January 2016 Grocery Challenge

Lynxe

THIRZAH wrote: »

I'm hoping to manage on £200 this month. I've found a separate purse for my grocery shopping money We have lots of leftover food in the freezer-the only problem is working out what we do have. DD very kindly helped sort things out on Boxing day and froze all the leftovers but didn't label anything.

We used to have this problem - invested in a whiteboard pinned next to the freezer, which now has all the contents written on it!

FoxFace

First NSD of the month... in fact the year!

Not particularly difficult as I went grocery shopping yesterday and also most places are closed NYD anyway :rofl:

I keep looking at the leftover £20 note and odd pence in my little savings jar.... DH keeps trying to find ways to spend it :mad: but I just explained to him that there will be weeks where we *need* more than the £70 weekly budget, like when we need toiletries, as I will only buy from 100% cruelty free companies, and that stuff doesn't come cheap! :eek: So really over a month, the budget will probably even itself out!:)

Might also have to try to convince DS1 to go on to packed lunches, but the school really does serve some amazing and reasonably priced meals, so that might take a bit more pondering

Mumof2_2

Hi, I wonder if I can join in please. The family consists of me, DH who works away Sunday - Thursday night each week and 2 children - 1 of whom is growing like a weed and the other just wants to eat all the time!! I'm going to start off with something I really hope I can do and then gradually tweak it down bit by bit.

Please can you put me down for £400 per month.

Many thanks

dingdongsaving

I totally understand on the school meals FoxFace.

My son loves having a hot meal at lunchtime and we let him choose from his 3 weekly menu even though he's now older and pays for the meals in school.

Several of his friends have the hot lunch too, and he enjoys sitting with them and socialising while they eat. Plus, they are delicious and very healthy meals most of the time, and are very reasonably priced to boot! Our school gets their pork and beef from local farms within our county and all fruit and veg are seasonal, so it fits our family tastes as that's how we shop too. :T

I also find that when he has a packed lunch he's surrounded by other children who seem to have the most unhealthy and extortionate pack-ups. :eek: He sometimes starts to ask for (and not get!) all sorts of plastic concoctions and gimmick-ish foodstuffs. I like that when he's a hot dinner he's surrounded by other children eating the same healthy meal as him.

I also love that it frees up time for me in the evening/morning (whenever I would have squeezed in making it and washing up the tupperwear/bottle) :rotfl:and saves space storing items and costs on my grocery list in 2 ways: 1) I don't buy packed lunch food, and 2) we often eat smaller meals in the evenings during the week, such as soup, 'on toast' (beans, leftovers, poached/scambled eggs), omelette or sandwich with a little salad on the side/fruit for pudding. We usually have leftovers from a roast on Mon/Tuesdays, and Wed-Fri are our lighter evening meals as we cruise to the end of the week.

I think weighing all of that up it suits us for him to have a hot meal when it suits him.

x_raphael_xx

First shop of the year no idea what my budget is going to be, as I'm currently between homes (waiting for my mortgage to go thru so bunking with the bf in his shared house).
He has full access to my card for food shopping as I'm not paying anything towards his rent, and we don't have a lot of cupboard/fridge space so its a shop every couple of days.
This month I think I'll just be testing the waters and seeing what it will cost.
£29.05 spent today.

candygirl

Can I be put down forx£120 please, as I have two full freezers, n a full fridge :j

Frugalgurl

£6.75 spent today on 9 items. Got quite abit now that I'm trying to watch what I spend
Turning into a saving nerd!

Wooftastic

Hi! Is there room for 1 more please? I'd like to set a budget of £250 to last us until 31/1. This is quite a reasonable budget for the 2 of us, so any money left over at the end of the month will go into a pot towards large bulk buy items I may need next month.

Moominmama76

Hello !!
Asda need more basics cos after being re I'll digestive wise I am having to go gluten free but should feel better in a bit fingers crossed so gonna do whole family's except have different bread for me got cereal cheese ready mash (ashamed face) bacon bits pasta gf two jars pasta bake youghurts bread panty liner (tmi) sausages and ham. Need to think about using this and meal plans for the week to stay on budget. Sat beef mash veg. Sun lasagne made already mon pasta bake tues ready meals in freezer we'd leftovers Thursday sausage jacket pots Friday leftovers. Kids have school dins and I will be taking a flask and leftovers or gf bread sarnies to work to save pennies lol .

Day one and a spend of 27.44

nannygladys

Happy New Year everyone.

Well a no spend day today, so £80 still intact. I did go to the atm to withdraw the money and put it into a separate purse, I've only allowed myself a little spending money as well so thats gone into my main purse.

GC 0/80. 1st - 31st. January

Nannyg