May 2020 Grocery Challenge

lantanna

£5.20 in the chippy at lunch. That should hopefully be it now til payday next weds. Another one with crammed freezers and cupboards having to shop in bulk means I’m struggling.  I was an every couple of days shopper and prefer it that way.

joedenise

Greenglockenspiel said:

joedenise said: 

Would it be worth setting up a separate budget for bulk buys?  I do that with meat as I like to buy my pork and dry cure bacon online and also quite often do a big meat shop at my local butchers for things like steak and joints every couple of months.  This is in addition to my grocery budget.  I find it quite useful to have this separate budget.

Yes, potentially - how do you go about doing it in practice? Put aside some money in an easy access account? I sweep everything that’s in our current account the day before payday into our mortgage OP pot so I don’t usually carry money across from month to month so need to work out how it could work for my technique!

I use YNAB and have a separate budget set up for it.  Most of the money is just left in the current account, originally earning 3%, then reduced to 1.5%, then 1% now.  Reducing again August to 0.6% so will be moving account shortly. Just need to look where I'm going to move it to!

It doesn't sound like you use YNAB but could easily be done using a spreadsheet.  Just set up categories and put money into each one every month.  It's probably easier now as we have paid off our mortgage but it is certainly doable with a spreadsheet and perhaps different savings accounts.

Don't know if that's any help but hopefully it is.

PipneyJane

Greenglockenspiel said:

joedenise said: 

Would it be worth setting up a separate budget for bulk buys?  I do that with meat as I like to buy my pork and dry cure bacon online and also quite often do a big meat shop at my local butchers for things like steak and joints every couple of months.  This is in addition to my grocery budget.  I find it quite useful to have this separate budget.

Yes, potentially - how do you go about doing it in practice? Put aside some money in an easy access account? I sweep everything that’s in our current account the day before payday into our mortgage OP pot so I don’t usually carry money across from month to month so need to work out how it could work for my technique!

I'm not the original poster but I do the same as @joedenise.  We have a Meat Fund (separate cash purse) and a Bulk Fund, which goes into a separate savings account (since it's not accessed regularly).  The money is transferred on payday.   The Grocery Challenge money has it's own coin purse, too.

Suffolk_lass said:

Sitting here wondering what you are going to do with all that cinnamon Pip...

It'll be used for baking and curries.  I've refilled the cinnamon Douwe Egbert coffee jar, which takes about 500g and will last a couple of years. The jar is airtight and is stored in the dark so there shouldn't be too much deterioration in flavour in that time.

HTH

Pip

Greenglockenspiel

PipneyJane said:

Greenglockenspiel said:

joedenise said: 

Would it be worth setting up a separate budget for bulk buys?  I do that with meat as I like to buy my pork and dry cure bacon online and also quite often do a big meat shop at my local butchers for things like steak and joints every couple of months.  This is in addition to my grocery budget.  I find it quite useful to have this separate budget.

Yes, potentially - how do you go about doing it in practice? Put aside some money in an easy access account? I sweep everything that’s in our current account the day before payday into our mortgage OP pot so I don’t usually carry money across from month to month so need to work out how it could work for my technique!

I'm not the original poster but I do the same as @joedenise.  We have a Meat Fund (separate cash purse) and a Bulk Fund, which goes into a separate savings account (since it's not accessed regularly).  The money is transferred on payday.   The Grocery Challenge money has it's own coin purse, too.

Suffolk_lass said:

Sitting here wondering what you are going to do with all that cinnamon Pip...

It'll be used for baking and curries.  I've refilled the cinnamon Douwe Egbert coffee jar, which takes about 500g and will last a couple of years. The jar is airtight and is stored in the dark so there shouldn't be too much deterioration in flavour in that time.

HTH

Pip

joedenise said:

Greenglockenspiel said:

joedenise said: 

Would it be worth setting up a separate budget for bulk buys?  I do that with meat as I like to buy my pork and dry cure bacon online and also quite often do a big meat shop at my local butchers for things like steak and joints every couple of months.  This is in addition to my grocery budget.  I find it quite useful to have this separate budget.

Yes, potentially - how do you go about doing it in practice? Put aside some money in an easy access account? I sweep everything that’s in our current account the day before payday into our mortgage OP pot so I don’t usually carry money across from month to month so need to work out how it could work for my technique!

I use YNAB and have a separate budget set up for it.  Most of the money is just left in the current account, originally earning 3%, then reduced to 1.5%, then 1% now.  Reducing again August to 0.6% so will be moving account shortly. Just need to look where I'm going to move it to!

It doesn't sound like you use YNAB but could easily be done using a spreadsheet.  Just set up categories and put money into each one every month.  It's probably easier now as we have paid off our mortgage but it is certainly doable with a spreadsheet and perhaps different savings accounts.

Don't know if that's any help but hopefully it is.

Thanks both, that’s helpful. I don’t use YNAB or indeed cash really, but I can definitely set up a  section on my spreadsheet and put it in a separate account. Might merge it with my Christmas pot (but track on the spreadsheet how much is for which purpose) as OH is getting a bit twitchy about having too many accounts! The 5L of fabric softener was only £12 so didn’t mind taking that out of the usual budget so much, £18 for 500g coffee however... 😱

joedenise

Wow!  that's expensive coffee!  I buy coffee beans and they cost about £12 Kg and I think that's expensive but we don't drink loads of coffee so lasts at least a couple of months so not too much per month.

Greenglockenspiel

joedenise said:

Wow!  that's expensive coffee!  I buy coffee beans and they cost about £12 Kg and I think that's expensive but we don't drink loads of coffee so lasts at least a couple of months so not too much per month.

I know, it’s Cafedirect so Fairtrade/ethical at least. It’s only OH who drinks it so should last him a good few months! I think he’s still got a couple of small bags of ground coffee from our travels in Central America, but was out of instant (and is lazy 😂).

MrsSnowy

Morries delivery Monday,up to £150 in the basket...!! 
I came upon a 14kg bag of SR flour today,after a little dithering it popped in the car,£7.99. It really would have been rude to have left it. I do need flour and I am sharing it with friends,so its a win win.
Freezer tea tonight,pea soup for lunch was made with 2016 peas,it was very good!
Mrss

thriftwizard

£5.40 spent today at the bakers & the greengrocers, on bread, bananas, peas & some little marigolds to frighten the Cabbage Whites down at the allotment! Didn't know the greengrocers had started doing plants - probably whilst the garden centres were closed - but they were doing a roaring trade, more power to their elbows!

Doom_and_Gloom

£13.96 spent yesterday.
OH was a happy bunny yesterday as I managed to pick up a pack of the 6 large organic eggs he likes and hasn't been able to get any in a while. Was amazed, but very thankful, that I managed to get them home in one piece.

£205.15/£300.
£94.85 left.

SJAllicat

£26.90 spent this week, on 1 bottle wine for this weekend, more milk, tamari soy sauce and GF Worcester sauce, some fruit and salad bits, sausages for Sunday lunch, a GF fajita kit, and other bits to see us through till next week since we managed to get to As*a and our local shops don’t stock Tamari etc and I use it all the time. Was really missing it. So now spent £198.68/£200 so no way am I going to be able to make it another 2 weeks without spending 😳. I’m going to just try and not go over by too much. I’m afraid I think it’s my alcohol purchases that are tipping us over, but since we don’t drink that much I’m not going to beat myself up about it, just maybe more realistic about what I need to allow for our budget . Also the GF bits we buy that are so much more expensive overall.