February 2015 Grocery Challenge

I'd like to join for another month - we're back on track after the holidays, spending-wise, so I'm upping our budget to £290 for 2 adults in Feb. Should feel easy after January!

Thanks to everyone who runs this thread

Hello, I am in again for Feb! My GC goes from 23rd Jan-21st Feb.
My budget is £250


I am confident that I wont go over this.

Can I join too please? We massively overspent before Christmas and need to learn to stay within budget. Our month runs from the 24th and the plan is to stick to a budget of £140 a month for the two of us to include groceries, toiletries and cleaning stuff.

I'm going to withdraw the money on payday and hopefully handing over actual cash will make us think twice before buying something. I plan to do a week's worth of shopping every Friday.

Thank you

I am definitely in 110% this month. I will be honest and admit I've been a bit slack which has resulted in me going over my GC budget and naughtily not declaring it!

Wonder Bairn is now 42 weeks (how the heck?!) and generally only on two bottles of formula a day, occasionally three if she's having a hungry day but I am taking formula out of the GC as it is totally skewing my total (£8.49 x 4 is £33.96 so a substantial chunk of the budget!) she is also now entirely on 'normal food - I do still buy a few jars but they are only for emergencies/days we are out or seriously tight on time (mainly nights when bf and I eat a lot later than usual) - however I don't tend to buy anything special in for her apart from baby biscotti/mini rusks, fromage frais and the ocassional store cupboard item like baby pasta.

I've done a meal plan for the month (!) which I intend to stick to and we have 2.5/3 days away at a league weekend where the food is from a different budget.

This month I am moving away from shopping at Tesco and am going to use Aldi for the majority, Iceland for a few frozen items and ASDA for some things we like which are on offer. There's an Aldi right by the big ASDA, a little ASDA I sometimes walk to on my lunch on work days (less spending temptation that a walk in to town) and an Aldi on my way home. Iceland isn't far from our house and I will likely try and walk there when bf is away if the weather allows. Oh and I use Poundworld for things like bf's hairgel, cleaning/laundry supplies and some lunch items (in the retail park opposite work)

I am going to finalise a budget based on my plans tonight and I will come back and post it shortly

Seeing as I am stealing everyone's recipes. Thought I'd share an extremely simple one that's snowballed me into cooking from scratch for the first time in my life
Tarragon Chicken
Cook the chicken (in chunks/strips) and the tarragon (it says fresh, but I use dried) in a pan with oil (I use groundnut) and a knob of butter.
Add enough cream (I use double, might try with single next time) to make a sauce. Wait for a minute for it to bubble, add a squirt or two of lemon juice (I have left this out a couple times) and season if required.

I have had it with cauliflower mash or pasta or just spinach (frozen obviously).
Voila