July 2022 Grocery Challenge

gill5blue

@elsiepac

Can you correct my monthly to £250 please, also remove the weekly amount listed as I want to go monthly from now please

Gill

Finstickle

Hi All,

I've not been here for a while as I changed job in Feb and so my eye has been off the ball, however after a couple of expensive months and with the way food prices are going it needs to get firmly back on the ball!!!

My target for 2022 was £15.50pd which includes, toiletries, cleaning products, takeaways and some alcohol (OH drinks more than me so pays for some of his to even it out).
I also bulk buy meat at present, hoping to do more bulk buying of dried goods too, so am going to track monthly and for the remainder of the year.

So @elsiepac can you put me down for:
July:   £465
2022: £2,830

I'm going t track by category a bit more also, previously snacks and beverages were higher than I'd like.  I have some veg in the ground but was late in so only getting lettuce at the moment - still it all helps!

Elisheba

Right, I am on this this month!  Food plan done.  Shopping list done.  Going to Lidl on Saturday morning!!!!! One person, for all the things except pet stuff - 

£100 for the month please, @elsiepac?

CoffeeSonata

£300 for the month please @elsiepac.

That’s for 2 adults, eating out is usually a separate budget if it’s an occasion or planned dinner out.
It’s the same budget if it’s lunch out or bought lunch or takeaway / pizza because I can’t be bothered to cook or am too busy/ unwell. 

I could probably drop it and need to really work on getting it lower asap, but I’m recovering from Covid again and have surgery in July and it’s the end of term/ planning for summer provision - ie crazy busy in my business. Along with 2-3 weekends away or part away so I’m sticking at £300 which is probably still a challenge.  

Naturelover22

Hello all,
Just updated my husband on our figures for last month and decided on this month which is below. Doing a big shop at the weekend as we have a lot of basics to replenish.

£390 for 2 adults, 2 cats, 3 guinea pigs. All food/drink, household products and pet products.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning July GC'rs!

Another spend to 'fess up 😊  I went to HB to stock up on (mostly) non-food, household items (which have to come out of my £200 budget).  Phew!  OK, so several food items were put in the trolley too, and one could definitely have been left out as it was 'luxury' (small pot of chutney, to try the flavour......), but £20.95 spent...........🙁 

This question is rhetorical, because (believe me), I do realise that alot of us are in precisely the same boat, within or without the MSE site, but "where is the extra money supposed to come from to continue meeting these price hikes?"  My shop today was predominantly stuff to 'keep us clean'.  Nowt fancy; soap to go with water from the tap, washing up liquid, loo paper.  It wasn't even hoarding/stashing quantities, it was 1 to replace the one used/in use at the mo, iyswim.

And yes, I agree, perhaps I was silly to get the stuff 'all' from HB, and I certainly noticed that some of their prices (particulalry, it has to be said, on branded items), have started to be eye-watering, but as we've discussed before, it's a fine line between fuel/time used to 'save' a penny or three at the next shop along (if you're lucky enough to be in close proximity to a range of shops - many are not). 

 And no, our household doesn't put 3 capfuls of detergent in each wash, nor use half a bottle of WUL each evening to get the bottle to make a model 'Tracy Island'........ 😉(age-related BP reference there.......🤣).  Ho hum.

Onwards and upwards chums.

Greying X

pamsdish

£32.26 in A1D1, did get quite a few items for stocks, fresh veg, no courgettes, asked friend if she can get in T0sc0, total includes 2 pillows, supposed to be cooling, also had to purchase a new remote for my freeview box, £7.88 as I had left it on the bed and dog has chewed the corner, just the on/off button not working, so can manage until it arrives, first thing she has damaged in 7 weeks. 

wishus

Hello, I would like to join with a budget of £150 for two please!

This is not including my £20 milk bill.

I did really well last month. Bit more of a challenge this month.

mumtoomany

Hi @Greying_Pilgrim. An impossible answer to your rhetorical question. Find the cheapest place for all the things you buy, say if Aldi is cheaper overall for these things. Then visit once and buy for several months at a time. This, of course is impossible, because you come up against the "Vimes boots" paradox.  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned for anyone who doesn't know this. Or just stay dirty? Good luck with finding a solution, hugs, mumtoomany.xx

Greying_Pilgrim

mumtoomany said:

Hi @Greying_Pilgrim......... Or just stay dirty? Good luck with finding a solution, hugs, mumtoomany.xx

🤣🤣🤣 Dear mumtoomany - may I select your second option??? 🤣🤣🤣 Unfortunately the rest of the Greying fam. have standards/don't fancy social ostracisation .....🤣

That's the thing, I really now don't think there are any answers for people who've been living this life for sometime.  I always keep open minded that I will somewhere discover 'a' (as opposed to 'the') solution, but I've yet to come across it.  I'm always willing to learn new tricks, just think we do 'most' of them now.  I just watched a frugal blogger give her 10 'rules' they (choose to) live by - I think we operate similarly. No take out/meals in restaurants, make do & mend, go without, compare/know prices, budget.  I'm not knocking the vlogger, I actually agree that these things help, or they did..........

HB is my lowest cost/for a given quality level/availability of certain products, choice 🙁

I was just sort of thinking out loud, I don't see what the solution can be, just have to keep trying and accept that cutting down, and cutting out is the norm.  When I was growing up, we didn't have much, and life was very small, no holidays, menu repetition, cheap offal based dishes (we all ate meat at that point), hand me down/jumble sale clothes etc etc.  So this isn't anything thing new, and I'm old enough to have lived through fuel crises, strikes, inflation, recession, etc etc.  But I suppose I had just hoped that there may be something I could alter to free things up a little.  In many ways it helps to know that I haven't missed anything startlingly obvious, and I just need to keep plugging away, trying to do what I can.

Greying X