January 2008 Grocery Challenge

theamazinggem

is lidls any better? think we have one of those too?

belfastgirl23

Well I've had three NSDs in a row but it turns out it's easy when you're too sick to leave the house This has been a pretty unpleasant dose, I'm used to colds where you have a runny nose and sore throat but this one left me feeling too rough to get out of bed. Or even to eat:eek: and let me tell you this is unheard of for me. Tattycath how're you feeling now?

Aytch I too saw the Jamie Oliver show :eek: I'm trying to reinforce good behaviour patterns and thought this would help. And it did.

Hoping for a very low spend weekend. TBH still not really feeling up to doing too much shopping and DH is away for most of next week so plan to survive from the freezer as much as possible. Although I have just re-realised (cos I did know it before) that we have one more weekend after this before payday so January really doesn't officially end till 31st for me. Fingers crossed, I'm really hoping to make it

Good luck to everyone else.

izoomzoom

Went to Mr S again last night.

They are really mean :mad: at our local S, because they only do the reductions for about 10%. At 9pm last night, there was still tonnes left on the reduction shelf. Meanies !!!!!

I managed to spend £10.88 when I went in last night. Essentially it was on milk, marg, bread, fruit, 24p biscuits and a 57p snack for the boys lunch (it was a pack of those go ahead crispy slices. There were 5 packs in the pack, and 3 slices in each, so I got the boys to try one (shared) this am, and they said they liked it so they got one slice each, as a snack for school). God I am mean, especially in that I would normally flatten one of those whole packs (ie 3x5) in one go myself, but my diet won't allow that at the minute ...

Not sure how to budget DH cigarettes. At the moment it is not part of GC budget. I really want him to see how much his fags are costing and hopefully it will be incentive for him to stop. I reckon he spends £15-20 a week - thus £60-80 a month and I feel quite resentful for this, espeically when you compare what I am trying to achieve with our GC budget, and that is for 4 of us.

Do you reckon I should give him £60 to last the month, or get him to buy £60 odd worth of cigs or what? Even at £60 I still feel resentful, iykwim :mad:

willow_girl

Just updated for the month and although we've come under budget each week I don't quite know what we've been eating coz I know I haven't been cooking as I should :rolleyes: .

Back to the meal plans I think;)

shelovestobuystuff

Have I fallen at the first hurdle?Last year I did the grocery shopping mainly online but so far this year the kids have been ill alot and with one thing and another taking up all of my time hubby has been doing the grocery shopping since the new year.We havn,t been buying much at all as we had lots left from xmas including a side of venison(1 big joint left) and 4 pheasant breast he got for absolutely free for doing some work for someone(we feed a lot of people over the xmas hols).I told him last night I had set our grocery target at £200 a month and asked him to estimate what he had spent already on shopping since the new year,£150!!!Less than half way throught he month and £50 left.He has been spoiling our new dogs and buying boxes of doggie biscuit bones every day to use as training treats,no need,they are quite happy with an extra bit of their dry mix complete food while training.Hubby is also in the very bad habit of buying the most expensive version of everything,its just since I really started to be strict with the grocery spending.He buys too many tesco finest things and brand name biccies.AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!
I have to go and do a cupboard and freezer inventory now!!!
I need to go on a diet anyway:rolleyes:

Frugaldom

izoomzoom wrote: »

Went to Mr S again last night.

They are really mean :mad: at our local S, because they only do the reductions for about 10%. At 9pm last night, there was still tonnes left on the reduction shelf. Meanies !!!!!

I managed to spend £10.88 when I went in last night. Essentially it was on milk, marg, bread, fruit, 24p biscuits and a 57p snack for the boys lunch (it was a pack of those go ahead crispy slices. There were 5 packs in the pack, and 3 slices in each, so I got the boys to try one (shared) this am, and they said they liked it so they got one slice each, as a snack for school). God I am mean, especially in that I would normally flatten one of those whole packs (ie 3x5) in one go myself, but my diet won't allow that at the minute ...

Not sure how to budget DH cigarettes. At the moment it is not part of GC budget. I really want him to see how much his fags are costing and hopefully it will be incentive for him to stop. I reckon he spends £15-20 a week - thus £60-80 a month and I feel quite resentful for this, espeically when you compare what I am trying to achieve with our GC budget, and that is for 4 of us.

Do you reckon I should give him £60 to last the month, or get him to buy £60 odd worth of cigs or what? Even at £60 I still feel resentful, iykwim :mad:

I kwym re the cigs - I'd suggest you use Martin's demotivator; I have my print-out lying on my desk laminated as a very large coffee mat :rotfl: The link is at right hand side of this page under 'free tools'. Just key in the amount per pack, how often he buys them and then print off the result. Present this to DH along with less than that amount and simple explain that you can't afford to burn THAT amount of money . (I smoked 40 a week, which cost just under £40 a month, which had to come out of my £120/month grocery bill last year )

MRSMCAWBER - You are doing so well!! And all that weight you have lost is incredible!

Everyone here is doing great, it makes me a teanzy, weanzy bit jealous that we don't live anywhere near a big supermarket so I could grab all these excellent bargains. But then I would probably see loads of other things I wanted and it would defeat the purpose. Last time friend and I went a shared-shop we had a day trip to one of those massive T stores (sad, I know, but it felt like going on holiday!!) I never realised how massive these new stores are - bit daunting if you aren't used to them, I can tell you! But WOW! And now they have built two different stores near my mum's. Are we allowed to name stores in these threads? Just thought, I might have been breaking rules again by talking about the Co-op?

belfastgirl23

SLTBS I think you should just draw a line under what has happened. Set yourself a budget for the last couple of weeks of January ( a realistic one, not a punishment one) and get going with it. The kids were sick, these things happen. I think you've identified that you need to keep your DH out of supermarkets though. Mine is similar so I do the big shop on line and try to do any other shopping without him. I can guarantee it'll be at least £5 more on a smallish (£20) shop if he comes, partly because if someone puts temptation in my way I do tend to think 'what the heck'

cheerfulness4

So impressed when people come in under budget. You're doing very well. :T

I've just got back from Netto and topped up with essentials for next week.
Veg, potatoes, eggs, loo rolls, sugar,coffee, etc etc. Spent £11.28. :eek: That really hurt! (oh £1 was on seeds. 5 pks for £1 was a bargain for my veg seeds)

I need to get more milk, but noticed that Netto is doing a 'weekend special' of their 1 lt skimmed milk (UHT) for 29p, so will stock pile as kids dont mind that. Cant let a bargain like that pass.
Shall buy some fresh milk from Tescos, too. And might possibly need a couple of loaves of bread later in the week. Other than that, I'm done for the week.

Despite the fact that I've long since spent my £29 in my purse and am dippping into some extra money we saved for paying into CC, I'm suprised I've not overspent by more.
Adding up my total, rather than counting down, if you get me, seems to have a psychological effect on me.
Will do my challenge this way next month too when I go onto weekly housekeeping.

Thank goodness for this thread to keep me on the straight and narrow.

JoJoB

Spent £31.95 in aldis and have lovely full cupboards, all cooking from scratch materials and no ready meals.

Just ran my shopping list through my supermarket as i had a sneaking suspicion aldis may come in about the same as tesco. Chose all the value items where possible. Results as follows:

Tesco - £43.57 (saving £11.62)
Asda - £46.89 (saving £14.94)
Sainsbury's - £49.84 (saving £17.89)
Ocado - £61.07 (where I used to shop, but aldis has saved me a whopping £29.12) :eek:

Tesco is certainly worth popping into for a quick scour of the reduced items though, particularly bread stuff which can be frozen (and it is near where I work so don't have to spend extra on bus fare).

My budgetting hasn't gone too well though, but I only have 20 quid to last me the month now so won't do too much more damage!

meanmarie

Spent €64.87 to-day, leaving me €100.30 to last me until 31st...very pleased with myself and when I came home, my guest had been out and bought 4 huge steaks for dinner to-day and stir-fry chicken for to-morrow...means that I won't be using the chicken that I meant to roast to-day, nor fish for to-morrow...so we look as if we are going to be well below this month...long may it last.

Good luck to all

Marie

Just realised...have been miscalculating, have spent €236.02, leaving me with €93.98...not even sure if that's right, have thoroughly confused myself now, will have to go through all receipts again....OH HORSE FEATHERS!