May Grocery Challenge

squeaky

There are pizza recipes collected here in Old Style if you like them, and certainly easy enough to do given that you make your own bread

As for your milk - why not? Gotta just please yourself over some things or life just ain't worth living

jaybee

I agree Aunty Margaret! There are two of us as well, and I spend about £60 a week. That includes everything -washing stuff, toiletries, loo rolls etc (Oh yes, and the odd bottle of wine and bar of chocolate as well). I'm really trying to cut down but I really don't know how it's possible to feed six on £25 a week. I'll keep on trying!!!

squeaky

A more realistic approach would be ££'s per person rather than an actual total wouldn't it?

I've got my food budget down as far as I'm prepared to take it. I'm not going to give up having plenty of fresh fruit and veg in favour of cheaper ready made meal type things. So what I shop for is the thrifty way to get myself a healthy balanced diet.

Personally I'd live off the 2 for 1 chocolate offers my village store seems to have permanently by the checkout if I could

crazyhazy

jaybee wrote:

I agree Aunty Margaret! There are two of us as well, and I spend about £60 a week. That includes everything -washing stuff, toiletries, loo rolls etc (Oh yes, and the odd bottle of wine and bar of chocolate as well). I'm really trying to cut down but I really don't know how it's possible to feed six on £25 a week. I'll keep on trying!!!

See we're the opposite, if our weekly shop came to 60 then I think I'd cry cos that would mean less money to spend on other things. I also think for our 100ish a month we eat quite well, granted this doesn't include wine cos I don't tend to drink it much and people are always giving me bottles! We have managed to reduce our shopping from about 120, just by planning more carefully. When buying meat aswell, we always seem to get enough for at least two meals so have one and freeze one, therefore meaning we don't have to buy a smuch meat the next week. For example this week we didn't buy any meat cos we have chinese style pork, spag bol and a chicken curry all in the freezer from previous weeks. To give you an idea - this week our meals are -

sun-sausage and veg pasta
mon-chinese pork stir fry
tue-macaroni cheese
wed-chicken curry
thur-fish
fri-spag bol
sat-nachos

The fish admitedly is frozen stuff but we are using this up and going to buy fresh once it's finished, basically cos we realised it doesn't actually cost much more, last week as a treat we bought rainbow trout and it only cost 1.68. For lunch I take salads, varying them everyday, usually, egg, prawn, tuna or cous cous with feta. Other half just takes ham rolls. Probably the one area we don't spend alot on is cereals and bread, we rarely are organised enough during the week to eat cereal (although h2b has it quite often for supper) and very rarely buy bread, I have a loan of a breadmaker so have been making ti when we feel like it, but maybe only once a week or less.

Maybe if you were to post your shopping list someone could help you see where your money is going, sometimes it's just helpful to have another perspective.

jaybee

Thanks for your very helpful tips - I'm determined to succeed. Surely if everyone else can do then then I should be able to as well. I've learnt so much from this site that I'm really kicking myself at all the money I have wasted over the years. Now I need someone to start kicking me!!!

squeaky

Don't kick yourself - just rollyer sleeves up and get on with it

I for one will be saving nearly a fiver off next weeks shop because instead of buying a big box of tablets for the washing machine I shall be making gloop! I am so going to enjoy playing with gloop

jaybee

Well said, squeaky!!! It's never too late to change habits.

squeaky

As I said somewhere - I've pretty much reached my limit on food and groceries, and while I might spend more than some - it's because I choose to. I don't feel that I have to take it down to the absolute limit. As long as I've made some good choices and used my money wisely I can leave the shop feeling good about myself.

So now it's all the other things in the monthly shop that I'm turning my attention to...

Queenie

jaybee wrote:

..... Now I need someone to start kicking me!!!

:shhh:*sneaks up behind jaybee and gives a quick - kick - then runs away quickly* :whistle:

Nah, don't regret what you *have* spent in the past, you wouldn't be here meeting lots of lurvely peeps if you'd previously got your spending down to a fine art

Squeaky (and anyone else), if you have pared down as much as you choose to on the spending front (let's face it, there has to be a point where we can't go any further!) that is a good point to look at ways of learning new skills to either save money by making instead of buying, or even making to sell. It's always been at my most hard pushed times that I have turned to learning how to do things for myself (in my case that was using the sewing machine my Mother bought me for my 18th ... thought she was a weirdo at the time ). I'm not proficient enough to make a living from it, but, I learned to make curtains many years ago and do basic clothing repairs; at one time I ran a craft stall at various craft fayre's; now I'm teaching myself very basic woodwork skills (like framing) ... have to do this because my dh is soooo DIY-challenged he even puts the coal on upsidedown! I'm no gardener, but that's another avenue I'm going down.

squeaky

Yes Queenie - a good point. I'm an enjineer from way back so I can sort out most things around the house with no problem and us ex deep sea ruffy tuffy sailors all learned how to sew to keep our kit in good condition. (I even made my own bathroom curtains out of pillow cases) Made all the curtain rods too.

So whenever something comes up I think first to see if I can do it myself, or if I can improvise something out of what I have to hand.

The only thing I don't mess with is plumbing

Even my own artwork for the walls...



It's a jigsaw puzzle - I took all the boring stuff off from round the edges and pasted the good bits to a board.