August 2016 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Hi there! I haven't joined in for a long time but am feeling the need to rein the budget in for a bit. I'd like to aim for £550 which should do food, cleaning & laundry stuff for 7 adults, three cats, 9 chickens and two cockatiels! Current stocks are reasonable, but there are some holes in my store cupboard which need to be addressed... so it'll be a challenge, but one I need to get back into practice with. Not going to start counting until 1st as I'm working this weekend.

dumpling

Good morning everyone, I would like to join this challenge again if I may. We are a family of 2 adults and 3 hulking great teenagers too. We also have a dog and a cat. Our budget will be £100 a week to include all toiletries and cleaning stuff.

I watched the programme Eat Well for Less last night and it was an eye opener. I really liked the family in it but commented to my husband that their portion sizes seemed tiny, but he pointed out that theirs were probably normal and it was ours that were far too big. So with that in mind I am going to dish up smaller portions which will have the knock on effect of stretching our money further, win win and also be much better for our waistlines.

I do meal plan and try to buy things while they are on offer but I have 2 stuffed freezers and my cupboards are well stocked too. I would like to whittle down the freezer stuff as I am not even sure what is in there any more.

K9sandFelines

Hi all

I've been absent since last year, around December. Many changes in my household since then. I became 95% vegan.. purely due to having bulk egg noodles and a few other vegetarian bits to use. I don't drive, so I have to go between maybe Ocado one week, then Sainsburys the next due to vegan offerings. My youngest daughter is going to try and eat more vegetarian meals again.

This month my daughter turned 18 and has moved in with her boyfriend, though she visits once a week still. So occasionally i'm still cooking her the odd meal and helping her out with the odd few bits of shopping. Also, five months ago we found out she is pregnant, so there'll be another little mouth to feed at some point.

We still have five cats, and possibly adopting a sixth. I order from zooplus for them every three weeks

I've also changed jobs, and I am now working in a shop, so I try to take advantage of reductions too. Though it's a little shop, so there aren't many.

I will aim for £250 for everything except the cat food.

Doom_and_Gloom

We've not participated in this challenge since the end of 2012! Back then our budget was just £1,320 for the whole year of 2012; £110/month.
Fast forward over 3 and a half years and I'm not even sure what we spend now I'm embarrassed to say.
In those missing years my partner got a full time job and we subsequently moved nearer to where the job was due to travel costs; the money saved in travel automatically went on the higher rent mind but less time commuting for him so worth it. I have a part time job, that I got last year, meaning we are now not getting any benefits but my DLA which was always the plan :beer:.
Having looked at our money I know we should have more left over each month but we don't. Groceries is the place I'm sure we are leaking this money because as I said I have no idea anymore what we are spending .

£200 for the month all in seems a good place to start although still rather high. I need to get my OH to take pack lunches to work more often than not. He has gotten into the habit of going to the local shop and buying a meal deal at £3 a go which is costing us £12-15 a week alone :eek:. I know he works 40+ hour weeks plus commute but we can't keep this up as with a £200/month budget his work lunches would be around 1/4 of the budget. In all it's too much. I'm going to cut him to three bought lunches a week to start. Still at a cost of £9/week but still a nice saving and I think he will be able to stick to that rather than only giving him the chance of one a week or cutting them out completely.

Our month will go from the 1st to the 31st of August just to make it easy to work out. This is for two adults; our two chinchillas have a separate budget to make things easier.

milasavesmoney

$500 again please.

Islandmaid

Did my payday shop yesterday - £75 spent in Aldi - that included 3 bottles of wine, beer and 2 weeks worth of cat food. Restocked the freezer, so a good start

Sayschezza

I did my first shop for August today as we were going to be very close to Lidl while on another mission. Didn't need much as freezer has plenty of meat and the cupboards look fairly healthy. Bill came to £19.70 which I was really pleased with. Hope my meal plan and stock take work out ok fingers crossed.

XSpender

Please can I rejoin after a few months away. We have moved house and have taken our eye off the ball and our food spends for 2 adults and a 6 year old who eats mainly at school/childcare are frankly embarrassing.:o

My budget for August is £330 and starts tomorrow until next pay day. We are away for a weeks holiday too.

I am going back to aldi and will just use sainsbury for the GF stuff and some items like almond butter Aldi don't stock.

DH is on board as we found out today we need to spend £4000 on a new boiler:eek:

skint_breeder_5

Hello everyone, I tried this thread for a month a few years back and got disheartened as life was very very tough. Even worse now but, I need to get a serious grip as major expenses coming up and the money has to come from somewhere.

Could you please put me down for £200.00 for the whole of August? 4 adults, 2 children plus 4 cats, plus 2 houseguests, to include toiletries, laundry stuff/ treats/Maccie D's on the run?

Going to do an inventory, although I know I currently have 10 cans of baked beans lurking in the cupboards. Very likely I will be making a "Mystery meat and Baked Bean Lasagne" early next week

Mystery meat = frozen beefburgers, (well cooked before assembling lasagne )frozen sausages (same applies) tinned hotdogs, tinned meatballs, Mr T's value minced beef and onion in a can, value chilli con carne in a can etc

plus choice of shop bought pasta sauce, tinned tomato soup, tinned tomatoes plus herbs and seasoning to taste

plus any of the following cupboard staples to bulk it out to the size of baking tray/dish you are using, baked beans, kidney beans, butter beans, adzuki beans, chick peas, sweetcorn, garden peas, marrowfat peas, carrots, ratatouille

Plus any other fresh or frozen veg you have needing to be used

plus lasagne, or any other pasta shapes which might lend themselves to making a tray bake

plus instant white sauce granules plus cheese to taste, plus a splash of English Mustard to bring out the savouryness in the cheese sauce without breaking the budget with too much cheese.....or make your own cheese sauce

For us we usually make a whole baking tray deep to the top which easily makes a good 12 adult portions

AccyAlly

Morning all, Seen as though I have come in under budget this month, for August please can I reduce my spend to £260
I am hopeful that we will stick to what we need, rather than buying because it looks nice!:eek:
Good luck to all this month.