February 2014 Grocery Challenge

icklejulez

I am a late starter but wondering if I can start mid month! I get paid on the 21st so I need to keep an eye on my food budget anyway and hopefully after payday will learn to stick to a budget.


On a normal month I allow £350 for a family of 5 approx. £75 a month to include cleaning things. On top of this is £80 a week for school dinners as I am very busy working full time and studying a degree at the moment but from March things quieten down a little.


This week I have managed a £52 shop using Tesco £15 off code and I am hoping it lasts. I have bought a slow cooker last week from Argos using my nectar points.


My plan for the next 2 weeks is a maximum of £70 including a few days of school dinners for the children.


From March it will be £65 a week including packed lunch food only!


Looking forward to joining in!

Islandmaid

Hi all,

£64 spent in Ald! today, more than I planned, but bought some YS meat to add to the freezer stash, so should be able to cut back next week.

Bought some pork steaks and have some chorizo to use up, so intend to make a spanish syle stew thingy for tonight.

Roast chicken tomorrow, LO,s will be curry later in the week.

Faete

Back from my weekly shop £15.61 in Aldi and £36.05 in Asda - but this did include £18.50 on a 24 pack of loo roll, three tubes of sensitive toothpaste on offer and a bottle of mouthwash £4.50 :eek:. I could have got a bottle of wine for less! :beer:
Planning a big batch of turkey chilli, PH's scones and cake - lemon drizzle I think. :cool:

Fae xx

Gorgeestwo

Haven't had a very good week, so got hubby to pick up a bottle of wine on the way home last night, so £5.50 to add to my total, I've meal planned for the next week, am off to lidl later armed with my shopping list
Hope everyone has a good weekend (as good as possible in this awful weather:( )

FrugalLina

I just want to say well done everyone - you are all doing a great job and very inspirational.

Well, I have just been to Lidl to stock up on a few basics and spent £9.44, that makes my total spend this month over half of my budget and it is only the 8th! :eek:

Mind you, I did buy a 2.5kg bag of potatoes, a 1kg bag of Basmati rice, another kilo of butter and marge for baking as well as a bag of sugar (I intend to bake some cakes every weekend to keep me going throughout the week) and that lot will last me longer than the rest of the month.

I think if I am careful, now, I won't need much apart from fresh fruit and veg.

I was very good and managed to resist the peanut puffs again (my tongue may have lolled a bit at the display which is prominently placed as you walk through the door, I may also have whimpered out loud, sob)!:T

meg72

icklejulez wrote: »

I am a late starter but wondering if I can start mid month! I get paid on the 21st so I need to keep an eye on my food budget anyway and hopefully after payday will learn to stick to a budget.


On a normal month I allow £350 for a family of 5 approx. £75 a month to include cleaning things. On top of this is £80 a week for school dinners as I am very busy working full time and studying a degree at the moment but from March things quieten down a little.


This week I have managed a £52 shop using Tesco £15 off code and I am hoping it lasts. I have bought a slow cooker last week from Argos using my nectar points.


My plan for the next 2 weeks is a maximum of £70 including a few days of school dinners for the children.


From March it will be £65 a week including packed lunch food only!


Looking forward to joining in!

£80 a week for 3 kids school dinners, :eek: I had no idea they were so expensive, I think you are very wise to change to packed lunch.

Ali-OK

Another £9.09 spent on a mini food shop in Sburys today, driven by going to take a batch chilli out of the freezer, only to realise we'd eaten them all and I didn't have the ingredients in to make one

Added to that, I topped up on tea bags, tomato sauce and a few baking items. Going to give chocolate chunk muffins a go

So total spend now up to half the budget, with 3 weekly shops left to go :eek: Doubt I'm going to come within budget this month - I think I over-challenged myself this time

I am going to separate out the cost for our 2 dogs and start a separate budget next month, as I want to get to grips with the cost of them overall per annum, including boosters, grooming, etc.

Ladyluck1

LO pie with mash for dinner. Another NSD
It's much needed though as just had a horrid 'you owe us £95' letter in the post so we are totally skint now this month
Lots of cheapy meals for the next couple of weeks.. Jacket spuds, Dahl and BBQ baked beans for dinners.. This week

bmma

8/2/14 Nsd today- Feb's running total £23.17/£200

FrugalLina

One way I am making my budget stretch further, while also managing to keep healthy is to include my home-sprouted foods. Here is a simple winter salad with some alfalfa sprouts, I added a boiled egg and some cheese and it was yum!