July 2021 Grocery Challenge

Tightpants24

First shop of the month totals £107.  Eek...already over budget.  Hopefully I'll be better next week.

FluffyBabyPenguin

I'd love to join this month's challenge please! I used to do this years ago but fell behind on my OS efforts after my third child was born. Now I need to take back control of our spending!

£400 for July. This probably seems high even for a family of 5 but I reckon I'm spending more than that at the moment, and the children are off school now.

Our local Lidls has moved from walking distance to across the town, and I've yet to get in the habit of a better shopping routine. Been mostly going to the local shops which in a way I haven't minded, supporting local businesses and all that, but they are more expensive and I buy a lot of their ready-made dinner options, and would like to cut down on that. Our oven is currently broken too so that's been a pain, don't know when we'll get it fixed either!

Suffolk_lass

For those of you spending more than you want to ...

Although there are lots of tips on trimming your budget at the start of every thread, it's a bit of a slog to read everything and I know I didn't do so until I had been doing this for quite a while.

I also do the Save £12k in 2021 challenge on the forum and have followed @slowlyfading (who runs that) on her web page (Frugal Cottage) and Youtube channel for quite a while. Anyway, if you want to change your runes with grocery shopping this Youtube item is worth watching (so are the £10 a week challenges on her channel) - Feed your family for £50 a week

Sallyp2

Started reading a book "The No Spend Year" by Michelle McGagh. Its 2017, so not a new book. Am using local library much more to avoid buying books that are read once and gather dust on shelves!
Anyway ... part one is "The Grocery Challenge". Lots of you on here may find it covers what you already do. But I liked these 2 ideas:
1) The Shopping List: Treat your trolley like a nightclub. You are the bouncer. If its not on the list, its not getting in!
2) Its about balance. Eat well and cheaply for the majority of the month, so that the occasional takeaway or meal out is guilt free. 
3) Napisan Powder  ... bear with me. It costs £4 for 800g in Sainsburys. It is used to treat stains in baby nappies / clothes. Its a fraction of the price of Vanish per 100g

Sallyp2

FluffyBabyPenguin said:

I'd love to join this month's challenge please! I used to do this years ago but fell behind on my OS efforts after my third child was born. Now I need to take back control of our spending!

£400 for July. This probably seems high even for a family of 5 but I reckon I'm spending more than that at the moment, and the children are off school now.

Hello Fluffy Baby Penguin. When you get 5-10mins, go into Mays Grocery Challenge. I cut and pasted some food spending figures, which provided me with an idea of what was a reasonable spend for my HH size. Some other folk found it useful reading, some people less so. Its worth a read anyway.

Money_Choices

Hi
On 1 July  I spent £13.25 at Morri$$ons which makes my target £13.25/£120.
Inspired by those who put their food spending stock, shopping and meals plans on this challenge, yesterday I did a stocktake of all the foodmy cupboards and fridge, freezer. I was surprised when this took 4 pages of A4 paper and then I did a meal plan. Meal planning and eating out of stock is not something I do on a regular basis, but that I'm trying for this month.

Money Choices

Sallyp2

Money_Choices said:

Hi
On 1 July  I spent £13.25 at Morri$$ons which makes my target £13.25/£120.
Inspired by those who put their food spending stock, shopping and meals plans on this challenge, yesterday I did a stocktake of all the foodmy cupboards and fridge, freezer. I was surprised when this took 4 pages of A4 paper and then I did a meal plan. Meal planning and eating out of stock is not something I do on a regular basis, but that I'm trying for this month.

Money Choices

Let us know how you get on. Good luck. Save some pennies

goldfinches

I ran into a problem this morning when my spoon scraped the bottom of the yoghurt tub and I realised that I'd forgotten to buy another one the other day so I went to M*rks and spent £3.40 on f/f yoghurt and organic milk to save me needing anything else until Friday. My new total is £12.75/£124 with a daily average spend of £3.18 which seems okay for now.

Finstickle

Money_Choices said:

Hi
On 1 July  I spent £13.25 at Morri$$ons which makes my target £13.25/£120.
Inspired by those who put their food spending stock, shopping and meals plans on this challenge, yesterday I did a stocktake of all the foodmy cupboards and fridge, freezer. I was surprised when this took 4 pages of A4 paper and then I did a meal plan. Meal planning and eating out of stock is not something I do on a regular basis, but that I'm trying for this month.

Money Choices

Thanks for the reminder @Money_Choices, i had been meaning to do ao stocktake, will add to the list for this week before the next big shop 

FluffyBabyPenguin

Thanks Sally, I will have a look out for that post! 

This morning as I was cleaning out the fridge, there were some unhappy looking veg (bendy carrots and two half-peppers) that I was about to throw in the bin but ended up cooking them up with lentils, coconut milk and spices, turning them into a delicious soup instead! Almost-free lunch. Took stock of the cupboards and found I have maybe 20+ portions of various noodles in there so they will feature heavily the rest of the week. 

Today was my first big shop of the month, so spent £72.08 in Lidl. Hoping I can stay under £100 for the week, will need milk and more meat in a few days.