April 2017 Grocery Challenge

elsiepac

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Elsiepac
Dont beat yourself up, we have all been there and to reiterate. Yes youve had a !!!!!! week. Onwards and upwards. Enjoy your treats. Its alot of money but not beyond the realms of pulling back together

Thanks K9sandFelines, I have a lot of treats to enjoy!! The trouble is not enjoying them all at once lol :rotfl:

purpleybat wrote: »

ouchy elsiepac! that's a big splurge. did you go when hungry by any chance?
I think the thing is to not beat yourself up too much about it, learn and move on. and as you say you have lots of the building blocks of meals.

Ha! How did you guess purpleybat!! Hungry + no plan + lots of vegan options available = monetary disaster! I do have lots of building blocks though, and my general stocks are good so mostly fresh veg for the rest of the month. Do need a big pack of dishwasher tabs though which is £15ish! (edit just bought them on Amazon for £12.46)

Date......Shop......Cost.......Amount Remaining from £200
24 Mar.....Co-0p.....£04.74.....£195.26 (Lunch Stuff, Crisps, Chocolate)
24 Mar.....A1di......£17.64.....£177.62 (Proper Grocery Shop)
24 Mar.....Co-0p.....£07.59.....£170.03 (Extra Veg Shop + Linda M Sausages 2 for £3)
25 Mar.....Wa1trose..£86.23.....£83.80 (Tofu, Treats, Uncontrolled Mayhem)(£40 ok)
26 Mar.....Co-0p.....£01.74.....£82.06 (Rolls and Small Loaf)
27 Mar.....Aldi......£02.76.....£79.30 (Giant Cous Cous, Mushrooms and Peppers)
28 Mar.....Amaz0n....£12.46.....£66.84 (Dishwasher Tablets)

OK, so plan of action is one shop a week (usually Thursday), with no more than one extra topup or extra shop per week. There have been a few so far, but as previously explained, this is due to a lack of planning.
I like m y new thing of coding red or green for "legit" shops or not... the Wa1trose one did have some useful stuff in so I'm going to say £40 was "legit" spendage, with the rest as "extra" or "waste" as I'm starting to think of it.
Sigh.
I know I'm dealing with it and implementing damage control, but I feel so annoyed with myself still. SUCH a waste and SUCH lack of self control. This has just proved why my routines are absolutely necessary to keep control. I can't be trusted!! :rotfl:

Pennydreams3

Can I join for April. Failed miserably in March and overspent by £20 so have deducted that from Aprils budget so I've not got £100 for 2 adults (one breastfeeding) and a toddler to feed and it also includes nappies and wipes. I count from month end so few days left then Let's do this! :j

funfairprincess

Hi all x

OH went to Morries and bought dog food, milk, onions and mince so that's £ 6.43 out of the budget.
I totally grudge the money for the mince as it's not as good as the stuff I get at the market. Have told my son if GS is staying over here this weekend I need the carseat so we can go get mince, chicken, fruit and veg. It's only on on a Sunday and I don't trust OH to go on his own and I don't drive.

pamsdish

I would like to keep to £125 please, seems a manageable figure for me.

samtoby

Good morning,

I would like to join the challenge this month. I spend about £600 a month on food for me, my husband and two children. I think its way too much.

I do a lot of 'popping' to the shops. I buy so many cakes and chocolate bars and crisps. Then I will change my mind and end up buying something for dinner thats easy. Our family diet is far from ideal.

We have had to have a new roof on our house and I have had to borrow 17k to be able to have it fixed. Not ideal also! I want to get that cleared as soon as possible and feel our food budget is where to start.

So I need to go food shopping - 1. what would be a reasonable budget 2. where should I shop?!

I am not fussy with food I go everywhere shopping.

Any tips?

Thanks

Sushinha

samtoby wrote: »

Good morning,

I would like to join the challenge this month. I spend about £600 a month on food for me, my husband and two children. I think its way too much.

I do a lot of 'popping' to the shops. I buy so many cakes and chocolate bars and crisps. Then I will change my mind and end up buying something for dinner thats easy. Our family diet is far from ideal.

We have had to have a new roof on our house and I have had to borrow 17k to be able to have it fixed. Not ideal also! I want to get that cleared as soon as possible and feel our food budget is where to start.

So I need to go food shopping - 1. what would be a reasonable budget 2. where should I shop?!

I am not fussy with food I go everywhere shopping.

Any tips?

Thanks

I have also 2 children, 4months old and a 2yr old. I spend half of that and I still think I spend a lot.
Sometimes quick fix meal, spaghetti or farfalle and pesto, quick meals are a bomb in any budget.

I always go shopping alone and after eating. If my husband comes with me he starts putting stuff in the shopping cart, and my 2yr old would do tantrum for something. So I go alone.

I find shopping in different supermarkets helps (if there is a good deals), I try to bulk buy so I store. Just bought 24 Soy milk (saved £9.60). I prefer waitrose meat, so I put in my waitrose offers meat (20% off) plus I picked the ones that have the 3 for £10, so I end up by paying £7.50-£8. I usually get coupons money off (£8 off £40 shopping). I only buy the things I need, and I try to see what will I need next, never let anything run out. If it is ending I start looking for offers. when something runs out, people tend to buy it even full price.

Dishwasher tablets, got it from amazon 90 tablets for 9.50. There is also next to my house a Poundland who sells Fairy dishwasher tablets for 6 or 7 pounds.

Saving money takes a lot of research, but after awhile it is easy and you know.

There is a site where you can compare the price from all supermarkets. Is called, mysupermarket (site online, just google it). Buying online also helps, you don't need to be tempted by so many goodies in front of you, but try to book the cheapest slot available. The only set back is that they don't accept brand coupons.

funfairprincess

samtoby wrote: »

Good morning,

I would like to join the challenge this month. I spend about £600 a month on food for me, my husband and two children. I think its way too much.

I do a lot of 'popping' to the shops. I buy so many cakes and chocolate bars and crisps. Then I will change my mind and end up buying something for dinner thats easy. Our family diet is far from ideal.

We have had to have a new roof on our house and I have had to borrow 17k to be able to have it fixed. Not ideal also! I want to get that cleared as soon as possible and feel our food budget is where to start.

So I need to go food shopping - 1. what would be a reasonable budget 2. where should I shop?!

I am not fussy with food I go everywhere shopping.

Any tips?

Thanks

I'd recommend making a meal plan, then basing your shopping list on that. I stick to my shopping list regardless of what catches my eye. Learn the prices of the products you use so that you can instantly see if a supermarket has a deal or if it's a ploy. Deals are only good if you are going to use/need the product.
Don't try to drop your budget too much to start off with, try to take a little off until you get to a sum you are happy with.

Ames

I've been trying to decide whether to join this thread. I really need to but I'm utterly ashamed of how much I spend on food. I can hit £100 a week for just me. At the moment I am at least not wasting as much, and it was down to about £80 last week.

My problems, I think, are:

I'm disabled and don't know when I'll be unable to cook. So I can have a fridge full of healthy stuff, then hit a rough patch and end up with takeaway, or just grazing.

For the same reason, I buy a lot of food from the petrol station tescos, since I can't manage a 'big' supermarket. If I do go to a big one, I'm laid low for a few days afterwards so the food goes off. Although I bought a new fridge freezer last month and food's lasting longer so that's less of a problem.

I'm not very good at adapting if I can't buy something. For instance, last month I went to Waitrose for a few specific items. None of them were in stock and I ended up spending £11 on a load of stuff I didn't need/want, most of which just got chucked in the freezer. I think I went into panic 'I'm here now and don't want to look silly walking out with nothing' mode.

Finally, I'm a binge eater. If I don't have anything in, I'll go to the petrol station. But instead of just buying the cake or chocolate or whatever I'll buy some 'normal' food as well so I don't look like a greedy so and so. But because I've binged on cake or whatever, the normal food doesn't get eaten.

So, after all that, I want to aim for £400. Which I know is still insanely high, but it's £80 a week (this is a five week month for me, from this past monday to 1st May). Which is £10-20 less than I have been spending.

As an added incentive, I lost my ipod a few months ago and want to replace it, but I'm only going to put funds saved from grocery shopping towards it.

purpleybat

Pennydreams3 wrote: »

Can I join for April. Failed miserably in March and overspent by £20 so have deducted that from Aprils budget so I've not got £100 for 2 adults (one breastfeeding) and a toddler to feed and it also includes nappies and wipes. I count from month end so few days left then Let's do this! :j

hahaha, i read that as an adult being breast fed! I was a bit shocked EEK!

Wysiwyg49

Can I join for £300 please, for 1st to 28th April.

DH awaiting decision on a redundancy process which concentrates the mind a bit...