September Grocery Challenge

SAHARA

OK, I'm gonna give it a go. We have a budget of £150 a month for 2 adults, a toddler and a small baby. Its fine until DH wants beer, then it goes out the window cos it turns into supermarket sweep!! My hubby just cant say no to our toddler. I turn my back and hes got sweets, drinks, cakes, comics etc AAARRRGGHHH. Anyway, I stocked up on beer without his knowledge, and I'll just produce his weekends quota on a Friday. That'll teach him !! :rotfl:

mrsm

oh my god sahara i could have written that myself. I buy beer in bulk when its on offer then hide it from hubs and dig out 4 cans/bottles on friday for the weekend. he thinks i'm mean but i know he'd drink the lot if her found my stash :rotfl:


can anyone help me with the "rules" as it were. I started last month, budget of £250 for everything, food, toiletries, cleaning, nappies etc but what do you all do about special offers? I've always bulk bought things that I always use. Last months shopping included £50 worth of baby wipes that were BOGOF (yes I know thats a hell of a lot of wipes but i have 2 in nappies) so what do i do. Do I knock some of each months budget for what i would have spent on the wipes?

16011996

This month I've set myself a target of £200 for the four of us, not sure wether i'll manage that, but keeping my fingers crossed. First attempt at this challenge.

squeaky

mrsm wrote:

can anyone help me with the "rules" as it were. I started last month, budget of £250 for everything, food, toiletries, cleaning, nappies etc but what do you all do about special offers? I've always bulk bought things that I always use. Last months shopping included £50 worth of baby wipes that were BOGOF (yes I know thats a hell of a lot of wipes but i have 2 in nappies) so what do i do. Do I knock some of each months budget for what i would have spent on the wipes?

There are no set rules for this. It's up to you how you decide to do your accounts. You can either absorb the spend on bogof's in this month's total (knowing that even if you're over budget you'll be that much under in the next one, or two, or three) or you can estimate how long they're likely to last and spread the cost over the time.

Whichever you feel happiest with.

jo_b_2

Never done this before either but I need to be more aware of how much we spend on food and extras each month.

I've set myself a rough target of £150 per month, to include all those little extra shopping trips to buy milk that turn into £15 shops! :rolleyes:

Just need to keep track of all those receipts from today on.

*Spends so far:

1/09/05: £12.00

mrsm

squeaky wrote:

There are no set rules for this. It's up to you how you decide to do your accounts. You can either absorb the spend on bogof's in this month's total (knowing that even if you're over budget you'll be that much under in the next one, or two, or three) or you can estimate how long they're likely to last and spread the cost over the time.

Whichever you feel happiest with.

thanks squeaky, i have an idea of how long they#ll last so i'm gonna knock that off my budget. did ok last month, set budget at 250, came in 30 under budget and that included £100 wipes i got for £50. So this months budget is £200



am new to this side of things, am on maternity leave and am taking 6 months off no pay so really trying to cut spending. can you point me in the direction of good starting points on the board. are there threads for recipies, which tesco value products are cool which are cack :rotfl: etc


ps sorry about poor typing, am one handed holding wiggly 5 month old and fighting off my 21 month old :rotfl:

jo_b_2

mrsm wrote:

can you point me in the direction of good starting points on the board. are there threads for recipies, which tesco value products are cool which are cack :rotfl: etc

There is a long thread discussing the supermarkets' value ranges HERE that you might find useful.

All the recipes are listed on the Recipe Board Index on this board, which makes life so much easier when looking for inspiration.

squeaky

The Welcome sticky at the top of the forum listing, or indeed just click on the blue "Welcome" in my signature below will give you lots of starting places and as for recipes - we have hundreds for all kinds of meals, plus slow cooker recipes and breadmaking too.

You can find all these (and more) in our "Indexed Collections" sticky at the top of the forum listing, or you can follow the clue in my signature any time you see it or...


..you can use the Indexed Collections link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-




For tesco related things you're best off looking at boards such as shop but don't drop, or the grabbit board, and the on-line and offline vouchers board.

That's a lot of reading - and the best advice I can give you is to take it all one small step at a time.

mrsm

thanks both, i already use the online vouchers board a lot as i find internet shopping easier (and cheaper) than dragging 2 under 2 around the shops lol

will scour the threads for inspiration thanks, although best do it when the toddler and tiddler are in bed

scuzz

I do all I can, but always end up footing the bill at the supermarket when Mum's "run out of money" or just "doesn't have enough to cover the bill" and then never pays me back as I "owe her money".

:mad: