January 2009 Grocery Challenge

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Comments

  • I generally buy the granular dishwasher powder in lidl-or wherever its selling for £3.99. This generally lasts most of the year! I do need to put some in a tub with a spoon tho as the lid is awkward for me and the kids tend to just "tip it in". 2 teaspoons is enough-so that is one of todays jobs. The allinone d/w tabs are a con as you still need salt and rinseaid for a decent finish while paying 4 times as much afor them!
    Have cooked and mashed my swede now-tubbed up ready for freezer. Now I need to cook up all of the parsnips too or they will go to waste. Freezer chooocco but somehow I will get them in!
    May pop out to get a paper soon as DH wants a tv paper so Im now going to look and see whe newspapers thread-see if any of them have vouchers in! Can also drop off my plastic for recycling at waitrose and use any vouchers there although Im only taking £10 with me just in case Im tempted!
    Annual Grocery budget 2018 is £1500 pa £125 calendar month £28.84 pw for 3 adults
  • gillst_2
    gillst_2 Posts: 98 Forumite
    Flaked rice-the best place years ago was Co-op-not sure if thats still the case but health food shops is the only other hope?

    Cheap washing up liquid people ask for-again-Co-op is the only place Ive found any all of last year! 19p at present. I buy 4 at a time.

    Well and truly over budget for the month now, :eek: as I have just spent another £20 (looking for flaked rice). Went to the co-op, none there, but ended up spending £6 on cappucino coffees, milk, tinned custard and tinned rice. (both half price, so cheaper than making my own taking into account the cost of the milk.) I bought two boxes of cappucino coffees (10 sachets in each) for £3.00 so this is only 15p a mug. Again cheaper than making milky coffees, which we like every now and again.

    Tried our local Budgens for the flaked rice, but no luck there either. Ended up spending £12 in there :eek: as they had four chicken breasts for £3, so bought two packs of them, 8 tins of baked beans - still on offer at 4 for £1, toilet rolls - half price 4 for £1, and some half price curry sauces, and tuna.

    Didn't get what I started out for this morning, but have more for the stockpile that is building - much to DHs annoyance. :p

    Will try the health food shop for flaked rice during the week and just hope they have got it and I don't end up spending extra in there as well.

    Pay day on Monday, so will declare final amout I have spent then - just off to update my sig (holding my head in shame):o
  • Cazzdevil
    Cazzdevil Posts: 1,052
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    I'm kind of doing alright, I set myself a (potentially unrealistic) budget of £100 for the month for me, OH, pooch & puss to include all toiletries and household products. I've tried doing the grocery challenges before but always forget to keep a record of the bits and bobs so this time I've put a typed tally chart on the fridge and everything gets written on it.

    We're up to just under £80 and only just halfway through the month but we've got plenty of stuff in the cupboards and freezer to last us easily another week, probably longer. I reckon £120's going to be the magic number for us but we'll see.
  • Everytime I look at this thread there's pages more to read!

    I seem to be doing ok at the moment. The freezer is full and I keep having to resist the urge to buy more stuff that we don't need. I have a sort of 'siege mentality'!
    Mortgage Free as of 03/07/2017 :beer:
  • scotsaver
    scotsaver Posts: 824 Forumite
    Just updated my total, making Marmalade today so had to pick up a lemon and some more sugar, in Lidl's they only had a bag of 4 lemons but they are marked down at 55p at the moment, will only need to use 1 for the Marmalade and then tomorrow I shall make some Lemon Curd with 2 of the lemons and then the 4th Lemon I shall use to make MRSMC's Lemon Potatoes.;)

    Dinner tonight is Liver & Bacon casserole, loads of mash, peas & sweetcorn.:D
    Hope you are all having a great weekend.;)
    "WASTE NOT, WANT NOT!"
    GC for OH, myself, DD18 & DD16 includes Toiletries, cleaning stuff & Food.

  • Sylvan
    Sylvan Posts: 347
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    It's a good thing I don't mind cloudy olive oil! They must have put my olive oil next to my frozen food in Mr A's van. It looks awful:rolleyes:
    I spent £101.96 to get the free delivery but I'll have to go in tomorrow anyway because the lemons were manky and the pop-up button on the jar of lemongrass pops up:eek:.
    That's the trouble with deliveries - they don't take care of what they're choosing. One of the packs of happy chicken portions was use by yesterday, as was one of the packs of sausages, so I had to freeze both packs of each:mad:, since I wasn't planning to use either of them till tomorrow at least.

    OH will have to go into Mr T's as well - we bought those packets of grated cheese since they were cheaper than the savers cheese we normally buy, but, even though they're best before 8th Feb, 2 of them have gone mouldy. (DS5 says they taste stale anyway but I think that's just the added potato starch he can taste). Sigh!

    Off to update my signature, though doubtless I'll be doing it again tomorrow and yet again on Monday!
    Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.
    Money talks, but chocolate SINGS

    "I used to be snow white but I drifted" (A seasonal quote from the incomparable Miss West)
  • jtb2412
    jtb2412 Posts: 1,782 Forumite
    Had a small spend here today, needed some cream for the leek and potato soup (could have managed without it but hey ho, it's nicer with ;) ) - recipe for those that want it (really easy !):

    4 leeks halved and chopped finely
    2 medium sized potatoes
    2oz butter
    2 medium onions
    1 1/2 pints veg stock
    285 ml milk
    salt and pepper
    chives or parsley and cream to garnish

    Melt butter in large pan and sweat off leeks, potato and onions for about 15 mins. Add stock and milk and let simmer for 20-30 mins. Blitz up, add chopped chives/parsley, add a swirl of cream .... yum !

    Had this for lunch and it was divine ! Used up a bit of home-made bread too that was slightly stale (cut into large chunks and fried in a little olive oil and made croutons with it - was being posh today :p ).

    Having a bit of a naughty dinner tonight - sausage, egg, chips (potatoes sliced and baked in oven in a little oil) and beans :drool: .

    Still doing ok here and i've got about £110 to last me until 31st Jan (although i've currently got enough food in to last until this time next week). Really hoping to come in under budget so anything left over will be used to stockpile and bring down the budget later in the year.

    Have popped a few lettuce seeds (winter variety) in the greenhouse today so hopefully they'll show their little heads very soon. Can't believe the price of cucumbers lately ! Just glad i'm growing my own again.

    Happy days !

    Will probably not post for a few days now as hopefully I won't be going shopping :D . I'll be reading though ;) and taking notes - have a great weekend everyone xx
    :jWeight loss to date 1st 11.5lb :j
  • Hi All
    Did the trip into town and hit Iceland/Tesco and Sainsbugs.
    Total shopping £13.92 and that includes fruit and veg.
    Bargain hunted and whoopsied big style!!
    Still lots in the freezer so will try to buy milk and bread only this week.
    OH cooking teas as I type so off to sample!!!!
    Mortgage free as at 1/9/13 :j
    To start work on the credit cards now!!
  • msgnomey
    msgnomey Posts: 1,613 Forumite
    not doing too badly so far this month did a big shop last weekend so should only need a top-up shop tomorrow as there is plenty in the freezer!
    Go hopefully into each new day, enjoy something from every day no matter how small, you never know when it will be your last
  • Barneysmom
    Barneysmom Posts: 10,123
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    I did a £28.00 shop in Mr.M's the other day, 2 6-pinters, dog food, bread, eggs (what a price eggs are!), bacon and sausage and Flora Buttery as it was on offer.

    A good thing for us today, we were walking the dogs round the reser and hubby found a fiver on the ground. There was nobody around who might have lost it so we stopped at Tesco Express on the way home and got sugar, a red pepper (75 for one!! :eek: ) mushrooms and a paper. We didn't buy the 3lb bag of flour as it was £1.62!!

    I'm sorry the person lost it but it would've rotted if we hadn't picked itup anyway, it was off the path.
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