April 2019 Grocery Challenge

Lauralozzle

Very pleased with the grocery budget this month.

Finishing April on £192.59/£300.00 :j :j

Rowan9

Thriftwizard
Really pleased you are back in the driving seat. Take care of yourself

BrassicWoman

tighteningthebelt wrote: »

Such a shame. Is it worth giving this exact feedback to the organisers? I wonder if it will affect how many traders they get booked next year? Traders do network and different festivals have reputations.
I often wonder where people get their bands and sound engineers from. I'd be quite happy without!
Farm shop haul sounds good though.

Many people have given the fedback via FB so I think the message has landed! They are going to try another one in November - so fingers crossed.

tighteningthebelt

Just rounding off April by declaring 20 NSDs. It's been a good month moneywise, esp considering I had the delights of DS back for the easter holidays... gotta love em!!

Airthrey

cuddlymarm wrote: »

Well this month I have totally lost the plot. I’m £62 over my £120 spend for the month, but my cupboards and freezer are full again. £20 of it is booze which I don’t normally buy and some is down to sending OH because I hadn’t time to go but next month WILL be better.
Time to get control.
Anyway better get on
Have a good day guys
Cuddles

Me too. Once I'd gone over budget, I just kept on going. More wine, lots of stocking up, cupboards and freezer are full, but it's not what I planned. I need to get a grip, but it won't be till June. I'm opting out for May because I'll be on holiday and will not be counting costs while I'm away.

JingsMyBucket

Hi folks. I totally dropped off the map for April because it was hectic as heck. We got married a week and a half ago so I’m finally starting to get back into some routines. My April budget was totally blown out of the water and I came in at $722.15 / $500. Buying coffee every few days for the OH can put a dent in things plus we had a convenient food to get through the month. Oh well! Luckily we can absorb the extra costs for now but I’d like to bring that back down.

Suffolk_lass

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

Hi folks. I totally dropped off the map for April because it was hectic as heck. We got married a week and a half ago so I’m finally starting to get back into some routines. My April budget was totally blown out of the water and I came in at $722.15 / $500. Buying coffee every few days for the OH can put a dent in things plus we had a convenient food to get through the month. Oh well! Luckily we can absorb the extra costs for now but I’d like to bring that back down.

Ooh! :T:T:T:j:j:j:):):) Congratulations - I knew it was imminent

elantan

So April is over and I have counted up our spends, I'm not gonna lie I was shocked beyond imagination, I knew we spent more than we thought ( and much more than budgeted for) but I didn't realise it was as bad.

our spending for the month of April is

£439 on food
£358 on takeaway and alcohol

giving us a total of £797 for 2 adults for a month, that is not sustainable.

I dont even think May will be better, intact i think it may be worse as we are going away for 9 nights on a relatively expensive holiday.

so with this in mind, I'm going to have to do some real decision making about things, any advice welcome

Suffolk_lass

elantan wrote: »

So April is over and I have counted up our spends, I'm not gonna lie I was shocked beyond imagination, I knew we spent more than we thought ( and much more than budgeted for) but I didn't realise it was as bad.

our spending for the month of April is

£439 on food
£358 on takeaway and alcohol

giving us a total of £797 for 2 adults for a month, that is not sustainable.

I dont even think May will be better, intact i think it may be worse as we are going away for 9 nights on a relatively expensive holiday.

so with this in mind, I'm going to have to do some real decision making about things, any advice welcome

1. First thing - don't beat yourself up.
2. If this month is going to be hard, try logging what you are actually buying, so that you can review, reduce and replace in future.
3. Small things like making a record of what you have in your stores
4. make a meal plan, using up some stuff you already have in
5. make a list for what you need to fulfil your meal plan
6. only buy what is on your list
7. look at MySM to see if you can get your stuff cheaper by either changing your shop or shopping at 2 places
8. Move away from the BOGOF offers (unless they are on your list)
9. Maybe take out cash (maybe leave it until a future month) to do your shopping so you don't spend more than your cash (you might not be ready to do this yet if you don't know what you are spending it on).
10. You could reduce a brand - so if you buy premium brands, you could switch to SM own brand, or if premium, drop to standard, or standard to basic.

I hope this is helpful - there is lots on the first screen of each month in terms of wisdom and advice

elantan

Thanks Suffolk lass, these are things weve certainly done 9n the oast and to some extent they work, but for some reason we stop doing them, I dont quite know why, but I think this whole process is about finding out why and changing:)