February 2018 Grocery Challenge

Doom_and_Gloom

We're late this month but would like to put us up for £135.
£54 my personal budget.
£81 OH personal budget.

Me - £14.56/£54. £39.44 left.
OH - £11.01/£81. £69.99 left.
Total - £25.57/£135. £109.43 left.

TooClumsy wrote: »

Curious to see what people do for their lunches- do you have a separate budget for this, which you offset with lunches from home where possible?

My budget only covers the food cooked at home, some months I end up taking a lot of leftovers/lunches from home and other months there are leaving lunches/reunion lunches/holiday lunches, which come out of my lunch budget.. I only recently put all 'food' categories under a food budget and was shocked when I combined home groceries, lunches, eating out. It's a flipping scary number

We include lunches in our budgeting. Only times it doesn't get included is if eating at restaurant or food for eating at the cinema, these are out of entertainment budget. Take outs are included unless special occasion such as anniversary or birthdays.
We have a separate budget for spirits, though wine is in food budget.
Different budget for our chinchillas.

private_helen

I love this site- so many useful tips to simplify a stressful life and reduce costs. I wish you all lived in my street where we could skill trade, pass on surplus and ideas, and all help each other.

My February started 26th January. It is my first month of properly watching the food bills, and my target was really a guesstimate. I'm not sure if I'll keep within target or not, but I know we have definitely eaten better with meal planning and had no food waste. Planning and cooking has taken a little more time- but I think this will get easier with habit and I'm looking forward to next week as I have a whole 6 days of main meals frozen- so apart from adding a few veg, my week should be an easy one.

Just a few things I've noted:

If you plan on batch cooking ensure you have enough containers- I know it's obvious, but after freezing meals for three days, I didn't realise my shortage of containers until I'd cooked my curry! A few phone calls to local friends rescued me- they are now saving their take away microwaveable boxes for me.

Ensure you have enough freezer space. Another obvious to many of you, but I've had to sort my freezer and carefully slot it together rather like a jigsaw to fit it all in.

Take aways will never taste the same- I now realise just how many meals I could be cooking for the price of those pizzas.

Cats are fussier than family

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My bonus of the week was making a savoury nut/ mushroom, lentil roast- and everyone liking it! Hope you all have a good week.

Merlin's_Beard

TooClumsy wrote: »

Curious to see what people do for their lunches- do you have a separate budget for this, which you offset with lunches from home where possible?

My budget only covers the food cooked at home, some months I end up taking a lot of leftovers/lunches from home and other months there are leaving lunches/reunion lunches/holiday lunches, which come out of my lunch budget.. I only recently put all 'food' categories under a food budget and was shocked when I combined home groceries, lunches, eating out. It's a flipping scary number

I have a food budget - so everything that gets bought for me to eat, goes in that budget, whether it's coffee out and about, or ordered sandwiches at work, or graze boxes, or supermarket stuff, or farm shop. I also include non-food that I normally buy from the supermarket - toiletries, over the counter meds etc. mainly because I'm too lazy to filter those out of my bill!

The only thing I don't include is meals out with other people, mainly because a) I don't do it that often and b) I see it as an investment in friends/family etc. rather than a purely food decision, and I don't include the cat food because she's on a prescription diet and gets fed what she needs to get fed.

Tales17

TooClumsy wrote: »

Curious to see what people do for their lunches- do you have a separate budget for this, which you offset with lunches from home where possible?

My budget only covers the food cooked at home, some months I end up taking a lot of leftovers/lunches from home and other months there are leaving lunches/reunion lunches/holiday lunches, which come out of my lunch budget.. I only recently put all 'food' categories under a food budget and was shocked when I combined home groceries, lunches, eating out. It's a flipping scary number

I have a spreadsheet with separate sections for different types, for instance in this grocery challenge I have included meat delivery, graze boxes, wine delivery, grocery shopping, fruit and veg boxes and pet stuff. I add up the total of these for the challenge but they are separate on my spreadsheet so I can drill down into the detail further when I want to!

On top of that I have restaurants & cafes, takeaways and partner lunches sections which for the moment are not included in the challenge. This is because takeaways are a rare treat at home, cafes & restaurants are for treats out with the kids or special occasions and my partner has the occasional lunch out which I can't control in any way so would prefer not to restrict him!

I actually have everything we spend with a monthly budget attached but I am not very strict on keeping it under them which is where this challenge comes in!

I always remember someone at school saying that "Job" stands for "Just Over Broke" which always seems true as no matter how much you earn, your spending just goes up with it!!

lynnejk

TooClumsy wrote: »

Curious to see what people do for their lunches- do you have a separate budget for this, which you offset with lunches from home where possible?

Our budget of £200 for two of us includes all food, household, toiletries, cleaning and laundry. We don't have takeaways and if we have an occasional meal out it comes out of the entertainment/holiday fund.

private_helen wrote: »

..........
If you plan on batch cooking ensure you have enough containers- I know it's obvious, but after freezing meals for three days, I didn't realise my shortage of containers until I'd cooked my curry! A few phone calls to local friends rescued me- they are now saving their take away microwaveable boxes for me..........

I freeze my meals in containers, then put into labelled polythene bags. You can then re-use the containers and the bags take up less room and stack nicely
HTH

First spend of the month are Mr T = £7.60 and Al*i = £21.31

So am at £28.91/200 for the month and 4 GC NSDs :j

Hope you all having a great week
Lx

r3b3cca

Hi,

Late to join, and totally new to the forum, but I'd like to join the challenge and the target is £280 this month.

This first week has come in under budget (£64) but I'm running low on basics and the next shop will be a bit of a challenge. I've got two young children, and one of them is autistic and has quite severe struggles with food, so we are on a meal plan. I'm limited in how much I can deviate from it, and it's hard to make it much cheaper without substituting foods he won't eat, so I'm really feeling my way with this budget.

pamsdish

I try the spreadsheet method, headings, cash spends, debit card, credit card, cash withdrawals, car exs, amazon and ebay, I do shopping for 2/3 neighbours, I have a car so bulky heavy items I get for them, also internet spends, eg a new iron ordered from currys yesterday £39 for one, it can at times get very confusing, and very often my only true reference is on here.

Ginmonster

I've found a receipt for some fruit and veg (and a carrier bag-the shame!) I picked up last Friday which needs adding in. It's only £6.09 so I'm still doing fine for the month.

17.48/100

tighteningthebelt

R3b3cca
Thanks for saying that, it is harder in some circumstances, and you have made me think about that. Sounds like you're doing well with the budget so far though.

Pamsdish
I know what you mean, last year I did similar and I remember one NSD I had actually spent £152 - but not my shopping, felt like cheating, but wasn't!!

PipneyJane

TooClumsy wrote: »

Curious to see what people do for their lunches- do you have a separate budget for this, which you offset with lunches from home where possible?

My budget only covers the food cooked at home, some months I end up taking a lot of leftovers/lunches from home and other months there are leaving lunches/reunion lunches/holiday lunches, which come out of my lunch budget.. I only recently put all 'food' categories under a food budget and was shocked when I combined home groceries, lunches, eating out. It's a flipping scary number

We take our lunches to work virtually every single day. On the odd occasion that we buy lunch instead, it comes out of our own allowances not the grocery budget.


Having said that, on a Sunday when we're at the role-playing-games club, we usually buy wraps, hummus, salad and sliced meat - so that I can make up wraps while we play - and that is usually paid for out of the grocery purse. This happens partially because we're usually buying yoghurt for the week and partially because the leftovers will be used on subsequent days. (NB: If we happen to have wraps in the fridge or sliced meat in the freezer, I'll use those first.)


- Pip