January 2008 Grocery Challenge

In_Search_Of_Me

Mornng all! Just off to Mr T to do the last bits before the challenge starts. My freezer isnt that full as I defrosted for Christmas! Sorry to hear youve been having such a rough time . Hows the baby now?

lil_me

Fifi35, sorry but noone can tell you how much you should be spending, because everyone shops in different places, has different needs etc, it's such a personal thing. What many do is start with reducing what they are spending by 10% at a time, of course making notes where they can save, for example instead of the meals at work I would be making sandwiches (they could be done the night before, or some can even be batch made and frozen- still be fresher than most sandwich bars) things like that to help bring it down. I will add your name to the list, just let me know what figure you want to start at and I will add it from there.

lililou, really feel for you, my kids have always been ill in one way or another over Christmas, thankfully one got out Christmas eve a few years ago so have never spent Christmas day in hospital. Suppose when you have had the other 2 nasty bits of bad luck, that is your 3 out of the way and next year things can only get better.

md123

Hi

Hope you don't mind if I join in to. Have tried in the past but never last more than a few weeks.

Anyway, New Year, New start. Will start on January 1st and spend £60 per week on 2 adults, a 7 year old and a 4 year old.

I will spend the next few days making up meal plans and i will make sure I just go shopping once a week. Thats my problem I pop into the shop for milk and think I don't fancy whats in the house for tea and end up buying something new and throw out the other stuff:o. I know its a terrible waste and that is what I want to stop this year.

Will need to try and sort my kids eating out as well. They never want to eat what we are so I make them something else and a lot of the time they dont eat that either. So my other task is making the one meal and making sure that they haven't had a lot of junk throughout the day so that they actually eat what is put in front of them. Wont be easy but we will get there.

Beckyneedstosavecash

Hi everyone, I am very new to this but would very much like to join and see where I get to.

I would like to pub a budget of £75 for food in January - I have no idea if this is realistic or completely over the top for a month but I'll be sure to find out!

Week 1 (1st - 7th Jan) - £17 / £5.17 (£11.83 under budget!)
Week 2 (8th - 14th Jan) - £17 / £20.44 (£3.44 over!!)
Week 3 (15th - 21st Jan) - £17 / £2.20
Week 4 (22nd - 28th Jan) - £17 / £0
Week 5 (29th - 31st Jan) - £7 / £0


Thanks,
Becky

galacticgreen

Just managed to sort my signature, so hopefully that will help me keep on track. Going to sort my menu plans over the next couple of days, so wil post when I've done that.:j

azjh77

I notice I am on the weekly bit for 70..that 70 has to last me THE MONTH!!! I got paid the 21st of December and will get paid again on the 24th of January and so far have spent nothing from my budget (been eating all the Christmas goodies and my Mum's food!)...very tight budget this month but we'll see how it goes!

atypicalblonde

Count me in! I still haven't finished totting up December's total - I know I went over budget, but I'm not going to give myself too much of a hard time as it was my first month and it was Christmas so I bought a lot of extras.

I am going for £120 in January - best of luck everyone xx

lil_me

azjh77 sorry, changed that for you now, some of it I was just guessing if people did not say otherwise, full of cold and it's definately effecting my brain.

Everyone the list of our budgets is on post 11 which is (at the moment unless it gets much bigger) on the first page of this thread. At the end of the challenge if you either post in here or PM me your final spending I will add them to the list and we can see how we've all done. Then of course the list will be there to look back on over the year for how far we have come and how well we have all done. It's took some doing but the list is now alphabetical, well I think it is so easier to find everyone.

sweetpea03

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Evening everyone

Just thought i'd pop back on and let you know (for those who haven't seen on the Dec thread)that at the moment LIDLs white bread flour is on offer at 48p for a 1.5 kilo bag.. (i have just picked up 20 to take home with me shhhh), and they also have 1 kilo gammon joints to cook yourself on for £2.99...
Even if its of use to just one other person -im happy

Good luck everyone

Thank you very much for the tip MRSMCAWBER, dh has gone to pick up 10 bags for us, this will really help the budget this month :T

whatatwit

Right, as part of my "let's organise our spending for 2008" cunning plan, I must get back to budgetting and cutting down on silly spending.
Fortunately, I still have 2 days to indulge myself. :rotfl:

So.....my budget for January 2008 is..... cue drum roll....£300....:eek:

That's for 3 of us, and a cat...although he should have enough food to last as I buy it by the 10kg sack.

I am hoping that by this time next month, I will be perched here polishing my halo.