October Grocery Challenge

squeaky

Just a reminder that I'll be unsticking this thread some time late tomorrow - by which time it'll be the featured Grocery Challenge in our Monthly Challenges sticky.

You can find this in our "Challenges" 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 Monthly Challenges link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-

stressedoutmumof1

Well I'm joining in this month! More out of necessity than anything else lol!

Last month I tried but had no figures to stick to, and considering I used to spend £400+ a month on shopping for me DH and DD I think £300 was a gentle climb down!!!

This month my budget is £240, and my month starts from the 25th (DH's payday!) I have so far spent £128.92 (but that is two weeks worth!) and with only 2 more weeks shopping to go my next shop is currently at £43.66 (I had a £10 voucher from Sainsburys as they were late - yipee!) That brings my total to £172.58, which leaves me a whopping £67.42 for my last shop - do you know what I think I'm going to achieve it!!

I've started to cook most things from scratch, and there really isn't any waste anymore (when I think of the entire black binbag of food I USED to throw away it fills me with shame!)

Anyway it's now become an obsession to save money on the weekly shop, and yes next month I'm going for an even lower budget!!!

squeaky

It's not just the money - it's the FeelGoodFactor innit?

stressedoutmumof1

Yeah Squeaky, I feel really good that my family are eating healthily. Only last night DD came downstairs and smelt pizza in the oven and asked whether it was HM - when I said yes she was delighted. Can you believe that! A 6 year old delighted that she's eating HM pizza instead of shop bought muck!!

Joto_2

I kept looking at this thread last month and yesterday kept coming back and having a peep. I can't believe the budgets everyone has. I'm one of those people who nips into Tesco for a pint of milk and comes out £50 lighter. I'm ashamed to say I filled out Martins Budget planner earlier in the week and put £600 for food!!! This is for me, DH and 2 sons(teenagers), where am I going wrong? I've always bought the reduced items and BOGOF when available, since joining this site I'm constantly looking out for vouchers and freebies. I've now got a freezer full thanks to Tesco's, I've stopped buying Pepsi and Fanta for everyone because I thought they were getting addictive and we now have juice, milk or water with 1 bottll of Pepsi & Fanta as a treat at the weekend

Ok I've stalled long enough - I am going to join in and I'm going to be really ruthless.....................fingers have stalled again while I ...............anyone else have those little arguments that go on in your head???
£380 thats my budget. it's a lot higher than some I know. Oh I forgot I do have a dog to feed as well.
I'm off to work out the meals for the week using the food from the freezer and already panicking about what I'm going to do when this stash is used up and than there's Christmas to contend with.

Brown_suga

Ok, Ok I'm going to take the plunge as well, i've been addicted to this site for months now but don't always make many posts.

I've always looked at the grocery challenges threads and thought i really need to do that!! I've kept receipts etc for the past few months and think i can try and aim for £150 for a family of three (myself OH,and 1 soon to be 8 year old, plus 1 big hungry rottweiler)

I will do this from the 1st to the 1st, and will put the money onto my clubcard plus card from tesco. This way if i want to do shopping from another store apart from tesco i can withdraw the cash.

I also want to do a petrol budget, so will put an extra £100 onto the card for that purpose.

I've already taken on the mse attitude as last night i saw 2 organic chickens in tesco one had been reduced twice to £2.34 but the other was still at £3.89, i queried it asking if there was a certain time where the items are reduced again and the lady gave me both for the lower price

Anyway i spent £30.54 yesterday, and will do an online shop with tesco for larger unperishable items for the whole month later on.

Fingers crossed!!

squeaky

stressedoutmumof1 wrote:

Yeah Squeaky, I feel really good that my family are eating healthily. Only last night DD came downstairs and smelt pizza in the oven and asked whether it was HM - when I said yes she was delighted. Can you believe that! A 6 year old delighted that she's eating HM pizza instead of shop bought muck!!

Just don't let her help you bash the dough about or stick the toppings on or you'll be having pizza for tea every night for MONTHS

squeaky

Good luck everyone who is starting the challenge - remember, keep it painless and keep it fun

I'm doing well this month - so far I've spent £0.00

Janeryan

Hi everyone I'm joining in for October too as I will need some extra money for Christmas.Have just bought a new car so what with Insurance and tax we are a bit short on my normal budget this month so only have £73.00 per week left for everything(food petrol and general living expenses).

That is to last 3 weeks as already had a shop & petrol fill-up plus a few miscellaneous expenses but it will still be tight as the freezer is almost empty now.Will go to Iceland next week and do a home delivery shop to fill the freezer back up and then hopefully it will just be bread/milk & fruit to buy weekly.

On the plus side I am going to get my slow cooker out which was given to me for free to do some dinners in-must visit the slow cooker thread to get some inspiration.

Godd luck to everyone and a special welcome to all you first timers out there!!

snuffilin

Have been reading these boards for over a year but never managed to log in to reply to any posts until now, am obviously a bit slow with computers=). I am always looking through different boards for tips and advice but I always end up reading the OS board for hours. Thank you all, you're brilliant.

I am going to try the grocery challange this month (again) from 1st of october, never managed to complete one before as I always loose track in the middle of the month but thought that coming on here might give me the motivation to keep going this time.

Anyway, the budget for this month is £120.00 for me and OH. I have made a menuplan for this week and I have stuff in the freezer and cupboards from last month that should last us until Saturday so this will be a good week.

I'm all excited now, just hope it lasts so wish me luck!