June 2014 Grocery Challenge

cw18

40p spend today - last of the papers for the token collection

Then wandered up to Icel@and and collected my free food & drink (shelf ticket prices of £9.50)

Thanks to having spent the last couple of months using up stuff from the freezers I actually had space to take advantage of the offer. Even 3 months ago I'd have had to pass it up !! Got all the food in with a small amount of space still left, so now back to the using up (although these new 'purchases' will use up a lot more space a lot more quickly than the rest of the contents due to the nature of the products).


40% of the way through the month, and 54% of the way through my budget. Shouldn't need anything else until Monday now, as I have a food hamper due tomorrow with everything I need for cooked meals for three days.

Solstice_3

Afternoon all. NSD yesterday. Declaring May at £329.65, £9.65 over

June Budget - I am going to run it for 3 weeks to keep in track with everyone else, I get lonely otherwise lol I am going for £260

I have a kids picnic to host on Tuesday have had to buy stuff I don't normally buy as my DS drinks water normally whereas the other kids drink fruit shoots etc, bought Asda's own brand and some capri sun on offer for the children and some Asda brand coke for the adults in case they want a cold drink, some of them prefer coke plus I like it Plus picnic food and cakes! ETA I know I could bake my own cakes but I've got a lot on over the next few days and my baking is not great at the moment

Abel and Cole delivery today - £20.48 and Asda online shop at £55.86 brings me to £76.34. I bought cleaning supplies and stocked up my store cupboard with various tins and grains. Also bought baking cupboard supplies and yeast so I can make bread, pizza bases etc.

zafiro1984

Just reading the posting and following the threads. Must join in for the July challenge as spending is getting a bit out of hand.

Does anyone have a weekly ball park figure I should be aiming for?

Husband and myself, (the dogs can be extra) both work at home, mainly outdoors, we don't eat breakfast but have lunch, and tea with a pudding. I try to cook from scratch, sometimes bulk cook and freeze, I don't really have time for shopping so use the online delivery quite a lot, usually As*a or Sainbobs.
Oh - the other thing, husband doesn't like 'foreign food' and is allergic to tomatoes so no pasta or rice dishes, he's a strictly meat and two veg man.

I would be very grateful if I could get some idea of what to aim for, I think I know where to start cutting down but it would be interesting to know what others with similar households aim for. Thanks

Treadingwater84

1 extra shop for dog food this week and a can of pop today adding £4.30 to my total. Now up to £97.82 of £300.

Next weeks list isn't looking too bad with most things already in. Will see what the butcher has on offer this week, it's getting quite exciting hunting out the bargains.

I made bread this week it was lovely, unfortunately, the whole loaf was eaten in 1 sitting. :eek:

cw18

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Does anyone have a weekly ball park figure I should be aiming for?

I work on £5/day for myself for all food and drink (sometimes 3 meals, sometimes 2 - more likely to have supper than pudding). But my budget always looks high compared to others, especially as I don't drink alcohol and don't include any baby or pet items (not needed here) nor any household, cleaning or toiletry items. That money is purely food and drink.

I then allow another £3/day for DS1 which covers a cooked meal (and he grabs a snack meal once every couple of weeks), plus £3/week for his milk. Many of the main meals are less than that, but we also have some exotic meats which push some well over.

I'm coming in well under budget at the moment because I started the year with huuuuuge stock piles (including 2 freezers full of mostly meat and fish) that I'm now trying to run down.

I shop around (most meat from C0stco who I can't beat on price/quality, and most veg from A1di), cook almost every meal from scratch and regularly batch cook things like chilli, bolognese, stews and casseroles.

The best way to set a personal budget is to monitor everything you buy for a month, and then assess how much was needed and how much was just 'wanted' - or where you can try dropping a label to save money. Then set yourself a budget based on that and see how you get on

LilMissEmmylou

Well my first week has just got out of control - OH wanted take away tonight again for world cup which although I don't mind it is the 2nd one this week and without these take aways we would be on a £90 ish spend.

I have however used the receipts and total to show him just how much we are spending and were we are going wrong and he was shocked we had spent so much inthe last 5 days alone! Hopefully this week was his learning curve and we can better plan the rest of the month

Suffolk_lass

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

Well my first week has just got out of control - OH wanted take away tonight again for world cup which although I don't mind it is the 2nd one this week and without these take aways we would be on a £90 ish spend.

I have however used the receipts and total to show him just how much we are spending and were we are going wrong and he was shocked we had spent so much inthe last 5 days alone! Hopefully this week was his learning curve and we can better plan the rest of the month

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Can I just offer a GA suggestion for your lurking toiletries (apologies that this is not central to GC!); someone in my workplace brought loads in and put them in the ladies loo and it sparked a flurry of similar offerings from others (me included). We now have the nicest loo in the building and people are able to take products like hair products, deodorants and shower/bath products if they want them and an abundance of liquid soaps, hand and body lotions and squirty perfumes are liberally applied whenever people wish. It just makes it a slightly happier place to be. It reduced my stash by a plastic collapsible crate and I identified someone who works with a local charity for young people having a timeout and she has also had some of the hotel small size products I seemed to have been saving for no discernible reason. I know this is the wrong thread but sometimes people like a different suggestion.

Good luck
SL

kboss2010

I'm running out of basics so I stopped off at Farmfoods:

15 eggs £1
2 x bacon £2
Ketchup 1kg £2
Margarine 85p

= £19.09/£40

The eggs should last me 2 weekends, same with the bacon

bmma

update on spending £73.77/£250.00p
6 NSD'S

Florenceem

Some spends today to add to sig.
For dinner we had HM Impossible Pie + HM wedges + salad - lettuce/onion/celery/grated carrot/pumpkin seeds.
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