March 2017 Grocery Challenge

Wysiwyg49

Pennydreams3 wrote: »

Well today I have crashed and burned haha. Lat shop of this month- week 5, and I have gone over by £15.27... I had to make the decision whether to overspend today and have enough until next week, or buy a weeks shopping and save myself having to go back in a few days, chose the latter and will be taking the £15 over off of next months budget. So I ended on £135.27/£120.00 not too bad. Where do I sign up for next month?? X

There's a new thread for April here: April GC thread.

I have crashed and burned massively :eek: £372.24 oh dear oh dear...YNAB shows a long list of small topup shops. Must try harder, I often overspend in the first 2 weeks and scale back in the second half but never quite enough. Need to be as stingy in Week 1 as I am later!

[Deleted User]

Elsiepac - sorry to hear about your rat, that's very sad. I have a tendancy to speedread posts, so missed that. Best wishes to you.

So much for a 'splurge'. I think I spent about £7. Still have approx £10 left, which is really good for me. Intending to spend that 2moz. Happy spending everyone.

Suffolk_lass

poohbear59 wrote: »

We get paid on 24th of the month so tend to do big shop just after. I am a returner to the thread after a few years away. What I can't work out is whether to start my challenge on 24th of month or wait until the first. Any advice will be very welcome. I have kept all receipts from this month and food spends are much higher than we realised so this thread is really going to help me get back on track. As someone who worked with weezl on cheap recipes I should know better.

I start my month when DH gets paid as that is the account our housekeeping comes out of so it just makes it straightforward. to track but as others suggest, whatever works for you is fine.

pinkypig

Hi everyone. Ive been paid so I'm declaring on £151.20 which is £11.20 over
It did include two packs of ground coffee and 6 pints of milk which will keep me going for a bit which makes me feel a bit better but not much:(
Must try harder:rotfl:
See you over on April
PP x

sweetpea26

Did my last shops of the month yesterday and did the rounds of the local shops, supermarkets.

Total for the month
£327.59/£350 which is under budget.

Going to stick with this thread as this month has really made me think about every single penny I spent. All the best to everyone who contributes to this thread and onwards to April

JingsMyBucket

Slightly annoyed and it's still bugging me a bit. On Monday I asked OH to buy Lebanese bread at store on the way home for 90¢ and that's it. I had given him €10 on Sunday and said, please don't really spend it because we're really short. Monday afternoon he asked me if I wanted anything else from that Mediterranean store beside the bread and I said no. He then messages me on the way home saying he got strawberries for me for only €1.25 and was genuinely happy to get them for me because he knows I love them. Okay, that's fine. When he gets home he said he also bought babaganoush as well. I asked him how much he spent and he spent €9.19 total. !!!!!!!! I told him again that the memory was supposed to last the whole week! And he responded saying the babaganoush is a lot will last is the week to put in different things. Okay, fine I get it because he's feels restricted, but !!!!!!. I even told him on Sunday that I'm trying to not spend any money literally this week just to see if I can do it. I think he may be mentally a few weeks behind me in terms of "not spending" and being in that habit. I really thought we were going to be able to get out of March with a total of €270 which is already over my original estimate of €200. We're up to €278.something now. I'll update my sig later today.

pamsdish

Think I can stretch my N.S.D.s to Saturday, which means I will come in under budget nicely, desperately needed as have had heavy "others" spends, bungalow 2 rooms and hall decorated, all paints , paper, sundries and decorator paid, moving on to the car now, new tyre yesterday and new wipers all round later today, M.O.T. due in May, so forward planning to spread the costs, in case another problem arises at M.O.T.

Happy_Kitties

I've just been collecting and logging my receipts this month, having some breakdowns in my book ready to start the April challenge properly on the 1st knowing what I am aiming for.
I have to admit I never realised just how committed and hard it can with the grocery challenge, there was a couple of times when I hadn't kept up with my logging down and things nearly went haywire, it has made for interesting reading. Normally I like to slip a birthday or Christmas present into each months spends to just spread things out, but it has just been impossible this month, so many birthdays, an early landmark birthday, easter eggs, mothers day.......I always hate March for this, but I know I won't get this for the rest of the year now, so should be able to stick to my plan.
Looking forward to the April challenge.
elsiepac sorry to hear about your pet rat, I lost my cat last month, they do take a piece of ur heart with them when they go, it is hard

Fruittea

A couple of small shops for me - bread and a couple of yellow sticker veg £1.95 and the veg box for last week £24.30.
This brings me up to a total of £188.35 - so I've gone over my target by £38.35 - but no more shopping this week and I have a terrible cold so I won't be going out.
I think I can do better next month and keep to the £150. So thanks to ZippyChick for running things and see you over on the April thread.
Good luck everyone.

JingsMyBucket

And @elsiepac I'm so sorry about your poor little pet rat. I'm just catching up on reading the thread here and there and just noticed. That must have been so traumatic for you to deal with at the time. And not to mention frustrating. I'm sure she's chewing on a nice piece of lettuce in cute little rat heaven.