April 2008 Grocery Challenge

SmellyOldSock

Hi all

Well I know I've came in under budget but don't know the exact figures as I've been a bit lapse!

rough estimate £290 out of £300. I promise next month to keep all receipts!

Thank you all for the inspiration to do this

best wishes
Charlotte

bails

Well done to everyone coming in under budget, great stuff!
Talking of gardening Mrs M, mine is slowly taking shape - just built a second patch yesterday - but still lots to do. Have no idea if I'll get any crop this year but it'll be fun trying We've got an apple tree, a damson (diseased fruit last year though), a couple of fruit bushes although we're not 100% sure what, and we've just found some strawberry plants :T I've planted 2 types of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, mange tout, peas, leeks, basil and chives so far but now I've got another bed I can grow some other things! All of this comes out of the GC as (hopefully) we'll be eating it

Will tot up my final spends and declare soon; just deciding on the budget for May... I'm going to decide on a figure for us humans and leave the pets one more open-ended as I don't know when the kittens will arrive and how much food I'll need for them. Off to work it all out!

savingfortravel

Just got a few bits from Farm Foods, including 3 tins of tuna in brine for a £1/6 Quorn Sausages £1.25 and Tesco King Prawns to put in our Fish Pie tonight (£2 ).
Kerry Gold butter and Utterly Butterly all gone so went to Customer Services and a very nice young man gave me a Sales Promotion Promise Voucher to use later.
I know its a beautiful day and we've been out shopping but decided to get ourselves organised as tomorrow we're busy with other things. Now we've got the majority of what we'll need for May
I'm off into the garden to admire OB's veggie planting.
I'll update my sig.

Penny Pincher-Wow! What amazing offers.... Great MS.

SFT

superspam

Thanks for the recipe MRS MCAWBER! Looks even nicer than the one I was looking at earlier!

earthmother

Well, sorry to say that I have failed (again, )

Average weekly spend was pretty much the same as last month, and taking into account the increased budget, we are 73% overbudget :eek: with an end figure of £365.11 from a starting budget of £210 _pale_ .

Not bought anything special, no junk or treats, very little wastage this month at all, and used all the deals I can (in fact, just the Cravendale offers have cut around £20-£25 off the total), so I'm pretty much accepting that budgets under £300 are not happening with this household - at least not yet.

I'll keep trying - one day I may even achieve break even (under budget is just a dream, lol)




Can I, in my (partial) defence, and that of others who may be struggling to keep to budget, offer the following snippet of information that I tracked down on google the other day.

In the period between mid Jan and mid Apr, the cost of a basic bundle of groceries (bread, butter, eggs, milk, OJ and frozen peas) went up 6.2%, in the three months prior to that it went up by over 22%, and in the last 15 months in total, the same basket has increased by over 37.5% :eek:

candygirl

A NSD today for me, only cos I can't be bothered going to the shop;) Have got freezer surprise/shock for tea, then i'm off out on the town tonight.wooo hoooo:j :j
Might even last till the 30th and stay within my GC:D
Have a great weekend everyone:D

funkyfunkymonkey

I went to my first farmers' market today, it's held monthly in our local town. The visit has pushed me over my monthly budget and although I didn't 'need' anything I wanted to see what was on offer without waiting until next month.

I bought 8 large fresh sardines (750g) 20p each, so £1.60 - we will be having them for tea and I am really looking forward to them.

I also bought 4 pork steaks for £2.46, £4.10/kg. Compared to Tesco prices this is really good value, pork at Tesco's seems to range from £3.89/kg to £6.99/kg. These pork steaks are from a local farm, so I'm hoping they will taste better than the 'highly travelled' Tesco piggies. I'll let you know if they are noticeably different.

DD didn't fancy trying the local rabbit or venison - maybe next month.

FFM

beemuzed

Hi Mrs Macawber - please can you put me down for £270 for May - I know I can't cut back to much at a time or I set myself up to fail, so teeny tiny babysteps for me! Thanks for keeping this challenge going - even DH realises he has to account for all his food spending now!

Sosh

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to simple asking for a couple of samples for ds, who has eczema. This morning, a package arrived containing 3 full sized products! I had a look in Boots and they would have cost me £9 to buy. :j

searching_me

:hello: everybody...
right now got a bone to pick.... which oser ran off with all the basmati rice in my local netto?!!!! own up :rotfl: went in today thinking id stock up before it gos up in price and the shelves were empty... i mean totally bare!!! ... so whoever it was your all mean :rotfl: ... got a few other bits and bob... dont know when i cant do a big shop as the council are running behind finishing my flat :rolleyes: so it maybe a touch and go month... keep your fingers crossed for me xxxx