January 2008 Grocery Challenge

affordmylife

:j Ive been and stocked up today so my spends dont count.:j

So the challenge starts tomorrow and im all ready for it.

Should only need fresh stuff for hopefully most of January.

Got plenty in the fridge and freezer and the cupboards so I hope to succeed in this.

Good luck to one and all. And all the best for 2008.

annie123

Sorry if this is daft but as this month is my first, when do I start from and finish?
is it 1st to 31st or round it up week ending sort of thing, if you get my drift.

FBF2007

An extra £5.60 at home & bargain today, but still below the £50 for the week target.

natzini

Hello everyone!
I'm going to be gentle with myself this month, so count me in for £125 for the two of us (food, toiletries, cleaning). I'm prone to flares in January, so shall allow for a take away or two.

We have well stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer, and I went to Mr Ts today. Spent £32.60 including OHs cold and flu meds. I've put my menu plan on the food planning, and hope to get my budgeting sorted again.

lil_me

annie123 your month ends when it suits you, some worlk 4 weekly months, some mid month to mid month. Completely up to you as to what is best for you

Just had a look at the 4k for a year, not for me unfortunately, includes many things which I wouldn't have included and doesn't include those I would. So I might do something similar but the systems just not right for me.

I have included my spending from today as most of it will be used in January, I see no point stocking up the day before to spend less as doesn't save me anything or give me a real idea of what I am spending each month. My reason for doing this challenge is to save money.

irishwexford

Decided this month not to order from Mr T as I have so much meat in freezer so shopped at Lidl for cereal, dishwasher powder etc which came to £32.33, about half my spend at Mr T's, spent £10.84 at MrT's and £3.57 at our local co-op on cooking sauces bogof and have entered total spend on spending diary of £47.44. With cupboards and freezer full of meals I should only need fresh fruit, veggies and milk for rest of month. I really want to keep to budget this month or even come in under.
Happy New Year to everyone, we are staying in tonight as have early start tomorrow, off to see Norwich City play at Crystal Palace and hoping for a good win. Instead of buying meal on the way as we would usually do I took leftover ham from freezer and will be taking lots of sanies and flask of coffee. I hate paying over the odds for snacks when out, you can buy a meal in a supermarket for the same price as a roll and coffee in motorway cafe.

Keiss_21

Hya folks

I have decided to start my GC today and finish on the 31st of Jan. I have had fun playing with various spreadsheets to record my spending...will play more tomorrow, but I have to get tea ready now...fish for us all.

I am allowing £400 for all 4 of us, this will include groceries and house stuff...not sure if we can include extras (birthday pressies and cut-price xmas cards) in this amount, but we will see after I have been at this for a month or two!

:beer:Have a great HOGMONAY tonight for those of you staying up to celebrate!:beer:

Moniker

Hi everyone - just a quick post to update my sig and join the challenge for 2008. I manged to come in just under target in December(I can't find the Dec challenge page so have posted here instead!).

I am setting a low target for me and DH for January as we are away until 5th and I have my nectar points saved to use in the last week of this month. My month runs from 5th to 31st. Good luck everyone, especially to the newbies. Have a happy, healthy and hopefully prosperous new year!

love Moniker

BigMummaF

What the heck...I'll give it a go:p We are a family of four adults, a green iguana & english bull terrier/staffie pup. The offspring are all six footers, with one in particular working in a physically demanding outdoor job. We all want to get leaner & fitter so will be checking out the menu planner next;) Ig is a veggie & pup usually eats the same as us where possible.

The pay days fall on or close to 25th so I'll do that for my month. I'm going to say £350 to include milkman[6pts a week], window cleaner & animal feed for now, & try to keep a record of what I use from the freezer/ store cupboard to give some reference for coming months.

topcat9

Hi everyone - we'd like to join the January challenge please. We're a family of 3 & 1 cat and have been using this site to help us cut our spending on everything, but particularly groceries. We've had a really good Christmas and stuck to our budget, so we want to keep going next year. We're going to set ourselves £310 for January - we're sure we can go lower, but are taking the advice on this thread & reducing by a small amount each month.

Hope you all have a great new year.