March 2014 Grocery Challenge

Mystikia

Morning everyone :wave:

Can I please be put down for £200 for March
Same budget as before, but its a 5 week "month" for me, running from the 27th Feb to 2nd April, so I'm going to try to get the extra week from it. Budget is for me, fussy OH & 2 extremely fussy cats, & covers all food, drink, cat food/litter/treats, toiletries & all household supplies. Little bit anxious as it means a 'real-time' spending reduction of £10 a week, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh Filled the freezer with meat last month though, so that will help a lot.

Thanks to all that run this thread, & to everyone who posts.. It's really helping me a lot

joedenise

My month started yesterday and needed to buy some fruit and ham. Bought the fruit from Sainsbugs and used my points to pay for it so NO COST to me. Didn't like the look of the ham which I also need to buy for lunches so went to Mr Ms and spent £1.47. Was very good and went straight to the cold meat and then straight to checkout so I didn't spend anything else.

Today will be a NSD. I am trying for 20 NSDs this month as last few months I have been going over my target of 15 a month although not quite got to 20 so that will be a real challenge this month!

Denise

E2006

Did my grocery shop on Sunday and spent £16.55 in sainsbugs, £27.58 in Aldo and £35.38 in Mr A. That's takes me to a huge £90.71/250 at only 5 days into the month :eek:. To be fair this did include baby milk, nappies and some new dummy's for little legs (who will only have the avent ones at £4.90 per pack or 2 for £6!!!). I have plenty of fresh stuff in the fridge and meat in the freezer and we are away for a few days at the weekend so we shouldn't need to spend anything again until next Monday at least(providing DH goes easy on the fruit bowl - he is under strict instructions to make sure it lasts the week!) and even then it will only be fresh that we need.

NSD yesterday and will be one today too.

E:)

E2006

mintedby30? wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I've not posted on MSE in ages and never on the GC threads but I'm on a mission to be much more savy with our grocery shopping and more inventive with what we eat.

A bit about me -feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you're bored -

There's me, DH, DD9 and DS1, we also have a cat.
DH gets fed at work 4/8 days, 3 course lunch and a sandwich tea while working 8-8's but only weekdays and usually ends up buying something if his days on fall at the weekend. We need to get sorted so he takes something from home more regularly. DD takes packed lunch to school 4 days a week which is always a sandwich/yoghurt/2 pieces of fruit (one is eaten at break) either a cereal bar/biscuit/mini cheddars etc and diluting juice in a flask. The baby pretty much eats whatever we do now but we get through loads of milk. We have also been on a bit of a mission to shop more sustainably and ethically and to buy better quality meat etc. We can buy great fresh fish locally and have a good wee butchers and lots of farm shops. I'm hoping not to compromise on the quality when reducing budget and happy to have more pasta/veggie etc meals to balance out.

I'm going to ease in cautiously this first month of joining and set a budget of £250, this is probably a drop from £350ish. I'd hope to eventually get it down to £200 or even £150. I'm going to meal plan as much as possible.

E2006- I'm not sure if this will work as I don't know if I can post links but here are 9p burgers- I make them as a BLW food for my 1 year old and he loves them!

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/04/06/carrot-cumin-kidney-bean-burger-9p/

Brilliant, thank you

Gorgeestwo

Hi, please could I be put down for £400again this month.
I've started my Month a couple of days early as went shopping yesterday & bought lots of things for March rather than the end of this month, so my first spend of March was £47.97.

E2006

chirpycheap wrote: »

Do you grate or slice the cheese? This sounds like a great idea. Since my son left for Uni we are struggling to use up loaves quickly enough and are ending up with stale bread so this would solve that problem. :T

I grate it as it means the cheese goes further. DH doesn't seem to realise he is getting less this way

E2006

skintmum2012 wrote: »

rPlease can I join I followed last month and it helped so much we have managed to get out of £900 overdraft last month and pay my mum back £100 so we start a fresh this month I would like to be put down for £300 really sorry I cant see how to get it any bigger. I have already spent £98 at approved foods on a stock up and I plan to spend another £40 at Aldi to stock up on meat when the newspaper voucher comes in. And I have spent £106 just on Formula and nappies for 3 month old So that leaves £56 for the month meaning I am going to have £14 I think that's going to leave a lot of Aldi shopping.

When is the voucher due? I always seem to miss these.

sefilby

Can I be put down for £120 this month please - I know I didnt make it last month but I know I can do it, I just really need to maint a tight control over myself!!!

twigpig

Ah, bless you skintmum - there's nothing wrong with wanting only pampers and all new things for your little one, and I'm so glad they're ok now. It's all about finding what you want/need at the best prices. I only buy pampers too, but try to stock up on special offers etc. Money saving doesn't have to mean changing what you buy, it's about how you buy it and use what you have as best as you can

First shop for March yesterday and needed to include some new socks for me and DS, and some batteries. About £50 spent - will update signature with the exact amount later. Got some nice YS bargains too, including a 67p family raspberry trifle (nom nom) and MIL passed on a pack of croissants she wasn't going to eat. Got to love a freebie......... I'm working at another building today for work, which has a great SM for YS bargains so I know I'll be spending again later. Freezer already crammed so will need to be a bit careful about how much I buy. :rotfl:

I realised that I have a bit of help of my first month of the challenge, as I won't need any nappies this month after stocking up on the Mr M's £7.49 offer. Really hope I can stick to my budget......

Ladyluck1

Try amazon for nappies, I often get pampers for half the price of supermarket x