August 2017 Grocery Challenge

pipkin71

PipneyJane wrote: »

Hi everyone.


Put me down for £120, please. That's groceries for me and DH. We should be able to stick to that this month, with some judicious eating out of the freezer.


Next month, we'll probably have to restock said freezer but there's at least £160 set aside in the "meat money" fund for that. We put aside £40/month for the butcher, which I don't include in the grocery challenge money.

Meat is one of our biggest expenses, which eats into the grocery budget so a meat money fund sounds like a good idea

euronorris

Just catching up on yesterday's spends. S'burys was £17.90. DH bought us takeaway from the chippy (grr) at a cost of £5.60. So new total £213.76/£300.


I was hoping for a no spend day today, but we need eggs, so I'll have to pop out at lunchtime and grab some.

pastmysellby

I feel as though I'm cheating so far. I did a food shop at the end of July so started August with quite a bit of food in the house. I suppose this all evens itself out over the following months though. Hoping this means I shouldn't have too much trouble, at least this month, sticking to my budget.

PipneyJane

I need to change my budget. Please enter me for £105 and not the £120 I was down for previously. DH contributed his "housekeeping" money early this month (i.e. a week ago) so some was spent in July. He's been paid on a four-weekly schedule for the last year, which is a right pain in the budget since his payday moves forward 2-3 days every month. (His next payday is 11th August.) Before then it was fortnightly.


My first spend of the month was last night. We popped into Mr T's on the way home from doing our regular pub quiz because DH "needed some chocolate" - he's a chocolate monster - and my car needed filling up. Anyway, found a decent brand of cheddar on sale at £2.50 for 550g, so brought two packs. That plus DH's chocolate supply came to £6.50, which brings my spend to date as: £6.50/£105

mrs-moneypenny

Back again
Hope everyone is well
I was slightly under budget for July and want to aim at £400 for August

Ginmonster

First spend of the month for me was an essential - teabags for work. I couldn't get through the working week without copious brews.


DaisyWalker - pretty much everyone here has a slightly different list of things that they count in the budget so it's totally up to you what to include. Mine is just to control what I see as discretionary spends so I don't count the things I get all the time where the money is set up to regularly leave my bank account. That includes some food and drink - a fortnightly veg box, a weekly milk delivery and a case of wine every other month (not-so-essential but hm pizza and a bottle of wine is our equivalent of going out at the weekend). Everything else comes from the grocery budget.


I've definitely seen a difference in my bank balance since starting this and a move back to cooking everything from scratch like I used to. I'd been slipping into buying too many convenience foods due to being tired and busy but I get more satisfaction from cooking everything myself. Except when I burn things. :-)


£2.40/£100

euronorris

I've got a recipe for pizza dough. It makes 6-8 medium pizza bases apparently. Only need 2 tonight for DH and I.


Can I freeze the dough once made? Or, am I better off just reducing the recipe quantities?

pipkin71

euronorris wrote: »

I've got a recipe for pizza dough. It makes 6-8 medium pizza bases apparently. Only need 2 tonight for DH and I.


Can I freeze the dough once made? Or, am I better off just reducing the recipe quantities?

I freeze pizza dough when I make it as it's only my eldest who eats pizza. I then defrost in thd fridge overnight and take it out about an hour before it's needed x

euronorris

pipkin71 wrote: »

I freeze pizza dough when I make it as it's only my eldest who eats pizza. I then defrost in thd fridge overnight and take it out about an hour before it's needed x

Thanks Pipkin.

quintwins

euronorris wrote: »

I've got a recipe for pizza dough. It makes 6-8 medium pizza bases apparently. Only need 2 tonight for DH and I.


Can I freeze the dough once made? Or, am I better off just reducing the recipe quantities?

You can also keep pizza dough in the fridge and use it to make other bread products over the next few days.