February 2024 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Just checking in, my running total is £309.02 now.

More than I would have liked really as this is almost a 5 week month for us from payday to payday. I still have three weeks until our new month. Not sure if I can reign this one in on budget but I will try.

I have two large drawers in my freezer full of dahl, veg mix to go in a pie, and my vegan bolognaise 'mince' mix which I can turn into cottage pie, lasagna, spag bol or chilli type meals. I am hoping that the last week of the month I will only need fresh stuff and can live off cupboards and freezer and still have a healthy meal every dinner time. 

Giving my two teens £20 'pocket money' is helping the budget as I have told them I will buy treats every shopping day, but once they are gone they need to buy treats out of their own money until the next shopping day. It means I haven't done ANY top up shops!! Which is amazing for me! And well worth the £40 a month as I would have spent that on just one 'top up' shop. It is also helping them to be mindful about what they are eating, and just how much things cost these days. I have told them if they want something they will have to save for it out of that money too so they have the choice to binge bad foods or to save for something they want. 

Instead of buying ready made cakes I have made banana bread as a treat instead and protein balls for the kids (with dates, coconut and cacao). 
This week's meal plan is: 
mock duck in pancakes (our fakeaway night had this last night),
ratatouille (never frozen this so not sure if I can will search that one up)
Dahl (another fakeaway with poppadoms and chutney and salad)
Jacket potatoes
pie'n'mash (HM with ready rolled pastry I am making this today)
Burger and chips (after school club night so kids can make this whilst I work)
Sausage and mash 

So although I have a meal plan I will ask everyone what they fancy on any particular day and just cross off the meals as we eat them. I think everyone feels like they have some choice over food then, even if they don't really

I try to throw a few grown up meals in with kids favourites so they can't complain...this week was more on their side, next week I think will be more curries and stews that they don't particularly favour lol. Although my DS told me yesterday he could happily eat my dahl every day and asked me to show him how to cook it

Well done with the teens, @debtfreewannabe321.  The earlier they learn to budget and save for things they want, the better. 

I’ve highlighted your statement re ratatouille.  It’s a favourite dish of mine and freezes very well.  I usually cook it in bulk and freeze portions for months at a time.  My DH is not such a big fan because he doesn’t like the texture of sliced courgettes or aubergines (both go in mine).  He willl eat it, though, but I have to space out when I serve it. 

- Pip

debtfreewannabe321

@PipneyJane ah thank you! That's great news it can be frozen, I will perhaps allow the child who hates it the most to have something else out of the freezer and freeze their portion then 😁 thanks for that! DFW ❤️

London_1

So far not been near a shop to buy any extra food, so 4 NSDs 👍

keggie

Current spend is £99/240 which is far more than week 1 of January! We have friends coming over for supper so that together with a couple of bottles of wine and having to top up on some toiletries have meant I exceeded my normal £80 a week limit. 

Should hopefully balance it out during the month by eating from the freezer and making some more meals bulked out with lentils etc.

Blackcats

It's a 5 week month for us and I was about to set our budget at £400 (5 x £80) but this seems too high an I think it will make me complacent.  Also, we are eating out twice and going to a friend's for dinner so 3 evening meals won't be needed.  Eating out comes from another budget.
so I'm going to aim for £360.00 for February
balance remaining £272

lianne1984

£59 on my weekly Asd@ shop - definitely spending less now I've started doing online shops rather than going to the shop myself.

£59 / £250

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

February has not got off to a brilliant start for me, with a wisdom tooth that had a manageable slow hole suddenly going nuclear resulting in a trip to the dentist earlier than planned (annoyingly had appt on 21 Feb so was trying to hang on till then), and an unplanned extraction... £176 later for the emergency appt + extraction...!!!!!!! Because of first the pain of the bad tooth and then the extraction pain and resulting hole, I've been living off store bought soups and smoothies. Yes technically I could have been making my own, but honestly I have been feeling so awful with it it's the last thing I feel like doing. I've not really been too hungry as I've been in a lot of pain too, so basically I've just been all over the place. I'll have to be really frugal the rest of the month after the dentist costs and being over where I should with grocery budget at this time.  Thank goodness it's a short month.

£135.19 across 3 supermarket shops and some Slimming World bars at group (that I can't eat yet because of my tooth lol), plus my bulk spend this month of £111.33 means I've horrifically spent £246.52 already!!! I feel quite ill looking at that. And that's including the tenner my mum gave me as I had to give her a load of salad stuff etc from the fridge as I couldn't have anything hard, I said she needn't give me any money but she insisted.

I've averaged it out and it gives me about £15 a week for the last 3 weeks, plus about £8 for some veggies later this week if my tooth is feeling better. I am very well stocked up on baked beans, chickpeas, cannellini beans and tinned toms. I have all my coffee and almond milk for the month. I've got more vegan cheese and yoghurts than I will use this week, and tbh they are a luxury I will probably have to reduce massively later in the month, which is fine, just irritating.  I'm eating yoghurt quite a lot as it doesn't hurt my mouth.  I bought some potatoes and some vegan cream cheese (which isn't a product I would usually buy) as I thought it would be nice to mix into mashed potatoes as a soft food option.

Ugh, I'm glad Feb is short, because I'm already sick of it. Bonus points as I have my MOT this month too.

Herbyme

Carefully planned this weeks meals which isn’t easy with a vegan, a flexitarian and a body builder who eats double portions to cater for! Took my oh-so-carefully planned list to Ald1 and came back feeling quite virtuous. DH has been away this weekend so only me and DS to please. BUT I’ve just remembered DH said he’d ordered 4 meals from Hell0frsh!! Damn! First time for us, with a voucher of course. Luckily all my planned meals are freeze-able, and the ones he’s ordered are meat based so I’ll do my own thing. Note to self: listen properly!

£95 spent so far plus ?? For the HF order, but that should take us to next weekend.

A question: are there any good podcasts about budgeting for groceries, or budgeting generally?

Amateurretiree

Frugal Queen in France is my favourite ( Jane and Mike) on Youtube

Blackcats

@elsiepac - poor you.  Wisdom teeth a can be so painful.