January 2016 Grocery Challenge

mrs-moneypenny

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

My middle son who's 4 is a nightmare with toilet roll, either unwinds it all or uses half a roll. I've been buying Nicky toilet rolls from Home B*rgains as it's good quality and the cheapest for the amount.

I've just read on another thread the tip about squashing your loo rolls before you put the on the holder then they don't spin off as easily
HTH

Smoosh

We're going to be under budget this month :T

£30.58 on cat food (so a tiny bit over, need to make sure there's enough to last him til the end of the month).

We've spent £110 out of our £200 budget, so lots left! This is the first month I've tracked accurately in ages and I'm shocked it's so low!

Savvy_sewing

My budget went completely haywire this month and was about double each week so far. I ended up with several trips to Mr T and bought more than on my list. Today I ended up spending £40.32.
But to be fair to the shopping, there was things like hair dye, shampoo, and soap powder that are not strictly groceries.

Frugal_life

So, unfortunately, this month's budget has gone down the cr*pper and we've overspent by£120.88.

All of this overspend was thanks to an unplanned trip to Co$tco where we REALLY stocked up on stuff: bought enough fabric conditioner to see us through the year, enough toilet roll to last us 2 and a bit months and plenty of other bits and pieces.

Hoping we can underspend enough over the next 2/3 months to outweigh this overspend Fingers crossed!

In other news, managed 4 NSDs so far this week and don't envisage needing anything tomorrow or Saturday either!

Definitely need to make sure I check in on the Grocery Challenges with my spends more often as it really does help me keep on track.

candygirl

Spent £22 in alde today, so am hoping i'm still within budget :j

candygirl

Spent £22 in aldee today, so am hoping i'm still within budget :j

lynnejk

Evening all


Managed another NSD today :j


We had HM Coq au Vin (freezer), buttery mash with steamed carrots and broccoli - v.yummy


Hope you all have a frugal Friday
Lx

Zed42

Well, I ventured on here tonight prepared to be self-smug and declare a NSD. But DH scuppered that with a 95p spend on a bottle of water. Totally unnecessary and a little frustrating (can't be bothered to expand ... but ggggrrrr).

On the upside, the curry went down a storm, and even DD demolished it all Hurrah

It worked well, given that we had split dinner times, due to my evening class ... yay ..

Tomorrow, I'm contemplating burgers/baps and HM wedges.

I was hoping to make coleslaw, but as I have only have one carrot and no cabbage, I may struggle with that!

Suspect baked beans may venture forwards instead

Rapidly coming towards the weekend and no idea as to what to cook ... hoping to stretch out until Monday.

Might try the SM late Friday to see what YS items that offers ...

HornetSaver

Ignoring my big weekend, where a high end meal was the big overspend, this week was superb, with four NSDs from Sunday to Thursday, and a very modest spend on Monday to cover the meal plan (cinnamon cider pancakes - still had a bottle left from Christmas). Including Saturday, it was an absolute shocker of a week budget wise. I won't disclose my personal spend budget is, but I overshot it by roughly £35, a lot more than anticipated.

Numbers like that on the one hand completely corrupt my monthly spend (thankfully this was a trial month), but on the other completely reaffirm why the day-to-day process of strict budgeting (not just groceries) and meal planning is such a good thing. In mid and late 2015 an expensive day like that would have eaten into what I managed to squirrel away, assuming that I managed anything. Now I can come out of (enjoyable) open wallet surgery like that with the consolation that over a month I'm saving considerably more than that compared to last year.

Meal plan wise for the final week:

Friday - Lemon couscous with chickpeas, green beans and tomato sauce
Saturday - tuna burgers with wedges and grilled pineapple (for two)
Sunday - veggie enchiladas
Monday - pork pineapple stir fry
Tuesday - Experimental pancakes
Wednesday - something involving the leftover pork
Thursday - stuffed peppers for two (at a friend's - we're swapping our signature quick meals)

Kitchenbunny

£1.82 spent yesterday on magazines and a punnet of mushrooms. I'll give a more fuller update of today's spends a bit later when I've done the rest of the top up shop and I'll read through later too

Hope everyone is having a good month still!

KBx