September 2016 Grocery Challenge

PennyGrabber

Hello again everyone! Been away for a year now, and although I haven't gone too far off the rails, I'd like to get back to where I was, as my budget is really tight. In April, my 1% pay rise turned into an actual cut of £30 a month, and although that doesn't sound awful, my grocery budget has gone up around £40 a month... The maths doesn't add up!

My oldest starts secondary school next week, and has finally started eating more. She'll also be cooking at school soon. My youngest turns 10 in October, and his appetite is bigger than my daughter's. My partner eats dinner with us 2 or 3 times a week too. All of this will be factored into my budget of £120 per month.

I sorted out my pantry last week, and it's so pretty! Full, organised, lushiousness!! And, now need to work down the freezer too, so that can be organised.

My budget runs from start to end of the month, and I'm pretty good at keeping receipts. And aldililly is my sm of choice, with asdidoodle as a backup for what the first doesn't have...

Good luck for September all - may your purse strings hold strong!

PG x

pamsdish

Going for £125 for all grocery including pet food,
Other personal budget of others, everything else purchased is out of control, will put £100 again and try to stick to it .

TopsyMum

Can I join in this please??
My budget is £43 a week.

This is for me,my two children (13 and 11) and two cats.....it also includes cleaning stuff and toiletries as well as food.

Florence_J

Made it to the end of my August month (my food budgets run from 27th-26th) with 1p to spare.

However this month's food shopping needed to do some serious topping ups in the cupboards, I did my local H Bargains, Icelandy and Holland and Barrett monthly shops today and yes there were things we really needed and we are now so stocked up that I've had to be creative with where the food is stored in the kitchen, but this means on the first day of my September food budget, we have £36.16 remaining.

But I have done an inventory of the cupboards, freezer, stock cupboard and fridge and we have so much food we are going to be absolutely fine for a good while yet. All we will need in the near future is bread, milk and some fruit and veg.

I now have about £8.43 per full week left of the month, so will try to stick to a small weekly shop of bread, milk, cucumber, carrots, celery, bananas and apples which should easily come to less than that per week.

Oh dear, this month may be harder than the last. Oh well, I'm up for a challenge.

oceanspirit

thriftwizard wrote: »

Please could you put me down for £530? It's only a little less than last month, but I'm clearly not going to hit my target there! DS3 goes back to uni at some point in the month, and I may manage a few days away in my van, but I have plenty of packet stuff I can take and the odd meal out as a treat would come under my "entertainment" budget of £50, which I only spent £15 of in August!

thriftwizard - just wondering if the money spent on food for visitors could be taken from entertainment budget instead of grocery?

euronorris wrote: »

Also did what I call a 'fridge bottom' meal yesterday (using up bits from the fridge/freezer close to, or just past their date). A pie using leftover bacon joint, a tin of chicken soup from the cupboard, an onion, some previously chopped and frozen peppers and mushrooms, and a pack of puff pastry I had stored in the freezer.

OH used to be terrified of 'bottom of the fridge' meals but now he's permanently booked in for Thursday night tea (botf night) as according to him they're the best meal of the week :rotfl:.

Please may I be put down for £95 for September. Will need to stock up on beans and lentils plus it's a 5 week month for the vegbox so it's going to be tighter than previous two months.

Put 6 portions of black bean and cabbage stew in the freezer last night and need to make something with red lentils and also fresh borlotti beans to be frozen over the next couple of days.

tumptyteapot

£200 for me and a teenager who eats loads please. That will be for 3 meals a day for both of us, he takes a packed lunch to school.

I'm also budgeting:
£25 petrol
£30 clothes (though new school uniform will come out of savings)
£100 for misc, including cat food
£160 for fun, including alchol, eating out, cinema etc.

Hoping that it will be easier to take less out of the fun budget with my son back at school.

Soworried

I'll be going for the same £240 please this is for 2 adults, 2 teen for all food in and out of the house and cleaning and toiletries. This month runs from the 2nd -30th.

Many thanks for the thread Zippychick, Lynne and Coxy :A

Caeraugirl

Can I join this please? We spend a ridiculous £500+ each month on food for OH, 2 permahungry teenage boys and myself, and that doesn't include eating out, dog food or the odd school dinner!!

OH is being made redundant at the end of September and with no new job on the horizon as yet, this has seriously got to change as I'm currently doing two part time jobs that pay quite well but are both on zero hours contracts...:eek:

So from 1st to 30th September I'm going to set our budget for £450 for everything except the dog food, and see how that goes.....

Pepperoni

Hi,

Please can I join (month for me will run from 29th August - 1st October).

£250.

That's for me, my husband, and my 2 year old.All our food plus cleaning stuff!

mrs_Badger

Put me down for £350 this month - this covers pet food, household items and toiletries too.

I am not looking to reduce my spends because with Winter approaching I want to be saving stock cupboard items and adding to, rather than using it all up.