going to be spent meal planning. There are only two of us living at home, my son is 17 and we often have the other older sons and girlfriends and grandchild visit us, usually at meal time, this is fine, they do chip in towards food but im thinking that next month id like to get my shopping bill down to 30.00 per week. Im a canny shopper so i think this is achievable

Billie-jo

Now at £95.77 for this month so still good.

However yesterday's shopping trip made me realise that mum needs watching a little bit more closely. We usually drop her off in Te$co while we go over the road to A1di then go back to pick her up. Yesterday she was stuck as she had forgotten her pin and also was trying to pay with a club card, she also told me that as big as Te$co was they had no cheese what so ever in the store!!!! (she wouldn't dream of asking someone where it was) . So we are having to deal with confusion and some memory loss and I now feel I have to go shopping with her, watch her round the store and help with the paying if she gets stuck. We have decided to do our shopping on a different day from next week but am thinking - am I going to be tempted to spend more when I go with mum?

On a different note chicken curry in the slow cooker for tonight.

CH27

Annie_99 wrote: »

Im feeling very down today.. I cant seem to stick to my monthly budget and have been looking at all your posts for the last few months reading and reading but still cant myself stick to it..
I do a food inventory and batch cook, walk from shop to shop to get the best deals but im still spending £600/£700 a month... I know i buy christmas presents, or help my kids out with a tenner here etc but my money is all over the place and i cant seem to get this figure down.
We are a family of 4 adults and a grandson who is 6 and lives with us..
I guess im asking how do you manage on such low budgets and stick to it xxx

I stick to mine because my budget is all I have to spend.
I always shop with cash as I find I only buy what I really need.

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Been pants at updates, but have kept receipts.

Won,t bore you with the details but between AL&i and Mr L, so far this month I have spent £167.11 that includes £34.12 on wine......
:eek:
New al&i round the corner, and they sell a lush red, i,ve got the willpower of a newborn kitten

2childmum

Annie_99 wrote: »

Im feeling very down today.. I cant seem to stick to my monthly budget and have been looking at all your posts for the last few months reading and reading but still cant myself stick to it..
I do a food inventory and batch cook, walk from shop to shop to get the best deals but im still spending £600/£700 a month... I know i buy christmas presents, or help my kids out with a tenner here etc but my money is all over the place and i cant seem to get this figure down.
We are a family of 4 adults and a grandson who is 6 and lives with us..
I guess im asking how do you manage on such low budgets and stick to it xxx

Hi Annie. Please don't beat yourself up over this. We are a household of 3 adult sized portions, and an 11 year old who sometimes eats like an adult and I am trying to get down to £450 a month (although I doubt I will manage it this month) I look at how little others spend and wonder how they do it too. However, some people have access to cheaper things than I do e.g. there is no market (apart from expensive farmer's markets) near me, the only home grown stuff I have is the apple tree ( and I think I have overspent on baking stuff to use them up, so we are actually eating more cake than usual, so spending more than saving if I'm honest), there is no HB or the frozen food place some people use, I can't easily get to the shops for the YS stuff and when I do it is never as reduced as some on here seem to find,the local butcher is very expensive etc, etc. I was spending nearer £500 pound so I have reduced it to £450 (which is what I always planned on spending) and although I don't think it will get that low I think I will save a bit this month. I plan to only shave very small amounts off each month rather than trying to jump down too far too fast. Also I think it may depend on what people are including - mine includes toiletries, cleaning stuff, bits for Christmas, and lunches for DH and me (and a lunch size snack for teenage boy) plus lunches for children during school holidays, and also the occasional alcoholic treat for DH. Not everyone includes all of these, I also don't have a cupboard or freezer full of stuff I can work my way through so I have to buy all of what I need most weeks - although I do have some cheaper stuff I have bought and frozen and am hoping this will pay off long term.

I just realised you have said you do things like buy Christmas presents and hand over the occasional tenner - are these things coming out of your grocery budget or out of another budget? It may be that when you add up only what you spend on groceries you are not spending as much as you think. I have lots of different budgets for different thing - my mum used to have loads of tins and whenever my dad came home with the weekly pay packet she would divvy it out between the tins. Now it all goes into a bank account, but I've followed the example and have lots of sets of money for different things

Things I am trying -

I'm going through my recipe folders and looking for the cheaper recipes - so we no longer have anything that includes both chicken and red peppers for example, cos they are both more expensive.

Trying out more stuff at Lidl - especially meat- as this is the only cheaper option we have

Have you tried to downgrade everything you buy? ie if you usually buy a brand, try a SM own, or if you usually buy that try the value/saver type one. eg we now have Sainsbury's basics teabags, which are fair-trade, for 30ish p cos I tried this. Doesn't always work but has for us for several things.

I also keep a list of stuff as we open a pack eg my husband opened a pack of coffee this morning so it's gone on the shopping list ready for next time I go shopping - this means I rarely run out of things and so only need to shop twice a week. ( I would like to get it down to once but the fridge is just too small for a week's worth of stuff). Whenever I go shopping I tend to buy one or two bits which are not on the list - so if I went more often I would spend more. Do you think that happens when you go around several different stores?

Others have said it, but meal planning and a shopping list are really my allies, but I am also trying to be more flexible - so I may plan which veg I want to buy but if something else is cheaper I will go for that (it doesn't always work - bought a pumpkin cos it was cheaper than a butternut squash and it wasn't very pleasant, nobody would eat it!)


I also have certain things i will carry on buying Due to a high incidence of heart disease in my husband's family, coupled with his own high blood pressure and high cholesterol, I need to buy lower fat things, and stuff like salmon, which is more expensive, and I'm fortunate that i can choose to spend a bit more on stuff like this - i am very aware that others are not so fortunate.

I am sure others could add to my list. Food is going up so quickly that it gets harder each month to even stand still, let alone reduce what you spend. We all have differing needs and incomes and I find that, generally speaking, this is usually a helpful and non-judgmental forum, full of good ideas.

meg72

Annie_99 wrote: »

Im feeling very down today.. I cant seem to stick to my monthly budget and have been looking at all your posts for the last few months reading and reading but still cant myself stick to it..
I do a food inventory and batch cook, walk from shop to shop to get the best deals but im still spending £600/£700 a month... I know i buy christmas presents, or help my kids out with a tenner here etc but my money is all over the place and i cant seem to get this figure down.
We are a family of 4 adults and a grandson who is 6 and lives with us..
I guess im asking how do you manage on such low budgets and stick to it xxx

So sorry you`re feeling down but chin up you can do it.

Firstly I think you will find it helpful to separate your money. Decide on your food budget and put it in a separate purse, pot whatever. That is your grocery money, put other money separate.
Then only buy food, cleaning stuff etc from the grocery purse. Christmas presents treating kids comes out of your other pot.

This will help you see where your money is going and you can make adjustments to suit.

This was the best advice I was ever given. Try it for a week and think you will amaze yourself .