February 2018 Grocery Challenge

caronc

£5 spent on a quick top up bringing Feb to £68/£120. This should be it now!

TheOhGodOfHangovers

Finally got round to adding up the last few days spends and updating my signature. Already got next weeks ‘mains’ sorted. Just need to shop for veg etc tomorrow but I’m going to stock up on various bits to see us through to next payday (mid-March), which will probably take us right up to the target for February. I’m very happy with that.

However, whilst adding up my spends I did notice that I’d over counted last month and my total was actually £409 not £419. Must have been in a bit of a tizz when I added that up! I vaguely recall being surprised when I put in my overspend on the Jan thread. This is why I’m so impressed with other people’s calculations!

Managed to get first tablet into the cat without incident as she was half asleep!

elsiepac

Save_Dosh wrote: »

That is really not that much over, I think you have gotten so much better at this.

Aww thank you! However I don't feel I have - I spend so much more nowadays than I used to. I think because I earn a lot more I've got used to being able to spend it and also I've become a lot more health conscious over the years so my shopping reflects that with all the variety of fresh veg etc. I used to be able to do £80 month 6 or 7 years ago! Surely that's equivalent to about £100 or £120 now - WAY under what I actually spend lol!!
Still, if I wasn't trying at all, it would be WAY WORSE so that's why I don't beat myself up about it. Thank you again though, I find you and this thread very inspirational and it definitely motivates me being on here!

purpleybat

LalalaLindy wrote: »

Managed to get first tablet into the cat without incident as she was half asleep!

when my cat was on thyroid pills for years (impossible to get hold of her to put them in her mouth) we used to squash a tiny bit of cheese around them, she gobbled them up quite happily then.


I have to get bread and milk when out later but I think that'll be it this month, will tot up spends after that as i'm sure some sort of treat will jump into my basket.

YorksLass

Total spends this week came to £26.42 (C!op and market) so that's me done for this month. Pleased to have £15.25 left in the budget :j and this will be swept into our holiday pot tout suite - before it disappears on anything else! Also managed 20/28 NSDs (2 shops per week) and I'm happy with that.

Next month will be a challenge as (a) it's a 5-week month for me, and (b) I'm going to try and stretch 4 weeks money over those 5 weeks. Should be do-able as there's lots of stuff in the freezer and cupboards but it's still a bit :eek: I shall be calling it Miserly March!

I really enjoy reading everyone's posts on here and seeing how everyone's getting on throughout the month. Even if we don't always stay within budget, at least we're all focused on damage limitation!

See you all in March. :wave:

Wysiwyg49

Just done shop in A1di and a whiz round Tesc for the missing favourites. Total was £53.32 so I'll close Feb at £352.71.
Can't remember if I put £320 or £360 for this month but never mind! (ah - just saw sig - £320. Oh well at least Aldi has saved it going way off the scale!)

Rough meal plan:

Sun: chicken dinner (kids request)
Mon: risotto
Tues: pasta
Wed: chilli and rice
Thurs: gammon steaks with Spanish omelette and baked Portobella mushrooms

thriftwizard

£15.50 at today's market, which bought me a large hunk of Haystacks cheddar, four punnets of blueberries, two of raspberries, a carrier bag of bananas, a lemon & a handful of wrinkly apples (which are going straight into a crumble) a cabbage, some carrots, some broccoli, a pot of shallots and some spring onions. We have tons of eggs, though I expect the flow to slow down a bit in the cold, plenty of tinned chickpeas etc. and there's meat & frozen fish in the freezer, so all we should need until Wednesday/payday is some fresh bread. Which will leave me with just under £100 to shuffle into the Bulk-Buy purse; I have a feeling I'll be needing it there!

Mrs_Norris

Managed to restrain myself in morries to a £16.38 shop to leave £20.90 to last the last few days of the month.( Lentil pate was a success!) Hoping not to need this as it would be beyond amazing to come in under the target. Never managed this ...or to stay within the target spend, in all the years ive tried to budget food.
Wasn't long ago that the monthly spend was really horrific.. not to mention the amount of wasted food.
Think that this thread is making all the difference to finally achieving a month within spend.
Thanks everyone.

starting_again_in_the_sun

Ending my month in a total spend of 221.88 euros.

Nearly 50 euros over budget which is bad, but I have included birthday cake and party supplies which isn't a monthly thing.

Going to give ourselves a more generous budget in March and work on decreasing it slowly whist improving our diet.

debtfreeforlife

Declaring my final spends for February - £204.97! Slightly over, but within reason so I'm happy with that