July 2014 Grocery Challenge

Ryuu

Hi everyone,

I would like to join, if you don't mind.

I set this month July2014's (01-31st) Food Budget to CZK1000 (about £30). Normally I would go by double/triple of it, but I must be strict with myself now .

Reason is quite simple: I need to loose a stone, to get back to 10st (you might say I don't need to loose weight with me being 5ft10", 11st 'fat' male. But I don't want to revert into old me, when I had 17st (well, food was the means how to solve problems...)

So possible savings:

• buy less energy/musli bars for bike (I used to store them, but then when you get a mood...)
• collect mushrooms in the forest, fruit and veggies from garden
• hope to find another good sales - bought a bit over a pound of fresh trout (two whole fish) for CZK45 (about £1.3)
• Precision buying. In the Czech Republic, we actually round to closest CZK. "pennies" (or hal!ř in Czech) are no longer used. So if I buy 5*3.90= 19.50, I will pay CZK20 at cashier, if I buy 6*3.90=23.40, I will only pay CZK23. So there is a difference between 6 or 5+1.
• Searching for the best deal. One market has fe fresh Chicken quarter (leg) for 49.90 a kilo, the other has it for 79.90. So lets say in 25min, I can usually make a round between 2-3 of them, buying the cheapest things (of course with good quality)

Oh and BTW, I don't use freezer, I

Current progress: 70/1000
07-01: CZK70 - bought 3kg of potatoes, 1kg of carrot and some garlic

cw18

Solstice_3 wrote: »

I didn't realise my first hello fresh box was coming today....

My OH (different home address to me, so different account and entitled to the introductory offer which gives me a referral discount ) has his first set to arrive next Thursday - but to the holiday home rather than his home address. I'll be there from this Sunday (so there to take delivery) and he arrives on the Friday for 8 days, so he's ordered the 5 meal box to do us Friday thru Tuesday inclusive. I managed to convince him it was a better idea than trying to menu plan and then work our who was taking up what, and when he saw the cost (after discount) he agreed it was a good way of doing it as we're both up for trying new things If they have another decent one for delivery the following week (need to check) we'll probably get the 3 day delivered on the Tuesday (with my referral discounts knocked off) to do the rest of the stay, or if another company has a better one he can first time order from them to arrive on the Wednesday. Whichever would then do Wed thru Fri, and we come home on the Saturday


Been down to £-stretch to check prices, but need to check with DD as to whether GDs will eat the cereals in the variety packs they have (everywhere seems to have a different combination) before I can buy. Did spent £2.66 in B'n'M though (crisps and jellies).

Lemonbee

Decided that I'll use the grocery challenge to save up for a new oven, mine is dying part by part so the savings I make will go in the oven fund

Soworried

I spent £7 today on a ys cooked chicken and 16 tins of chopped tomatoes while they are still on so cheap.

Money is getting really tight now and a week to go still

Gracie_1827

NSD for me and I'm gagging for a cup of tea. Will be out and about tomorrow so may be tempted into Mollys to get a box of Red Label....I've down graded from Yorkshire tea:( ......but only until there's a soooperdoooper offer on the best tea in the world

K9sandFelines

£6.58 spent in Lidl on tuna, fruit and nuts for muesli, coffee pods (diff.flavour) and binliners.

Did want the Sun for the £5 f&v voucher, but they'd sold out everywhere here.

parsniphead

£2.99 spent so far. I would have probably spent more without this challenge in the back of my head.:j

x_raphael_xx

£1.50 spent on ferry toll today, but didn't get an ice-cream so a cheap day out.
Graze box arrived today, so £3.89 off the grocery budget.

[Deleted User]

2NSDs for me so far this month, but did a big shop yesterday and spent $95, But have a huge bag of dog biscuits, 10kg sack of poultry feed and 10kg of potatoes.


Beautiful but cold today, top temperature expected to be 12 degrees, and the hills near us have their peaks covered in snow.


DH and I will be making sausages today, as the stocks need to be replenished before the grandkids arrive, hm sausages being a firm favourite. Have been playing around with a beef and blue cheese recipe, so will see how that goes.
Cheers
kiwi

cw18

Just done some number crunching on my grocery spends for the first 6 months of the year, and shocked myself......

I've had a few surveys this year from one of the big supermarkets which ask me (amongst other things) where I spend most of my grocery budget and where I spend next most. I've always answered most at Costc0 and second most at A1di, but OH said he wasn't convinced. So I've amalgamated all 6 pages of grocery spends, sorted by store, and then added up how much in each (spreadsheets make it easy to do things like this :;)

Turns out OH was right - just

biggest spends are at A1di (32.14%)
second biggest are at Costc0 (29.92%)
third place goes to Mr T (with just 12.26%)

and despite our local Lid1 closing last September and the building reopening as an Icel@nd last December, I've still managed to spend 1.99% at Lid1 and a meagre 0.34% in Icel@nd


My closest stores - as in within easy walking distance - are Mr M (5th place with 3.55%), B'n'M (9th place with 2%), C0-0p (not a penny, but not actually easy to get to at the moment due to a footpath being closed while a new bus route gets built), A1di (32.14%), £-Stretcher (13th place with 0.93%), and Icel@nd (14th place with 0.34%). So 38.96% of my grocery spends have been done locally, with just about all of that done on foot (guess that means I'm helping the environment )

I can remember a time not all that long ago when I spent almost every penny relating to food (and cleaning products and toiletries) at Mr T - how things have changed. I've spent under £128 there in 6 months, so I guess it's no wonder I'm struggling to pull together a £40 Mr T shopping list for tomorrow so I can use a £6 off till split :rotfl:

Came as a shock to discover I have 17 different chains / stores / websites I've spent my grocery budget with !!!