July 2008 Grocery Challenge

ifonlyitwaseasier

hey folks,

well i think i'm definitely feeling better, for one thing i can smell again (always a plus)

managed to drag myself off the sofa and i chopped some tomatos (cherry and regular) celery, onions and carrots and chucked it all in the slow cooker, added some garlic, italian herbs and a bit of hot water, when it was ready thats when i realised my sense of smell was back i'm going to blitz it up and have myself a nice generic tomato sauce for pizza, pasta etc, and OH will be none the wiser about the celery :shhh:

have some hm wedges cooking for tea and think we'll have scrambled eggs with them, nice and simple, esp as i've not really got much of an appetite


BTW MrT have organic red potatos 1.98 for 2.5kg or £2 for 5kg (2 bags) (mysupermarket.com)

Diane_239

Today i spent the last £5 on stocking up on bread, milk and fruit,the children are away for a week so i should come in on target.don;t tend to cook when the kids not here,
jacket and chillie to night.
just off to update sig.

Triggles

Thank goodness we're getting close to the end of the month! Less than £20 left to stay under budget! We do have quite a bit of meat in the freezer, though, so that gives us a good head start next month.

OrkneyStar - I'm a SAHM as well, and it does make money extremely tight for us! But while DH doesn't make a whole lot, if I was working, it would simply be to pay for childcare, which seems silly to us. It means it will be quite a bit longer than we'd hoped before we're debt-free, but we're prepared to deal with that. My DS (just turned 2yrs) is incredibly picky about his food right now. There are certain meals I try to schedule regularly as I know he will eat them. Other things are hit and miss - some days he'll eat them, other days he won't. He loves bread, though, and will eat practically ANYTHING in a sandwich, so I've sometimes resorted to that! He wouldn't eat HM chicken noodle soup the other day, so I drained the stock out, put the noodles, veg, and chicken in a sandwich, and he ate it all. :rotfl: It can be a right challenge getting him to eat sometimes!

We should come in under budget (just barely) this month - we'll just need some milk and fruit next week.

*BigBird*

Lemon chicken for tea tonight. Not one of the yummy recipes that has been posted on here, but from a jar that my Mum won at a church fete and didn't like the sound of. Not so much lemon chicken as chicken in sugar syrup, if you ask me. But it filled a hole and, more importantly, has helped today to be a NSD. Need to lift some shepherd's pie out of the freezer for tomorrow, as am determined not to spend any more money til I get paid on Thursday.

Had a very successful trip to Mr T yesterday. Walked over from work at lunchtime, they didn't have the game OH had sent me to look for, so I left with nothing! Good going for me, as I would normally have bought something just to make it worth my while to have walked over there.

Have been looking at my grocery spends and am £41.17 over budget. However, I have worked out that £40.50 of that was spent on a yogurt maker and some other bits of bakeware, which I don't need to buy again. So, assuming I don't spend any money tomorrow (and I really don't need to), pure grocery shopping will only be 67p over budget :T And the freezer is quite a lot fuller than at the start of the month.

OH and I have agreed to have a go at chopping another £50 off the budget for next month (but I may hold that £50 in reserve as it's my birthday at the end of next month and we may plan a big BBQ if it looks like the weather will be good.)

OrkneyStar

Triggles wrote: »

Thank goodness we're getting close to the end of the month! Less than £20 left to stay under budget! We do have quite a bit of meat in the freezer, though, so that gives us a good head start next month.

OrkneyStar - I'm a SAHM as well, and it does make money extremely tight for us! But while DH doesn't make a whole lot, if I was working, it would simply be to pay for childcare, which seems silly to us. It means it will be quite a bit longer than we'd hoped before we're debt-free, but we're prepared to deal with that. My DS (just turned 2yrs) is incredibly picky about his food right now. There are certain meals I try to schedule regularly as I know he will eat them. Other things are hit and miss - some days he'll eat them, other days he won't. He loves bread, though, and will eat practically ANYTHING in a sandwich, so I've sometimes resorted to that! He wouldn't eat HM chicken noodle soup the other day, so I drained the stock out, put the noodles, veg, and chicken in a sandwich, and he ate it all. :rotfl: It can be a right challenge getting him to eat sometimes!

We should come in under budget (just barely) this month - we'll just need some milk and fruit next week.

Yeah, DS ate all his tea tonight (HM chicken with mango/coconut and rice) and a piece of bread and cheese spread and a yoghurt and drank all his water! Other days he won't even eat this! Why do they love bread so much ?
Another NSD today, grocery and food wise as I have not been out, although we might pop to the Raft race later.
Have updated sig, as if I spend anything, it will be from my treat budget and only £1 or so!
:wave:

Flylady_Flower

angelnikki wrote: »

Thanks zoe xxx We've been arguing already :rolleyes: he does my head in so much. We do still live together (seperately) but hardly spend much time together as when he is home from work and at weekends I normally stay in my room and leave him to look after DS (I miss DS loads when I'm not with him but cant stand his father so much so have to avoid him)

I would love to be able to move out but I just wouldnt have enough money to afford everything and DS's nursery (cant look after him all week as I've got ME) without DLA and cant get DLA without a proper diagnosis (and even then its unlikely I will get it) So I'm stuck here until either I can find a way to have enough money or until DS gets free childcare (which will be after he's 3, he's 21 months atm) oh well...

I've got my first appointment with the ME clinic in the beginning of september(even though I was referred to see them last october :mad: ) So hopefully I can get something in writing from them to aid a DLA claim. Fingers crossed.

To stay on thread... I've got a MrT delivery coming tonight 7-9 so will update my sig later.

Take care everyone

Nikki x

I really feel for you Nikki, it's so hard when the OH gets like that, it has just happened to a friend of mine and her OH is being really awful, I think it's coz they can't let go, but she moved out and into her Mum's, which is still hard but at least it was a break. Her children are also older (youngest has just left school), so it was a (very tiny) bit easier for her, as it was still hard to leave the kids.

Not sure if this would help, but have you spoken to your local council or housing association? When we went bankrupt, we went into rented accommodation but then the owners came back, so when our tenancy ran out, the council re-homed us as we were actually homeless. We had to go into temporary accommodation, a 2 bed flat at the time, but after a while (about 3 1/2 years :eek: ) we got a really nice permanent house and have been here 2 years now and are really settled. It didn't effect the kids too much (they were old enough to understand, just the moving about was the worst bit).

The point is, if you can speak to them maybe they can help you and DS to get a place of your own - maybe after you have been diagnosed as that will help your case too. I would still speak to them before to find out what you have to do - it may be really good news and will at least give you something to look forward to? You can speak to them over the phone too as they are really lovely people and are used to dealing with people who are distressed (I burst into tears on many occasions and can honestly say they never judged me).

I hope that helps you, another day down girl, only 5 more to go before he's back at work - keep your chin up!

Denise

NannyOgg

Evening all, just popping on to update sig before work. I'm thinking I must have mislaid a few receipts - can't really believe I'm so far under budget

Spent my lunchbreak catching up on posts...

Mooloo, so sorry to hear about the burglary :eek: hope you get sorted soon

Welcome back MrsM :j

Hugs to angelnikki - and I'd vote for a full list of recipes... but I think you've already talked yourself into it

liuhut - very brave to walk out after 6 yeas... fngers crossed it works out for you

And hugs to everyone else who needs them!

Off to work now, have a pleasant evening peeps!

:hello:

Flylady_Flower

liuhut wrote: »

Hi guys,
Just wondered if I can join you all, I always read the thread but walked out of my job earlier today and so need to make sure that I am cutting back everywhere I can, not the type of thing I normally do (had worked there for 6years!!) but couldn't take anymore...anyway, I have a freezer full and reckon £10 can last me the month...hopefully!!

Wow, that is a really hard thing to do so they must have given you good reason - Hope everything turns out well for you :j . There are other jobs out there so you go girl, don't put up with the c**p if you don't have to. Best of luck :T

angelnikki

denisefowler wrote: »

...if you can speak to them maybe they can help you and DS to get a place of your own ...
Denise

Thanks for the thought Den. I have looked into that but because I'm married and we have a house, I would not be classed as homeless and it would be seen as voluntary homelessness if I left which they dont help you with. Even if they did help me with somewhere, whether its a Council/ Housing Assoc /privately rented the cost would be the same (as I'd still get Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit either way) but the total for all my benefits & CS would not be enough to cover all the costs I would have. I need to wait till I've got DLA or DS is older

I've got a spreadsheet with all the amounts on it of benefits/child support I would get and all the costs I would have and I would have £80 left each month after all the bills but that doesnt include nursery costs which are £230/month. So I would be -£150 each month.
If I got DLA I would have £40 left over after all bills inc nursery. So I need to wait till I've got DLA or a free nursery place.

The bathroom's coming on nicely though. The avocado suite and manky tiles were ripped out yesterday, the plastering was done today, and I think the plumbing/electrics are being done tomorrow.

Oooh MrT is here... be back in a sec...

...I'm back. MrT came to £63.48 (still no supercook stuff in stock) which leaves £97.41 for next week There's no way I'm gonna spend all that next week so I'm def gonna be under this month :j

Take care everyone Thanks for the hugs NannyOgg :lovethoug & Well Done jediteacher :T

Nikki xxx

KAAT_LADY

good evening

((((((( hugs ))))))) Angelnikki



and thanks for finding that thread for me It was taking me ages to find it

see ya soon