September 2018 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

Hello,

So I have had a good look at my bank accounts this morning and Have counted all my spending on food inc. top up shops and I did a big shop in Farmfoods a few days ago. I have already spent £202.52!!!! I added up my eating out and take outs etc. and I have spent £101.17!! Totaling £303.69.:eek::eek::eek::eek:

I feel like I have failed already. After looking through that I have decided I need to be a lot stricter on myself and am going to draw money out cash each week for my food. No wonder I have a big CC debt and I am always in my OD.
I have made a meal plan and I am going to stick to that meal plan 100%

C xx

Try not to be too hard on yourself. The good thing is that you've finally started looking. I think one of the keys that helps a lot of people is to check your balances and transactions daily. There seems to be an automatic and subconscious process of adding things up in your mind when you check your transactions each day. "Hrm, I spent 25 yesterday on XYZ...and 40 the day before that... Is this normal?"

Good luck and keep going.

YorksLass

Josie2003 wrote: »

The main shop if you like isn't the problem. It's the popping in for something that you don't actually need and several more (and more) things get added to the basket/trolley through out the week/month that's the trouble.

You're so right on this one! I try not to have top-up shops but if I do need one I've got round it by taking just the amount of cash for the "needs" with just a little extra in case of ys bargains.

PipneyJane wrote: »

I harvested it, gave it a perfunctory wash and each stalk got a good trim. It was only when I was dishing up dinner that I realised the broccoli was riddled with caterpillars, now dead and bleached from their boiling but there was no way on earth I was going to serve up the broccoli.Yuck!

I once had a cauliflower in this state that went straight in the bin (it didn't even get cooked). On another occasion I found the biggest earthworm ever (well, I thought it was ) in a lettuce.

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

I feel like I have failed already. After looking through that I have decided I need to be a lot stricter on myself and am going to draw money out cash each week for my food. No wonder I have a big CC debt and I am always in my OD. I have made a meal plan and I am going to stick to that meal plan 100% C xx

No, you haven't failed - you've realised there's a problem and you're doing something about it, so stick at it and you'll get there. If you read this thread often enough, you'll realise all of us have times when we've strayed from the straight and narrow!

A very low spend week here :j with just £9.45 going out of the kitty, thanks to using what we already have in the freezer and cupboards. Budget now stands at £97.93/£140 with 10/28 NSDs and two weeks to go.

JingsMyBucket

Another NSD here, thankfully. I'm wholly tired from this week and will attempt to finally make the frittata tomorrow morning. I haven't made a proper meal plan yet and want to get a plan of attack sorted tomorrow. Today was a client event that I've been building up for the last two months. I just haven't had time to think of much lately.

TOTALS SO FAR:
5/12 NSD
€349.46/€500.00

thriftwizard

Aaaaand an unanticipated £8.27 wandered off this evening, on cream, yogurt (a big 1l pot of Fage) branflakes & some crisps for an exhausted & dispirited DD1. I'm beginning to twitch gently now...

Josie2003

A £36 spend in Tesco last night. I didn't buy anything I didn't go in for so am more than pleased. Bought dishwasher tablets and they had the cereals I wanted on offer, also a few other bits. Off to Iceland tomorrow for a few freezer bits and bats.

Suffolk_lass

Goodness! the medicated shampoo that DH uses (sparingly) has just cost £8.30 for a bottle. I wouldn't mind but you can't reuse it, or anything! Use once and wash down the drain. Leaves a lovely coal-tar smell in the shower though

JingsMyBucket

Howdy all. It has been a gloriously lazy day so far. Gone to the pharmacy and then to the market on my square.

€5.80 on a nice punnet of tiny strawberries and a small container of raspberries.
€3.66 on two kinds of Italian sausage (4 links); two are fennel and the other are black pepper.

I'm heading to the main organic market because there's a computer repair shop next to it and I'll drop off my tablet to be seen. Hopefully it'll be okay and then can get it working again instead of me spending money to buy one. If it's totally bricked, I think I'll just save up to buy myself one for Xmas later in the year.

While in the building, I'll head to the organic market to get some fancy mushrooms for OH as a treat and may try to find some broccoli rabe to eat with some of the sausages I bought earlier. I'll also avoid getting bulk olive oil from there since we have a bottle of supermarket oil that should last us until the end of the month. Between that and the copious amounts of butter in the house, we should be fine for cooking fats. The other purpose is to drop off paper egg crates so the market can reuse them instead of them cluttering up our kitchen.

The other items on my list today to get at another store are vegetable bouillon, shower gel, and coconut oil. It's been 6 months to a year since I've bought any of those, so it's time to restock. We also need to buy some Listerine mouthwash that's on sale 2-for-1 at a pharmacy downtown but I think I may just order it from a different retailer online and save myself the trip depending on online cost. CRAP. Just checked the price online and it'll end up costing me about €10 more to buy it online. Alright, that's going on my to do list for the week...phooey.

TOTALS SO FAR:
€358.92/€500.00
5/12 NSD

tiredwithtwins

good luck chocolatelover93, and as others have said don't be too hard on yourself ... babysteps!


im nearing my limit already, however ive not kept a strict reign on my receipts so there may be a couple of £10 cashbacks in there .. I tot up from my online bank account, I guess I should keep the receipts!!
only need bits to top up til payday on Thursday 27th, and from next weekend we will be eating out of the freezer and cupboards only!


good luck everyone, half way through the month - keep going!!

thriftwizard

Hmm - another £23 gone - all on meat. Some of which will go into the freezer, and won't necessarily be used this month, but I'm really going to have to concentrate now to stay under budget! From my point of view there's only one more weekend before payday, and the weekend is when the grocery shopping happens, but it's the little things, the top-ups, the "Mum, we've run out of X"... that leads to ruin!

RedFraggle

RedFraggle wrote: »

First shops done.
£63.76 to Mr T and £9.42 in Aldi
£67.04 on a bulk cat food order to zooplus.
£220.86 left.
Need to go super tight this month.

£188.53 to add! Eek £32.33 left. No idea how I'll do that. It's the pet food. I spent £30 on rat food on top of the cat food (£25 of which Mr Fussy won't eat!!)