February 2015 Grocery Challenge

Islandmaid

Hi all,

I am having to admit I completly lost the plot this month.

DH is a joiner builder, and after 4 years of saving he started the refurb on the house this month - it will be 4 weeks Monday that we have been without a kitchen, and although its getting there now, we,re still without a Hob for another week, due to the wrong one being ordered by the place we ordered from.

Anyway, this has led me to have to buy alot of convenience food for us, and whilst it not being the best health wise, it has cost SO much more, I am actually amazed at the additonal cost (approx £75pw as opposed to normal £40'ish) - it had made me appreciate how much these boards help me spend as little as possible normally.

Pay day next week, so will bow out of Feb GC and join March's next week - good luck all, your doing fab x

skintmum2012

Well this month I kind of lost the plot a bit gave up counting but know i am over. Next month I will not spend all my budget at the beginning but weekly shop my budget will increase next month to 300 as I would rather take it off slowly then set a task to hard and end up disheartened next month as well. Dog food is also down graded. See you all over in march and good luck everyone.

bmma

spends today = £8.85
total spends £53.34
7 NSD'S
I am giving wilk-sons cat litter a trial - 14 litres for £3.70p-so far I and the 3 cats are happy with it x

lynnejk

Hiya everyone :hello:


NSD here today :j


Hope you all have a super Saturday


Lx

scotmumof3

£26.05 spend today still on track for the month as I have quite a bit still in the freezer :)

dramarama

NSD yesterday. Just popping in to say our fussy little madam (cat!) is ok using T*sco value cat litter. I think its under £2 and we've tried a few varieties and this one is ok.

Caterina

Am really not doing so well with NSDs, yesterday was meant to be one and I was on course. In the evening DH and I went to a Chinese new year event and there was food, it was free but they asked for donations.

We felt it would have been wrong not to give something, as we had a lot of fun with the beautiful music, tai chi demonstration, good food and (awful) glass of wine - gave mine to DH! So we decided that £10 for the two of us was ok to donate, it is an arts charity and we wanted to support it.

It was a cheap nice evening out by all means, but it scuppered my NSD. However, some good came of it as I discovered more free tai chi and yoga classes taking place very near where I live, which I shall join from next week.

Today will be another spend day as I need to get a birthday gift for my friend who invited me and DH to her birthday party. Might also get some groceries but only minimal stuff, fresh veg and salad.

flubberyzing

I've got one more shop to do this month, with approx. £13 left... Might just make it, as I've got everything I need until next weekend. And the store cupboard is heaving - and I'm working my way through the freezer.

Ladyluck1

£31 in sainsbobs oops!
Luckily only one week to go

Frizzle_2

Morning all,
I have been doing this challenge for nearly a year now and at the start I thought we were already quite low on our budget without missing out on anything! At first I struggled to spend under £250 and went over every month. Now my monthly bill is about £200 for 2 adults and 2 children.

I have done done all the usual things like batch cook, using up leftovers, meal planning etc.

A lot of people on here talk about a weekly spend or not spending too much at the beginning.

I use the aldi vouchers (like many people) but buy three papers. I spend as close to £40 on the Thursday and then I do the same on the Sunday (stocking up on cereal, cat food, washing powder, dishwasher tabs etc) and then on the following Thursday I spend my last voucher (which is usually in my next months budget.
This means that I know I need to leave about £70 for the end of the month and I start the new month really well stocked up.
Then on the two/ three weeks in between I do minimal shopping (fruit, veg, milk and bread) usually spending about £20 a week. Only essentials go on thus list. Which means I try to use up everything in the freezer!

Occasionally I will get a voucher for another supermarket and I will use this to buy items that I can't buy at aldi, eg yeast, coffee (hubby likes kenco), options hot chic, some herbs and spices etc!
I also use farmfoods vouchers but again only buy certain things!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I use the vouchers to work fir me and not let the supermarket persuade me to do my weekly shop there!

Hope that helps someone!