The 'keeping an eye on our grocery spends' Thread

Should we have a thread where we pledge what we're going to spend on groceries each month and note here how we're doing with it?

I'll start - my month is from 27th - 27th, which is a when DH is paid.
I normally spend £280 a month on groceries. I am going to try to get that down to £240 this month. I would like lower but I need to adapt to the way I'm going to shop and don't want to make it too difficult to start with.


I suppose we could just use it as a tally for our own usage. Every time we spend... note it here.

October:

froogs - £104.54/£240
lollyfin £13.53/£100
alec eiffel - £77.98/£150
knitmylife - £32
mesh - £33.40

I was hoping we were going to have a thread like this. Thanks for starting it froogs. Our budget is £170 for our food & rabbit greens, cleaning/household things and toiletries. We spend £16-20 a month on rabbit food and hay too but this is a separate budget. We're going to the supermarket tonight so I might as well start today!

Im in as well my month runs from 31st so i will be officially starting then but will post from now to end of month just so i can see how badly i do
anyone fancy sharing what they buy as well, bargains or anything that sneeked in that shouldnt

oh yeah. done - i'll put my splurges and bargains down too

Right, what I'm going to do is count last night's shop as the end of this month (because, well, it is!) Then work in calendar months.

So we spent £13.61 last night (will edit to do the breakdown later when I get the receipt)

Month total - £168.46

I went to the farm shop today and spent £10.40 thats quite a lot but it was because i told my kids they could pick something youngest DD was healthy and picked 6 pink lady apples yum for £2.15 my son was true to form tho and picked choclate cookies for £1.95
but apart from that i think i did well i got 10kg potatoes a cabbage, kale leeks and red onons
I then went to lidl and spent £2.90 and £4.96 in tesco apart from a loaf and marmite it was all veggies
we are having a veggie weekend having alecs recipes

Cripes, hope you like them!

Sounds like you did well at the farm shop.

Our shop last night was a bit weird as it was an end of the month shop so we have leftovers, stuff in the freezer and other bits and bobs. Here's the breakdown anyway

fruit and veg £1.34
pantry £1.20
treats £1.86
household £.99
bread £2.83
dairy £5.39 (I include rice milk in with dairy)

total 13.61

I've managed to drop ours from £400 down to £280 last month. I was amazed that by writing proper lists and being careful, and only going to the supermarket once a week we did it.

Thats a huge drop in a month flibsey
Thats why i am going to try to stay out of the shops apart from once a week its all the little top up shops that wreck my budget

the main things we were spending on were soft drinks and snacky crap like crisps, cakes etc. also the odd trip to the shops for a carton of milk inevitably ended up in at least a £10 spend. we dont eat a lot of prepackaged food, but the prepacks we do eat tend to be high end as they're less likely to pad out with things like whey powder etc. so we've stopped that too.
and I was including takeaway spending in that £400 too. we've gone from at least 1-2 takeaways a week to 2 or less a month.

and I'd buy stuff, forget about it and it'd go off too that's not happened since I changed out habits. we've been eating more leftovers too, and not had to change principles on only eating happy meat either.... and hubby's not noticed I've padded the spag bol out with a few oats so we use less meat lol!!!

This has reminded me that I need to be disciplined again. Up till we went on holiday in July I logged all grocery purchases, but it kind of broke down as there was such a lot happening, kids doing the shopping and all sorts. We spent a fortune on Silver wedding/18th party food. I wasn't good in June as I'd had an op and we were doing what was the most convenient rather than the best thing. We weren't having anything too bad, but just not as good as normal.

My plan up to now for the last 4 years has been to try and stay under £200 per calendar month. First year I had both children at home, dd became vegetarian. The next year dd was on gap year trips for part of the year, last 2 years she was in Uni, although she was away at Uni I did count in the bags of groceries I bought and the food I gave her from home.

Now ds is about to go to University. He's going to a catered hall, which is eyewateringly expensive, so I think I need to cut back my budget. Also dd is away in Italy for 9 months and home for Christmas. I don't know how much to try and keep within. I don't include any booze or household stuff.

It's Dh's payday!

So..

£240 budget for grocery, toiletry and cleaning.

Weekly fruit and veg from the box scheme.
Monthly supply of meat from The Butchers Block (going to put this order in this morning so will report back my spending.

Shoppig at aldi fortnightly (to save petrol) for bread, dairy, packed lunch gibble and bit's and bobs for marinades - and cleaning and toiletry stuff. Will look into freezing milk etc, also plan to make my own bread so might not even buy Aldi bread.

So this morning it's spent on ordering meat and concocting a shopping list for supplies for a fortnight to be bought tonight.

I used to aim for £40 a week but over this year that is creeping closer to £55 due to the cost of things.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why the price of butter is rocketing to £1.20?? Milk hasn't rapidly increased in price has it so can't blame it on the cows feed

Any I looked at our finances and on paper we are doing ok, not living hand to mouth like some but still each month we were spending too much money on stuff, mainly H going to do small trips at supermarket
Anyway h is now on board with NSD and is making his lunch rather than only occasionally. Let's see if we can keep it up, we need to after what we have paid out this month

thanks for the linkiedoodle there!

Righto 31 items of meat bought from the butchers (don't know what they're like, never used them ) all for £59.39 inc £5 delivery. I'm really happy with that. That's £15 a week spent on meat items. I would spend a lot more in the supermarket even with the offer on for 3 items for £10 - I'm getting approx 7 items for £15

and my fruit and veg weekly at £23

= £38 per week. That gives me £22 left to spend a week on the rest - £44 a fortnight. The challenge is on tonight - eeek, a bit scared now.

well done froogs. Hope you enjoy your butchers meat

@Froogs, what supermarkets do you have there in Durham? DS about to start Uni there shortly and I'm likely to be making visits over the next 4 years.

PurpleIvy wrote:@Froogs, what supermarkets do you have there in Durham? DS about to start Uni there shortly and I'm likely to be making visits over the next 4 years.

In the City Centre there is a reasonable sized Tesco. We used to have Wiatrose but is now a Wilkinsons.. sign of the times. There is a huge Tesco, homebargains, B&M bargains, Iceland, Aldi all on one site about 2 miles from the city centre (it's a car drive depending on where your DS is living - It's in a place called Dragonville which is near Gilesgate, many students have the houses up there. Also along that stretch is a little high street Sainsburies.

He won't be stuck for groceries though

HE's in catered accommodation, we're paying about as much for his food as I have been for a family of 4 for the past few years! I'm just thinking if I have time ? May have to fill up. Presume Mr T will have it, tho' can check their website.

As it's only a 4 week month for us next month I'm going to aim for £150, although we do need some toiletries so I'm not sure how feasible it will be. It's only a £20 saving but I feel the need to do something, no matter how small, to save!

im definitely in please.

no idea what i spend but i really try to be frugal. this month i have no money so whatever i spend will be on the credit card so need to keep it as low as possible.

have tones of stuff in the cupboards so will be really inventive and cook whatever i can.

i have today spent £2.10 on apples and mushrooms.

can we have a front page were we keep a running total or a ticker or something???

As its OH payday yesterday, can I join in please?

usually go shopping once a week and I occasionally go for a pint of milk (or two) wednesday so will add my weekly plus any additionals and see how we do. It usually costs approx 45-50 squid per week. Looking forward to the challenge.......

Thats a really good idea knit then you can see really easily how things are going
As I have all our main meals in for the month i am hoping to spend £100 this month which isnt a lot for us at all unfortunately but i am thinking since i have the majority of stuff in i will only need to top up fresh things and toilet roll, fingers crossed.

Yeah knit, I agree lollyfin, that's a really good idea That ok TP?

We could put in red what we want on the front page and TP, lollyfin, the other mods and myself can edit the front page whenever we see a red update.. what do you all think?

I have done my fortnightly shoop. Remember I had £44 to spend for the two weeks? I have spent £45.15 Not bad. I have milk in the freezer (hope it'll be ok) and will need more flour maybe next week but not a bad start. I have 24 toilet rolls - I doubt we'll got through 1.6 toilet rolls a day lol

yes thats great will do. On the subject of mods we only have 3 now. Myself, lolly and Froogs. We seem to have lost two we havent seen Silverbird and Rosie for ages. It might be a good idea to have another one especially as i am going away in October. Ideally it will be someone who comes on here frequently. Thanks.