March 2018 Grocery Challenge

PennyGrabber

Hi all,

Really impressed with myself. I went ysing yesterday, in THREE shops. There were no good ys things, so I bought NOTHING. In any of them! I can't remember the last time I walked out of a sm without buying anything, and I did it three times yesterday!

What's even better, is that because I didn't get anything, my first thought was is get a chippy tea, but then I had a stern chat with myself and went home and cooked something.

I know I will mess up from time to time, but I really feel this year that I'm changing my mindset.

So, as of yesterday, 8 days of March so far, 7 nsds!

PG x

JingsMyBucket

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Hi all,

Really impressed with myself. I went ysing yesterday, in THREE shops. There were no good ys things, so I bought NOTHING. In any of them! I can't remember the last time I walked out of a sm without buying anything, and I did it three times yesterday!

What's even better, is that because I didn't get anything, my first thought was is get a chippy tea, but then I had a stern chat with myself and went home and cooked something.

I know I will mess up from time to time, but I really feel this year that I'm changing my mindset.

So, as of yesterday, 8 days of March so far, 7 nsds!

PG x

Well done! That is so hard to resist!

mrs-moneypenny

Late in as usual I am budgeting and meal planning but just not had time to come in.
Feb was just in budget

Going for £400 for March

Working a lot more hours so meal planning and batch cooking for the week is helping plus I'm not getting a chance to get down the shops now I'm always in work.

Meal plan did go to pot Wednesday evening I'd just.put the shepherds pie in the oven and we had a power cut. Luckily we have a gas hob so quickly subbed meal to pasta mushrooms and quoin chunks stirred through mushroom soup.

purpleybat

I spent £25.78 on thursday in lidl, I've only just found the receipt.
I have a morries delivery arriving saturday evening, it's total is about £70 but not all of it comes in on this budget so will have to wait to look at the receipt to tot up what i've spent there.
on saturday I will have to pick up some veg from lidls, have compared prices and its cheaper for me to detour than get them on my delivery. onions and stuff I need are on offer so worth the fight throo the hordes of weekend shoppers.
cos then I will have a full freezer and fridge i'm hoping that next weeks shop will be sarnie stuff, fruit and yogurt. fingers crossed

kkffoo

£5.99 over for the weekly target...argh.

Need to be more careful in Aldi matching prices to products. Premium kitchen roll was one buying error.
The price cards aren't always lined up with the products and I struggle to read the smaller item specific writing with my normal glasses.
My reading glasses were in my bag but I feel like Professor Brainstorm swapping them over in the aisle.

Anyway, now I know these products have more than one type I can be more careful in future and put it down to experience.

We are currently on a disposables reduction drive so this is an additional incentive.

purpleybat

just a quicky....
i normally shop in lidl and once a month or so get a delivery from morries for stuff I can't get at lidl.
a friend of mine has offered me a lift to aldi that's a few towns away when she goes next week and I was wondering what any of you would recommend. I've looked on the website and they seem to do some nice sounding chutneys I think I might get and some toffees.
thankyou in advance

indigowarrior

Hello £14.42 spend in Tesco and £2.50 convience station This brings my total so far up to £24.78.. which brings me £5.22 under budget. :T

Doom_and_Gloom

We spent a total of £21.27 today.
OH spent £4.71; Silverside daubes, deep pan meat feast pizza, 600g sweet potato and wasabi paste.
I spent £21.27; Vegan sausages (12), sushi vinegar, sweet and spicy gochujang (2 bottles), 1kg courgettes, 600g sweet potatoes, 1.345kg bananas, celeriac, 700g red grapes, oranges (10), Alpro soya yogurt (2), 930g butternut squash and a cucumber.

Me - £22.35/£77.50. £55.15 left.
OH - £17.59/£77.50. £59.91left.
Total - £39.94/£155. £115.06 left.

YorksLass

Thanks to the recent bad weather I’ve been relying on what we have in instead of going shopping. The downside is that I was beginning to run out of lots of things – not just food, but also household and cleaning items. So a Sainsbobs order/delivery came on Wednesday. Total spend not as bad as expected and I had an £8 MOC to use plus a 20p refund, so the groceries element came to £54.15. Will have to up my separate budget for household/cleaning stuff though – these things seem to have gone up an awful lot over the last 12 months.

When I was unpacking I found I’d got two substitute items (OK with these) but hadn’t received three frozen items that I’d ordered. Instead I’d got someone else’s bag of frozen goods. As I’d been charged for the missing items I rang customer services. They apologised, gave me an £8 refund (the missing items cost £6.15) and told me to keep the wrong bag (900g of oven chips and 1 ltr ice cream). I hope whoever got my bag likes my choices!

Today I went to the PO to pay some cash into our holiday pot and, as it’s in the local Co-op, I had a look around (as you do). I bought 2 chicken & bacon slices (half price promo), a punnet of cherry tomatoes, a tub of beef spread, a banana (I’m the only one who eats them), x6 YS sausage rolls and 2 YS large pizza bases (BBE Mar 2018 and freezeable). Last week DH lost his loyalty card (linked to mine) and I asked if it had been handed in. The checkout lady thought it had but couldn’t find it. There was only just over £6 on it so I used mine to pay for the shopping and will order new cards for us.

DH went to market this morning for a few bits so our total spends for today came to £6.56.

I’m trying to stretch 4 weeks' cash over a 5-week month and I’m optimistic it will work out as I have £71.56 left in the budget for the next 3 weeks as well as a full freezer and plenty of staples in the cupboards. Signature updated.

Miserly March marches on!

selloptape

Hi everyone... a quick shop in Mr T’s after work and I appear to be on budget :eek:

It would be amazing to be under spent but it’s only the first month back, and only a third of the way in, could still go wrong :rotfl: I’ve stuck to meal plan, taken some lunches to work so that’s been positive. Next steps are to start being more aware of the costs of meals, build up list of budget options and tweak meal plans to include cheaper options and bulk cooking.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!