August 2016 Grocery Challenge

Sayschezza

thriftwizard wrote: »

Halfway through the month & starting to panic... another £79.52 spent, £23.80 at the market on fruit & veg yesterday and £55.72 at the wholesalers today, leaving me just under £200 for the rest of the month. Which would be do-able, as we won't need to buy any more pet or livestock food, but we still have to do the oriental grocery stock-up... as this is something which only happens once ever 6 months or so, I'm very tempted to divide the total for that by 6! But that would be cheating, so I won't, especially as the £55 at the wholesalers included enough butter to keep my tame bakers (the girls, DDs 1 & 2, and TDiL) busy for two months, and the 8Kg sack of flour bought at the start of the month will last for 2-3 months.

I did this because I said to a friend that our food budget probably came in at about £600 per month; she nearly choked & said that that was only a little more than she spends for 2 of them & 3 dogs. (Their fuel bills are not much less than ours, either.) I think she thought I was underestimating wildly, but it turns out I did have a fairly accurate idea. I could get it a fair bit further down if I didn't insist on fresh & local where possible, but living where it's produced, so reasonably cheap, and buying without a middle man to take his cut, it'd be daft not to.

I would take the longest lasting shop ie your oriental shop plus all the rest of the spends during that time and divide by the 6 months the oriental shopping lasts. That way you will get a clearer picture of how much each month costs you. Until then your shopping must flucuate up and down quite a lot.

Or perhaps a yearly budget would suit you better.

Wysiwyg49

Spent £13.73 in Lidl and £65.10 Sainsb this weekend...will update sig later.

Went to Lidl rather than A1di because it is next to the Sainsb near us. They seem to do more big brands, and I have found their passata is way better (thicker sauce) than the A1di one which is better than the Sainsb basics one! All about the same price at 35p a carton.

Have found muscle foods do chicken fillets for £5/kilo which is almost half the price of many supermarkets. Tempted - anyone tried them? We use loads! Poor chickens, my kids will only eat breast fillets, such a distorted view of meat - it has to be flawless or they pick bits off and leave them (too many ch nuggets in their formative years ). I know this is bad but not sure what to do to encourage a more realistic attitude!

Sayschezza

Wysiwyg49 my OH does exactly the same with chicken on the bone and won't eat the brown meat at all.

lynnejk

tumptyteapot wrote: »

..........
I've started drinking halves but still buying my friends pints when it's my round - what do people do? Shall I just buy my own drinks from now on?

Could you tell your friends you're saving up for something or trying to be more healthy - and so would rather not drink so much and therefore just buy your own. I'm sure they would understand

thriftwizard wrote: »

Halfway through the month & starting to panic... another £79.52 spent, £23.80 at the market on fruit & veg yesterday and £55.72 at the wholesalers today, leaving me just under £200 for the rest of the month. Which would be do-able, as we won't need to buy any more pet or livestock food, but we still have to do the oriental grocery stock-up... as this is something which only happens once ever 6 months or so, I'm very tempted to divide the total for that by 6! But that would be cheating, so I won't, especially as the £55 at the wholesalers included enough butter to keep my tame bakers (the girls, DDs 1 & 2, and TDiL) busy for two months, and the 8Kg sack of flour bought at the start of the month will last for 2-3 months.

That's exactly why I started my bulk-buy fund. I put in £100 each January and use that for bulk buys, adding any monies left at the end of each month from monthly budget(£200) to top it back up. I use it when I see things on offer and for when I bulk-buy meat at the butcher. I must add that there's only two of us so these figures work for us, so £2500 for the year.

Maybe if you roughly add up all the bulk-buys through the year, put that into a bulk-buy account and, divided by 12, take that amount from your monthly budget IYSWIM (pm me if that's not clear)

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

.....

Went to Lidl..... and I have found their passata is way better (thicker sauce) than the A1di one which is better than the Sainsb basics one! All about the same price at 35p a carton.

Have found muscle foods do chicken fillets for £5/kilo which is almost half the price of many supermarkets. Tempted - anyone tried them? We use loads! Poor chickens, my kids will only eat breast fillets, such a distorted view of meat - it has to be flawless or they pick bits off and leave them (too many ch nuggets in their formative years ). I know this is bad but not sure what to do to encourage a more realistic attitude!

Thanks a million for the info on passata - I'll definitely try L*dl as I use A*di at the mo.

I know there's lots of people on the threads that use M*scle and swear by them. Apparently their chicken breasts are big and you could share them. I can't get my DH to eat chicken thighs though I think they are far better tasting

Sorry for long post. Had another NSD here today :j
Hope you all have a super Tuesday
Lx

FurryBeastOz

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

Spent £13.73 in Lidl and £65.10 Sainsb this weekend...will update sig later.

Went to Lidl rather than A1di because it is next to the Sainsb near us. They seem to do more big brands, and I have found their passata is way better (thicker sauce) than the A1di one which is better than the Sainsb basics one! All about the same price at 35p a carton.

Have found muscle foods do chicken fillets for £5/kilo which is almost half the price of many supermarkets. Tempted - anyone tried them?

I'm one who raves about MF. Their chicken breasts are huge and not pumped full of water. Only problem I have is storage space!

Thanks for the passata tip.

FurryBeastOz

DanielleNic87 wrote: »

Ok so I know I'm going to exceed my annual budget but I don't know whether to increase it or just continue to add it to my current budget (and go over). What do you think?

I'm going to be over on my annual, but I'm keeping it the same. It pushes me to try every month. I will review it in December for next years challenge. I'd rather not put it up as I think it's still too high, but unless I change the way I cook I'm not sure how much I can shave off - need a couple of months of Lidl/ Aldi to see if that helps. And I REALLY need to stop doing top up shops every couple of days.

Off to update sig.:D

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, couldnt be bothered to do a YS raid! too tired. xx

thriftwizard

That's exactly why I started my bulk-buy fund. I put in £100 each January and use that for bulk buys, adding any monies left at the end of each month from monthly budget(£200) to top it back up. I use it when I see things on offer and for when I bulk-buy meat at the butcher. I must add that there's only two of us so these figures work for us, so £2500 for the year.

Maybe if you roughly add up all the bulk-buys through the year, put that into a bulk-buy account and, divided by 12, take that amount from your monthly budget IYSWIM (pm me if that's not clear)

No, that's beautifully clear, thank you lynnejk, and an excellent idea! I'll spend a day or two thinking about it, but there are really only a handful of things that will qualify; the oriental goods, flour, and my wholefoods order - oats etc. - I think. Some other things I do buy in what looks like bulk - a 25Kg sack of spuds or 20Kg of layer's pellets are definitely bulky! - but will only last us 4-6 weeks so are probably best counted into the monthly budget.

The wholefoods are ordered online; I used to belong to a buying group, but everyone else has moved away or their households have dwindled down to more normal proportions so they don't need to buy in bulk any more. So I'm the last one left! Flour is bought by the 8Kg sack, direct from the mill 15 miles away, when we're up that way on other errands; it costs another £5 per sack to get the local health food shop to order it in, so we survive on supermarket flour in between trips, but it's not as good and it doesn't work out any cheaper. And eastern goodies are bought from the grocers in the big city on the other side of the Forest, 30 miles away; DS3 went to uni there & is returning to do his MA this year, so we've been able to combine stocking up with trips to see him, or to go to !KEA. There were no oriental grocers round here until very recently, and there still aren't many, and they're much more expensive; the city is the port where many of the goods come in, so there's more choice over there.

elsiepac

tumptyteapot wrote: »

another Bristol person here :-) I like the Friday market at Eastville too.

I've never actually done the market itself - must check it out when I'm next over that way!

elsiepac

[QUOTE=Save_Dosh;71140469I_have_a_£25_M&S_voucher,_which_was_a_xmas_or_birthday_present,_it's_quite_old,_does_anyone_know_if_they_expire_'pretty_please'.__I_could_use_that,_as_I_only_count_money_that_comes_out_of_my_purse_and_this_was_a_present.[/QUOTE]

They are a customer of my company and I happen to know that yes, they do expire - I think it's after two years. I think they are quite strict about not re-issuing them too. However, I seem to recall that they occasionally have done - where, for example, there's been a death perhaps? .......... just saying!! Here's the email address you need if yours has expired: retailcustomer.services@marks-and-spencer.com. I'd recommend emailing them direct rather than using Resolver as I don't think they like it.

On another note, is the B12 due to being vegan? Because unless there's an underlying issue, you shouldn't actually need to take supplements... I'm a particularly poor absorber of B12 (as is most of my family) but I don't take supplements and my doctor said no need to as when we tested me last, I was in the normal range (right at the bottom of it, but normal still!). My GP is quite insistent that as long as vegans have a good, healthy, varied diet (which I do), that there should be no need fo any supplements (apart from obviously any other underlying conditions!).
So maybe (assuming there isn't something else going on) you could have a test and maybe save some pennies? Assuming you haven't already!!