March 2017 Grocery Challenge

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After exceeding my last two budgets I was pleased that I analysed what I'd spent the money on - Food/Wine/Goodies (choc, cakes etc)/Eating out (takeaways, cafes, on the go etc).....I realised that if I cut down on the wine and try to train myself to eat treats in moderation then I should hopefully be able to meet my target. I was going to up my budget but then thought no, I don't want to spend over £30 a month on wine when I have a £130 overall shopping budget so I'm going to reduce the wine. My intentions were always to eat healthily as it is so it shouldn't hurt.

Anyway - new (from 1st March Budget) as a Calendar Month - £130
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

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pinkypig wrote: »

Can you put me down for my usual £140 for all food, cleaning, toiletries and pet food please? This month and from now on it needs to also include wine. That'll test my mettle:eek::eek:

PP x

I'm £130 to include wine and there's only me so I'll be watching with interest how you get on. i should say that my emphasis is on eating nutrtionally well (although I let myself down with wine and chocolate, I have no freezer to store batch cooking foods or a microwave, so this is a bit restricting. Good luck.

lynnejk

armchairexpert wrote: »

Hi! I would very much like to join, but I am in Australian dollars! Am I still allowed? My budget will be an eye-watering (to you) $1000 for the month: that's four humans, two cats, some chickens and all toiletries and cleaning things, and we really never buy lunch or takeaway. I struggled to keep it at $300/week this month so this is a big cut.

Completely understand if my currency disqualifies me and I will just lurk instead in that case.

Hiya - you're more than welcome to join in and, for anyone interested to know, 1000 A$ are about £615 atm

We don't mind what currency you use as it's all about helping each other to spend what seems to be at a good level for ourselves and our families. Many people have different attitudes and needs and it's always interesting to hear from others. Good luck with the challenge.
Lx

wannalot

Hello all

I hope everyone had a successful February, and that March GC starts better for you than it has for me!

Can I be put down for £150 for March please?

My month started on 25/02 and will run through to 24/03. I had my first big shop yesterday, and spent an abominable £71.14 in Aldi and Tesco!

This huge-ish spend was due to me having invited a few friends round for dinner last night. I do this very rarely, and really wanted to make them welcome, as they have invited me round a lot more often than I have had them round!

I made a nice meal, and bought in some good wine, only half of which was actually necessary in the end! I'm really pleased by how the night went, and I don't regret the expense at all. - It just means that I will need to be extra careful for the rest of the month.

To look on the bright side - I have loads of food in, and I'm going to try to completely avoid unnecessary spending on takeaway food. - I spent quite lot of last month's budget on pizza, and Chinese food. I always fancy eating this stuff and it is never actually as good as the food I make myself.

So I'm aiming for lots of no-spend days. I have plenty of milk in, and all the ingredients for a good few of my favourite meals.

good luck all!
:-)

armchairexpert

Thank you all! Lynne it is about that, but I always feel like I need to (defensively!) say that the exchange rate doesn't reflect the actual cost differences at all. Until you guys Brexited yourselves, the exchange rate was more like one pound to 2.5 dollars, so my budget would be closer to 400 pounds, and I think that's maybe closer to the reality. What I mean by that is that, am I right in thinking that 600 quid would let me buy all sorts of nice things from Waitrose and Ocado? Whereas my $1000 means lots of slow cooker soups and homemade pizzas and cheap cuts of meat. I mean I'm not bulking things out with lentils and boiling up wild greens, but I am being careful, and there's definitely no room for entertaining or alcohol in that budget. Lean beef mince costs me about $11-13/kilo.

Anyway I know it doesn't matter and it's a personal challenge and thank you all for having me!

*Margaret*

Armchairexpert - I think the UK average spend is about £15 per person, per week for food so for a family of four you'd be looking at around £250 per month. So for £600 per month you'd be able to go mad in Waitrose. But I imagine the average wage might be lower here and so on, so it would all balance out one way or another. We'll know you're not being wildly extravagant!

Dharma_Bunny

Hello! Not been on here much in a very long time, but we have set ourselves a pretty strict budget and I need the supportive accountability.
I'm setting our budget at £200 for 2 adults and 2 children for four weeks, including toiletries and household cleaning etc. We've been pretty lax about eating on the run and popping to the shop for choc etc. so this will be a challenge indeed.

Ginmonster

elsiepac wrote: »

for some reason I think I have about 4 different chutneys. All unopened.

I can highly recommend putting a dollop of chutney in when you make soup. It works with any soup and any chutney and it really adds to the taste. I always do it as we seem to get given lots of the stuff and don't really use it any other way.

LesP50

Hi can I join please? 175.00 from 28/2 until payday 31/3, 1 adult and DS at weekends, to include food,toiletries and cleaning.

AlwaysHungry2016

Salary came in over the weekend (should have been today really) so I done my first shop for March on Saturday. Total spent - £36.97 which includes groceries for a week, house cleaning and laundry items and toiletries that should last throughout the month. For most of my toiletries this time I paid using my B00ts points and any other house cleaning items for this month will be my roommates responsibility.

Made a mistake by going to l*dl when hungry so ended up getting couple of things that I really didn't need to, but at the time it felt like I can't live without lol.

Having buckwheat and steak for lunch today

Have a great Monday everyone!