November 2019 Grocery Challenge

CFAF

I'd like to join, please

My aim is to keep all household expenses under £1000 per month - this includes gas/electric, phone/broadband, water, mortgage payment, the ever increasing council tax and food.

There's two adults plus a pooch.

The food bill is the only expense I can reduce that will have a significant effect. I won't include the dogs food as this is bought in bulk every couple of months from my own account.

So, with that said my aim is £150

wishus

Bit of a spendy Saturday, but think I did well. All the veggies off the market, went to Aldi for bread flour, fish (fresh and tinned), bacon, and hubby's probiotic yoghurts. Stopped off at a garage at 11.45 and picked up some M&S stuff which were about to be binned, marked down super low, including Aberdeen Angus minced steak £1.50 a pack. Was gonna Hi5 hubby till I saw he'd shoved them straight in the freezer. Portions, darling, portions! :wall: Ah well.

boultdj

A quick bat round L*dl, got everything on the list and only 3 thing's extra,
which is some thing I need to work on, so £20.16 spend for me.

MandM90

£37.67 for me in Lidl today, including cat food (we have a cupboard full now) and 6 jars of our fave jam as it was a weekend special. Also got a few treats: mince pies (I know, it's early!), tortilla chips and choc milk. Oh, and bagged one of the £1.50 veg boxed which was full of aubergines, peppers, grapes, limes and about 10 bananas. Woohoo. That's a tenner under the weekly budget. Fab!

£153.60 to go from the £190 budget, as a couple of quid 'rolled over' on our budgeting programme to this month.

Vanlady

£73.50/£210 2/16 NSD
First shop of the month done today between
Mr m''s and aldee. Was out in the van so did a big shop ( for us) including a bit if a stock up. So I am now the proud owner, amongst other things, of about 30 tins of tomatoes (we get through alot), 16 cartons skimmed milk (a great back up for fresh), 6 packs of bread flour; 3 packs of rice, 16 cartons of orange juice, lots of fresh fruit to keep mr van away from the chocolate (including 2 pineapples on the super 6 at 69p each plus loads of wonky apples and pears), frozen veg, a large pack of chicken breasts and 4 bags of cat litter.
No cleaning stuff or toiletries needed except a bumper pack of loo rolls.
Bit worrying as I have spent 1/3 of the budget on day 3 but these stocks should keep us going for about a month I hope.
Meal plan sorted for the week ahead so no shopping needed hopefully till we run out of fresh milk mid week.
Love reading everyone's posts, so interesting to hear how others organise their groceries and great for picking up tips.
Have a lovely weekend everyone:)

Saver-upper

I would like to join again :j.
This will be the third month I have joined in the challenge this time around.I'm Sept and Oct the budget was £250/month,and I failed both times .
I am going to increase the budget for this month (cos I am sick of failing every month :rotfl:.
So,for this month,am aiming to stay under £300,for a family of 6,Inc 3 teens.
Dropped into Tesco Saturday night,on way home from afternoon out for 13yo's birthday.I spent £23.85,which included £8 on 8 bottles of shampoo and conditioner.So that should keep us going for a while :rotfl:

£23.85/300

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Welcome to all the new joiners!

MadamMim2013

Hi.. After last months absolute shocker :eek::eek::rotfl: I am back on the ball..

Please add me in for £300 for November!
Thankoooo

XSpender

Ridiculously high spend last month :eek::o

Please can you put me down for £400 for November to include everything!

I’m currently on £91.95 and need to keep out of the shops :mad:

Suffolk_lass

As a few people are struggling to stay in budget at the moment I thought the following might help a bit.

I don't know if this will help some of you struggling to stick to your budgets but if you allow yourself a small pot for your brand offers, it lets you buy your brands in larger quantities when they are on offer. I never pay more than £1 for my preferred shower gel which is normally £2.20 and my coffee is always at least £1.95 less than full price and I buy three jars.

Also I long ago took any notice of how much laundry gloop to use and use about half what it says on the bottle. With a bit of washing up liquid directly on any greasy spots ahead of them going in the machine this works great.

I do white towels once a month on the highest temperature my machine offers with no laundry detergent which acts as a cleaning cycle for my machine, removing soap scum and making the towels softer and fluffier.

Also, decanting half my new washing up bottle contents into an old one and topping it up with water - by the time I want to use this stores bottle it has miraculously thickened up again and you would not know I have diluted it - the one I am using straight away only has a little water added to make sure it does not stick to the inside of the bottle.

My annual budget is £3000 or £200 a month with £400 for stores (offers) and £400 for Christmas (when I feed many more than our normal 2/3 plus cat). It took a while to get to this from over £700 a month when I started.