January 2008 Grocery Challenge

rugbymum

I used to have a strict budget of £10 per person per week but it's crept up horrifically over the last few months. Being realistic, I'm putting this up to 12.50 each because so many things have gone up in price; milk, cheese, chicken and especially bread flour (I make my own).
I'm going back to that and adding £25.00 for petrol and extras, giving me a grand total of £87.50 per week.
Here's wishing everyone luck and fingers crossed for myself!;)

cornishlady

tattycath wrote: »

Hi everyone. Welcome to all the newcomers!!!
OH has told me tonight that I can have understairs cupboard as a pantry-It does open into the kitchen. I've just got to empty all the cr*p out of it, clean it up and give it a coat of paint. Then I can maximise my multisaves and bulk purchases!!!:j So many projects going at the same time. Doing DDs bedroom at the mo and now doing the pantry, got to finish the lounge-just the glossing to do. Trying to do it all as old style (financially as opposed to old fashioned) as possible. So this grocery challenge will be worth it's weight in gold. Although I am setting fairly conservative targets I hope to be well under budget some months. January should be one of them as my cupboards are well stocked, as are freezers. So... Fingers crossed!!! I have decided that when I am under budget I will save the rest of the money from the budget in a separate pot, and hopefully will have enough to have a 'free month' i.e just spend what is in the pot when I have managed to save enough. I am doing same as last year and saving morrisons stamps for december 2008 and I have 5 already.
Anyway I'm waffling now so I'l go and put kettle on and psyche myself up for tearing more wallpaper off the walls in DDs bedroom.
Continued good luck to everyone else.

hi Tattycath,good idea about saving any surplus budget, i was thinking about saving money saved using money off vouchers

Bobbykins

Hi Bails

there are a couple of sites you might find usefull. The one where you can compare prices in the "big 4" supermarkets is:

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk


and the one which shows all the offers (BOGOF and so on) at the "big 4" is:

http://www.fixtureferrets.co.uk

bails

Any money I save from money off vouchers or BOGOF etc, I put into my PMS Fund. If I have any left over from the GC it'll go in there too. Aiming for 5 grand saved this year.

Ooh, thankyou for that Bobbykins, I'll go have a look. My Thanks button has disappeared at mo but I will click it when it comes back!

kbl

Was talking to my sis this evening and telling her about this website and thread (she hates the computer, so would never join), and she put me on a plan. She reckoned that when she was working two jobs and her late husband ran the house (he was ill for a long while) he always managed to spend far less than she would. Part of it included cooking double and freezing it etc, but he also used to act as if there was eight days in week instead of seven, buy the extra dinner then at end of month, when money was especially tight, they would have a no spend week, it sounds like something I could do in the easy months (like now, have counted my contents of freezer and have meat in for 19 dinners!!!) Worth a thought, eh?

brummiebabe

LouiseJ wrote: »

• Missed a credit card payment and incurred a £12 charge

If you don't normally miss payments -try giving them a ring & asking that they consider refunding it. Most banks/credit card companies will do this if it's not a regular occurence.

Oh...also...I got my £38 charge from Natwest refunded:T - so my shopping budget until 23rd January WILL be £350.

First spend today - popped to local Sainsbury's (had voucher for £5 off) - spent £54.38 but now have sufficent loo rolls,& washing powder for the rest of the month plus enough food until next planned shop (Friday)

Need to get super organised later in the week & get back to doing online shopping as I'm back to work on the 7th after 14 months off with DD!! I don't want to go......

Oh...it's my birthday tomorrow so am having a chinese takeaway :drool: - this comes out of my 'extras' budget though!

Happy New Year _party_ to you all - probably shan't get online tomorrow!

Bobbykins

As you wont have time to be online tomorrow, Brummiebabe........

:bdaycake:

Have a great day!!!

EagerLearner

Happy Birthday Brummiebabe!

Murtle

Hello

New Year, New start (again) last year didn't seem to work too well with money in general, so this year I am tightening the hatches so to speak

Can I join in for £150 1st - 31st January please!!

I have to admit to having NO idea how much we spend at the moment so this will be very interesting to see how we last, there are two adults and two cats!

Thank you and good luck fellow shoppers (or not!!)

M

catralense

I'd like to join please!

I've just picked myself up off the floor after a nasty shock...have just checked our account online to discover that we've only got £650 to last until the 15th Jan, which sounds wonderful except that we've got approx £1000 worth of outgoings until then too :eek: :eek: .

We've got a freezerful of food so things aren't that bad - we'll only need to buy fruit, milk and bread hopefully. I'd like to only spend £25 from the 1st to the 15th Jan. No idea if this is do-able but I'll give it a try!

Verity

P.S. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a decent bread recipe for bread machines? We've got a (currently) unused Breville bread machine and I can't find the instructions/recipes! TIA.