July 2007 Grocery Challenge

ellie2912

well my first month is already a struggle and im only halfway through.OH's family have had a crisis,so every tom !!!!!! and harry have passed through the meeting hub (our house!) this past 2 weeks,eating as they go.my best laid plans are slowly falling apart,my plans, by the way were for me and OH for the 5 week month.
eveythings organised into portions for two,then his brother has unexpectedly been dumped with us. (he's 28 by the way):mad: im hoping this isnt gonna be for much longer.
the novelty is defo wearing thin now,im having to bite my lip from screaming "you treat this place like a hotel" maybe i should present him with an invoice when he eventually leaves:rolleyes:

well i am gonna try and stick to my first ever challenge,if push comes to shove i will feed them bread and water towards the end of the month,thatll teach em!

nice to see some newbies taking up the challenge also,just hope you have an easier first go than i have.I suppose if i can do it this month,next month will be a doddle.:p

rosieben

ellie2912 wrote: »

well my first month is already a struggle and im only halfway through.
,,,
I suppose if i can do it this month,next month will be a doddle.:p

Sorry to hear you are having such a bad time Ellie, very frustrating when you had it all planned out.

I think some really cheap meals are on the cards so you can get through somewhere near budget. Its an extra challenge for you, you can do it!

and best not be feeding your 'guest' too well or he might never leave!!!

Good luck!

teedy23

ellie, why dont you show him what your doing on the computer. Tell him laughingly that it,s all gone to pot now and see if he takes the hint and contributes. I would maybe ask someone to bring milk or bread or something else, "as I,m running out"
Or is that too far to go? I dont think so lol

mikeD

Expecting delivery from Mr T any minute now, and hoping it comes under £80.

On the subject of water filters ours is a Kenwood, don't know how much it cost as it was given to us. The water from the tap used to be fine but has little black greasy spots in it now. I think I'll check the outside tap to see if there is any feedback.

Also on the subject of water, did anybody watch "the truth about food" last night. The recommendation (don't know who made it, someone from the bottled water companies maybe, lol) that people should drink an additional 2 Ltrs of water over and above what they drink already is, appently, nonsense. Nutritional experts say the things that we eat and drink which contain water already provide us with the 2 Ltrs and that the body processes the water regardless of what foods or drinks contain it. However substituting coffee or tea with water is no bad thing. Also the theory that highly coloured fruits such as strawberries or blueberries help to improve the memories of geriatric old folk like me is a bit of a nonsense too. Under tests the improvement was so insignificant as to be totally disregarded.

rosieben

mikeD wrote: »

Also on the subject of water, did anybody watch "the truth about food" last night. ...

Yes I watched it, it was very entertaining wasnt it? I was amused (and slightly bemused!) by the girl in the detox experiment who was hoping it worked so she would be able to go on eating !!!!!! and boozing and put it all right by doing a detox day once every couple of months!! :rotfl: I wasnt in the least surprised to hear that detox didnt make a scrap of difference to how the body functions.

As you say, the water myth has been debunked also the detox; the people making money out of these silly 'healthy' ideas will come up with a new load of rubbish though, and millions of gullible people will fall for it again!

Thanks god for OS!!!!!!! it keeps us all grounded :T

Bungarm2001

LOVE this grocery challenge idea and have been following this thread for a while, and it's one reason why I joined this brilliant forum!

I am hoping to join in on next months challenge if I may.

I need to because since reading the posts on here, I realise that me and my OH spend FAR too much every month.

We just recently ripped out our old kitchen and had a new one put in. When I emptied all the cupboards, to my horror, I found enough food in tins, packets jars etc to feed us literally for around 4 weeks with a little bit of imagination (what CAN you do with 36 packets of Ainslie Harriot cuppa-soups? An impulse buy from Costco!?!:eek:) All I would really need would be the usual perishables every week if only I had the will power! :rolleyes:

I must have been overspending for months if not years to amass this amount of store cupboard 'essentials.' It looks like I've been preparing for a siege!

Anyway, I had a bit of a practice run earlier this week when we went to Tesco's...was determined to get only the essentials; made sure I took back some bags to re-use to get green ponts; even remembered all the money off coupons that I usually chuck into a drawer and forget about 'til the dates run out.

Result was; £6.40 saved on various multi-buys and bogof's; £1.40 saved on a very large trout fillet reduced because of the date; £11.00 saved using various coupons:j !! £2.00 off deisel using a till receipt coupon, plus 200 extra points from coupons.

Total spend, not including deisel was £78 which is a lot better than our usual £110+ weekly shop. AND there are only two of us!!

On the downside, we did buy...well, I say 'we' but it was OH really...we did buy 2x12 bottles of real ale as it was on special offer. If I had left OH at home it would have saved the cost of the beer too!! I also bought on impulse two games for my Grandson (£4 only!) to add to his birthday presents we already have for him...well, why not and it isn't strictly groceries is it?? :rotfl:

Anyway, I am up for the challenge as from around the 30th July, that way all the family birthdays are out of the way. Hoping to get our spending down by at least 20% and actually looking forward to it!

:T

PS Sorry if my post is a bit long...!:eek:

rosieben

Bungarm2001 wrote: »

... I must have been overspending for months if not years to amass this amount of store cupboard 'essentials.' It looks like I've been preparing for a siege!

Welcome to the challenge!!

I think meal planning for the week then making a shopping list and sticking to it, should be your main strategy. When you do your meal plan try to work it around stuff you already have in the cupboard. You'll be in good company, lots of us here have a seige mentality!! :rolleyes: I've just sorted my cupboards and found stuff that was very nearly out of date so now I've organised things to use in date order.

As far as the beer is concerned, do you have a 'night out' budget, you could take the cost of the beer from that? and the pressies - most of us have a 'celebrations/brthday/gift' budget', whatever you want to call it so that would take care of the games you bought for your grandson.

And, no, its not cheating when you budget household expenses you need to have a true picture of where your money is going.

hth

Gemma7_2

yay i'm so proud of myself i did a trial run today with my list made from my meal planner and my shopping came in at £28 my usual weekly spend is around £42. I will have to buy some more milk before next wednesday and i didnt need nappies this week but i still feel like it was a good effort!! Thanks everyone for all your advice!

lil_me

Well done Gemma, what a difference!!! Bungarm welcome and good luck

Missed that programme last night, wonder if it is repeated. I drink a lot of fluids but I have medical issues which means I need to or become dehydrated. Maxtra mines called, after checking through a store cupboard I've found 4 spare filters, I think there may be more somewhere else, another thing I've been overbuying then! :rolleyes: Seems to be a pattern developing here.

Hopefully it's just going to be a case of how far under budget I am instead of if. Needed milk so sent DS to get it which stops me spending extra. Downside is he got thirsty and supped 1/3 of it on the way home, oh well at least I didn't go and blow £10 on crap like I usually do Tacos tonight for dinner as found a taco kit when raiding store cupboard crunchy munchy anti social noisey food my favourite!

Tracey04

what date does next challenge begin?