February 2015 Grocery Challenge

dramarama

Evening all!
I spent £7 today in T*sco taking my total to £130.69

Total includes shampoo and a few ys bargains.

scotmumof3

Anzac_Biscuit wrote: »

Haven't been posting much on here cos I got too embarrassed at being over!! :rotfl: Seriously, how silly is that. We've spent more than I would like, but still less that last month, and we're both still getting used to planning and grocery shopping for two.

I need to get some milk today but I'm hoping to get away with no other spends until the end of the month. I'm certainly learning a lot about DH's habits, and how to manage his needs as well as my own. I fell down over meal planning this month as well, so when I was ill the meals got a little haphazard! I think my budget was too low this month - better to have it a bit higher and come in under.

I've also just been told I'm slightly anaemic, so will need to be a bit more careful about getting enough iron in my diet in future!

Don't be embarrassed about being over this is a learning curve for all of us. I went over the first 2 months and I'm still struggling sometimes to stick to my meal plan. The more you post the more advice people will give you and it does help even if it's not all relevant to you. The fact you are trying is brilliant so keep going

Anzac_Biscuit

Thanks scottmumof3! This thread is so encouraging!

Right, milk and butter bought this am so *hopefully* that's it for this month. I'll wait until the bitter end to declare though Will update sig.

Kim317

Havent posted for a while but pleased to say it looks like I am going to come in under budget! Did a shop yesterday in Lid!s and I think I will only need bread in the next couple days.

jp1964

Probably my last shopping of the month was yesterday,£20 in Waitrose on a meal deal and some toothpaste, and at my daughter's request, some chocolate and crisps! Also got my husband some reduced price shaving foam.

On Tuesday had some shopping delivered from T*sco, and popped into L*dl for some meat, the total of this was £80 (give or take a few pence, I am not being that pedantic about a few pence!)

So as there is pretty much no likelihood of me needing anything else before the end of Saturday, I think I can safely say that my first month doing this has come in under budget by £19!

Remember, this is £319 less than our average spend per month over September to December last year, excluding the big Christmas shop, so feeling quite pleased with myself, especially as the money saved is now paid off our mortgage.

I have a standing order set up to go out on the 6th of the month, so every incentive to make March just as successful - and the best thing is that we haven't compromised or felt that we have had to go without anything we want to eat, still enjoying good healthy food!

See you all on the March thread!

wishus

I am 99% sure I have done my last spend of the month. We are running out of bread - must be disciplined and use my bread mix! :A

So, that's £4.20. I bought Millicano at half price special offer £2 from Asda and some cat food. Signature updated

CountingPennies

Thanks to all about advice RE the £90 Mr T shop. I decided against it in the end. Went to Home B's and then Mr T's and spent £58. But trailing to shops left me drained for nearly 48 hours. Soooo.... I'm gonna get a big huge shop and get it delivered over the weekend, so it will be part of March's challenge.

There are things I need to stock up on and I simply don't have the energy to trail around different shops. This way, it all gets delivered and keeps me away from spending money on stuff I don't need! Due to get paid tomorrow, won't be spending anything today so declaring this month at £348/£350 :beer:

CP xx

Solstice_3

Finally popping on to declare - been a bit busy so no time for posting, and reading!

£394.02 which is £74.02 over budget, have adjusted March's budget as that money was spent on meat for March so I should hopefully even out if that makes sense

bellevie

I have gone over this months budget by £9.65:mad:

I was proud of last week managing £24, however today I went by myself for first time in over 6 months and got carried away! I've been full time at work for a while so had to do it weekends with DD, I thought it caused me to spend more with little miss throwing things in the trolley but actually in hindsight I made my way out of the shop a lot faster as I was worried about the budget! Today I had much longer to browse so picked things up we haven't had in a long time. I did stock up on a few tinned things which we will last a few weeks however not £9's worth!

I will knuckle down next month and stay in budget!!

Peggybabcot

I thought I'd check back in with you after a VERY long period of absence. When I first sought help from this group we (a family of 2 adults and two teenagers who eat like adults!) were shopping at Sainsburys as at the time hubby received staff discount. Our weekly spend was around £170 per week equating to £736 PCM approx which had to change. We started shopping at Aldi with top ups on what we couldn't get there at Sainsburys. Slowly but surely we found Aldi started adding more lines and we shopped less and less at Sainsburys. With the help of this group and changing now completely to Aldi our monthly spend this month has been a record low *drumroll please* £303.73!!! And with that we did a mega shop only on Monday which will see us well into next month too 😊 I'd just like to thank everybody for their helpful tips and advice I've read along the way and although I haven't actively participated in the grocery challenge for some time I have been participating at home with amazing results so thank you x