September 2007 Grocery Challenge

donnajt

I have tried this challenge once before and failed miserably...I am setting a budget of £350 which I know is a lot for 2 adults and 1 child but I have been spending ridiculous amounts of money on food recently and rather than cut our budget drastically I thought I'd start somewhere realistic and achieveable.

Our freezer and cupboards are well stocked...I don't know why but I hoard food. I have written a meal plan for the rest of the week but I will need to shop for packlunch stuff on Tues

So far I have spent £1.29 on eggs at our local over priced shop as dd had eaten 3 eggs for breakfast

LJM

i am in came £37 under budget for august very pleased but still going to keep it at £200 for the month see if i can do it again.freezer is full and so are cupboards,just need to pick up some fruit and bits for daughters lunchboxes tomorrow and thats it for bit

Sporticus

Hi

I'm new around here but I'm going to give this a go. Not expecting huge success but I've got to start somewhere! Up to now our grocery spending has been £120pw (that's for 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 greyhound pup!). The spending needs to come down so I'm aiming for £100pw starting from 31st August - this will include cleaning stuff & dog food.

taka

Hi all :hello:
I'm 6 days in with 25 to go and £35-14 out of £150 spent so far. Not great but just did a carefully planned Mr T shop so shouldn't need to get much else for this week - maybe some fruit/veg on thurs/fri.

This is getting obsessive tho :rolleyes: ... I spent ages today comparing prices between Sainsbury's and Tesco to get best use out of the money off £20 shops I got last week thro the post from both then spent around 2 hours in Tesco double checking my Tesco list :rotfl: I'm really proud of myself tho - I spent £18.81 and this included a kettle and socks(£4.88 + £1) (came to £21.81 but had £3 off £20 shop voucher) so actually only spent £12.93 from my grocery budget!! I think I'll try the Sainsbury's version end of this week or next weekend for loads of freezer stuff/fruit and veg:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Not doing too bad yet! I have managed to spend nothing since my last "admission". We have eaten out a couple of times but this has come out of my "£20 in the purse" money. Next month i will include all money spent going out so i have a truer reflection on the amount we spend but this website has made us so aware of what we spend we are avoiding situations in which we know we will spend money. And i also remember to take all my discount cards to local attractions which is something i have fogotten about in the past so i thank you all.

dm1465

Kids back to school tomorrow so hopefully spending will decrease a bit!
My budget for this month is £200 again, and anything spent under that will be going on a bit of early Christmas shopping. Have inventoried freezer and cupboards and reckon I have enough basics for a couple of weeks. This week we are eating out of the freezer - I had stocked up with home cooked stuff as I was due to go in hospital for an op which has been cancelled so although that is really annoying at least we have some yummy food for a couple of weeks!
Good luck to everyone else, hope you have a good week.

irishwexford

just need to buy milk today as making cauliflower cheeses for dinner with veggie burgers. Have meals all planned out so should not need to buy much before the weekend and then just fruit and veggies. Did cut budget from £200 to £160 but may manage an extra £10 off this month. If I can keep it to £150 each month I will be happy. We are still eating well, the extra I have saved was from the food:T I bought and then threw out. Nothing wasted now.

chaz19

Hi all,

I'm new so hope I manage to post this ok!

Been reading these threads for months now, all your advice is great - I feel like I know you all.

I kept all my receipts for August (thanks for the tip) and spent £296.00 plus a £170.00 Costco shop (meat for freezer, washing powder etc to last 3 months) That's for me, fussy OH, 2 dogs, 3 cats and I supply loo roll, toothpaste etc. for the lodger. So divide Costco by 3 and we totalled £352.66 which I didn't think was too bad seeing as I was not changing my habits yet just recording a 'normal' month. I was expecting it to be a lot more!

Gonna try for £300 for September so take away the £56.66 already spent at Costco and that leaves me with £243.34.

Wish me luck - sorry for waffling, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon (lol)!

Boatie_Bird

I started off with £130 and now I've got £56.58 in the budget.

I'm pretty well stocked up on the basics - pulses, rice, pasta, couscous etc. and I've got bits and pieces in the freezer at my mums and at MILs.

We're having trouble with the boat charging system at the moment and I just can't trust the freezer not to switch off and defrost everything while I'm out at work. I guess I'm lucky they both live fairly close, but I'm having to be doubly organised this month.

Hopefully DH will get the power sorted out this week!

Curv

Hello! I'm back again, albeit a little late and despite a nightmare time (budget-wise) in August. I'm back on track with both the Grocery and the Pin Money challenges and I'm determined to stick with it. I've reduced my budget again and it's almost down to what I'd consider 'reasonable', so it will be an interesting month.

Good luck to everyone

Curv x