March 2015 Grocery Challenge

scotmumof3

£13.75 spend today this should be the last of the month but I'm going to wait and declare on tuesday just in case

runrosyfox

Hello everyone,

I'd love to try this. I am "only me" here - 28 year old and vegetarian. What do you think is a realistic budget?

To be honest, I find it difficult to add up what I spend too strictly because I used to have an eating disorder, and think I'd berate myself if I realised how much I was spending. But I'd like to eat more cheaply so I can do some things to my flat and take a nice holiday this year.

bmma

Hi spends to date = £17.75
total spends = £119.65/£90.00
set budget too low
will be quite a bit over
a lot of stockcupboard ingredients bought x

Frizzle_2

Hiya rosy fox!
Most people just add up their spends for the first month so they can realistically know how much you spend then set yourself a target for the following month. It's not about eating less or buying less food (well for most of us I guess) but trying to buy smarter. Trying own brand foods instead of the main labels. Buying YS (Yellow stickered reduced food), using vouchers and offers and thinking about which supermarket is best. Not always the same one, depends what you are buying. I do the majority of my shopping in aldi but once a month or so will go to a different supermarket to buy things that aldi don't stock or where we prefer an item from a different supermarket!

The other thing that really helps me is batch cooking. I make a huge pan for a meal and then portion it up for the rest of the month or following months. The same with things like shepherds pie (or vegi equivalent!) you could double the ingredients and then make 8-10 little portions in little Pyrex dishes. (You can often get them in pound land or equivalent!)

Hope that helps x

Oh, and everybody's budget is different, depending on your shopping habits but for two adults and two children my budget is between £200 and £250

lynnejk

Hiya everyone and welcome to all the new peoples :hello:


Just to say I'm back and had a super holiday travelling through Italy, Sicily and Malta. It was a little cold, but only one day of rain and a few lovely sunny days.


Sorry not had time to read back all yet (about half-way) but I'll catch up in the week.


Went shopping today as the fridge was empty. Will have to have a sort out as to what to charge towards the last two days of the month and put the rest on April.


Hope you all okay and have a magnificent Monday
Lx

Hoipolloi

Hate waste, so gutted that I had to throw away a pineapple today. It was mouldy and way beyond saving. I'd bought it reduced as it was already on the turn so should have done something with it sooner. Ah well.

On the upside, stretched yesterday's roast meal to make meals for monday too. And have made teacakes to toast for whenever we want them.

Still no spends. Neither on food nor anything else.

mrs-moneypenny

Did the weekend shops so need to add their receipts to my sig, I'm not far off target only a little over but I'm doing well in that we have decided not to do a big supermarket (morrys or tesc0) unless we really need to at the weekends.
We have a small co0p and a fruit&veg market stall near by so we have taken to just using those at the weekend and take king advantage of the yellow sticker reductions and meal planing around those.
Might need to do a tesc0 before this weekend as there are a few bits I need with family all coming for dinner on Sunday.

joedenise

runrosyfox wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I'd love to try this. I am "only me" here - 28 year old and vegetarian. What do you think is a realistic budget?

To be honest, I find it difficult to add up what I spend too strictly because I used to have an eating disorder, and think I'd berate myself if I realised how much I was spending. But I'd like to eat more cheaply so I can do some things to my flat and take a nice holiday this year.

Frizzle wrote: »

Hiya rosy fox!
Most people just add up their spends for the first month so they can realistically know how much you spend then set yourself a target for the following month. It's not about eating less or buying less food (well for most of us I guess) but trying to buy smarter. Trying own brand foods instead of the main labels. Buying YS (Yellow stickered reduced food), using vouchers and offers and thinking about which supermarket is best. Not always the same one, depends what you are buying. I do the majority of my shopping in aldi but once a month or so will go to a different supermarket to buy things that aldi don't stock or where we prefer an item from a different supermarket!

The other thing that really helps me is batch cooking. I make a huge pan for a meal and then portion it up for the rest of the month or following months. The same with things like shepherds pie (or vegi equivalent!) you could double the ingredients and then make 8-10 little portions in little Pyrex dishes. (You can often get them in pound land or equivalent!)

Hope that helps x

Oh, and everybody's budget is different, depending on your shopping habits but for two adults and two children my budget is between £200 and £250

runrosyfox - frizzle has explained things very well. There are also some ideas in the first few posts of the thread which get repeated each month.

There are also several pages of recipes which you might find useful (although not as many veggie meals as meat meals but you may be able to adapt some of them). Really useful info and worth a look.

There is only me and DH but I too use a budget of £250 a month but usually come in under that and any money I have left I transfer across to savings towards holidays, Christmas or annual bills, so for me setting a higher budget and we actually need actually helps with the savings - might be an idea for you as you want to do some work to your flat.

You might also want to track your NSDs (No Spend Days) as for every one you have you haven't spent money so may help you cut back. I'm trying for 20 this month - I had 2 over the weekend and will be having one today as not going out at all. This will bring my total to 19, so I haven't quite done it as need to go shopping tomorrow to get my final shop of the month. If it wasn't for the fact that I need some fruit and veg and it's market day tomorrow I could probably leave it another day and make my total!

Just have a stab at your first month's budget for April by working out roughly how much you think you spent each week in March. You can always adjust your budget as the months go on - there's no such thing as failure in the Grocery Challenge and your competing with anyone - you're just trying to do the best you can do.

Good luck and see you over on the April GC.

Denise

wishus

Did £7 shop. This brings me to £140.12 - £9.88 under budget! :j

Also spent my emergency £20 which doesn't come out of my grocery budget on things to prepare for a weekend away next week. Nice having different pots for things!

gayleygoo

Well, this month didn't turn out so well. Total of £326, which puts me £100 over budget Was also quite over on the budgets for household stuff and clothes, although they were low budgets anyway.

Next month will be tight. OH got a loan for a (second hand) car, but the one he bought ended up costing slightly more than the loan, plus the cost of taxing it and changing insurance has ravaged our bank accounts. Now we have loan repayments to make, no holiday/xmas/emergency savings, and a baby due any day now. We will really have to pull up the proverbial socks and keep a tighter grasp on our money!