June 2016 Grocery Challenge

milasavesmoney

Having totally blown the first two months, I will now try to break out of my spendy ways. And yet, so much of this month went to sale meats that I'm thinking I may be able to pull off my budget in June.
I certainly won't need to buy meat. So please keep me at $500.

funfairprincess

Hi all x
Hope it's OK for me to jump back in. I did miserably last time and then got a new job so haven't found the time to post on MSE at all. Anyway I need to dramatically reduce our spending it's totally out of hand. OH and I are eating at work and DD is getting money for school dinners so I will start by doing packed lunches for us all. Takeaways will be reduced too!

So I'm aiming for £500
for 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 dog and a hungry 19yr old when he's home at weekends.
My month will run from 3rd June till 30th

kayjay1809

I'd like to join please.

I decided yesterday to take control of our finances as we knew we've been spending too much. I trawled through the past two months' bank statements, highlighting every supermarket trip and was horrified to see this month we'd spent over £900 and last month £850 :eek: Hubby does pop in in the week to pick up something for lunch when he's out and about and tends to get cashback. So I've asked him not to, and save receipts for the next month.

I'm not sure what to set our budget for, it's for 3 adults, food and household items, toiletries etc. - the third 'adult' is our 16 year old son who eats more than the both of us put together so any hints on how to fill a teen would be helpful! He'll eat just about everything except potatoes and baked beans. When he was little our weekly budget was £80 but it's crept up and I was shocked to see how much we were spending! I do a weekly shop, meal plan etc and spend around £100 but it's the continual trips into supermarkets in between that are doing the damage. On some days I would pop into our local Booths and Sainsburys, spending about £20 but unbeknown to me, hubby would go into one when he's out and about visiting clients on the same day and spend another £20 and this is happening a couple of times a week! It's scary how much these unplanned trips are costing us.

So plan of action: I've asked hubby to save any receipts, be aware of what he's spending and not to get cashback, use a cash machine so we can keep an eye on what we are actually drawing out. I'll meal plan more effectively and do an audit of cupboards and freezer before my next shop.

Budget will be set intially at £600 a month (£150 a week) with a view to reducing until it's £400 a month.

Poppycat1

Hi, can I join in this month please? I have been away from MSE forums for a long time.


My household consists of me, DS (14), DS (9), two cats and one chicken. We are all vegan at home apart from the cats! The boys eat the occasional egg produced by the chicken though.


I have a budget of £180 for June. We are away for the first five days of June and I wont be including the spends for this because we are on a camping holiday.


I will include all food, toiletries and household cleaning products but not cat and chicken food.


My 14 year old just doesn't seem to stop eating so I will be making use of the extensive recipes in the first few posts.

maysmummy

Please can I join in? I've been lurking, keeping all my receipts and generally preparing to take the plunge.
I'm posting £736 for June for all my non- bills spending

maysmummy

lushlifesaver wrote: »

Afternoon all,


I've been lurking for a few months now in honesty and not really keeping track of what we've been spending but I can be sure it must be over budget. I tried a cash budget a couple of pay checks ago and whilst it worked I didn't feel overly confident in managing it every month.


Instead I will go back to my other way (card for groceries etc and cash for personal spends) and monitor this months spends.


I have made a shopping list, divided up between stores so that I can get the best value for money for what we're after and have included more variety than usual as now the warmer weather is rumoured to be on it's way OH will be more flexible with what he eats


So please can you put me down for a budget of £130 this includes: all food and drink, alcohol, cleaning supplies, toiletries and non-prescription medicine/healthcare items, plus nappies and wipes.

Hi LLS
I honestly expect you will all die laughing but like you I have difficulty totting up all the different ways to spend and I lie to myself about what I've spent so my brilliant system.... An envelope!
I start a new one each week and draw columns on the front, dividing it up into cash, card and credit card but tot them all up . All receipts go inside and it's sealed at the end of the week . It works great, costs nowt and is easily transported.

maria3104

Gone a bit over in May.
June starts now. Target £250

Smiley87

Hi,

I really learnt a lot from the last challenge so I'd like to aim for £300 for 1st June-30th June.

lushlifesaver

thanks maysmummy I have a small accordion file that I usually use for receipts but it has too many sections really. I always keep my grocery and personal spend receipts to remind myself how much I'm spending it just hasn't worked as well recently!


I've now done the bulk of our spending for this month. The fridge looks like it belongs to a household of fresh food fanatics and the cupboards are fit to burst!


Only things left to get:
salad items (top up every week to two weeks depending on how much salad OH will tolerate) as I forgot lettuce, spinach and cucumber yesterday!
rice (uncle bens things are on offer in iceland buy 3 and get a free wok so hoping to get that today)
milk but not until next week now
white potatoes but not for a week or so based on my rough meal plan
crisps for OH's lunches but not for at least a week - potentially two
chicken pieces
prawns (treat to myself; only me eats them at home so a bag should last me a fair while and give me a bit more variety from tuna, ham and chicken
mild curry powder
chips - but not for over a week
think that's actually everything will pick these bits up as we go as my cupboards are fit to burst!


have to start paying for parking at work in the next two weeks as we are moving offices and the new one doesn't have a car park so need to start saving elsewhere really

pinkypig

Can you put me down for £140 please. This is £10 less than May and the freezer is seriously depleted so it will be a challenge but i'm feeling focused and motivated so here goes! I've booked a summer holiday so the more I save the more spends i'll have to take with me.
PP x