January 2018 Grocery Challenge

debtfreeforlife

So I'm turning up very very shamefully to admit to £171.41 spent so far, which is just ridiculous - I was half tempted to just skip the rest of this challenge rather than admit to how much I've spent so far!! A good £60-70 was spent on stocking up the cupboard and freezer again, and there's a few bottles of wine in there for a night at a friend's the other night, but the rest of it - no idea! I'm half wondering if I've bought some household stuff in the grocery store and forgotten what it was. I've not taken meals into work this week, so there's been far too much spent on lunches - no excuse, just laziness. Going to do my absolute best to keep on track the rest of the month.

X_Duvessa_X

Spent £14.20 in l!d! Today that included stocking up on frozen fruit for breakfasts kids wanted take out pizza tomorrow when we watch the American football came to a compromise with buying a fresh AS one at £4.50, cheaper than take out I guess but I wish I could have made pizza. I'm at £40.20 so the last week is going to be tight.

ancientmum

Happy Saturday!
shopping in Aldo today came to £17.97:

big pack of toilet rolls(will last a couple of months)
instant hot choc
washing pods (I get the 2-in-1)
cheese
oatcakes
easy peelers
AA batteries
milk
butter
bananas
apples
bread
biscuits

I know we all have different reasons for doing this challenge but a report in the paper today about food shortages in Venezuela made me feel grateful that I live where there is so much choice.

PennyGrabber

YorksLass wrote: »

Next week's soup is going to be celery (bought yesterday) and bacon (using bacon bits from freezer). Not done this one before so I might just do a smaller batch than I'd normally do to make sure we like it.

Celery soup is one of my faves! Never made it with bacon, but sounds good.

I've had lots of nsds this week, except Thursday, when I spent £3.92 on ys bits. Weekly shop today, then I'll update signature. Don't need a massive amount.

Must remember to freeze the lo bolognese, and get mince out for today's cottage pie - that should do some of this week's lunches for me too.

Have a super Sunday everyone!

PG x

butterfly2507

Good Morning! :beer:

We did a bit of shopping yesterday and spent around 40 €. Last week we had around 60 € and it added up to be 108,33 €. It's a bit more than planned but there will be no shopping this coming Saturday so that fine by me

pipkin71

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

So I'm turning up very very shamefully to admit to £171.41 spent so far, which is just ridiculous - I was half tempted to just skip the rest of this challenge rather than admit to how much I've spent so far!! A good £60-70 was spent on stocking up the cupboard and freezer again, and there's a few bottles of wine in there for a night at a friend's the other night, but the rest of it - no idea! I'm half wondering if I've bought some household stuff in the grocery store and forgotten what it was. I've not taken meals into work this week, so there's been far too much spent on lunches - no excuse, just laziness. Going to do my absolute best to keep on track the rest of the month.

I always think one of the first hurdles to reducing the grocery bill,,is working out where it's being spent, so don't give up this month; see it as a learning curve instead

Grannymolly

pipkin71 wrote: »

I always think one of the first hurdles to reducing the grocery bill,,is working out where it's being spent, so don't give up this month; see it as a learning curve instead

You’re so right! By at least writing it down and counting receipts you’re half way there.

A little while ago before I started a proper meal plan and budget ( I loosely meal Planned) I used to think I was spending £200 on food a month but I forgot that DH was spending around £100-150 on extras from the shop most months :eek:
That doesn’t happen now but we couldn’t work out why we had nothing left at the end of the month!!

thriftwizard

Sigh... £14.50 spent at the market this morning, and sad confirmation that the butcher won't be coming back for Fridays & Saturdays; they're winding down towards retirement now and it just isn't worth their while paying the pitch fee & travelling costs any longer, as so are most of their customers. It feels like the beginning of the end of an era... for 25 years I've been feeding my family on good meat of known provenance at a reasonable price, mostly locally-produced, from them, but all good things come to an end eventually. Their kids are taking the farm & business in a new & more profitable direction, doing specialist event catering, and who can blame them?

So I need to sit down & think up a new strategy now, because I work a fair number of Sundays. They will still be doing the Wednesday market in our county town, where I do my mother's shopping, for now, and I have a decent fridge in my van, so I will be able to stock up there some of the time. They also do the market down at the port on a Thursday, but that means driving down into the city and jockeying for a parking space; the outside car park is always rammed because it's cheaper, and I can't use the multi-stories as my van is too tall. And if the long-term is that they won't be doing any markets at all, it's time to find a new way to source good, responsibly-produced meat at sensible prices - the other two omnivores in the household are verging on carnivores, so giving it up altogether isn't (yet) an option.

RedFraggle

So behind with posting!! I am still in!
Spends so far this month......
06 Jan £69.56 Mr T
06 Jan £5.54 Mr S (who's value mushy peas are better, has smaller tins of value sweetcorn, has the best pizza base mix and who does a value parmesan type block plus a couple of bits I forgot at Mr T)
13 Jan £68.88 Mr T
Total £143.98 so £206.02 left from my budget of £350
Pleased :-) should be fine this month after my December Fiasco Shame!

Islandmaid

Few NSDs now, but have ordered delivery for Wednesday, that’s around £70 and only £1 delivery, when counting in my time, its cheaper to have it delivered:)

I also stuck to my ‘list’ based on the meal plan