May Grocery Challenge

amarillo_2004

Posting is good discipline. No sooner did I submit that then I remembered: it went on petrol! Car has hardly left the driveway though, duie to walk mnmore resolution, so thats an expense that won't be hitting me again for afew weeks.

Do you usually take big spends (£25 quid or so for a tank, every 3 weeks or so) out of the week's money, and take the hit all at once or do you treat it as extra?

moggins

As my car is a luxury really (although I couldn't get to the market and the cheaper supermarkets without it) I take my petrol money out of my monthly spending money. Dh gets a separate petrol allowance as he has to have his car for work and gets paid a car allowance from work for this purpose.

klare_2

hi, i had to reply to your message because I am exactly the same... two adults two children, 2 cats ( and two extra step children about once/twice a month for a few days. We recently had to do a shopping budget / summary and it scared us to death when we realiseed that even without the fags for the other half we had been spending well over £100 a week!! How I really dont know. I use no ready/ processed food,everything is cooked from scratch, im always on a diet so apart from occassional pig out we dont buy any crappy snacks and sweets. We are obviously going drastically wrong somewhere. We've started buying all fruit and veg from the market, not sure how to bring cost of meat down as I havent found the butchers any cheaper... we were told by the cccs guy that the max. he could put through was £370 a month so Im setting it at an achievable £350 for this month but am determined to keep bringing it down dramatically!!

Galtizz

Where do you shop? I changed my shop to Lidl and I have saved a fortune. There are some bits I can't get from their so I do have to go to Tesco from time to time. If you buy everything fresh I'm sure you'll find the likes of Lidl and Aldi the same, if not better quality, than other supermarkets.

I find butchers are cheaper if you buy in bulk. At bigger markets you often get butchers doing deals of 3 joints for £5, that sort of thing. They often work out a bit cheaper and a lot better quality than the supermarket.

You say you are always on a diet, does that mean you buy lots of diet products i.e. diet coleslaw, diet yoghurt, diet etc.. etc.. if so, could you have a go at making them yourself? you will probably loose more weight making it yourself than buying diet stuff because lots of 'low fat' products are packed full of sugar, if you make it your self you can control the amount of sugar, salt fat etc. that goes into them.

What sort of meals do you prepare? Do you have meat and 2 veg everynight? If so maybe it is time to introduce a few vegetarian meals or doing things like Rubber chicken Sunday - Wednesday Rubber pork, beef, whatever Thursday - Saturday. If you are unfamiliar with Rubber food have a look HERE.

HTH

omega_2

Spent £32.00 this week, so have clawed back the overspend from last. If only I could apply the same discipline to my appetite, I’d be quids in again! So, next week, I will mostly be working on portion control, drinking more water and snacking on carrot sticks (in theory).

klare_2

hi there..
well we have been shopping at Tescos because its a real mare trying to get to the other places with 2 kids 2 and under.. . but I am going to venture to Aldi's. We are now in the position where its unlikely we will be able to 'buy in bulk' from butchers in order to get the best deals from both a money point of view and also storage space ( freezer).. but maybe if I started to buy a few bits on a reg. basis I could build up a bit of a ' loyalty' thing.
As for the diets... I dont buy any diet stuff.. as I said we don't do prossesed food in this house at all cuz my eldest turns into tazmanian devil on acid if we give him it and also cuz we can't get into any dentist at all, what so ever, Ive had to ban all sugar based foods where possible to try and lessen the chance of them getting any cavaties etc. ( god I sound like a horrible mum!! ).. so apart from when I occassionaly sneak of and buy a pile of chocolate £5 worth max, and scoff the lot, thats it. I tried making my own yogurts.. kids wouldn't touch it and they are really good with foods in general. Tried using different types of culture to soften the flavour but it was a no go so have had to go back to fromage frais.
I do have some veggie meals and so do the kids when CC's not around.. I used to be veggie so really enjoy it, appreciate it the health benefits/ cost bens. etc ...but if I attempted to give it to CC.... well I just wouldn't... actually he would proberbly eat it but ask me where the meat was to go on the side.
Looks like ive got some serious homework to do as it is going somewhere all this food and money!!

missy_brambles

Well here goes. I spent £47.00 on Tuesday and wont have to shop again except for fresh milk until next Monday. I have enough cleaners and dog/cat food to last for 2 weeks, but have almost emptied my freezer.(which is scary in itself as I havent seen the back of my freezer for many years) I'm sure I must be winning some sort of prize here (doh) - I have got my spending down from a disgraceful 'I never count the cost' to an almost as disgraceful £47.00 but somehow I am full of pride. Dont burst my bubble peeps, I promise to do better.
PS, I am sure the cat is joining in the budget thing, she isnt eating so much - but that could just be cos she is very old and cant move so much. I might move her dinner bowl to the bottom of the garden to try and get her to cut down even more (I am only joking!!!!!!)

squeaky

:T Nah... good on yer!!

First step... awareness....

Second step... action...

Third step... FEEL GREAT !!!!!!

amarillo_2004

Have an adventure planned for tomorrow. I am shopping in Nettos!

Never been in one before (it's about 20 miles away from where I live, but right across the road from where my work meeting is). Hoping to get a full week's groceries in there, but willing to stop off at ASDA later on if need be. I need to watch though that I don't get panicky and find myself in Sainsburys instead. That costs me at least 30% extra per shopping trip. Not because their prices are so much higher, but because that way temptation lies...

Magentasue

amarillo_2004 wrote:

Have an adventure planned for tomorrow. I am shopping in Nettos!

I'm slowly becoming a Lidl convert. Before Christmas I posted asking about Lidls and got loads of helpful replies - take your own bags, have a pound for the trolley, don't try and pack the shopping like you do in other supermarkets unless you're lightening quick. Can't pay by credit card but debit card is OK.

Don't know if these things are true for Nettos. I've found there are some things we don't like from Lidls and some things they just don't do but other thing like parmesan, olive oil, espresso coffee, Christmas goodies and biscuits are excellent.