February 2014 Grocery Challenge

mooomin

Been cooking a lot today - I made a pea and ham soup which Mr Mooo has pronounced "very good". It's so thick you could use it as wallpaper paste :rotfl: I'll just need to water it down when I use it!!

I also made a WW recipe - a chicken and bacon pie. It was meant to be topped with celariac but Mr Mooo put his foot down and refused that so I topped it with tatties instead. Instead of using bacon I used leftover gammon and it was LUSH. The sauce inside was made with Quark (low fat cheese) and Mr Mooo was VERY suspicious of it, but he went back for seconds so I guess he liked it too :rotfl::rotfl:

poppycracker

I have recently realised that DH gets paid '4 weekly' not monthly and so, since the last payday would have been 26/12 if it hadn't been boxing day, and that was four weeks ago next Thursday, he 'should' be paid then..... fingers crossed but I am not getting my hopes up! If its right, February will start from there for us.

stardrops42

Can I rejoin please:o I really need to get a grip of my budget this year! Can you put me down for £325 but I'm hoping to come in under My month starts on the 25th.

Ali-OK

I'm running on 'pay myself months' being self-employed, so my Feb month will start on Sat 1st Feb and my last Jan weekly shop will be on 31st. I should come in just under budget in Jan too.

With doing ok on £20 a week, I will stick with that. Normally I'd up it to £25 on 4 week months and buy in stocks of meat and toiletries, but if it's not challenging, it wouldn't be a challenge

Please put me down for £80 in February.

Good luck everyone!

redbooties

Please put me down for £600 for February please, thats from the 29th of January to the 26th of Feb. I know this is a much higher figure than everyone else, but I've spent January keeping every receipt and working out how much I spend and on what. £600 is what I estimated I was spending a month but when I've looked at my receipts its £800!!!

I thought I was doing ok, I have already changed some of my goods to the tesco value range and I've been doing a weekly meal plan for months, and I try not to throw any food out.

My family consists of 3 adults, 2 teenage girls, 2 large dogs and 3 cats.

When I've divided my shopping up into catagories I've been spending around £130 on the animals, £130 on toiletries and cleaning things and about £550 on food shopping which doesnt include takeaways or eating out. I am really really shocked by these figures and had absolutely no idea that my real totals were this high.

To try and stick to me new total of £600 a month I'm going to try only spend :-
£80 on pets
£60 on toiletries
£460 of food

I know these figures are still much higher than most of yours but this is just the start, each month I intend to lower my total until i get to a much more reasonable amount, hopefully with your guys help.

meg72

redbooties wrote: »

Please put me down for £600 for February please, thats from the 29th of January to the 26th of Feb. I know this is a much higher figure than everyone else, but I've spent January keeping every receipt and working out how much I spend and on what. £600 is what I estimated I was spending a month but when I've looked at my receipts its £800!!!

I thought I was doing ok, I have already changed some of my goods to the tesco value range and I've been doing a weekly meal plan for months, and I try not to throw any food out.

My family consists of 3 adults, 2 teenage girls, 2 large dogs and 3 cats.

When I've divided my shopping up into catagories I've been spending around £130 on the animals, £130 on toiletries and cleaning things and about £550 on food shopping which doesnt include takeaways or eating out. I am really really shocked by these figures and had absolutely no idea that my real totals were this high.

To try and stick to me new total of £600 a month I'm going to try only spend :-
£80 on pets
£60 on toiletries
£460 of food

I know these figures are still much higher than most of yours but this is just the start, each month I intend to lower my total until i get to a much more reasonable amount, hopefully with your guys help.

Your toiletries and cleaning see awfully high, if you post what you buy people may be able to suggest a cheaper alternative.

mummygems

I am aiming for £500 for February I came in on budget in December but failed miserably this month going waaaaayyyyyy over. I've done a freezer and store cupboard inventory so will plan our meals around that to begin with. We are trying to eat more healthy too which I find usually costs us more so need to adjust all that as well.

Thank you

redbooties

meg72 wrote: »

Your toiletries and cleaning see awfully high, if you post what you buy people may be able to suggest a cheaper alternative.

I use tesco toilet roll 9 pack £3.50 ( we use one of these a week)
Herbal essences shampoo and conditioner (I stock up on these when they are on offer, we use 1 each a week)
Bubble Bath (whatever's on offer at the time no more than £1 a bottle)
Shower gel (what's on offer, again no more than £1)
Lynx spray (I stock up when on offer)
Tesco face wipes
Colgate max one toothpaste (I buy this when it's half price at £1.99, I know this is very expensive but no one wants to change this)
The girls use body sprays but they can buy these themselves because they use way too much.
Andrew toilet wipes ( I'm going to stop buying these once my stocks run out)
Venus replacement razor heads (2 packs of these last us nearly all year as we don't use them that often)

Cleaning products I buy are
Air freshener sprays (£1 each and we use about 2 a week)
Polish (£1)
Window cleaner
Toilet cleaner (£1.50)
Dettol surface cleaner (£1.50)
Kitchen roll ( whatever's on offer)
Bleach
Laundry capsules (I use tesco own brand but I am willing to try powder or liquid, whichever is cheapest)

I think that's about it, I would be very interested if someone can tell me some good alternatives especially for the lynx Africa spray

kayester

if you have a home bargains near you i get my loo roll there, 18 for £3.49

redbooties

kayester wrote: »

if you have a home bargains near you i get my loo roll there, 18 for £3.49

Yes I'm really lucky where I am I have a home bargains and a b&m bargains about 5 mins away, I don't pop in to often as I end up going crazy with the bargains and buying stuff I don't really need and so it's not a bargain then, but I will pop in once a month and buy 4 weeks worth in one go.