January 2016 Grocery Challenge

Moominmama76

Shops again now having to go dairy free sadly feeling better for it after day one so will have to have a rethink on what I buy but hoping it doesn't mean too much more moola aiming for three NSD starting now to keep on budget :eek::eek::cool::cool:45/150

Lauralozzle

Dog food is sorted £15.50 - butchers were low on meat so will need to rethink the meal plan - we've got enough to make do though! was hoping tomorrow would be a no spend day but the last of the milk was used this evening...

Meliemops

Hi there

A bit of a stock up after Christmas and New Year - £57 today
£25 school dinners £82 / £400

Still got to visit the butchers and get a meal deal for me and hubby on Friday

Defo over weekly budget, hopefully can get back on track next week

strandedinaber

Oh dear, budgeted wrong and realised that I have £120 for food rather than £200! Forgot that I hadn't accounted for a birthday present for next month. However I started off well by using Christmas vouchers for the New Year's Eve shop so saved some £ there. So far spending is £6.38/£120.

savingpennies

After doing an inventory of freezer, fridge and cupboards, I find I don't need to buy any meat or fish for at least a month:j That should help the budget. I've made a meal plan for this week based on what I have in fridge and freezer. Then off to the SM I went to buy some fruit, veg and rice. So pleased I also stuck to my shopping list so only £33.80 spent.

georgiebrown0

Tesco shop been and have spent £77.26 plenty of food for the week and possible longer may just need to nip and fetch more milk and bread

cowboymum

So haven't posted for a while but I'm going to join this thread to try and keep me a bit more accountable for my grocery spend.

My budget this month for groceries is a whopping 500. That's for 2 adults, 1 teenager and a fussy 9 year old, plus food for lots of childminded children. We all eat masses and have a number of different dietary needs (Different family members GF, Lactose free plus I like to buy free range meat if possible).

My aim for this month is to keep under the £500 - that will be amazing if I can as I normally fail miserably! My shopping routine is bonkers - tesco deliveries on Sunday and Thursday which I try to keep near to the £40 mark, veg box delivery on Tuesday's and one large Aldi shop per month to get things that I know are a lot cheaper than tescos (not everything I've realised!).

I've just restarted my second purse which I used to do successfully a few years ago. I bought loads of washing liquid last month when it was on offer.

Trying to keep track of everything using YNAB.

So far I've spent;
£10 into second purse
£5 for washing liq into second purse
£22.56 Aldi (cheese and butter for the month)
£1.93 morrisons (noodles and Pringles for New Year's Eve!)

Today spent;
£1.65 top up shop of carrots and milk
£63.40 tesco delivery (£12 second purse, £51.40 shopping)

FurryBeastOz

Hello everyone. I'm trying to get back on track again. Failed miserably at the end of 2015, and the credit card bill shows it. However, I have a freezer FULL of homemade meals (in which turkey features a lot ), homemade stock, and enough fish to feed me at least for the month.

I did a sneaky NYE delivery, so should only need F&V and dairy. Can I go for £200 That's for me, DH and one large Furry friend. It includes household items, but not gifts/indulgences - they come from a separate pot.

I should easily be able to do it, but we'll see. As I've got into a new training regime I seem to be eating constantly, and high protein meals seem to come in more expensive. Oh well, I feel better on it, and I'm saving on chocolate:rotfl:

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Shop this afternoon - dog food, and veg. Will see what bargains I can ferret out.

jlhmd666

I've heard about the second purse before but not sure how it works. Could anyone kindly explain it please

This is the third NSD on groceries which I'm really pleased with. Today though I have used up most of the salad bar a couple of tomatoes and a bit of lettuce. We're also out of eggs and I used the last of the potatoes as well so will need to do a shop.

I have some unopened Brie in the fridge with a ubd of 06/01 so need to see what I can do with that, hopefully another meal for the children.

Suffolk_lass

jlhmd666 wrote: »

I've heard about the second purse before but not sure how it works. Could anyone kindly explain it please

This is the third NSD on groceries which I'm really pleased with. Today though I have used up most of the salad bar a couple of tomatoes and a bit of lettuce. We're also out of eggs and I used the last of the potatoes as well so will need to do a shop.

I have some unopened Brie in the fridge with a ubd of 06/01 so need to see what I can do with that, hopefully another meal for the children.

Post 10 of this thread contains a heading of Mothership's second purse system and the linked posts under that heading explain several people's use and variations of the second purse system.

I use a 13 month system instead - with my month 13 being my store-cupboard. In my case my annual budget of £3000 is reduced to £230 instead of £250 and I aim to use the "extra" month to buy things like laundry detergent, toilet rolls and tinned things like tomatoes only when they are on offer. It means my normal weekly shops are fresh produce and dairy only. I do it this way to stop my stock-piling tendency - only having £230 for the year works well. I used to repay myself when I used stock items, to replenish the amount but I kept forgetting because it is a recipe thing rather than a shopping thing. I aimed to then used the replenished £230 to pay for the extra luxuries at Christmas but now I just set aside the money I don't spend in my two months when I take a holiday. I found my system easier to keep up on a simple spreadsheet but you will need to find the system that works for you, and does not make you work to it, if you know what I mean

HTH
SL