May 2023 Grocery Challenge

diminua

£99.26 spent. I'm dogsitting yet again from tomorrow, so there will likely be food left for me, and then I'm probably on holiday from the 23rd to 27th (Amsterdam via Eurostar), which is holiday budget again. 

JingsMyBucket

Morning all and happy Sunday! It's been predicted to rain here today but it's looking not too shabby outside, thankfully. Our plans have changed around a lot due to our internet completely going out at the house since Friday afternoon. When BT was upgrading our upstairs neighbour, it seems they completely took out our line at the same time. 🙄 They won't be around to fix it until late Monday or early Tuesday they said. Double eye roll. So, Mr. Jings and I are sitting in his coworking space trying to get some work done instead of lounging at home on a nice Sunday. Phooey. 

Anyway, I have a few spends to declare from Friday. £1 at Poundland for foil. 

£18.00 at M & S for 2 packs of YS bacon; YS mushrooms; 2 packs of cheese sauce to make cauliflower/pasta bake; lemons; a lime; orzo pasta; leeks; garlic, and peanut butter. 

£16.36 spent by Mr. Jings at a local farm shop for a couple wedges of local cheeses, asparagus, and some greens. 

That should be all we need for the next few days as meals are planned. If anything, I might pick up some more bananas but I'll try to hold off to at least Wednesday. 

£165.29 / £300.00 spent so far. £134.71 remaining. 

Verulamium_Vixen

I am going to start my month off at £750 from May 15th to June 14th

It's payday tomorrow and I would therefore like to run the challenge  alongside my pay cycle as I do to monitor all the monthly outgoings 

I worked out that we spent over £900 in April at various local supermarkets so I am going to start with £750. This is for two parents,  a 20 year old son and 16 year old twins.
There are also two cats and a breastfeeding (not sure if that's the correct terminology) vixen to feed.

Twins doing GCSE's for the next 4 weeks so likely to need additional treats and snacks 

Looking forward to getting spending under control

Crazycatlady2

Verulamium_Vixen said:

I am going to start my month off at £750 from May 15th to June 14th

It's payday tomorrow and I would therefore like to run the challenge  alongside my pay cycle as I do to monitor all the monthly outgoings 

I worked out that we spent over £900 in April at various local supermarkets so I am going to start with £750. This is for two parents,  a 20 year old son and 16 year old twins.
There are also two cats and a breastfeeding (not sure if that's the correct terminology) to feed.

Twins doing GCSE's for the next 4 weeks so likely to need additional treats and snacks 

Looking forward to getting spending under control

Looking to see how you get on. I feed 5 of us….14 and up plus a dog cat and rabbit on similar amount. Good luck with the GCSE stint…I’ve just 1 doing it and expecting stress. Eldest didn’t sit them as his was during Covid exam cancellations 

Crazycatlady2

I’m on 200 inc my shop from Iceland tomorrow…fingers crossed it fits I. Freezer as only ordered as had a £8 off voucher. Didn’t include 3 evening meals we irdered delivery at centre parcs but I took breakfast lunch snacks and drinks with us. I had a Tesco shop of 160 on sat 29/4 so some of that carried into this month. April spend was just under 700 just from tesco so possibly a couple of little heron shops on that 

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

£81.25 spent

big Tesco shop as we were running low on many things

£168.75 left

£117.40

a big big shop from Tesco however there are reasons 

1, fizzy drinks (Diet Coke) is on offer 2 x 18 cans for £12 so ordered 2 but they subbed it for 4 x 10 so I’ve got like 40 cans plus some already in the cupboard! I won’t need any fizzy drinks till June now 

2, the growers harvest orange juice has gone up in price. I worked out buying 4 cartons of Tesco own is cheaper 4 for £3.50 so that will do us a good 2-3 weeks as my daughter drinks it diluted with water 

3, I’m 15 weeks pregnant so I’ve treated myself to smoked salmon on offer to get the good fats in my diet. 

4, stocked up on chocolates, crisps, other store cupboard essentials 

The following week won’t need to be a big one. My sister gifted me some meet so the freezer is quite full 

£51.35 left

£3.78 spent 

it was actually £8.78 but I used my points. I went into Sainsbury’s local yesterday at around 5pm and they had burgers reduced to 99p for 2, chilli and lime chicken reduced to £1.99 and bacon reduced to 99p. I got 2 bacon, 2 burgers and 1 chicken as that’s all that was there, I also got some bbq pork kebabs as they were on offer for £2.83 instead of £4 which I thought was ok.

£47.57 left 

Hoosrice

£88.72/£150 spend to date. Lots of ys in freezer..so hopefully will not need to spend as much for rest of month. Although always like to have a look and end up keep buying if something we like.  Sold a couple of things on gumtree so had a few treats that didn't include in budget.

Doom_and_Gloom

£93.23 is since last post at Mr S shops through the week and also tomorrows A&C delivery which I'm including now to make things simpler for me.

£192.00/£248.
£56.00 left.

Suffolk_lass

I am at £160 so far this month. I know my weakness is going off-list so I am delaying shopping for the time being. That said, I need milk tomorrow so I'm compiling a list. I might delay the stock cupboard items unless they are on offer.

I think that the key thing for anyone seeking to reduce their spending, is knowing where their own weakness lies (mine is a tendency to hoard, and shopping). I try to mitigate this by having milk and eggs delivered, and delaying the next shop by an extra day, using store-cupboard items to shop from home. I do write a list but as I go off-piste it really makes me buy more as I routinely over-restock.

An example is baking bread. The flour I prefer, now works out at £2 a kilo with delivery (it's Italian) but I buy a 25k sack. I might have to ask the sourdough group if any of them want some. It's something I don't want to compromise on and I do have several 10k buckets with clip-top lids so no danger of gribblies. I do only bake bread 1-2 a week though. Do I double it to 50k - no! It makes no sense! that does halve the shipping cost (the cost of customs declarations is the same for 1 or 20 sacks of the same commodity)

mumtoomany

Had to go to town, to buy bits to fix the leaking cistern in our on-suite. Called into Aldi for bread and fruit, veg shop closed. Spent a total of £7.62. Toal now at £823.92/£2640. DD2 and her OH coming today. May go shopping with her to make use of her staff discount. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx