October 2017 Grocery Challenge

njk1012

Can you put us down for £400 for October please. Our month runs from the 27th September to 26th October. This is for 3 adults and a hungry teen including all food, drinks, pet food, toiletries and cleaning supplies.

September was our first month and we drastically reduced our spending from over £600 to just over £400 (almost done, can't see us needing anything tomorrow) and it was a five week month for us. I don't want to cut the budget too much initially and set us up to fail but as we only have 4 Fridays (main shopping day) in this next month we feel that £400 is very achievable. Plus this is a figure we could maintain for a while if needs be, although a further reduction would be nice.

elsiepac

Hi all

I'm in again for October - hoping to go for more "little and often" posts rather than my silly giant ones once in a while!

Please put me down for £220 from 26 Sep to 25 Oct

I've already placed my Ocad0 order to get some bulk cleaning stuff and other bits - it was £47.75 but I saved over £20 on offers, plus got a £10 code by messaging customer services.
Still spent about £20 more than I wanted to though because I bought unplanned dishwasher tablets that I don't need - but were half price at £7.99 for 72 eco vegan tablets rather than £15.99 so worth buying! Even though I still have a box and two thirds... it saves money eventually! Also I needed drain clearing stuff for plugholes, again on offer at a third off but spent over a tenner on one for kitchen and one for bath (which is awful - I end up standing in inches of water and then it drains slowly leaving the sides all manky!)
Also placed Superdrug order, of which the relevant portion for this challenge was £20.62.
This was for 2x hairspray, 2x blowdry spray, 2x deodorant, 2x wax strips and 2x cotton wool pads. All on offers hence buying 2 of each.

My month is split down as follows: £50 stock up, and £30 a week for 5 weeks. However,
my first "week" is just 26th and 27th. This allows me to get some other big ticket items.
Obviously I have spent 2/3 of Week 1 on toiletries. Stock is basially all gone too, but this included tons of basics like 4 kitchen roll, 18 loo rolls, 16 stock pot cubes, plus tons of eco cleaning sprays and that. All on offer of course.

Anyway, I have a list of stuff I've run out of/am running out of, but did quick costing and it comes to about £70 and I do NOT want to spend that in one go! So will revise tomorrow as I want to stick to my weekly amounts I've set. i.e. I have about £10 for Tues and Weds till Week 2 kicks in when I get £30 again. Otherwise I'll have about £10 a week for fresh stuff and I can't live on that, which is why I muck up my budgets. So will be sensible!


................................£200 Budget
Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining
26 Sep.....Ocad0.......£47.75....£152.25 (STOCK)
25 Jun.....Ocad0.......£20.62....£131.63 (WEEK 1)

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Our October doesn't start until the 1st and goes till the 31st.
Two adults food and drink only; no alcohol, toiletries, cleaning products or chinchilla items included.

Aww, think I've said before but I have a small animal rescue... I have a pair of chinchillas, mother and daughter, who are "permies" - they are roughly 17 and 15 years old! So sweet bless them - still won't let me touch them after two years, but come to their names and literally beg for treats lol

njk1012 wrote: »

Can you put us down for £400 for October please. Our month runs from the 27th September to 26th October. This is for 3 adults and a hungry teen including all food, drinks, pet food, toiletries and cleaning supplies.

September was our first month and we drastically reduced our spending from over £600 to just over £400 (almost done, can't see us needing anything tomorrow) and it was a five week month for us. I don't want to cut the budget too much initially and set us up to fail but as we only have 4 Fridays (main shopping day) in this next month we feel that £400 is very achievable. Plus this is a figure we could maintain for a while if needs be, although a further reduction would be nice.

Wow, what a fantastic reduction!! Great work!

purpleybat

hello all
can I be put in for £155 this month please.
am still working throo odds and ends in the freezer and my tinned goods supply.
I think also i'll try and do online an morries shop again, while its slightly more expensive I don't see 'new' stuff as such so easier to stick to list and budget. tho I must admit it's not as enjoyable as wandering around a store looking at new products and lovely vibrant veg.

thriftwizard

OK, back (mostly) from my hols and in desperate need of reining the budget in! I will set a budget of £400 for October, to cover food, cleaning, pet & livestock supplies for 4-5 adults, 3 cats (may only be 2) 2 cockatiels and 11 chickens, but NOT bulk-buys, though I'm not sure that we'll actually need any as stocks are reasonably high. It will also not cover fuel, in that I need to order in some logs for the winter, but we do have some stashed & ready to go. The freezer's fairly full, there are lots of supplies up at the allotment, we're only expecting a couple of guests for a couple of days - though one of those does need special supplies, being genuinely allergic to almost everything - and I'm going flat out trying to keep up with preserving everything!

dingdongsaving

...here it comes! 1st-30th for us, so approx. 5 shops.
No massive occasions, just half term with us all at home together each day. :T

£350 for family of 4 including all food, drinks, toiletries & cleaning items please.

Love a fresh month! Good luck everyone!

zafiro1984

Thanks Zippychick for the new thread.

Can you put me down for £300 for October as I've a lot of reorganizing to do.
I'm going to live out of the freezers as far as possible this month and try to use as many of my already cooked meals as I can but at the same time make at least 70 new dinners to go back into the freezers. I've just discovered freezer dump meals so that's where I'm heading.

hobbit_head

Hi all


First month at this after a gap of about 5 years!! Budget fixed to focus on debt payoff and emergency fund so wish me luck. Our month runs from 25th Sept to 24th October We have allocated £280 for 2 adults and one child who eats like an adult to include all household,toiletries and cat food/litter

Thanks 😁

Lauralozzle

I've ignored this challenge for too long and it's gotten silly the amount we've been spending on our food shop! I'm back in for October. My month will start from 29th September to 30th October as this is when I get paid.

My target for the month will be £200 (this will just include groceries, alcohol, treats). I'm going to start a separate budget for house-hold items such as bleach, wipes, cleaning stuff, toilet roll, shampoo etc and plan on bulk buying what I can once a month for this stuff. This budget will be a very generous £75 because I have no idea what I'm spending on this stuff at the moment.

I will also need to meal plan religiously to try and use up what we have in the cupboards and make a list when shopping so we don't keep buying more of the same stuff. I used to do this before but I've gotten very lapse at the whole things. Purse strings need tightening as we have two very expensive months coming up!

YorksLass

Thanks for the new thread and welcome to all newbies/returners.

A 5-week month for us (just me and DH) and I'd like to go for £200 please - food only (toiletries/household/cleaning items come from a separate budget). Starts 29 Sep, ends 2 Nov.

I'd like to think I'll come in on or under budget and, given how rammed the freezer and cupboards are, it should be perfectly do-able.

Helpful things I've learned from this challenge are:

• To come up with a weekly meal plan based mainly around what I already have
• Make a shopping list and stick to it (I'm not always successful at this, especially when I spot useful YS items )
• Make an inventory of stocks in freezer/cupboards and keep it up to date
• Try to have one week per month of not buying anything at all (this is easier than I thought it would be)

These might not work for everyone but we're all different and need to find what suits us and our circumstances. I love reading this thread and seeing how others do it, so thanks to all posters.

Merlin's_Beard

Still keeping up with the £100 a month thing.