March 2018 Grocery Challenge

purpleybat

i give the delivery driver bags back when I get a delivery from morries and they always take it off the bill.

can't remember if I said but morries delivery last week came to £40.50!! EEEK!
todays lidl shop came to £29.36.
even with my increased budget i'm going to go over, next week I have about £20 to spend

kkffoo

Last day of our four-weekly accounting and we made it, with a planned surplus for our last day takeaway. That makes it sound more smooth sailing than it was.
Some of the necessary shopping has been pushed forward to tomorrow and into the new budget period.
Spent just over £20 in Aldi today after pruning our list.

All sorts of things added to the challenge this time.
Lack of time to make bread, and everyone's last ditch 'what can I eat?' is toast. Some of that time has been invested in learning to use the knitting machine that has been stashed away in an upstairs cupboard for three years.
Bad weather changed our plans, and we have leftovers that couldn't (or shouldn't) be used as they'll be needed later when we reschedule.
Any kind of emotional upheaval affects my concentration, or affects someone else, and they pass it on. Budgeting takes focus.
Finally, any other kind of change which affects where we shop has an impact, because we need to relearn how to optimise our lists. My son's attempted motorbike theft meant he now parks in a different place and most of his storage is taken up with extra security devices (mostly a huge chain!) so he can't grab bargains on the way home like he did...or least only slimline ones.

Giving myself credit. We got the budget, we ate, on the whole, healthily and I am looking forward to fish and chips. Onward and upward!

riotlady

Have managed to hit my limit and we're only halfway through the month, whoops >.< We do have enough food in to last us for the next week or so though, so after that it'll be damage-limitation to make sure we don't go too far over budget.

Doom_and_Gloom

£5.24 spent today.
OH - 78p; mixed pepper stir fry mix.
Me - £4.48; 700g red grapes, 700g white grapes, 740g cabbage and cucumber.

Me - £52.93/£77.50. £24.57 left.
OH - £28.54/£77.50. £48.96 left.
Total - £81.47/£155. £73.53 left.

Ginmonster

I spent another 69p on bananas so up at 72.43 in total. Hubby got notification from Tesco that we've had '£13 something' refunded after my complaint (the online account is in his name) so I'm going to have that as an extra float this month if needed. Hopefully it won't be but it'll be nice to have it in my back pocket just in case.

YorksLass

Ginmonster wrote: »

I spent another 69p on bananas so up at 72.43 in total. Hubby got notification from Tesco that we've had '£13 something' refunded after my complaint (the online account is in his name) so I'm going to have that as an extra float this month if needed. Hopefully it won't be but it'll be nice to have it in my back pocket just in case.

Shame you had to complain at all, but well done on the end result! :beer:

Small shopping trips today, DH to market (£7.20) and me to Co-op (£3.62). Total for the week: £28.40 with x5 NSDs. If the forecast snow does come tonight/tomorrow (and I think it will ) then we're good for everything so we can watch the white stuff from a warm indoors.

Pleased with how things are going so far in the challenge of making 4 weeks' cash stretch over 5 weeks. There's £43.16 left in the budget for the next 2 weeks and I'm fairly confident I can make it last. Have just checked my yearly budget planner and I'll have more 5-week months in June, August and November. As it's gone well this month, I'm thinking of repeating the experiment in those months too as a way of making the funds more elastic!

Mrs_Cheshire

NSD for the grocery challenge today, have enough in to see us over the weekend. Will need to buy fresh bread on Monday I think.

thriftwizard

Budgeting takes focus.

Spot on, kkffoo! I've lost not just focus, but the entire plot a bit here... definitely a couple of NSDs this week, and around £30 spent at the market today, but also around £20 spent at the supermarket mid-week, and because I was going up to Town on a day-trip yesterday I took the receipt out of my handbag, filed it on the kitchen table, and needless to say the Tidy Fairy has binned it... so £50 added to my total but it's very much a guesstimate.

The Entertainments budget (normally £50 per month) has gone £30 over though; £20 is normally spent on beer, cider & wine which isn't a lot really for 5 adults, leaving £30 for a take-away or a trip to the cinema, which costs just £2.50 a head on weekday evenings over in our county town. And indeed £20 was spent, early this month, but then I paid for a meal out yesterday as well, at £40 for 4, which was fabulous value but I'd already treated OH to a lunch out on Monday (£20) whilst collecting a large & elderly loom (don't ask!) from the top of a hill at the other end of our county! So I should probably add that £30 onto the grocery bill, but for two reasons I'm waiting... One is that we often don't spend any more than the £20, so one overspend doesn't feel like anything more than catching up a bit, and the other is that I'd lost track somewhat, and shouldn't need to buy any beer, wine or cider next month, as we were a long way from running out! So - probably just over £100 left, and two weeks left to go - it's going to be a tight thing.

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone. Have been mostly living out of stores, doing a store cupboard challenge, spending £7pw on fridge stuff - so far spent £17.74 for the month. Fridge looking rather sparse though. Was going to top up today, but errrmm snow - not a fan. I've loads of salad, some veggies, dairy free cheese etc., plus a ton of cooked stuff in the freezer, so it can wait 'till Monday or beyond. Been using Aduki beans from pantry (aka tipville), rather than buying my usual brown lentils. They are an amazing substitute for veggie mince and make lovely dips etc. Down to the last bag. Not a fan of boiling them for 2.5 hours though. We have a no package store opening in my town, so gonna treat myself to an electric pressure cooker, if anyone can recommend one. I haven't got a clue what to look for, is it 'pressure' (doh). Might have to have a read up on it - I'm being my usual 'lazy' self. I'm not really bothered how much it costs, if it's a good one, though a bargain is always nice. Spent £4.47 on:-

2 x bags parsnips 68p
1 x cherry tomatoes 50p
1 x free from salad cream £1
1 large tub hummus £1.70
1 soy milk 59p

Anywho, have a lovely rest of w/e everyone. Have updated sig.

selloptape

Hi everyone - am on budget currently and today should be an NSD due to horrible weather. Popped into H0lland and Barr3tt on lunch yesterday and now trying to resist the temptation to stock up on multi vitamins as they!!!8217;re on sale.