September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

cherie1122

£200 this month please

madmittens

MrsM, could you put me down for £70 (4 week month) again this month please?

Will try and catch up/keep up with the thread this month, but am moving office on Monday and God only knows when the IT will be sorted out

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

tootiefrooties

Hi there,

It is perfectly possible for 2 of you to eat for £30 a week, as long as you are prepared to do a little bit of cooking. We spend around 25 a week and we get the following:

Bread (the longlife one in silver packaging - it lasts all week then)
Milk (3 pints in individual bottles so it lasts all week and doesn't go off)
Onions
Potatoes (any on offer - you can still do jackets with new pots, just mini ones, etc.)
Fruit x 2 types (generally value apples - actually nice ones! - or value bananas)
Veg x 3 types (whatever is on offer or cheap)
Meat x 2 (see list below)
eggs
Rice
Pasta (value spaghetti is about 20p and does around 5-6 portions)
Cous cous
DH's lunch stuff (see my posts 12 and 13 here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1059303 )
Chocolate
Cheese (rarely cheddar as it's expensive, but Cheshire, camembert, red leicester or whatever we fancy)
6 pack value yoghurts
Tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans
Whatever houshold stuff we need that week, eg. value kitchen roll

We don't eat a lot of meat because it costs so much, but I recently made a list (after obsessively trawling tesco.com for prices) of good value meat which can stretch over a couple of meals. And there is NO offal in it! (bleurgh)

Lamb shoulder 440g £2.50
Frozen lamb leg chops 350g £1.99
lamb neck fillets 220g £2.35
Stewing beef 270g £1.34
Beef mince 250g £1.20
Corned beef 340g £1.18
Pork mince 500g £2
8 pork sausages 454g £1.24
BBQ pork belly 450g £2.99
4 smoked bacon chops 350g £2.69
Pork ribs / rack 500g £2.50
Value chicken drumsticks 1kg £1.79
Skinless chicken thigh fillets 500g £2.49
Duck legs 422g £2.99
Value turkey drumstick 700g £1.28
Value diced turkey thigh 500g £2
Tesco healthy living 2 frozen salmon fillets £1.99
200g tuna steak £3
tinned tuna 74p

And lastly, if you're feeling lazy, pasta takes 10 mins to cook and just chuck in a tesco's own sauce (about 60p) or some grated cheese or something. If you have a freezer, buy pizzas when they are on offer and stock up, buy value chips etc.

HTH!

rockie4

I need to cut back again seeing as how OH is back on the sick :mad: again:mad:

I'm going to go for £150 this month, it might seem a bit unrealistic but OH needs to realise that I can't magic money from thin air so he's on value beans on value toast but I will be 'eating 'healthily' :rotfl:

taplady

Stacie - I hope your shop and meal plan goes well.Have a go at cooking from scratch, try 1 meal a week or something to start with and build up your repertiore.
Ley us know how you get on!;)

LilacPixie

£250 for me this month. Visiting Mr T's today to start it.

yellowmonkey

And so the quest gegins.

Went to Mr T and spent £15 odd but that did include some BOGOF offers. Tesco Butter me up are BOGOF at the moment ( 96p) and 2 for £1.50 on the own brand washing up liquid. I am but a mere serf as I do not own a dishwasher .

Have a good day everyone

ym

rosieben

Hello :wave:

I fell off the GC wagon a few months ago when I moved house and not been back as I've been ill; I really want to get back into some sort of routine now so Mrs M, please put me down for £80 for the month

Although my stocks are pretty healthy at the moment, I need to refill my winter store cupboard and my freezer – both emptied prior to my house move.

I’ve really missed this challenge and hearing everyone’s progress and news! Good luck girls (and boys)

mummysaver

I explained to the family that we were taking part in the Grocery Challenge, and that I would have £100 in my purse per week and any leftovers will be banked towards a holiday, or Disneyland Paris as the kids are insisting! They are all really excited about it and keen to take part, hopefully the savings will motivate them!

dd3 has just started moaning about every single meal she is served, even one's she has requested, it's not that she doesn't like it, she just fancies being flipping awkward! Yesterday she got short sharp shrift from the others and was told to eat it or give it to the dog else she wouldn't be coming with us on hol!

Need to buy some cheese but think that's probably it, could do with a few veg so will prob see what Lidl's are doing cheap this week.

jackk_2

bails wrote: »

Hiya everyone and welcome to any new challengers! Thanks as ever to the lovely thread looker-afterers and to everyone who contributes as well

I'm struggling to decide on a budget for September - we're going away for 4 days but will be s/c so no change; we also have a party this month but as I have no idea how many people are coming at mo I think I'll leave this out and then set a budget for it nearer the time. The 'builders' are still in this month (that's builders aka dad and OH, not 'the painters' ) so extra spends there again.

Right, let's go for £95 please- that's for 2 people for food from 1st - 30th Sept. (the animals and household stuff get their own budgets at the mo, for research purposes ).
I was wondering, and I'm sure it's been raised before, whether we could put a summary of people's families/what's included next to their budget targets? I'm aware that would be a lot of work so please feel free to shoot me down in flames for even suggesting it :rotfl:I just think it could be a real help to see how others in a similar position to you are managing (perhaps people could buddy up if they fancied?) and would be an inspiration to know that spends really can be reduced over time. Just a thought.

Good luck everyone!

My budget has to buy everything :eek: , Augusts overspend was caused by a camping trip, and alcohol for that trip .

Jackie x