January 2008 Grocery Challenge

bebee_2

Had a thought last night, and wanted to ask a question if i may.
Do you find doing the GC helps you eat more health?
I have gone over my meals for the last 2 weeks and found that the family are eating differently and actually eating things they would not have consider eating more than once in a blue moon.
example is Rice instead of chips
more vegtables/salad
baked postatoes
Just can't get OH to eat pasta though. anyone got any other suggestions

Just wondering, every few months I go and do a big shop of basics like pasta and rice which lasts me for ages, how do I budget that in my monthly target?

i wondered the same as i do a costco shop for t-rolls/toothpaste and coffee
do you just do a carry over on your budget

Bobbykins

Hi Clockwatcher and Bebee.

I don't do the big basics shop like you do every few months, but I would suggest that maybe the best thing to do would be to build in an average spend for it and include that in your budget - that way you are keeping track.

For example, if you usually spend about £120 every 3 months, you could bung £40 in you budget for it every month. Then, if you end up actually spending £125 on one of your trips, you've only got to find the extra £5 - hope that makes sense (I know what I mean!)

bebee.....regarding the healthier eating, yes I agree totally. Partly I think it's because we eat a lot less meat now. We tend to eat a veggie meal at least 3 times a week now.

cheers

Bobby

lil_me

I split it into what months it will last for bulk buys. For example I buy 3 sacks of dog food at a time usually (because I don't fall for puppy eyes and they get what I say ) then split this one a month. Some things if I have spare left in the budget I will stock up on and take from one month, like I did a coffee stock up this month when it was on offer, will buy rice next month, then pasta the month after....so it sort of evens itself out. You could alter the budget for the month when you do the bulk shops, spending less in other months etc, really just depends what works for you. I did a massive bulk shop on cleaning products with Wilkinsons, every time I use something from my 'stock cupboard' I put the money from my budget into a pot to save for the next bulk buy.

If your partner won't have pasta, what about cous cous?

Janeryan

TheBees wrote: »

Been reading the last few days threads and find it interesting reading everyones tips and advice.

Spent about £7 today as we needed fruit juice (from Lidl) and some cake ingredients for my Mums birthday cake tomorrow. Made the cake this evening with DD help then did some fairy cakes and muffins to freeze while the oven was on.

We still have 10 days to go until our challenge for Jan ends as we run from the 3rd to the 3rd to coincide with our visa bill! (We pay it off in full every month and save up all the loyalty points on it for Christmas or birthday spending). I liked somebody's idea of putting the grocery budget money in a pot and using that but this would be awkward for on line shopping. However I might give it a go some time.

This has been a really long month because it's 5 weeks so February should fly
by.

My biggest piece of advice to newcomers to the challenge would be to cook double meals and freeze one so that you always have a spare meal to hand when you are in a hurry or can't be bothered to cook.
We joined MSE last Autumn after realising by accident that we were spending over £400 month on groceries. Now we have got it down to £250 fairly easily and are enjoying the challenge.

Anyway enough of my ramblings - I'm off to bed.

Hi all

I was thinking of doing the same as The Bees-using my Sainsburys visa card to buy my shopping and that way get double nectar points and leave the cash in my mortgage offset account for longer.Just a bit scared that I might get a bit carried away and also not too sure how to judge the monthly budget as credit card cut off date is 16th and payday is 28th!I think I will experiment with it in Feb and see how I get on!

Have finished my January challenge as payday for DH is today this month(it is the Friday nearest the end of the month-weird I know!)


21/12 Budget £40-Spent £16.79
28/12 Budget £40-Spent £14.63
04/01 Budget £40-Spent £78.51
11/01 Budget £40-Spent £17.61
18/01 Budget £32.46 Spent £13.74

so Lil-me including this weeks shopping I have spent.......£141.28

I am totally amazed at how little I have spent!! I am underbudget by £58.72.

For me there will be 5 weeks in February due to DH weird pay scheme he will get paid on 29 Feb so will go for total monthly budget of £250.00.

See you all on the Feb thread

Clockwatcher

Boobykins and lil_me cheers, yep I think I'll just total up the cost pf the big shop and divide it out to a monthly total.

eek need to get coffee this weekend, but I'm skint so we'll see how that goes!

mrs-moneypenny

well done on coming in underbudget janeryan:T

ive gone over but i know that looking in my spends book £64.12 went birthday presents so thats used some of the money i was hoping to save for a bi monthly top up shop

belfastgirl23

Clockwatcher wrote: »

oh hello there, I'm new, defo will be starting this for next month, well probs the 31st of Jan as thats when I paid.

Just wondering, every few months I go and do a big shop of basics like pasta and rice which lasts me for ages, how do I budget that in my monthly target?

Cheers

I am trying this year to do a one month on one month off thing where I aim for about £100 one month and £150 the second month. So on the second month I'll get a big online delivery of all the heavy basics (enough LL milk, OJ, fizzy water etc to last 2 months). I'm due a big shop month in Feb. Most of the basics I order are never on bogof anyway (you don't get bogof lentils ) and I'm trying to spread my weekly minishop around different supermarkets so I can pick up whatever happens to be better value in that one. So I'm trying one week Lidl, one week Asda, one week sainsburys in the month. But this system is still in early stages will let you know how it goes.

Oh and Janeryan I've been stoozing using my grocery money by using my M&S card (which was on 0%). I just basically went online after doing a shopping and transferred however much £ I'd paid out from the grocery account to a savings account. I gained by getting M&S points as well as hopefully some interest on the savings (won't know how much till March). I did make about £150 in M&S points overall which was great for christmas.

meanmarie

Need to get some cat food today....he won't eat anything from Lidl although I suppose if he were hungry he would! There is the added problem atm that we have 3 'lurking' cats who seem well looked after but who hoover up every crumb that Luca leaves, so there is nothing there next time he needs a snack!

I also need fruit and probably milk will get enough to do until next Thursday and then spend nothing until 1st Feb.

Marie

rosieben

bebee wrote: »

Had a thought last night, and wanted to ask a question if i may.
Do you find doing the GC helps you eat more health?
...

Yes, definitely; not just that it makes you think about wasting money on cr*p, but also we're looking to make the most of what food we have and that usually means cooking better meals

kunekune

I have just been looking at how we've done this month, as DH has been paid and mine should go through tonight. And I am really chuffed. My budget for food for two adults, two children and no pets was £500, which is much more than most of you spend, but is still HALF of what we had been spending. I also wanted to do it without cheating, ie, to have a reasonable freezer stock still at the end of the month. Today I did my Sainsburys order for tomorrow, and even with lots of shower and shaving gel (don't ask how it all got used up!) the food portion of the order was 85. I have just done a bit of extra shopping, but basically I still have 35 to play with and we have more than enough in the house/ordered. Woohoo.