February 2009 Grocery Challenge

[OrkneyStar]

Originally Posted by Miss Liquorice

Does anyone have something like a grocery purse they use for all their food spending? Or is it just me unable to keep track of things?

I have two main purses- one with all grocery money in, plus all my cards (I keep my 'reward cards such as Clubcard near the grocery money, and my other cards have always lived in there!)
Second one has other different money in sections and also misc. loose change.
I have another purse which is used when money is taken from one of my categories not in the other purses (less common things like holiday spends etc).
Also meant to say yesterday, for those who use nappies: Tesco has Pampers on offer, the small packs (38-32 depending on size) are £3.98. I think there is also an offer on Tesco own nappies at 3 for £10 (although could be slightly different as I just glanced at it). We use real nappies mostly but like to have sposies incase have now gone to using sposies full time. I think we did quite well using them for 20 months (well minus the 5 days in hospital and a couple of holidays!) but with my back the hanging up loads of washing does not help, and by not using real nappies it takes out about 3 loads a week- anyway I mananged to get a 32 (or is it 34) pack of size 4+ for £1.98 (£3.98 offer minus a £2 Pampers voucher I had). ETA (20/2/9) I see they have the 25% bigger 4+ pack (40) for the same price so got 2 of those (paying nothing as had a Tesco CC £7 and another Pampers £1 voucher).

[nmlc]

Morning all

Scotsaver - I live in the Fens (near the Wash in the East of England), the work here is mostly low paid or agricultural. The nearest big city is Peterborough or further to the East Kings Lynn. Lots of people have moved here as house prices are low, but of course jobs (if you can find one) pay much less than the national average - there's always a catch isn't there!
Hoping still to be around budget but now looking less likely as needed milk and yoghurts were on offer in Mr L yesterday (should be £2.96 down to £1.50 for a pack of 6 corners - well in date to 15 March). Will still try to come in at budget though.

Have a good day everyone, keep going, you're all an inspiration.

Keep safe.
nmlc x

[mrs-moneypenny]

managed an NSD yesterday and we had a belated meal out as we didnt go at the weekend so DH paid for that .

hoping to get some baking done later but that will mean i need to buy eggs so ill check the funds for the week before i decide if thats a go or a no

[Changingme]

Small spend yesterday just £3.75 will need milk possible Friday or if can hang on main shop Saturday I have £50.75 left so fingers crossed.

[Disflop]

Well done you - and no wonder you are pleased with yourself!
Just given me a wake up call though- there are only 2 of us and no hamster (!) and I spend much more than your usual £80, so there's a challenge for me!

[Barneysmom]

Well done to op, what an achievement!

I love Cornflakes and have them for supper - or porridge.

[belfastgirl23]

Just a little line to say I somewhat overspent on my budget at the weekend - spent around £30 when I intended to spend no more than £15. Still well within the budget for the minute - have spent £83.39 in total out of £120 budget. I think for once I might come in reasonably well under. And the cupboards are groaning!

Hope everyone else is doing well!

[laineyc]

Well done. No wonder you're chuffed.

[laineyc]

I bought milk and bread. With half-term and 4 boys at home, we keep running out. The boys are having friends round for dinner. I will give them fishfingers and salad. I have defrosted bolognaise sauce for OH and I. Tomorrow, I will need to go to the butcher. My freezer is nearly empty which means I have plenty space for my shopping on Friday. I reckon I will be about £50 over but I am happy with that since it was my first month and I needed to find my feet. I need to bake some fairy cakes this afternoon. I think I will make double and freeze some. The novelty of all this baking is wearing off but Iwill persevere.

[justpeyton4now]

Well done Silaqui That is fabulous!

Can you tell me what type of things you plan for tea etc? I desperately need to cut down on the grocery budget and despite meal planning, haven't gotten it down to £80 per month.

[Valley's girl]

Well done that's brilliant keep the good work up.
Best wishes
ally

[puss14]

Well I am over my budget for the 2nd month running. The only good thing is even though I have gone over I am still at less then half of what I spent last month. I think mybudget for the month was a little unrealistic. Anyway I have spent in total $155 and am not planning to be buying anything else for the month. Even though I am over budget I am actually quite pleased with the amount (in comparison to last months )

Hope everyone is going well

[Penelope Penguin]

Originally Posted by Silaqui

I have only spend £54 this month on groceries and household stuff . There are 2 of us and a hamster and my usual is around £80 per month. It's not yet the end of February but according to my meal plans we have everything we need so no need to go shopping again.
Just really pleased with myself, sorry for the self-congratulatory thread!
X

Well done - I'll add this to the Grocery Challenge thread where people try to keep to grocery budgets they can afford.

Penny. x

[sazzledazzle]

Spent £3.00 last night on chips to go with what is left in freezer, tartare sauce ( a luxuary but cant have battered fish without it ) and bottle of juice. That should keep me going till payday on Friday when I can do a proper shop.

[Miss Liquorice]

belfastgirl - I'm just about neck and neck with you at the moment, £82.43 (as far as I can work out!) out of £120. And that included dominoes and wine on my flatmate's birthday, and a big bottle of Southern Comfort for last saturday, yum!

I've mealplanned and I seem to have enough food in for me to last into March... just need to buy lots of veggies for the guineas! But then I am always tempted when I go into food shops. We'll see how that goes...

[newlywed]

Originally Posted by sazzledazzle

Spent £3.00 last night on chips to go with what is left in freezer, tartare sauce ( a luxuary but cant have battered fish without it ) and bottle of juice. That should keep me going till payday on Friday when I can do a proper shop.

A jar of tartar sauce is 35p in Lidl

[elizabunny]

Originally Posted by scotsaver

elizabunny - could you please post your Oxtail Stew recipe, I've started shopping at the Butchers and noticed that they sell Oxtail so would love to give this a go, especially if I can turn the leftovers into Oxtail Soup as this is OH's favourite Soup but too expensive.

Have a good day everyone.

Hello everyone


Hi Scotsaver -this is my receipe for Oxtail stew:-
4 Pieces of Oxtail
About 4 Med. Potatoes peeled and cubed
About Quarter Swede peeled and cubed
1 Parsnip peeled and sliced
1 large Onion peeled and sliced
About Half to threequarters Pint of Boiling Beef Stock
1 Half Tsp. Dried Rosemary
2 Bay Leaves
Salt & Pepper Seasoning

I layered everything into my slo-cooker with the Oxtail pieces evenly spaced around the dish, added the herbs and seasoning and then poured the boiling Beef stock over the top.

I cooked my Stew in the slo-cooker on high for about 6-7 hours, but I'm sure you could achieve the same result by cooking slowly in the oven (just keep an eye on the liquid)

When everything is thoroughly cooked this way you find the Oxtail meat just falls off the bones. I was able to reserve some of this meat and also some of the veggies and stock for Oxtail soup (Although I will need to add more stock to this as I used some of the liquid to make a rich gravy for the stew by adding a few granules to thicken it)

I think when I make the soup, I will bring to the boil the reserved meat, veggies and stock and then simmer everything for about 15-30 minutes and then liquidize it.

Hope this helps

[Aril]

Hello
Poundland has a 1.5kg bag granulated sugar for surprisingly £1. Works out at 67p per kg.
Thought it might be of use to someone on the challenge. Am off to get some shortly myself!
Aril

[Reverbe]

Sadly up from £13 .64 today - got some treats from M & S - cranberry & orange hot cross buns, fairtrade hedgerow jam and a roast chicken pie for dinner tomorrow and spent another £12.22 in Tescos which included a lot of value stuff and I note their value pancake mix at only 8p... Curry sauce has gone down now to 13p! but still no stocks of pasta, rice or stock cubes..

was feeling soooo good at holding at £13.64 til today and for a long while was Zero spend until 15th still that includes stockpiling of value tea, curry sauces, pancake mix and other bits to take advantage of price cuts on value items

actually EDIT to recalculate as the candle is not what I count as groceries...

[nickynoo08]

Afternoon all, my app food order came today with my 36 tins of soup plus others bits n bobs, just need to find somewhere for it all to go now:rolleyes:. I should only need milk and veggies for the rest of the month now.
Only 10 days to go can she do it????