June 2014 Grocery Challenge

Solstice_3

FrugalWorker wrote: »

I've been lurking here for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to start in next months challenge, but I have a question for all you knowledgeable folks. How do you manage/count your OH's spends. We are two adults. He likes to spend without looking at prices. He's not the worst. But he doesn't understand why I want to track what we're spending. [as an aside we're not in debt besides the mortgage, but we would like to move house and this will cost a lot!]

- Going to keep a household kitty in the kitchen so he can take money for that for milk/bread
- Going to try and keep 'his food' in the fridge to discourage him from going to the shops
- Have homemade prepared favourites of his to discourage him from going to buy steak

I want to do this monthly, tying in with my monthly salary. Challenge is that some months it is a 4 week month, others it is a 5 week month. I guess others try and stock up on non consumables during the shorter months? I of course will be starting on a longer month, just might up the budget and try and bring it down a bit after a month or so (in line with a shorter month )

I don't keep track of DH but we have a weird system. We have a bills account which we both pay into then he pays the mortgage and I buy the groceries and children's stuff. If he does bring food home, he is great at spotting YS stuff, it's a bonus A kitty sounds like a good idea for your situation though

Update for me.

NSD Saturday, spend of £15.74 yesterday and hoping for an NSD today have the stuff in for lunch and tea so will get needed stuff (milk etc) tomorrow.

Soworried

I don't let OH shop, he has no concept of what is a good price per kilo on things.
When we first had to start limiting our spends we had to sit down and work out a budget we could afford. That works out at £240 per month and it is tight. He understands that he is useless at trying to shop in that range so leaves it to me while he sorts out the accounts and getting the best interest rates and things.
You have to sit down and talk about what you both want from this then he will get on board with it

My spends are up to £45 now after 10 days and I still have loads in :j I need to go through the freezer today and work out a meal plan. I'll also have to do a small shop as I am out of a few things that we will need.
It is going well so far with our "Use it up month"

Crowdpleaser

Last little shop today of 16 quid plus some milk yest. I think im going to make it! Whoop! Next month is tougher as its 5 weeks for me plus dd2 birthday party althoygh cost will come out of a different budget. What ive done differently this month id to meal plsn the whole month and buy fresh each week having already bought sll staples and meats etc. X

Ladyluck1

Haven't posted for ages!
My YS spends have totalled £9.20 the last week and a half mostly been using my approve foods stuff and freezer meat

Soworried

I've just been shopping and spent a lot more than I expected to but that was due to offers.
MR S has reduced jars of vindaloo curry to just 50p each, they are normally £1.30 so I had a big stock up on those. I also stocked up on tinned meats as they had a few of those reduced as well.

I need to spend about £5 now I think between now and the weekend, well that is the budget I am setting myself

cw18

Haven't done an update since 16th....

18th saw me in A1di
20th saw me back in A1di
21st I was in A1di yet again (and Mr M)

and at that point I was starting to know my budget was going to be tight even if not impossible

but 22nd (yesterday) saw me back in C0stco!!!

picked up some cheese that's on offer until this coming Sunday (ready sliced, to be bagged in individual slices and frozen), some gammon steaks (so I can add a bit more variety to my meal plans now I've used up a reasonable amount of stuff), a 1kg tub of Fl0ra I don't need until a fair way into next month (but was on offer at 33% cheaper than elsewhere), some pastrami (for this weeks sandwiches), some pesto (on offer, and I know how wonderful it is for q&e pasta lunches), some oil for cooking (almost out of mine, so that was firmly on shopping list), and two bags of a fruit & nut mix they've only had in once before (and OH and I loved, so have been bitterly disappointed not to be able to get it again since).

That blew this month's budget, and then I nipped into Mr A and came out having spent another £3.84 on 4 items in there.

So I'm currently £8.75 over budget, with 8 days (including today) still to go. But that's a reduced budget (original would still leave me with £85.03) and most of the C0stco shop won't be started this month, so I'm actually happy with where I'm at

x_raphael_xx

£2.20 spent today, couple of leeks, big jacket pot, mushys and a lettuce.
£87.17 spent this month, £12.83 left in my budget. Need a couple of essentials in the next few days thou, so will be close!

SazzleDazzle1

Happygreen wrote: »

To my constant irritation OH does not contribute much here so I am doing this to keep track of my own spending on groceries. At the moment I do include my booze but maybe that should rather count as a treat than be included it in the family shopping. I stock up when there are good deals around so some months are under and some are very badly indeed over budget....
What I would really like to do is start a food waste thread to keep track on what goes uneaten and what it was worth. Maybe I'll start one after the holidays because I'll have to cook for only 3 instead of 4 in the family

This sounds like a great idea, :T

SazzleDazzle1

Another £100 spent in w'rose and Aldo this week so £5 left of budget. I am going back to basics next month as my spends are creeping up, I am throwing food away and generally not doing very well at all. I had hoped by now I would have been reducing my budget. Next weeks shop will be in next months budget so I will do a stock take and meal plan to use up some of the food already in the freezer.


Thank you to everyone who has put suggestions up to help me from my last post - I am vey grateful and will hopefully get on top of meal planning and batch cooking next month

joedenise

Have just realised that today is the last day of "my" month so I have come in under budget:T!

My new month starts tomorrow as it's DH payday. I have a £6 off £30 spend for Mr S so will do shopping there tomorrow. I've started a list and have about £20 on it so far. Will add some non perishables to it to being it up to at least £30 - will definitely need toothpaste for both home and motorhome so that'll be another couple of pounds.

I'll be going round with a calculator to ensure I spend around £30 and not too much more and definitely not under (did that once at Mr Ts and ended up buying far more expensive loo rolls than I usually buy just to make up the necessary spend!)

Denise