February 2014 Grocery Challenge

craigywv

nsd wont be going out today again. just did school run and its really cold. dinner tonight will be sirloins in garlic/mushrooms,garlic square potatoes in chip pan with garlic butter ,broccoli and veg and g bread , apple pie and ice cream for sweet. we shall stink but I don't care.! most of dinner I have got ys from Christmas and hid in freezer so actually cheap dinner. only me and oh as son is in grans..............romance in the air? noooooooooo after eatin all that its sofa and dvd ...........I know how to live lol

spendinglikemad

pinkparrott wrote: »

Hi all , its the first month I've done the challenge for a couple of years and so I've set a budget of £500 for 2 adults 2 kids aged 5 and 8, and 3 cats.

Just wondering what you all include ? E,g food , pet food, household cleaning etc,

What about alcohol ? And also do you budget separately for special things? For example it was my ds 8th birthday so this weeks shopping included a
Cake and 6 Lego mini figs ,would you include these??

What about toiletries ??

Just trying to set some budgets for different things :
Shopping / birthdays /Christmas / going out - entertainment/ clothes /kids stuff
Would anybody be willing to share their budgets or tips for general budgeting as I just don't do it currently and hence never seem to have any money when things happen - am cluless:eek:

Its up to you how you want to budget. My budget is for any food spend - so that includes supermarket and butcher other shops.
I only recently (january) started to do this challenge as I was spending way too much on food and wasting lots so this has helped me budget better and plan meals better. Clothes I keep separate if I buy in a supermarket and takeaways are separate for us.
I buy cat food in bulk online and I don't include that either (but if I buy cat treats in supermarket I include those!!!)

The main thing for me at the start of the year was to take an inventory of what we have in the freezer and cupboards and plan main meals for the week around those to use up food sitting there. That really helped and also I used to buy in food for 7 meals in the week and have food left over and invariably there would be leftover meals or some reason we have a quick meal replacement i.e. cheese or egg on toast on a training night so I decided to plan better. So if we have a roast dinner on a sunday I planned to have at least 2 meals using the left overs so for example we have roast chicken on Sunday, then I took all the meat off and used half in a stir fry and half in a pasta bake and made stock for risotto, thats 4 meals off 1 albeit big chicken! I also bulk out roast dinners with homemade stuffing (I keep bread crusts in the fridge or freezer and made breadcrumbs to use up for stuffings.

Oh and hubby buys wine online I don't include that although I may start to keep track of that over the year and add an amount per month! Anything else like beer goes on grocery spend.

I started to shop in Adli which has made a big difference as not only cheaper but less impulse buys!!

Hope that helps!
SLM

joedenise

Had another NSD yesterday and it will be another today so that is now 14 of the 15 I was hoping for this month and still 9 days to go until the end of "my month" (24th = next payday). Thinking I may well get 20 this month - however still spent too much will be over budget when I next go shopping, I think.

Denise

Tillytrotter1

Ooh Craigy, potatoes in the chip pan, I'm so jealous. I threw my chip pan out a while ago and am so annoyed about it. I real miss making proper fish and chips!

For those of you that buy pet food online, where do you buy from. I just have cats but would be interested in sourcing their food cheaper. Thanks

LittleBill

Tillytrotter1 wrote: »

Ooh Craigy, potatoes in the chip pan, I'm so jealous. I threw my chip pan out a while ago and am so annoyed about it. I real miss making proper fish and chips!

For those of you that buy pet food online, where do you buy from. I just have cats but would be interested in sourcing their food cheaper. Thanks

We get our dog food from VetUK

Delivery is FREE over £29 which is virtually exactly what we spend on a large bag plus biccies each month, so perfect for our needs .. There may be some a spot cheaper, but always have everything in stock (a problem with cheaper sites) and it normally arrives within 2 days

First_Trouble

BlueMoo wrote: »

Sounds like people haven't had very good experiences with online deliveries - I was contemplating this as I got a voucher for £15off £60 shop, but sounds like it is not worth the hassle.

I never have any issues with my Tesco deliveries have rarely ever needed substitutions or not available. I think it may be down to the staff/store that are picking the items. I have fully switched to online shopping now as it means I can budget more effectively. If I do end up putting a few naughty items in the basket I can assess this before I purchase. I usually end up deleting them, if I was in the shop I probably wouldn't have put them back at all.

mrs-moneypenny

just back from spending £27 in Tesc0
but i did get a £10 price promise voucher to use on my next shop

poppycracker

Oops, overspent this month.... did a last shop for the 'month' yesterday - £43.45 and £3 on budgie seed today. Not too bothered though as we massively underspent last month by running our stores right down to the bare bones and so I had to stock up again.

lovefullshelves

£22.50 in aldilly, which meant I actually had money left in my baggy this week:) novelty!! Not using my purse and having a money bag seems to be making OH realise he can't just put things in as there is a limit!!

Frugalsod

Well today was a SD. I had a veg box arrive so that will be £26 but if I plan well it should last me the month.