January 2018 Grocery Challenge

lynnejk

Evening all

Spends today were Al*i = 19.03 and Li*l = 7.88

So now on £111.57/200 for January :j

Still need two more shops, one at F Foods for t/rolls and other stock stuff and next weekend f & v, so fingers xd should be under budget.

Hope you all have a money-saving Monday
Lx

Mrs_Cheshire

Spend of £2.97 today on marg and peppers for tonights tea. Had to buy finest as they didn't have any regular priced ones in stock at the end of the day.
Need to review my meal plan next week as we've had a few days of meals with mushrooms and peppers, I like to mix it up a bit more! On a positive note I've made more from scratch and some new recipes so not too worried.
Going to do a freezer/storecupboard inventory tomorrow and see if we can get to the end of the month without having to buy much.
Got shampoo to pick up tomorrow from b**ts (click and collect), bought using points so a no spend there.

PennyGrabber

Evening all,

Still not left the house so not tempted to overspend. Oh asked me to give him my shopping list and he would shop for me this morning. When he dropped the bits off (and unpacked for me ), I asked him how much I owed him and he said don't worry! I don't feel guilty, as I often feed him, but it was a very nice bonus as I don't expect it. So, still nearly half of my budget left, with one weekly shop to go, and maybe a ys mooch if I'm better as im sure once I've recovered I'll be a bit stir crazy!

PG x

Glenda

I have overspent on my grocery budget already £150.56/£150.00 and I still need to buy food to last until the end of the month. Being a first timer on the grocery challenge I hadn't really a clue what I had been spending on food..needless to say it was a lot more than I thought!

It has been such a long month with so many birthdays, my daughters included.

I'm slightly disheartened...I'm looking forward to the start of February so I can reset my budget. I may need to revise it if I can't come within it in February.

Slow cooker beef stew ready for dinner tonight. I hope everybody has a lovely day. X

Matron_Midge

Declaring for January on £427.97/£400.
Happy with the slight overspend as I work to an annual budget and am expecting February to come in much cheaper as cupboards and freezer are well stocked.
See you over on the February thread.

PipneyJane

Good morning All

We’re back at home now, so I’ve had a chance to look at the receipts. Three shopping trips to declare from the week before last: a quick mouch around Mr T’s which resulted in a spend of £1.51 on YS cheddar and a YS ring of black pudding; a trip to Costco for Wing-n-Rib sauce, where DH spent £9.78; and a shop in Waitrose, to take advantage of a 10% cashback offer from the bank plus a “spend £50 and get £10 off” voucher.

We spent £23.24 in Waitrose once you exclude the cashback - DH won’t get paid that until March - and the Neals Yard face cream I purchased (separate budget). It would have been less if the NY stuff had displayed a price on the shelf - a similar cream next to it was priced at £22-something, so we went with that for our calculations which brought us up a couple of Pounds short of £50 and we padded it up with a 2-for-£7.50 offer on wine. DH was kicking himself because, if the face stuff (£24.75) had displayed a price, we wouldn’t have added the wine. He’d have been much happier with a total of £15.74. He prides himself on spending as little over the voucher threshold as possible, so we spent 15 minutes or so wandering around the shop trying to decide what would give the biggest bang for our buck.

Anyway, the above brings our total grocery spend for January to £74.51/£120, leaving £45.49 remaining in the kitty for the rest of the month. We will need fresh milk and veg but, beyond that, I can’t see another big spend coming until February. The pantry is well stocked and the freezer is too. The Bulk Fund is virtually empty, while the meat fund has just over £110. (I didn’t count the coins.).

Which brings me to another topic, on which I’d like your opinion. For the last couple of years, I’ve done a £50 February Challenge where I limit our meat and grocery spend to £50 for the month. I don’t charge myself for food that is already in the house and the rare takeaway is excluded. Should I do it on a separate thread as a separate challenge? Would anyone be willing to join me? It wouldn’t exclude participation in the February Grocery Challenge. What do you think?

- Pip

ETA: there is one exception to the £50 limit. We only use recycled toilet paper, so if L!dl suddenly stock Nouvelle or their own-brand 4-ply, then I will stock up. I will charge one packet to the challenge and the rest to the Bulk Fund (which grows at £40/month)

starting_again_in_the_sun

Another overspender here...realised that we had more money than I thought on Friday so bought various treats for the weekend as well as some veg, cheese etc, spend 20.46. It seems a lot but we didn't spend anything else this weekend so it's not too bad.

Then today we spend 20.21 on a general top up shop- fruit/ veg, ham, bread, cereal etc.

I should be paid Friday but will continue with January until the 31st.

Currently at 175.98/175.

Merlin's_Beard

Is that £50 for meat and £50 for groceries, or £50 for those together, PipneyJane?

MadamMim2013

Glenda wrote: »

I have overspent on my grocery budget already £150.56/£150.00 and I still need to buy food to last until the end of the month. Being a first timer on the grocery challenge I hadn't really a clue what I had been spending on food..needless to say it was a lot more than I thought!
I'm slightly disheartened...I'm looking forward to the start of February so I can reset my budget. I may need to revise it if I can't come within it in February

Don't feel disheartened, it's your first time on the challenge and until you've had the chance to really look into what you buy each month, extras etc it'll take a while till you can truely have an honest budget..

I've got £13.35 to add onto my budget from yesterday, soups and nibble bought along with top up for my medicine cabinet..
Will be placing an online order today as just CBA to go out! :rotfl:

VfM4meplse

Just dipping in to report a further failure: I spent £5.47 on trashy snacks from Poundstretcher on Saturday. They will take me a while to get through, though. Also, my mum brought some me some milk yesterday so that saved me a trip out. Total spend to date: £33.46/£40. That leaves me just £6.54 for the next 9 days: doable, as long as I start cooking.

The upside is that I've had 8 NSDs out of 21 thus far.