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July 2009 Grocery Challenge

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  • taka
    taka Posts: 3,483
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    Well I spent another £11.26 yesterday: £9.26 on food (including 8 muller corner yogs for £2 from Mr A :EasterBun I love the cherry dark choc special edition ones!) and £2 on lightbulbs so am now stocked up for most of the week. I only need some squash from Mr S so another 47p (I think?) to spend this week. Only £21.32 left for this month but my cupboards and freezer do not seem to be emptying despite living out of them (+fresh fruit +Veg +dairy) for the month so I still have loads of food in. :confused:

    I did a mini stock take of the carbs/breakfast shelf and scared myself -
    - dried pasta - 28 portions
    - Rice noodles - 3 portions
    - other noodles - 7 portions
    - rice - 13 portions
    - couscous - 8 portions
    - porridge - 2.5kg!
    - muesli - 2kg!

    ... and that was just part of one shelf in the full cupboard! :eek:

    I have scary amounts of beans, lentils, soya mince, tinned tomatoes, chutney, puree and enough breadmaking flour for the rest of the year too! The freezer is similarly scary too...

    I live alone so it looks like I need an enforced fresh fruit +Veg +dairy only budget for the next 2-3 months if only to empty my cupboards a bit! :o No wonder I've been overspending!

    Must not stock up so much...
    must not stock up so much...
    must not stock up so much...
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  • xx_Jo_xx
    xx_Jo_xx Posts: 2,858
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    Hi All,

    Well as I already said, Ive already blown my budget this month - thanks to my birthday BBQ! :rolleyes:

    However, i have not purchased anything since I went to Mr S last week, apart from bread and milk at my local little shop. I have to say though, that I agree with the comments about school lunches and lunchboxes.

    School lunches can be so expensive in comparison, but it always seems to be lunchbox stuff that I spend a fortune on!

    I bought some individual jelly moulds and have started making jellys with fruit in for his lunchboxes, which can work out cheaper than some of the yogurts.

    So far this month, Im up to £135.78 and still have 2 weeks to go.....
    :)Sometimes lurking, sometimes posting, but always flying:)
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  • helen_jelly
    helen_jelly Posts: 2,982 Forumite
    Hi

    Thanks everyone - we had a fantastic day and if it wasn't so much hassle I'd do it all again tomorrow - but only to DH!!!!

    WE have managed to spend £48 at Costco but we now have enough Basmati Rice to last a while and we had to take cakes in to work [both of us as the wedding cake wasn't big enough to go round everyone]

    Off to update my siggy now

    Jo - I've often thought about the jelly thing for lunch - does it stay ok until lunchtime - I have visions of it melting everywhere

    Helen
    Projects made for craft fair - 40 :)
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  • turbo5019
    turbo5019 Posts: 331
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    edited 13 July 2009 at 1:07PM
    OMG I have just added up my spends so far £118.35 so only got £37 to last me the month and I have got a MrT delivery tomorrow and thats about £55:eek: Although the MrT delivery is all bulk stuff so I'm hoping that I will not need too much more shopping.

    I went to Mr A and they had boxes of baby wipes 12pks x 80sheets for £5 they are their own brand.
    GC July £250/
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,615
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    edited 13 July 2009 at 3:52PM
    nykmedia wrote: »
    CW - I read you'd meal planned for the entire month + extra - can I borrow you to assess my cupboards and show me how it's done? :o
    'twas dead easy.....

    listed everything in my freezers and cupboards
    worked out what meals I had with no effort but reheating (and spud bashing for some)
    worked out what meals I had all/most ingredients on hand for (other than spuds)
    divided meals up so that each week we had

    one meal with sausages
    one meal with mince
    one meal with chicken
    one meal with fish
    one meal with other meat (chops / kievs / burgers)
    one meal with pasta
    one meal with rice
    one meal with chips
    one meal with potatoes
    one 'other' meal such as pizza or omelette

    some meals covered two of these options (eg. spag bol is mince and pasta, and chille is mince and rice, while kiev or fish fingers go with chips), so I could then add in a second for one of those categories (but never for chips!) to get us up to 7 meals a week.

    I then shifted things around within each week so I didn't have the same 'thing' (sausage / mince / rice / pasta) two days in a row - especially watching round the change of weeks

    I actually meal planned for 5 weeks, and Saturday was the start of week 3. So far so good, and we've not changed or shifted anything (apart from me having a 'meal soup' on Saturday instead of steak & kidney from the freezer with potatoes - didn't feel up to cooking that after being out from 9am until 8:30pm!) Have one meal to 'fill in' this week, as I left Thursday open with it being DS's 18th birthday. Need to speak to my parents and DD to see if everyone's free on Sunday - and if so I want to try and find somewhere local for a meal out. If that comes off, then Sunday's meal will move to Thursday. If it doesn't then DS has free choice on Thursday (which will probably be take-away Pizza, even though we had pizza - from frozen - last Friday)
    Cheryl
  • elizabunny
    elizabunny Posts: 1,030 Forumite
    Afternoon all.

    Second attempt at a post today -I just obliterated my first one:mad: I have just finished totting up my spends so far this month and yipee I still have money in the budget -not alot but money nevertheless. I need 101 recipe ideas for cucumbers, they are growing so fast and even DH is eating them and he doesn't like cucumber:D. I was going to make a salad today but we have a lettuce famine at the moment as I forgot to replant:o So I might make toad-in-the-hole but that seems a bit 'wintery'. My cooking creativity seems to have vanished recently.
    We went to watch DS2 take part in the'The Asics British 10 km' run for charity (Alzheimer Disease) yesterday. Everyone taking part did so well and DH and me felt everso slightly unfit and thought it was great to take part in something like that, hence the need to make salad. We could use some young spinach leaves I suppose and mix in some leafy herbs. On another slightly unfit note MrL have been selling boxes of 32 assorted Walkers crisps for £2.99 and you get points inside to save up for days out and meal offers! We bouught 2 boxes!!! Might be worth a look -hope they're still on offer.
    Have a good day everyone!
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  • poohbear59
    poohbear59 Posts: 4,866
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    nykmedia wrote: »
    Hi guys, once again, sorry I don't keep up with the thread even although I do the grocery challenge every month, I hope everyone is well and that anyone with problems is managing to combat them to the best of their ability.

    My grocery challenge still isn't going to plan. I'm spending an average of £30 per week for 3 adults but had budgeted only £100 per month, which is proving impossible at the moment. Despite the cupboards being full, the hens all laying and the garden producing more veggies, I am still getting through a carton of milk a day and 3 or 4 loaves per week, plus the fruit, meat products and raw ingredients such as flour. Most of the wheat products have gone up in price again, as has sugar. All of this and I still can't grasp the ability to meal plan. It just seems to be beyond me. :confused:

    I noticed that you are spendng £10 per adult per week the same as me, though I have 5 adults it is the same budget, some months I can get away with a lot less. I too have hens and veggies in the garden. I do find that the meal planning saves us a huge amount of money. I just started with basics like spag bol, shepherds, pie, chilli etc. I bulk them out with vegetables and porridge oats when practicable. This is my menu plan for the rest of the month from yesterday. I hope it helps.
    Roast chicken, veg from garden
    Spicy chicken risoles and potato wedges
    Sweet and sour chicken with fresh pineapple
    Bacon and onion suet roll with cabbage (from garden)
    Veggie chick pea curry
    Fish pie
    Fried spicy pieces of chicken with potato wedges and salad
    Keema Matar
    Veggie cottage pie and beans
    Mince pie potatoes and mixed veg
    Cheesy potato bake
    Fish or egg (from our own hens) and chips
    Prawn and pasta, with cherry tomatoes and creme fresh
    Chinese chicken with peas and rice
    Corned beef hash
    Toad in the hole
    Breast of lamb, boned rolled and stuffed.
    Pork chops, jacket potatoe and veg.

    If you have full cupboards maybe you could make some of your own bread, My family like freshly made bread and soda bread too.
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  • elf06
    elf06 Posts: 1,547
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    cw18 I do the same as you although not for quite as long. I take a quick look in freezer (use SC a lot and make extra for HM ready meals) and in the cupboard and then plan for 3-4 weeks what we can eat. I like doing this as it means I am slightly more organised than when I was flying by the seat of my pants and it still allows slightly for not fancying something on one particular day (providing of course I havent already defrosted it)

    Also meant to add that today was a NSD for me :T
    Emma :dance:

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  • Julimk
    Julimk Posts: 349 Forumite
    Just a small spend of £2.56 today, mostly pack-up bits for DD; definitely agree that this is where a lot of the money goes. Still there’s only four more this school year.

    I’ve done little jelly pots for her with value jellies & canned value fruit, so works out pretty cheap. I’ve never had a problem with them melting. Spilt yoghurt in the bottom of the lunchbox at the end of a hot day is another matter, yuk …

    DD just has one more year at Junior school & gets a cooked dinner from the childminder, so I don’t want to put her on to school meals at lunchtime. But she is an awkward so & so with the lunches & doesn’t like sandwiches etc. So it has been a bit of a challenge to keep it interesting & economical!
  • natsing
    natsing Posts: 555 Forumite
    edited 14 July 2009 at 9:04AM
    Hi All

    Not really been updating this thread much, however I'm still on track, my months are payday linked, and I only have one more shopping week left, all stocked up for this week and can easily meet my £20 for next, so hoping to be there or thereabouts!
    Good luck with the rest of the month all.
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