October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

BrandNewDay

cw18 wrote: »

Yep. And Mr A is the green equivalent. Mr S (which I've seen a couple of times) confuses me 'cos I assume that's the orange store - but we have a different Mr S (think seasonal meadows) within walking distance. I don't think we're supposed to mention the stores by name.

Why is that?

Allegra

I am in shock. I went to Asda today to pick up the cat food (the fuss puss will only eat Asda's pate trays) and a few bits, including a packet of sesame seeds. A little packet of sesame seeds, which used to cost 29p.

Well, my little Asda had a serious reshuffle, so I had to go all round the houses to find the seeds and other baking stuff. Having finally found them, though, I walked out without them.... They want a whole great big shiny pund for the little beggars now. 29p - up to a pound !

The mind boggles.

Smartprice choc - which had gone up from 23p to 34p (that's almost a 50% rise !) had vanished altogether, as had their 27p wholemeal flour. I still have three packs at home, but I was hoping for a couple more...

But those damn sesame seeds - I still can't get over it ! :eek:

newlywed

cw18 wrote: »

Yep. And Mr A is the green equivalent. Mr S (which I've seen a couple of times) confuses me 'cos I assume that's the orange store - but we have a different Mr S (think seasonal meadows) within walking distance. I don't think we're supposed to mention the stores by name.

I think you can - just we're all too lazy to type out Sainsbury's or Tesco's and Mr S or Mr T seems easier to type

mummygems

Chell wrote: »

Do you buy the baby things in the supermarket? If you have a Boots Advantage card then you might be better getting them there. You can get extra point coupons from the advantage card machine if shopping instore or codes for extra points/free delivery online. You might not save cash but you'd get lots of points for other things eg Christmas pressies.

Re: pasta bake, how about doing a tomato based sauced but stiring in creme fraiche before you serve it, this gives a nice creamy tomato flavour.

I do buy all the baby stuff in the supermarket - not sure why mind! Maybe because I stock up when they have offers on Never thought of doing it all in boots and using the Advantage points for christmas! Once this stock is used will have a look and see if the advantage points vs. the saving in the supermarket it worth it.

I will try the creme fraiche idea thanks.

Herewegoagain

Hiya guys,
small shop in lidl as out of pots :eek: etc

So got bag pots @.73p(had some big ones in there for jackets and alot cheaper than loose baking pots)
3 x Cranberry [EMAIL="juice@.69p"]juice@.69p[/EMAIL] each
1 x Currant [EMAIL="bread@.62p"]bread@.62p[/EMAIL]
Broccoli only .30p
Rice [EMAIL="Crispies@£1.19"]Crispies@£1.19[/EMAIL] =£4.91p

Liver and bacon casserole today,(it was brilliant yum yum) 2 portions for freezer

OH had a meeting today and told that they were being made redundant in march, is anyones job safe? Still he has time to save something in case he hasn't found a job by then, (I hope)

HWGA xx

Kaz2904

I've missed a couple of months on here but I'm back!
£300 for October please.
Hope everyone's well. I will try to catch up- I must admit to having spent time on the declutter thread- we need it!

MRSMCAWBER

:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j
My remoska has finally arrived :rotfl: even cheaper cooking -woohooo

I had a pan of bolognaise in the fridge from the weekend that I wanted to "chili" for hubby -so I threw the bolognaise, 7 bashed dried chillies a tin of red kidney beans and some liquid in, stirred it round and stuck the lid on -25 mins later it was bubbling its head off :T
Hubby has just had some with rice n peas... then I have added more liquid some uncooked rice and stuck the lid back on -just need to check if it needs more liquid later.. then It will go into hubbies flask for lunch tomorrow with some HM bread.. there wil be too much so I might have to freeze half -if i can find a gap somewhere:D

5 days into my October budget and still no spends mainly because im refusing to leave the house :rotfl: well its horrid n soggy out there and if i don't go out , I can't spend have also figured that when I just need milk its going to make more sense to let hubby pick up some whilst he is on camp -he can be trusted to only buy exactly what I ask for -ok its probably because I don't give him the cash until he gets home, and he is probably worried that I won't pay for stuff I didn't ask for :rotfl:

Now then -who else was it who was going to try and live out of their cupboards with me? sorry but I have been typing sooo many names on the list I am flumoxed.. anyway -I hope you are doing well -you know who you are
right, back to my crochet

Herewegoagain
so sorry about OHs job..hope that bit of notice gives him time to find something else :T , im sure you will be cutting back where possible and getting prepared just in case

teedy23

Hi Folks, I,m coming in again for £45.00 for the month. I think I now have this down pat but have to watch my other spending and get busy with the fizzy as regards my coupons. The freezer is getting low i.e. I now can remove things without bracing my foot against the wall for leaverage. I still have plenty tins of basics and a few cuts and joints of beef ect. so I wont starve in the near future. Cereals for soups ect still with me and loads of spices. I have plenty of bread flour for the Bmaker too, I,m quietly confident. GOOD LUCK ALL.

BrandNewDay

Well... I'm not sure if my All-Value/Smart Price experiment is off to a good start, or not. I thought I'd shop Tesco online (only have Asda and Morrisons local) and so I looked up a good voucher code... then, I managed to book a cheap delivery slot (£3.5 after 9pm tomorrow night - works for me!) Then... well... I spent £96. I did a search for "Tesco Value" and then browsed every single Value item, picking anything and everything that looked good. I figured I'd try a few things, too. For all I know, that sage and onion stuffing mix mixes up tasty. For that price, I can try a box and find out... repeat that about 25 times and you can get up to £90 worth of Value stuff! They'll probably have to send a special lorry just for my shop. LOL (I did, at least, have a voucher code for £13 off, so that covers the delivery plus £9.5 worth of groceries).

Anyway, I honestly do think this will keep us (a family of four) stocked up on quite a lot for quite a while - particularly all the biscuits and cakes and such. I buy that stuff, anyway, so now I'll have a cupboard full of it.

The way I've done it, I should be able to get by for the next two weeks with just buying milk, fruit for the kids, and maybe the odd ingredient for a recipe. I think I'll see if I can stick to a budget of just £30 to do that until the 15th. If so, I'll have spent £115 out of my £250 budget (which also covers clothing and other household incidentals, so I'm not sure, really, how much money I'm saving on food.)

rockie4

Dipped into my monthly budget for the first time today :rolleyes: , £12.04 at MrS for milk, bread and teabags. I also bought yeast (to make MrsM's breadsticks) and Ski yoghurts for OH as they were on offer at 87p(?)

Hopefully I can last until the weekend and do a big shop then:D
I might have to bake before weekend though :mad: I made Twinks hobnobs and some courgette muffins on Saturday...............2 hobnobs and 1 muffin left:mad:
I'm at work all day so we've either got mice or OH has scoffed the lot :eek: I know which one my money is on...........