July 2007 Grocery Challenge

millionaire_in_training

I am feeling quite positive this month. I might make it. I have £250 for me and 2 kids. This is quite generous but loads and loads less than I used to spend. Got food forall week. Might need bread and milk but thats all. Want to prove to myself I can do this. Catch you all next week.

ellie2912

well i went asda last night,armed with shopping list and ended up spending £54.65. had done a quick tot up in my head before i went in as to what roughly it should come to.(i had a figure of around £40 in my head:o )
i suppose for my first time,it was a lot better than usual. still need to work on it though.
but im trying to be positive~ we now have full cupboards and freezer and by my workings out we should be able to manage the month now without doing another big shop.thats the theory anyway:rolleyes:

off to update sig

In-my-shell

Hi well week 2 went ok £50.27 so withlast weeks total £49 something I'm still doing alright but I need to watch that I don't buy things just because its a bargain so will keep this in mind for next week as it's the last one before the children finish for the summer holidays, as when they are with me more items (JUNK!!) that I don't want gets brought.
wish me luck as I really want to get my monthly total done down even more
take care shell

x_raphael_xx

Hi all,
Posting late in the thread (halfway thru month already, but only just found it!)
I set myself £70 this month, and have so far £56.69 so not doing badly.
I've scoured my cupboards/freeze etc and made a meal plan for the rest of the month with what I've got, so should just need a few ££'s towards fresh veg (and a bottle of wine for a BBQ!)

rosieben

Hello and welcome x_raphael_xx (xrx for short, I think! )

Good idea to check your stock as its such a help in planning meals. Good luck with the challenge

witchypoo

lil_me wrote:

If your kids dislike the rice crispies for brekkie why not make them into crispies cakes etc? I also mix cheap ones in with my museli.

Thanks for the suggestion lil_me but I don't think that would go down well (we all thought they were foul!) and now I have bought some of their regular own brand ones (Kelloggs rice krispies recipe has been changed and we no longer like them either!) but waste not want not - my rabbit likes a small handful of the smartprice ones on top of his dinner at night or a few in the morning so I'm saving them for treats for him.

I went over budget by £6.23 last week, I'm keeping a running total for the month in my sig. I've also cheated recently and 'treated' us to a takeaway out of my other bank account. Learnt a lesson when the kids both wasted all their chips so now we have decided we'll never get fish and chips again as they don't seem to understand why we were annoyed. We'll stick to the chinese and only for special treats when I see fit to. I can see now that getting takeaways once a week from my £50 weekly budget was never going to happen.

I might do an online tesco shop sometime, and get enough dry goods to last till the end of the month, especially now I know there's money off to be had. Don't know all there is to saving with tesco but I did find one of the threads yesterday which linked to a good blog with codes.

Bobbykins

Thanks teedy23, Solwaykid and lil-me for the encouragement..:beer: ..I guess I am beating myself up a bit too soon.
Anyway, the good news is I've just got back from the dreaded Sainsbury's (went for my fresh fruit/veg etc) and managed to escape having spent only £12.53!:j :j :j

So, that's really cheered me up as I now need next to nothing for the rest of this week, so, as you guys have said, it looks like it will even itself out.

Thanks again for your support

redsquirrel80

Just done shop for the last week of my 'July' which has taken me a fiver over budget.. oh well, £55 isn't bad (especially considering that about six months ago I could probably spend that per week ) and I feel that I've eaten pretty well this month (got organic steak, pork and trout this week thanks to Sunday afternoon reductions ).

I've done quite a lot of bulk buying this month so I still have enough pasta, rice, lentils etc to last most of next month as well

helenjenn1978

I started the July Grocery Challenge and decided that I would set myself (& husaband & 2 cats!) a budget of £160. I have now revised it to £110:j

These are some of the ways I have saved money:

1. Made a list of all food in house and planned a weeks menu using ingredients
2. Only got basics at weekly shop - milk, fruit etc... then visit tescos every other evening on the way home from work to get reduced items (best bargain 13 sundried tomato bread rolls for packed lunches £0.12p:T )
3. Cashed in my penny jar at tescos and used that towards groceries
4. Invited me and my husband to our parents houses for Sunday Lunch several times (cheeky!!)
5. Insread of throwing away left overs (can't believe I used to do this :eek: ) I freeze in portion quantites for later on in the week
6. Started to shop around for best prices - visited my local market and found a fab farm shop selling great products for really good prices (wouldn't normally have ben seen dead walking around the market on a Sat. morning:rolleyes: )
7. I even walked out a a supermarket - looked at my bill and realised I had overspent - so i went through the receipt and decided on two items to take back and get a refund - saved a fiver!! (although I was so embarrassed!!)

mikeD

rosieben wrote: »

I've just updated my sig, its not looking good for the month

I bought chicken today; I want to use up a jar sauce, and a packet mix both of which are just out of date so got enough chicken to do both. I also bought tofu and veggie sausages to try; those 3 things came to just under £6 so pushed my total up a bit.

I think for the rest of the month I will try not to buy anything at all. I make my own bread, got loads of dried milk, and loads of frozen/tinned/dried veggies plus my own salad and beans and potatoes in the garden. I'm thinking maybe I'll challenge myself for the rest of the month, can I do it?

goes off to find Gingham Ribbon's veggie threads to find out how to cook tofu.....

YES, go for it