August 2015 Grocery Challenge

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

Signing in for another month at £253.10 please

And another attempt at staying below £200, though I'm going to be realistic and lift my target for max spends in shops from £105 to £150.

Spreadsheet says that my £253.10 budget means I shouldn't be above £194.04 as of end of today.

It also says I'm at £201.30 :eek: So I'm already over £200, and I still need milk and frozen veg as an absolute minimum. Hopeful I'll manage to keep under £253 though.

Shop spends are currently at £142.84, so it's also looking unlikely I'll be under £150 for that by month end

But from this months' spends I've got a lot of meat in for the remaining 4 months of the year, so I should find lower targets possible until year end

Bluegreen143

Well my grandparents forgot they said they'd pay for dinner ingredients on Sat so I'm over budget. But they did give me money for my birthday so can't complain lol

I'm at:

£140.66 / £120 on food
£13.90 / £15 on toiletries and household
£15.87 / £15 on cat stuff

And I'll definitely need more cat food, plus possibly milk.

Oh well, all I can do is keep the underspend as small as possible and try hard next month to be honest, our freezer/store cupboard hasn't been fully built up since moving two months ago, so that probably had an impact too.

*snow*white*

Wow loving all the batch cooking.

Final shop of the month yesterday in A$da spent £15 on top up stuff to see us through until the end of the month. £5 left for milk or anything else needed.

Due to a combination of eating all freezer stuff so could defrost freezer, son away for week and me having lack of appetite due to being under the weather have managed to come in this month at £140 out £180. This meant I was able to put £40 over to the other account :T.

At the start of Aug I opened an account attached to my online banking that I called groceries and I put my monthly grocery budget in and transferred the amount spent after shopping back into current account. For me it really helped to see what I specifically had left for groceries rather looking at bank balance and trying to remember how much I had left.

Anyhow next month may be a bit tricky as we are going into unchartered territory as I am starting my degree. I will be taking packed lunches and trying to batch cook as we cannot start spending loads on food because I am home later.

So we shall see how that goes.

Well done everyone :T

Billie-jo

Massive spends over last couple of days taking us to £172.70/250
Have made a litre of tomato sauce today from tomatoes that are not that brilliant to have in salads etc but with the addition of garlic, onions, herbs and a pinch of sugar they have made a nice base for spag bol etc.
Also made some beef and vegetable soup which we had for lunch today and there are another three portions left so will take mum one down in the morning and hubby and I will have the last for lunch again. Wished there was more as it is delicious.
Sunday we had pan fried pork medallions, veg, potatoes and a sage and apple gravy/jus over it.

Nice to see some new people joining us and good luck to you all.
It takes time to reduce but such a worth while thing to do as long as you don't go out of your own personal comfort zone and deprive yourselves. Our budget is still quite high compared to some but when I started we were spending
£500 every four weeks and now its £250 per calendar month for myself, hubby and mum at least 4 times a week plus grandchildren when they come (often in the school holidays less so in term time)

lynnejk

Hiya everyone :hello:


Managed another NSD here today. Only one week to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the pennies now lovely peoples.


Good luck and hope you all have a super Tuesday
Lx

joedenise

Had another NSD yesterday and rest of week should also be NSD as have everything we need in before going on holiday, but still don't think I'm going to make my NSD target!

Denise

t14cy_t

spends of £8.82 yesterday, used up all my small change and went on a YS rampage at sainsbobs, w******e, mr m, and co*p!!

Petula

Another £30.63 off the budget yesterday....

Thistlewhistle

I'm down by another £2 but just had to buy some fruit.

I did well though - 4 MASSIVE peaches and a mango for £2

T:)

Bluegreen143

Spent £2.50 on cat food. My husband also bought some cat litter from £stretcher for £4.99(!). We normally buy the value £1.65 stuff so certainly won't be getting it there again! I would have waited and got it elsewhere, men eh :eek: it's not even a bigger pack!

He also spent £1 on bin bags and £1 on kitchen roll.

Brings our totals to:

Food £140.66 / £120
Toiletries & household £15.90 / £15
Cat stuff £23.36 / £15

I will probably need milk too. We're having a birthday/housewarming barbecue on Saturday which we'll need to buy stuff for but have money put aside for the party so will account for it separately. It is a potluck barbecue so guests will be bringing stuff too, hoping keeping it reasonably thrifty...