May 2014 Grocery Challenge

poolie_purse_strings

Another long gap since I have updated on the forum, but I have been a good girl and have been keeping my spreadsheet up-to-date.

Since my last post I have been shopping several (too many?!) times and have spent a grand total of £105.56

This has included quite a lot of YS items, including meat which I have cooked (minced beef made into lasagne today & frozen for an easy midweek meal at some point, chicken for a chicken curry plus more which doesn't immediately spring to mind now - but it was all carefully considered and deemed to be 'good value' at the time!).

We are still rather over-stocked...I would like to switch off one of my freezers (I have 2 in garage supposedly for things like Christmas, but I haven't got it empty enough this year to switch it off). That will require will-power of steel though as I would need to stop looking for the YS items which I keep filling it with. Maybe June will be the month....

In the mean time I will TRY REALLY HARD to empty and not keep replacing the stuff I use with new 'bargains'

Have discovered a local greengrocers which is a lot cheaper than supermarkets. However, I have vouchers for sa1nsbu*ys, mor!ss*ns & Mr T along the lines of 'Spend £50 or £60 and get £12 off your bill'. This makes shopping at lots of different places more difficult (which is obviously why the supermarkerts do it). Will be trying to be clever with when & how I use them.

Off to update signature. Enjoy the sun while it lasts :cool:

GettingOrganised

Went to aldi today with quite a small budget for the weekly necessities to meal plan up to next Friday (payday). I came in at 64p over - not too bad. I now have a modest amount left for a final shop this month. I'm going to try really hard to keep within this especially as this will compensate my overspend last month.

For June, I need to average out my weekly shopping spends, so that I don't have to scrimp at the end of the month.

lynnejk

Managed another NSD today - didn't go out :rotfl:
Had HM baked chilli wraps, HM tomato and shallot salsa, the other half of the avocado from yesterday and some garlic bread. Very yummy but last of chilli from freezer so must put mince on butcher list as only one HM Bolognese sauce left in freezer as well :eek:
Have to get thinking cap on in morning to use up bits and pieces in fridge so can empty, clean and refill tomorrow. (Shopping chore tomorrow ).
DH is on a course all week, and I'm working Mon-Thurs lates, so also need some organisation for something DH can feed himself easily when he gets in, as I will eat lunchtimes. We will both need pack-ups as well. Gosh - it's never ending eh :rotfl:
Not doing too bad with the budget this month so far fingers crossed
Hope you all have a super Sunday
Lx

Always_after_a_bargin

Hi, Did a meal plan taking us up to Payday. Spent the last of my grocery budget yesterday but I did get everything needed right up till a week next Friday. Stocked up on reduced bread rolls, got milk which is dated till 28 th May. Plus bought flour, yeast for our bread machine if we run out. I have left in my second purse for bulk buy items 10 pound so will use that for fruit when we run out & need fresh. Won't need it for any bulk buy items as have used the rest for offers etc so have plenty here. At the moment total grocery spend up till now is 240. With enough to see us through till payday. Checking our bank account should be able now to transfer more money into savings end of the month. Have a lovely weekend everyone. We are off to the beach today. Lucky enough to live 10 minutes away from the seafront. X

PennyGrabber

Hi all!

I bought stuff for animals and loo rolls yesterday. I've been thinking since I did this though... My aim is to spend as little as possible on food, which is where I have the option of going over, but I never go over on toiletries, pet food, cleaning bits etc, as I only buy then when needed. So, in light of this, I'm changing the way I budget for gc, and I'm only going to include food. I've really enjoyed the last couple of weeks, aiming to spend no more than £1 pppd, and although I know this is not sustainable when I run out of meat in the freezer, I'm going to stick to as close to this as I can.

Another thing I've enjoyed is making a meal from what's in. Most has been great, only one fail!

Honestly, it's like an epiphany, I am very proud of myself.

The main challenge for today will be the fact that my children are coming with me...!!

I'll report back later

PG x

mrsdwhite

Need to add to my spends this week, we ran out of cheese and DH ran out if his yogurts.
If it was up to me it would have waited until my next weeks shop but never mind.
Need to add £8, £5 for cheese and £3 for yogurt.

elsiepac

Coxy11 wrote: »

Hi all,


Ches and elsiepac - come back soon :-D

Cheers Coxy - really annoyed at myself! Currently trying to think of a meal plan for the next few days with what I have in.

My new month starts on Friday and will be 5 weeks, however I'm going to be super duper broke and as it stands looks like I will have £70 for grocery budget. Which is really low compared to how I've been living. I'll know when I can see how much I get paid if I can add even just a tenner to that - will make all the difference!! Just have to hope I've underestimated my overtime as I usually try to!

I'm going to try desperately hard to stick around more frequently than I have been in the last year or so - I really need this to get back on track, I used to be so good! Trouble is since going vegan I haven't really meal planned too much, just tend to chuck meals together which only works to a certain extent!

Off to work out my meal plan for the rest of the week - I do have plenty of stock - slightly lower on fresh veg than ideal but hey ho!

LC x

K9sandFelines

£5.42 spent on groceries in B and M. Got lots of other stuff (for touching up wallpaper and packing in current house) but tried to be good on the grocery front.

Solstice_3

icontinuetodream wrote: »

Hope he feels better soon...

Thank you

Here are my spends for the current week Thurs - Sun total. I've shopped at Aldi for cheaper veg and Asda for the rest, got a meat box from Able & Cole, need to look how I shop from there in the future. Spent £76.25 so far which leaves me £3.75 until Weds. I have a monthly budget but am trying to split it between 4 weeks so a personal weekly budget too. I did buy lots of cleaning items and loo roll for the month though so as long as I stay within the monthly budget I'm happy.

Used £3.91 price guarantee vouchers today Bought YS chicken so going to plan that into meal plan for next week, or the week after.

Hopefully NSD tomorrow as waiting in for delivery from Argos and not planning on going out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

lushlifesaver

Spent £14 yesterday on fresh stuff as I left a load of stuff at my parents (as I'm a forgetful soul now I have all the bairn's stuff to remember!)

On the plus side we won't need anything, bar milk and a bottle of pop for bf :-) that will leave £10 for formula and a spare pack of nappies :-) happy with that.

Next month bf is away on and off all month, I want to run down the freezer as I just keep adding to it at the moment and I want to meal plan more decisively. We'll be eating a lot more fresh produce as we love salads etc come summer - excited about that!

In fact I may plan a bulk top up online shop for the beginning of the month and start meal planning in advance - especially for when bf is here so I know how best to keep costs down/where I need to save a bit more when he's away to treat us when he's back!