August 2017 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

D'you know what? I've sat out this month, because we've had three German students for two weeks, & I had no way of knowing what they would eat & how much I'd need to spend. But as it happened, one was really interested in cooking - actually cooked our supper, scrambled eggs, on Sunday - one was very laid back & ate anything he was offered, and one, much fussier, was too love-sick to eat anything much anyway! Two of them had rather a lot of money with them and preferred to buy their lunches, and the third liked all the things that we like & always have in like fruit, veg, good cheese, & cold boiled eggs. (We're pretty much self-sufficient on the egg front.) So I don't think I've strayed far from my normal budget; the bank balance is looking remarkably healthy before we get paid for having them & August is traditionally our "worst" month financially.

I suspect I won't "play" again properly until October, as we're away for half of September & the reason I took the students is to pay for meals out etc. on holiday; my "kids" are paying their own way this time (except DD2, not yet in a position to take paid employment) so I thought I'd better, too! But will be keen to get back on track when we return.

butterfly2507

Hello! I'm new to this but would love to join. I will not but down a goal since I don't even know how much we're actually spending. Or will be spending in the next weeks since we've been on a two week vacation and the fridge is basically empty. I guess I just start with collecting all the receipts this month, calculate and then fully start in September.

OH and me always have the problem to spend money on things that we don't need. Or we buy stuff and then don't eat it and it lands in the bin. What a waste!!

We actually drink a lot of water so I was thinking about buying one of those filters to drink tap water instead of always buying a six pack of it. Too much plastic and too heavy. But then again you have to buy filters regularly so that's again some money spend.

We go grocery shopping tomorrow. I even have a little notebook to write everything down. We don't need to buy the most expensive things, right? Let's just see if we eat what we pay. I still have a 10% off coupon for a beverage. So I might use it tomorrow, we'll see.

Anyway, now I'm off to completely read the thread cause all of you inspire me

PennyGrabber

Hi all,
Just spent 50p on a loaf of bread, which is all I NEED for the week. There are other things on the list that I could do with, but aren't necessary for this week.

We just had picky bits for tea, as the children had had a bbq with their dad for lunch so weren't very hungry.

No food spends planned tomorrow as we're off to the beach for the day. Oh is driving so I'm providing the picnic. Looking forward to it. Then, oh is taking us out for dinner on Sunday, so not much food required then - brekkie and sandwiches. Monday and Tuesday should then be fairly normal, and then I'm away weds and thurs so no food spends to count, as that's our summer holiday.

I've been good at not buying fresh stuff as I know it would go off before being used. Now I need to work on the rest of it.

Night all,
PG x

GrowingPlants

£23.65 spend today. I was hoping to last the next week without shopping but when I went to do a meal plan this morning it looked so dull. Pasta or crackers every day for dinner. With the odd egg or beans to ring the changes.
I might have still had pasta for dinner tonight but it was lovely, with pesto, peas and runner beans.

VickyV

Morning you gorgeous grocery guys!

Back from holiday and into my budget like some kind of blas! shopping demon. Managed to lose an hour and a half in the shops and spend £107.36 of £210. Eek. :eek:

On the plus side, the shopping for the week was actually only £8.46 in HB on sugar for making jams with foraged blackberries and toiletries/kitchen bits; and £42.60 in A1di on the weekly shop. The rest was on stuff for stocks as Lloyd's bank had 5% cashback on debit card spends. :rotfl:

Got 12 meals worth of meat and plenty of dry/tinned foods etc so should still be ok.

Only thing is that we should be getting a cat today, so will need to allow for cat things. Not sure if I should increase the budget... No, I'll try not to.

Oh, and for any A1di shoppers, they've put butter up to £1.23! I'm sure it was £1.08 before I went away. :mad:

Vicky. X

PipneyJane

zafiro1984 wrote: »

French supermarket - sorry my mistake. The one I went to was one of the newer but cheaper supermarkets. It just that we have some very close french friends and they won't shop anywhere else. When we visit them it is their biggest supermarket and I just presumed it was french owned - sorry.

I'd be interested to know whether folk count toiletries and cleaning stuff in their grocery challenge.
I believe the average for a family of four is around £84 a week, does anyone know if that includes these items.
There's only two of us plus a dog so our weekly spend should come in at £42. I never seem to get anywhere near that and I'm not wasteful and grow quite a lot of fruit and veg

It's OK re the "French" supermarket.

To answer your question, regarding the budget, we set aside the following monies every month:-

£120 - general groceries and farm shop produce
£ 40 - meat fund (all meat except whatever is scored from the condemned counter at the supermarket)
£ 40 - bulk shopping fund
£ 10 - Christmas food fund (also used for Easter eggs)
£ 10 garden fund - for seeds, compost, etc
£220

I only count the £120 for general groceries in my Grocery Challenge money, but that covers everything purchased in various supermarkets including tampons, toiletries, the Sunday paper (bought for the TV guide). If we find our favourite brand of toilet paper on offer in Lid! or Mr T's, then we'll break out the bulk fund and buy a year's supply. (Nouvelle, made from recycled paper, which is really hard to find now. Lid! sometimes sells an even better recycled one that I found this year.)

butterfly2507

Today is the first day of GC and I'm already making lists of what we have to buy at the supermarket. I actually count everything you can find there: groceries, toiletries, books, cleaning supplies ...

I've found some 1+1 free deals so we can stock up on there (like toilet paper, canned mushrooms and peas). Then my OH called and said he needs some post stamps as well which will be expensive. I try to not buy anything sweet for a while a) it's better for my teeth since I had cavities in b) it's cheaper to NOT buy them c) it's better for my health as well. Plus we still have some chocolate in the house

Had dinner at my parents last night and had take away. We didn't pay for it but still have some left so I just re-heat it tonight and supper is settled :rotfl:

MissLemon

Spent quite a lot yesterday in Mr T, L and Ald1. Was a bit shocked to see the combined cost as £108.41 :eek:

£37.50 was on a bottle of bourbon and vodka as we had ran out of both, my OH usually buys these separately! The rest was on food and I hope it's going to last more than a week as I only have £61.69 left in my budget.

Great to read people's reasons for doing the challenge. Mine is to keep a check on my spending as groceries is main area that we can overspend on.

zafiro1984

PipneyJane wrote: »

To answer your question, regarding the budget, we set aside the following monies every month:-

£120 - general groceries and farm shop produce
£ 40 - meat fund (all meat except whatever is scored from the condemned counter at the supermarket)
£ 40 - bulk shopping fund
£ 10 - Christmas food fund (also used for Easter eggs)
£ 10 garden fund - for seeds, compost, etc
£220

I only count the £120 for general groceries in my Grocery Challenge money, but that covers everything purchased in various supermarkets including tampons, toiletries, the Sunday paper (bought for the TV guide). If we find our favourite brand of toilet paper on offer in Lid! or Mr T's, then we'll break out the bulk fund and buy a year's supply. (Nouvelle, made from recycled paper, which is really hard to find now. Lid! sometimes sells an even better recycled one that I found this year.)

Many thanks PipneyJane and Suffolk Lass - I didn't know how to do two quotes on a posting otherwise I'd have posted yours as well.
Made interesting reading how PJ budgets month by month and SL does it monthly but has a yr view on bulk items. it definately has given me ideas and hope. At the moment I'm going to concentrate on trying to keep weekly spends to under £50 and to use up a mountain of things in the cupboards and freezers.

I seem to lurch from one glut/problem to another. At the moment its blackberries: I could pick them by the bucket full as we've got so many; but working out exactly how many I can use in a year is the problem. I haven't time to make jams, chutneys etc at the moment, so they are going in the freezer.
A couple of weeks ago the table at the gate where I sell eggs was vandalised. By the time I had ordered a new money box and dog cage (eggs go in the cage to deter the squirrels and magpies/crows) I had 14 trays of eggs to use (that's 420eggs) and I hate waste which equates to money lost, so I've made cakes, both big and small, but the best way was to make icecream but I needed to buy sugar and cream - it felt like gallons of the stuff - but I have enough icecream to last well into next year in all conceivable flavours you can think of. What do you do with 420 egg whites so I froze them in fours, meringues are obvious plus I think I'll be eating egg white omelettes at least 4 times a week from now till Christmas!!!!!!!!

[Deleted User]

zafiro1984 wrote: »

I'd be interested to know whether folk count toiletries and cleaning stuff in their grocery challenge.
I believe the average for a family of four is around £84 a week, does anyone know if that includes these items.

Yes, I count both these in the budget. I don't really spend much on cleaning products, though I clean a LOT. I mostly use vinegar 21p, salt 25p per litre, bicarb etc., with essential oils that I've had forever, savers disinfectant which is 30p for a litre and washing up liquid. That lot, which is not much more than £1, would probably last the month. If I have any monies left over from the grocery challenge, it creates the bulk buy fund. I don't include alcohol in my budget. hth.