October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

WelshWoofer

Just a quick update on the free £5 M&S voucher spend.
Popped in yesterday and managed to get

• Cheese and onion bakes (my faves!)
• Salmon fishcakes
• Spinach and ricotta cannelloni
• 4 cheese ravioli
• pk of 2 portions of lighted coated Dabs (fish)

all for £7ish - minus the free £5 voucher - total approx £2 spend for the list above - good eh! I don't normally buy ready meals but they were buy 1 get the second half price and I had to make the value up to over £5 (my excuse anyway!)

Only need F&V, bagels, spready cheese, dog food and a few toiletries now and I'll hold on until tomorrow to pop to Mr Ts

Why is it all money, money, money these days?
Staying in this weekend whilst OH goes playing out with the boys to watch the footie - looking forward to watching a DVD, having a nice tea and a general rest!

Have a good day - sunny here up north so far......

puss14

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

That menu sounds lovely Puss- and so does your Mum - but I have to ask: What the blue blazes are Porcupines????

I mean I know what porcupines are :rolleyes: , but I'm assuming you're not serving up prickly critters for tea??? :eek:


Jacks porcupines are definitely not those cute prickly critters:D They are a meatball with rice in it cooked in a tomato HM pasta sauce with celery and onion and garlic and herbs. An old fave from my childhood YUM YUM.

Thanks Jacks and cw18 for your support and your lovely comments about my mum, she is lovely and as she lives 1600km away I only see her 2-3 times per year, so I am in heaven having her here:j

scotsaver

Morning everyone and what a lovely sunny day it is too.:D

Just logged on to update my spends, getting dangerously close now but meal planned up to the 27th when my new month starts and SHOULD only need F&V and milk.;) Off to friends for Dinner tonight and tomorrow having a full roast with all the trimmings, parsnips only 49p a bag in Lidl's, potatoes half price at 59p and carrots if my memory serves me correct were 49p. Apple sauce is home made from apples off the tree, just looked out there and still some more on there but no freezer space left - must take them off this week and try and get them used up before they all go rotten.

Tomotoes from the greenhouse are starting to ripen nicely on the windowsill, can't believe it has taken until now for them all to ripen, shall get them all slow roasted to make some batches of tomato sauce - watched Hugh Fearnly do this on his new Autumn programme the other night - isn't he just fantastic.:p Sorry, starting to drool a bit and go slightly off topic!!

MRSMC - glad to hear you are getting better, really love reading your posts as they are always full of great ideas and are a real motivator.

Good Luck to everyone, hang on in there, we can do it.:T

teedy23

Hi everybody, not been on in a while. I,m doing well as you can see from running total in sig, but have wasted a lot which really annoys me. Took delivery of three pretty big trout during this week, so had to make room in the freezer which was still packed. Threw out about 10 pitta bread and a 1/4 tub of ice cream, had to think what would cost less to lose. I,ve been mostly living out of the freezer so I dont know how it,s still so full, well been mystery shopping some of my meals, maybe that contributes. BM on at the moment, still using my bargain bread mixes, two for a pound, and msing my dinner tonight in the capital, a dinner in one pub, couple of drinks in another then a wine shop, not too bad eh? I travel free too, so no cost to me there. Hope all new babies are well and sleeping throught the night, you can do anything as long as you get a nights sleep. Hope all who have teenagers are getting a nights sleep too lol.

echelon101

Little Shop Today

2x Sains F.Veg = £1.58
2x Sains F.Fish = £2.54
1kg Apples = 50p from stall

5kg of protein powder / 2 = £17.59
I bought two tubs @ £17.59 incl p&p (20% discount from discountsupplements). So I am going to distribute the cost over two months however they will probably last me a lot longer, 150 servings equivalent to 150 servings of chicken breast assuming 24g, in total.


= £22.21

This is going to be madness but....

I am going to declare at £65.85

I am not anoyed at going over since I did spend a bit of money on the powder. The total is still less, about £20, than what I was still originally spending when I was just buying randomly.

Flylady_Flower

Hi Guy's,

Not been on for a while - less chance for too much chat (not that I ever did too much of that eh! ). Glad to see the challenge is less pages now, hope everyone can catch up when they can. still lots of banter though I notice so still nice and friendly...

Anyway, thought I would update my spends - have spent total of £193.63 of my Grocery budget so far, and only £14.99 of my extras budget, so am a bit over as still 2 weeks before the end of my challenge, so slightly off target, but not much more to get as freezers still pretty full, just need lunch stuff and F&V (the ol' faithfulls)...

Hope everyone well, take care and will pop on again soon... Dx

suzybloo

Hi folks been busy this week so havent posted - doing well not been shopping during the week, however went to the cash and carry today so have counted half my purchases in my total as it was washing powder, loo rolls, fabric cond kitchen roll etc which will do for the next two months, so next month will have a balance in it from today. Also bought a vaccum sealer for pakcaging and sealing food and all fruit and veg - hope it hasnt been a waste of money! This didnt come off our grocery budget. Hubby got a free bag of tatties today so that will make a difference. Have approx £60 to do until the end of the month but have nothing much else to buy.
Hope you are all doing well!

JenC

I don't know if this has been covered previously but.....

Everytime I go to tesco I spend a hideous amount. I live on my own so there is no excuse for this, I need to exercise more restraint! For instance, the other night I popped in to return 2 t-shirts, and managed to spend £20.

I'm toying with the idea of wasting £5 on delivery if it means I will stick to a list and not impulse buy. Am I being silly in doing this or will it save me pennies in the long run?!?! When I budget my finances I should have plenty left over to enjoy myself with, but seem to be spending it all in tesco, and not getting round to saving much each month.

Any advice/opinions welcome!

Miss_Piggy_2

Easy peasy (as have had to do this myself!)

1) Make a list
2) Take enough cash to buy items on list (and leave ALL cards at home!)
3) Take a calculator and tot up as you go round.

Good luck!

Miss P (fellow impulse buyer!!)
xx

pink_princess

Hi jen c you should look into the grocery challenge .Its for this very problem.
People set a target then attempt to stick to it.
Alot of people on it find internet shopping easier and less financially risky.Please don t pay for deliverys theres always codes on here to get it free.
HTH PP