February 2020 Grocery Challenge

fairy3

Thank you for the thread Elsiepac - have not fully finished my month yet but unless everything goes to pot in the next two days - very pleased with spends this month. Will go for £200 again please this month although stocks are down and the xmas veg is gone....looking forward to the challenge

Doris1965

Hi
Could I join this month please, I followed last month and i know that the food budget in our household
needs some cutting back, I did a stock take of freezers and was truly amazed at how much we had in them, so I want to set a budget of £250 for February, for the two of us, and try to use as much as i can from the stocks we have. would love to get our food spend down to around the £200 mark, but baby steps I think.
Thanks
Dx

GlendaSugarbean

Already posted in the Jan thread as my month starts on the 21st.

Budget for this month: £400 (down from an average of £500 last year)
2 weekly shops so far, at a total of £108
Prepaid school lunches: £80
TT to savings/OPs: £12
Remaining: £200

GlendaSugarbean

And thank you for the new thread

Barbeduk

Thank you for the new thread Elsiepac :T My budget is £200 for 28 Jan to 27 Feb, me plus two teens.

I started the ball rolling with an incredible yellow sticker haul - £4.86 for around £50 worth of chicken breasts/kievs/ham/beef casserole. An absolute godsend as after bills I have very little left this month.

Can anyone recommend a drinkable but thrifty instant coffee? I drink filter, but my daughter prefers 'posh' instant. Sadly this is not the month for posh instant :eek:

What does everyone do with the leftover money if they come in under budget? Mine goes straight into the holiday fund :cool2::D

PipneyJane

Barbeduk wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a drinkable but thrifty instant coffee? I drink filter, but my daughter prefers 'posh' instant. Sadly this is not the month for posh instant :eek:

Lidl's Bellarom freeze dried instant coffee is £1.89 for 200g, which is enough to last me and DH a month. To my palate, it's a little bit milder than Douwe Egberts, but the price compensates for that.

What does everyone do with the leftover money if they come in under budget? Mine goes straight into the holiday fund :cool2::D

I roll any leftover money into the next month. It'll inevitably get spent at some point.

HTH

- Pip

Doom_and_Gloom

Barbeduk wrote: »

What does everyone do with the leftover money if they come in under budget? Mine goes straight into the holiday fund :cool2::D

I've slightly changed the way I do the budgeting this year and hoping it works. I've allocated £240 for each month for all food and drink for OH and I (sans entertainment, special occasions and alcohol), chinchilla items (food, hay, sand, treats etc) cleaning, toiletries etc.
However if I go over in a month it gets taken off the next (so my February budget isn't up yet and I know I will be taking money off February budget as January is over). The same goes the other way though so if I'm under budget it gets added onto the next month budget. This way I'm hoping that any bulk buying evens out over the year and over all I come in budget.
Yearly doesn't work for me (done in the past and I lost track etc) but breaking it down into months and subtracting or carrying over like this should as monthly budgeting on its own is how I've worked for a while now.

Rosesandrainbows

So I’m back to record my first spend of the month and it was a big one! I did however bulk buy so it has included
Enough for at least 4 x chicken based meals
2 large portions of mince to make chilli and spaghetti bolognese, so probably another 6 meals there
Bought what I could in the largest size (checked it was most economical first) to make it last as far as I can through the month.
Did buy a couple of treats which should in turn stop the impulse meals out/ takeaways.
So all in all I’m quite pleased with how I did, spending £84.59.

Nellbell21

Hi folks, could I please rejoin? After a disgraceful month and £1000 spent on the shopping I would love to cut it down. I am aiming for £800. I know this is a lot but I have never got it under £800. So I’m going to try chipping away rather than a total cull! X

Herbyme

OK this month I'm going public with a budget of £550. That's what I spent in January but stocks are pretty depleted so I'm not going any lower for now.

Mind you it might be tricky as I just served up the 3rd meal in about 4 nights that got a thumbs down, so I had a hissy fit and resigned from doing:

meal planning
writing shopping list
buying shopping several times a month (fresh/non-perishables)
Unpacking shopping
Cooking

For 4 adults. One of whom washes up. I know. Don't think I haven't tried. The other 2 do pay board. I know, it's not a hotel...

ENOUGH!!! (on the food front, at least)

Now, how do I plan/shop/cook less AND keep control of spending?!