July 2008 Grocery Challenge

KITTY_2-2

Morning all. Haven't had chance to catch up with the thread yet - don't think I'll be reading all 20 pages! Hope all is well in your worlds? :T

Had a great June here. Had 3 birthdays over the weekend (a 17th, 18th and 21st) so birthday budget was busted but did well with the every day grocery spends. For the first time I came in almost to the penny of my £280 budget.

So my July challenge will be the same £280 please


Catch you all later, Kitty

perrywinkle

hev wrote: »

Yesterday was fairly bad.

Planned to make china chilo, which I always do when fresh peas hit the shops as a seasonal treat. You gently brown some lamb mince in plenty of butter, then add fresh peas, lettuce, spring onion and maybe a pinch of garam masala and leave to cook for ages, serve with rice. But I forgot the lettuce. So I bunged in some fish fingers, tinned potatoes and baked beans for tea,

Morning hev,

mustn't be quite awake yet as on first reading I thought you were putting the fish fingers etc in instead of the lettuce!!:rotfl:

a little too inventive prehaps!

Thanks for the recipe
Have a good day
Perrywinkle

WelshWoofer

Not been able to get the time to catch up until today - its been mad busy lately!
Anyway, I went to Mr T's on the weekend and managed to spend £35.12 on shopping that should theoretically last me until I go on holiday on the 12th July. It also included all of the toiletries for the hols.
I just refused to pay their prices for strawberries and raspberries though and went to the local greengrocers to pick those up for £1.29 and £1.49 - much cheaper and bigger boxes.

I'm in a quandry about spending more on Friday or Saturday using the NOTW voucher as I could do with stocking up on household stuff and freezer and tinned bits but don't want to spend for the sake of it just before the holidays. Hmmmm?

I'll see how it feels at the end of the week.

On the positive side I've had NSDs since Saturday and will also have one today. I have plenty of yummy stuff for meals and lunches to last a good while I probably could get away with just dog food and fruit on the weekend? Why does it always seem like an internal battle to curb the spending?

Anyway, have a good day!

gunsandbanjos

denisefowler wrote: »

Hi Gunsandbanjos - got to ask, who's the photo this time?

That is my little girl, wearing her jammies, my cowboy hat and a very mischevious look!

cookiedough38

perrywinkle wrote: »

Hi cookiedough38,

well that got my brain moving! Only started the challenge last month so not organised enough to have calculated recipe costs yet - should do really to see the difference. Anyway

2lb flour – lidl – approx 50 p a bag = 33p
2 packets yeast – special offer = 8.5p
½ pint milk – (2 x 4 pint for £2) = 12.5p

2 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar = 1p

total for the 16 rolls would be approx 55p depending on which flour you used etc. I use the lidl white bread flour which many posters seemed to recommend but can't recall the exact price for a bag - I'm sure that a more experienced poster on the grocery challenge will help out with the costings if this doesn't look right.

HTH
Perrywinkle

Thanks! I just wanted an incentive to get myself making some bread! Its not something I have ever done before, not sure why. Especially as it seems to be alot cheaper

linzmac_2

Right, I've finally managed to get through all the posts and am off and running on my July budget so thought I'd do a quick update.

Went to Aldi on Sunday and spent about £40. When I got home I went onto mysupermarket and worked out what I would have spent for the equivalent stuff in the big supermarkets and the cheapest one was about £55...and IMO the stuff in Aldi is better quality, so I was pretty chuffed .

Had also spent about £15 on whoopsies in June which I stashed in the freezer for this month so adding that on and spent a bit on wine & beer at the weekend too so have added all this to my sig. Also got £50 cashback at Aldi so going to try and make this last as long as poss for any extra bits I need, which should be a while since freezer and cupboards are jam packed and I have more than enough for meals for the month now so will only need milk, some stuff for baking, fish on a Friday and a bit of fresh fruit (veg will be coming in our weekly organic box).

I have decided that I am going to try and just buy any bits as and when I actually need them since I can easily walk to Somerfield, Sainsbury's and other local shops within 20 mins and have plenty of time to do it...will see how it works!

Hope everyone has a good start to the new challenge!

Linz x

JAMIEDODGER

back from tesco's...done my two shops:) total spend = £62.49

off to update sig:D

Miggie

This will be my first time - I usually spend approx 600 a month on OH, DS and 3 cats. I'm amazed at how brilliantly people on this thread manage on so much less...I'm obviously very wasteful Can you put me down for 450 please.

princess_leia_3

Hi, this will be my first GC since Feb due to having a new baby in March so please can I start back at £200 for 5 of us and I am trying to include EVERYTHING in that - milk/nappies/food/household items etc so wish me luck LOL

thanks

zoe260373

morning all.hope you are all well,looks like its going to be lovely and sunny today so will get to hang washing out,(when ive actualy done it:) )will try to get a little baking done too,so many yummy ideas,well done to everyone and welcome to even more newbies..this site is addictive and amazing guys,good luck,x