April 2023 Grocery Challenge

KajiKita

Verulamium_Vixen said:

Thank you for the welcome.
I have just looked through the bank account and can review my spending. 
From March 10th to Aprol 9th I spent £930 on shopping at local supermarkets in amounts front £5 in a day to £58 in a day.
Some days I have done 2 or 3 shops at lunchtime and at the end of the working Day.
I work in the city centre and have M&S and Tesco just a short journey away.
I justify frequent trips in my search for yellow stickers but clearly that approach isn't working.
That £930 includes 1 bulk shop at Aldi, loo rolls, tinned stuff and washing powder etc which cost £106 , the rest is ad joc spending.
I need to have a work on my spending and my attitude to shopping and aim to take slow steps to reducing my spending.
I think aiming to cut my monthly spending on groceries by at least 20% as a starting point and see how that goes.
I also need to curb the yellow sticker hunt.
X

It sounds like packed lunches (sandwiches, salads, leftovers reheatable in a microwave if work has one) and your own drinks would make a massive difference to you as well? Then you wouldn’t have the need to go to the shops during the day?

KK

joedenise

Verulamium_Vixen said:

Thank you for the welcome.
I have just looked through the bank account and can review my spending. 
From March 10th to Aprol 9th I spent £930 on shopping at local supermarkets in amounts front £5 in a day to £58 in a day.
Some days I have done 2 or 3 shops at lunchtime and at the end of the working Day.
I work in the city centre and have M&S and Tesco just a short journey away.
I justify frequent trips in my search for yellow stickers but clearly that approach isn't working.
That £930 includes 1 bulk shop at Aldi, loo rolls, tinned stuff and washing powder etc which cost £106 , the rest is ad joc spending.
I need to have a work on my spending and my attitude to shopping and aim to take slow steps to reducing my spending.
I think aiming to cut my monthly spending on groceries by at least 20% as a starting point and see how that goes.
I also need to curb the yellow sticker hunt.
X

It would be a good idea for you to do an inventory of your freezer(s) and cupboards to see what you already have.  From there you can menu plan so you would only need to shop for anything you haven’t actually got or even better menu plan with what you have.

It definitely sounds as though you need to curb your YS hunting!

Good luck with reducing your spending.

zafiro1984

This month has been quite a mixture.
There's been some good and definitely some bad.

The budget was £213.60p 
The bad bit was I spent £356.64 - that's £143.04 over budget
However the good bit is by using Easter offers, YS and comparing prices I managed to save £158.25 over what would have been the normal prices and the freezers are full to bursting. 

I work on a daily £7.12p so theoretically I shouldn't shop unit the 16th May, that could be difficult but by the end of May I hope to be back on track

Nelliegrace

@Verulamium_Vixen
Good luck with reducing your grocery spending. DH had the same temptation when he worked in a city centre, and shopping was his outlet for the stress of working with the public. He justified the spending by buying sale items and getting a bargain. Visiting the library or art gallery, or even a walk did not help his stress as much as shopping.
He was having treatment for depression.   

Verulamium_Vixen

KajiKita said:

sounds like packed lunches (sandwiches, salads, leftovers reheatable in a microwave if work has one) and your own drinks would make a massive difference to you as well? Then you wouldn’t have the need to go to the shops during the day?

KK

Hi, I already take in packed lunch, teabags and milk. I just go shopping for the family bits and pieces.

Verulamium_Vixen

Nelliegrace said:

@Verulamium_Vixen
Good luck with reducing your grocery spending. DH had the same temptation when he worked in a city centre, and shopping was his outlet for the stress of working with the public. He justified the spending by buying sale items and getting a bargain. Visiting the library or art gallery, or even a walk did not help his stress as much as shopping.
He was having treatment for depression.   

I agree, there's only so many times I can go to the museum. 
I might just go for a walk with my headphones and listen to an audio book. 

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

Yes please let me do this again

last 2 weeks of March went a bit iffy because I wasn’t very well



£250 

£9.91 spent

it was a beautiful day yesterday so went to the park with my daughter and whilst I was in town I got a few things in the Tesco express. I have a big shop coming today but we didn’t have enough bread and milk to see us through for breakfast, lunch, hot drinks. Whilst I was in there I got a pizza for dinner seen as we were getting home later and no time to do a pasta bake that I had planned. I also check out the reduced section. I managed to get 2 chicken breasts for £1.29 a packet so I got 3 packets. I’ve got some chicken meals planned this week and that will do nicely. 

I then went into the Sainsbury’s local and found some crispy sliced potatoes reduced for 39p so got them to compliment dinner. 

£240.09 left 

£146.56 spent 

it was a hugeee Tesco shop this week!

the lamb legs and beef joints are on offer so it was almost £25 just for those but the size of them the beef will do 2 meals and the lamb 3 maybe 4.

As money was tight last week I really exhausted down our supplies so I’ve had to stock up on a lot of things. It being Easter week my daughter is not in nursery so I’ve made sure she’s got a few extra things, more fruit mainly to keep her full. 

The veg was on 19p which is great as I needed potatoes, carrots and onions. Diet Coke was £7.50 for 24 cans and I’m determined to see that over a month as I’m trying to cut back my usage. Normally I have a can every day but I’m trying to cut that back to every other day. One, for my health and 2 the cost of them 

next week won’t need to be a big shop as the meat/fish I’ve got will do is 2 weeks. I’ll need fresh items - milk, bread, fruit, veg.

£93.53 left 

£42.20 spent 

very small shop needed just for fresh items. I also got the salmon on offer as today is the last day. I’ve got tons of meat and fish in my freezer now with some reductions my sister kindly gave me. 

£51.33 left 

£4.74 spent 

went to my sisters yesterday and got into town just before 5pm. I always do a stalk in the Tesco express and M&S for reduced food. The Tesco was rubbish, not enough money took off especially when they are more expensive than the main stores. The M&S I hit jackpot. I got 2 x 2pk of burgers 93p each, proper big posh ones and the posh hot dogs 6pk was £1.42 each so got 2 packets of those. Nothing else took my fancy in there but still very pleased 

£46.59 left

I have been keeping tabs on my spending 

£7.48 last week on fruit, milk, bread and the week before was £40.67 

I am slightly over and I’m getting a shop on Sunday 30th BUT only because I want to packs of Coke Zero on offer that ends on Sunday else I could wait till Monday so I’m counting that shop in May 

2Scratters

@Verulamium_Vixen welcome to this very helpful and friendly group.
 It is good that you are aware of what you need to do but keep getting caught out. The task will be if no YS then leave the other items alone - WIP
 Someone has already suggested to do an inventory of freezer items. There is also a printable sheet I found on the web (sorry can't remember where) to put items on and then there are boxes to mark in with a \ and then mark / when item used. This would then show a full X. 
Very visual and should work with  family too if they remove an item. 

Good luck

2 Scratters xx

JingsMyBucket

Morning folks. A few spends to update. £48.84 spent on a Tesco order on Sunday and £10.76 spent in M & S on Monday. 

I just returned from running errands and spent £27.89 at M & S on 2 packs of chicken leg quarters, YS mushrooms, 2 YS buttermilks, milk, mozzarella, 2 quiches & sliced chicken in their deli deal, strawberries, YS Italian antipasto deli meats, ciabatta, a seedy loaf and some other items. I got there at a good time because there were lots of YS offers but I kept to only the ones I know I'd use in the next few days or next month. The buttermilks are going into the freezer later this evening as I have some baking planned for later in May. 

My Sparks card had a lot of good offers on it like 15% off fruit, dairy, and fish or poultry so those kicked in. Mr. Jings' Sparks card had an offer for free Swiss chocolate so I ran that through separately and got a nice hazelnut chocolate bar for the weekend. 

Here's what's on the menu the next few days: 

• Roast chicken with balsamic vinaigrette, salad, roasted cubed potatoes 
• Thai Shrimp curry soup (frozen shrimp in the freezer)
• Hippie sandwiches with lots of sprouts, veg, etc. 
• Fruit and oat muffins - recipe from Aldi

£446.50 spent  / £400.00 budget

We're really over budget and I think I'm going to call it for April now. We definitely have enough to last us through the weekend until Monday. I'm planning to ramp down our spending for May and eat more from the freezer. We'll also be away for 5 days so that will cut down on the budget a bit too. Sigh... @Verulamium_Vixen welcome to the boards! This is the process we're all going through so don't feel bad at all regarding your budget. You'll work your way through it and we're all here to help each other.  

Cocobeans

Another shop today as OH is staying at home this weekend while me and DD go to a wedding so bought him some milk, bread and easy dinners.  Total spent this month is £292 / £250 but its been a crazy month and would have spent more if I hadn't re-joined this challenge!

£292 / £250 spent