September 2007 Grocery Challenge

rosieben

lovely-cup-of-tea wrote: »

Okay, the £5 is to feed me three times a day, buy milk for tea/coffee etc, and for cleaning and laundry products.....

Work to a budget that you're comfortable with; I'm single, eat very simply, and I allow myself £80 per month. My grocery budget includes food, laundry, cleaning. Some people have a budget for extras like newspapers, celebrations, nights out etc. Its a case of you working out a way that suits you.

When I started the Grocery challenge I kept all my receipts for 2 or 3 weeks and worked out how much I was spending and also realised how much I was spending unnecessarily.

Meal planning and shopping lists are the way to go

Dont start too low, its soul destroying when you fail (as most of us have done) - its far better to set a realistic limit and reduce gradually.

Angelraesunshine

wow well i feel i have done the unexpected and its thanks to everyone here. THANK YOU

I have managed to come in £50 under budget this month after lowering it from last month as i felt i was doing well. Sept £330/£279.13 I am in shock that i have come in so low and have not felt i have missed out or not got the items i wanted so i am thrilled. Doing the monthly meal plan rather than the weekly one has really helped and i can still change the foods about if i do not fancy it as i have a month of food in the house to play with.

October has already started for me i got mr T to deliver today though my month finishes on friday. All meals planned for the month and the bill came in at £178.56 and i only need fresh items each week for the month and maybe washing powder and t.rolls later this month. I am keeping the budget at the same as last month at £330 as it is nearly a 5 week month for me this October.

Good luck to everyone on the last days.

Claero

I'm definitely signing up for the October challenge - it all seems so motivating!

lil_me

:j Taken out for dinner on Monday which was lovely (and free) and I have resisted the takeaway because busy studying urge (not easy) made a dinner we both enjoyed and still not been to a shop. I've popped £100 into the savings pot for moving as then I DEFINATELY won't spend it (because you need a tin opener to get into the pot) before we move or on groceries before Sunday, so that leaves out what is left £78.67 which I hope not to use also, if I can spend under £20 for the rest of this week I will be over the moon!

definately a lesson in using up! Must reduce the amount of 'stock' I keep from now on. Much smaller kitchen means I have to!

Cazzdevil

Well we came in on budget again at around £80, but we've eaten out a lot this month and we're really aware how much extra it's cost so we're knuckling back in October and I'm gonna try experimenting with some new recipes.

lil_me

Oh well looks like I forgot we needed pet food so the spend today might be over £20 inc our groceries but the dog food for example will last a month ish so that saves it from next months budget. Will update after I have been shopping.

donnajt

Week 4 -

Tesco have delivered and I spent a further £36.33

oh well 4 days left of Sept Challenge and I'll need to shop on Sunday to get fruit for lunchboxes and bread only!!

dtx

Jacks_xxx

:j WooHOOO lovelies! :j

I am chuffed to see how well it's all going, and it's lovely to have some new faces joining in :wave: (Says she - who's in her first official month herself! :rolleyes: )

We get paid at midnight tonight so my current total of £311.43 is my total for September. I was pretty confident that I could keep it within my generous target of £500, but I'm thrilled to bits to have done even better.

(Even though it just goes to show how much I've been overspending up to now huh? )
That's about £2.60 per person per day. :eek:

Awesome! :dance: I couldn't have done it without you guys on this thread - and the whole of MS - OS to be honest.

Roll on October!

Love Jacks xxx

trying-very-trying

Well, that's me done.
I was hoping to make it 'til Sunday, but dd passed her driving theory test:T today, so she reckoned she needed a kfc to celebrate.

As I was in town, I was going to buy a mega massive bag of dog food, but shock horror my card wasn't accepted _pale_, I wouldn't have minded quite so much if I had been spending and lost count, but there is still money on it. Anyway, I've had to request a new pin, so I've got no money until next week.

The_shuffs

Well done to you all i have been reading this months GC and i have failed Sept and Aug so tonight i am going to go in my freezer write a list of what we ahve then do a meal plan (that is the bit i find hard) still havent worked out y must have some sort of mental block worked out with the help of my bank statement we spent £130 a week 2 adults,2 teengirls and 1 dog have step kids but there eating habits are very poor so am not including them
HELP Rachael xx:D