Comments on: Challenge to my Grocery Challenge http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/ Simple Living... Frugality... Gardening... Cooking From Scratch... Knifty Knitter Projects.. And More. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:49:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: lightening http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1361 lightening Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:38:00 +0000 http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1361 Hi LS,<br/><br/>Yes I do include non food items in my grocery total. That being said, I haven't needed to buy cleaning products so far this year. I use a lot of concentrated stuff and around March last year I bought what I thought would be a year's supply - it's still going strong. I don't buy cleaning cloths - I just use rags, old facewashers and handtowels etc.<br/><br/>What I don't include are medical items like band aids and panadol which I may buy at the grocery store. Since I already separate my grocery spending into treats, fruit and veg, general groceries and non food - it's not much extra to separate off medical items as well.<br/><br/>I also don't include things like new mop heads though - they are categorised as household expenses rather than non food groceries.<br/><br/>Non food groceries include things like tissues, toilet paper, paper towel, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, garbage bags, snap lock bags, alfoil, gladwrap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and other cleaning products. That probably covers most of what I can think of that I *do* include. Just to give you an idea, I currently budget $40 a month for non food items but so far I've only spent around $20 a month (average) on these items. So they currently don't make up a huge portion of my grocery spending (about 5%). Hi LS,

Yes I do include non food items in my grocery total. That being said, I haven’t needed to buy cleaning products so far this year. I use a lot of concentrated stuff and around March last year I bought what I thought would be a year’s supply - it’s still going strong. I don’t buy cleaning cloths - I just use rags, old facewashers and handtowels etc.

What I don’t include are medical items like band aids and panadol which I may buy at the grocery store. Since I already separate my grocery spending into treats, fruit and veg, general groceries and non food - it’s not much extra to separate off medical items as well.

I also don’t include things like new mop heads though - they are categorised as household expenses rather than non food groceries.

Non food groceries include things like tissues, toilet paper, paper towel, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, garbage bags, snap lock bags, alfoil, gladwrap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and other cleaning products. That probably covers most of what I can think of that I *do* include. Just to give you an idea, I currently budget $40 a month for non food items but so far I’ve only spent around $20 a month (average) on these items. So they currently don’t make up a huge portion of my grocery spending (about 5%).

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1360 Anonymous Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1360 You have done so well Jodi! Pat yourself on the back. Just wondering if you include your toiletries, loo paper etc in your monthly totals or is it just food items? <br/>Have fun shopping at Coles tomorrow! <br/>LS You have done so well Jodi! Pat yourself on the back. Just wondering if you include your toiletries, loo paper etc in your monthly totals or is it just food items?
Have fun shopping at Coles tomorrow!
LS

]]> By: lightening http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1359 lightening Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:54:00 +0000 http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1359 Hi Madly Saving,<br/>We have 2 adults and 3 children aged 9, 6 and 3. We do have animals as well but I don't count their food in my grocery budget.<br/><br/>My DH was a meat and veg man too. I've just been making very small changes like adding more vegetables with smaller servings of meat. Then adding beans and lentils etc to meat. The only meatless meals I've successfully implemented have been various types of soup. I tried a vegetarian pizza and he thought it would be great with some meat on it. LOL. Same with the lentil loaf. I'm not worried though as we're consuming less meat than we were before. Instead of focusing on no meat meals, I just work on having more "low meat" meals and figure the end result is the same. My biggest motivator for this is health reasons - saving money is a great bonus. We would have probably 2 low/no meat meals a week (usually Thursday nights and Sunday nights). Hi Madly Saving,
We have 2 adults and 3 children aged 9, 6 and 3. We do have animals as well but I don’t count their food in my grocery budget.

My DH was a meat and veg man too. I’ve just been making very small changes like adding more vegetables with smaller servings of meat. Then adding beans and lentils etc to meat. The only meatless meals I’ve successfully implemented have been various types of soup. I tried a vegetarian pizza and he thought it would be great with some meat on it. LOL. Same with the lentil loaf. I’m not worried though as we’re consuming less meat than we were before. Instead of focusing on no meat meals, I just work on having more “low meat” meals and figure the end result is the same. My biggest motivator for this is health reasons - saving money is a great bonus. We would have probably 2 low/no meat meals a week (usually Thursday nights and Sunday nights).

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1358 Anonymous Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:39:00 +0000 http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/21/challenge-to-my-grocery-challenge/#comment-1358 Hey Lightening - I would be interested to know how many you feed on this budget? I have: 2 adults, 2 children and a dog and don't know that I could stick to that. Have been trying to have more meatless meals and when I say meatless, I mean just bacon instead of beef or something (my DH is a meat & veg man!) This has certainly helped.<br/>Madly Saving Hey Lightening - I would be interested to know how many you feed on this budget? I have: 2 adults, 2 children and a dog and don’t know that I could stick to that. Have been trying to have more meatless meals and when I say meatless, I mean just bacon instead of beef or something (my DH is a meat & veg man!) This has certainly helped.
Madly Saving

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