May 2015 Grocery Challenge

MovingUp

My DH went to get the bread last night after work. That was a big mistake as he seemed to somehow spend £7.93. Of course I won't admit to helping eat all the treats


Total left: £186.82/200.00

MelBell2015

£117.12 at tesco but plenty of food in now!

sheba

1st day of the challenge today coinciding with my main shopping day of the week. Spent £61.55 and for sure will need to shop on Friday for weekend supplies. Part of this spend was 9.99 to Gousto on my first/last shop with them. Seems a sound idea in principle and for my high powered solicitor friend I can see that the weekly home delivery of pre-measured ingredients and recipe cards is a god send but at the regular price of 34.99 for 3x two portion meals its a fair way out of my (most people's?) budget. Anyhow, happy to give it ago at 9.99 for 3x two portion meals-due delivery on 8th May so will feed back about the experience.

I am determined to bring our grocery bill down to under the £500 that my boys pay in board to us while they live here and save up for their futures, but it's not easy as obviously I don't cook a dinner for them every night as I did when they were children, (they have their own lives and are in and out all the time). It's more that I cook for me and hubster and when workable for us all I cook a proper meal and 'invite' them, but I then need to keep a good stock of cost effective options for them to cook their own meals.

I think in all honesty I have become a bit of a shopping robot, forever picking out the same brands and therefore I could potentially save a fair amount by going down a level? Today I put back the 1kg of Tilda basmati rice for 3.73 (on special at Asda) in order to try the Tesco value brand Basmati rice at 1.40 for a kilo- hoping it's similar and only for rice salad anyway so if we like it that will be a good saving. I do buy lots of value options but definitely think there are many grocery items that I could downshift a bit, not sure why I have been buying value biccies but then the very expensive rice? Definitely need to spring clean my brain grocery wise.

Anyhow, hope all your budgets are behaving themselves , can be very naughty creatures can them budgets!!! Ttfn x x x x

MrsSave

First day of the challenge for me and I have spent £3.98/£205. Was lazy and made food from a jar instead of from scratch. Don't use jars often and was pretty shocked by its price! Won't be using them for a while, that's for sure!

e4rly

I'm in and am going to be mean to myself with a limit of £90. Also, I need a 100%-packed-lunches target after succumbing to Pret 4 times in April! And one of those times was for a horrible salmon sandwich which I could have made much better and much cheaper.

Should be easier to stick within the budget as I'm away most weekends and have a lot of stock in my freezer.

lynnejk

sheba wrote: »

.... Today I put back the 1kg of Tilda basmati rice for 3.73 (on special at Asda) in order to try the Tesco value brand Basmati rice at 1.40 for a kilo....

Welcome to the challenge and good luck in getting into a new rhythm.


You don't mention where you live but the two sms that you mention are both rather pricey.


Have you thought about trying the cut-price stores - there are lots of them. A*di, L*dl, Home Bags, Farms Fds, B&M and then all the various £ stores, all of which do food.


Also you can bulk-buy on line. Have a look through the thread, especially 1st post.


If you are going to stick to the main sms have you tried mysupermarket.co where you can check the various prices across the sms - even do a shop to see the savings and then empty it. HTH
Lx

Doris65_2

Hi all

Have done a full audit of freezers cupboards and fridge, meal planned for the month, and made a list, so off to SM today to stock up, I work a lot of hours, as does my OH so shopping monthly for store cupboard and freezer has really helped us in the past to save money, we just got out of the habit, so trying this way again,and will see what happens???? am also taking Food budget out in cash and having it in a separate purse, never tried this but I'm hoping that it will help focus on how much we are spending,

Dx

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

I'm sorry for your loss Zippychic
May budget runs from 1st May - 31st May and I'm GOING to budget £200

There's been a Lidl open near my work and also an Asda so going to swap from Tesco/Morrisons to these this month!

Any Lidl "must haves" let me know!

LolaLemon

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I am not going to change my budget though, as feeling restricted makes me panic that i dont have enough money. I really think this stems from the years when i really DIDN'T have enough money to feed us all, so i would without meals so that my children would eat

I need to remind myself that i am no longer in that position, and stop spending so much on making sure the cupboards are always full.

This is me!
My dad says i must have more food in my house for me and my son, than they do for 3 adults + me, my son, my sister and her bf and son as we all go and get fed their regularly. I agree, but i never told them how skint i was that i was eeking out £30 of overdraught money to last us a month, and most of that went on my sons special food due to dairy intolorance borderline allergy. I went from a size 22 to a 12 in 3 months! (due to lack of food, lack of nutritious food and walking everywhere i could as i didnt have enough petrol money , that poor car was constantly in the red, with just enough to get son to nursery and back and i would park car their and walk everywhere else, and i was too proud to say anything! )... and yeah my clothes where falling off me haha too skint to get new ones.

those where the days:(

miss_try_to_save

I have declared for April £30 under budget and the start to my May challenge is tomorrow I already have a long shopping list and im trying to decide if I should try a weeks shop in l*dl or if I should do what I normally do and go to ice l*and tes** an sains as well I will be doing a full stock take as oh was doing shopping and I have no idea what I actually have lol