October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

poohbear59

I would like to try to stick to £300 next month for me and five other adults. They do give me a little towards household costs, but sometimes it is in kind rather than money.

bullet_2

I am trying to think of recipes for this last week that will involve as little shopping as possible. I've got:

Store Cupboard:

5 bananas
A packet of oatmeal
Some stuffing mixture
Some soy sauce
Caster sugar
Brown sugar
Rice
Half a pack of value spaghetti
Dried yeast
Plain flour
Self raising flour.
Cocoa.

In the freezer.

Some cooked and pureed apples.
Vegetable curry.

In the fridge.

4 medium sized eggs.
2 pints of milk.
1 tub of baking margarine
3 slices of brown bread
Remains of cabbage and soup mix soup.
Jar of peanut butter
Jar of marmite.
Tiny bit of cheese

Veggie curry will be eaten tonight and hopefully will last for tomorrow's tea as well. I'll have the soup for lunch tomorrow. Cheese will go in a sandwich for someone. I'll make some Yorkshire puddings and freeze them and fill them with something cheap and easy. I'll get a chicken as well and serve it with vegetables and stuffing. Then make a chicken bolognaise, a chicken and banana curry and some more soup. Also the banana cake. Does that sound ok for some meals?

MrsMcK_2

This has been my first month doing a grocery challange and I of my £300 budget I have used £222.12 so far. It has been a great learning curve and can,t wait for next months challange to start.

gtx

hi everyone

had a nice quiet day off - been out with my mam and done this weeks shopping which is my week one for november. didn't actually need anything but have already decided to keep things in stock rather than run down and have to do a big shop.

went to nettos and spent £21.36 and £4.50 in mr a's.

one thing i 'discovered' today is that turkey is almost half the price of chicken in nettos - i've always thought of turkey as for xmas but today i bought 2 packs of turkey breast for 1p more than one pack of chicken.

angelatgraceland

Tonight I made chicken curry. Well-half chicken and half quorn which I had bought on offer yesterday? from Somerfield. 2 chicken carcasses on high in the slowcooker so there should be a good amount of chicken com off of those. Our ageing moggy will get some of it and the rest can be soup tomorrow. Hubby has been picking at chicken all day and DD had some on her sarnies. I bought some lunch today -will add it to total later but it was only about £2.50-well it was all reduced stuff!
Must make some bread tonight to go with the soup tomorrow as there is nothing better than homemade bread with homemade soup.
Hoping that even with me and dd going away next week that we will still be in budget. I will calculate our holiday food spending in 2 parts: restaurant meals will be in entertainment budget and takeaways and grocery shopping(we are self catering)will come from grocery budget. As I had 2 low weeks and this week should also be well under I think I will manage it.
Ive been saving loose change on and off so I must go count it-this will be our entertainment money.Hopefully all is covered as in my absence we will be having an electrician in and he needs paying!

JayneC

HI all,

I've not posted this month but have been 'checking in' each day to keep me on track. I'm declaring at £252.40 from £250 budget which I'm quite happy with as I spent over £10 on products from Tesco purely for points (I made a profit!!) so would have been under but for that. I did cheat just a little as I let OH buy the occasional bread and milk, but it didn't come out of my grocery budget so that's ok, right?

I've recently discovered that my local Wilkinson's seem to have bread reduced to half price almost everyday. I've taken to popping in on my lunch break whenever I get chance, lol. I'm getting a bit obsessive about the whoopsies but it definitely makes a difference:D

Anyhoo... please put me down for £250 again in Nov, thanks and well done to everyone else (even if you went over at least you're trying;)

Jayne x

woozywendy

In Aldi they sell tins of chicken in white sauce for 99p. I use 2 of these and a bag of pasta for 50p. The tins are literally full of chicken. There is plenty for a family of 4 and it tastes lovely. For £2.50 it is not a bad meal.

Chaos_Theory_3

(Edited, C+Pd from SW thread)
Huge argument with himself. He went to supermarket to get milk, yogurts and bread, but arrived back with loads of crap as well. He thinks I have a restrictive diet and am not adventurous enough...Here's a clue......I'M ON A SODDING DIET! He spent nearly £25 on stuff we either can't eat or don't like. This is the man that can't afford to pay all his credit card minimum amounts, but can buy crap we don't need from a supermarket. Well done... I'm still fuming!


ETA Have added up what he spent and what is coming from T's online today. As you can see, my first month in the challenge has not been a successful one and the month isn't over yet! I can't blame him totally, but that's twice this month he has spent loads on crap. I probably would have come in just under budget (maybe!), but I think £50-60 of it was him wasting money. At least now I can see what I'm dealing with.

gtx

Chaos Theory - i know exactly where you're coming from my biggest problem was dh spending £40-£50 in mr m's at lunchtime, i asked for help from the people on here and the carrot and stick method was the one that seems to have worked (will know for sure next month) basically told him get your act sorted and the money we save will be used for something he wanted(match tickets) and we came in £50 under budget surprisingly enough! the real test will be this month when 'all' he gets out of it is more money to bring the cc down

good luck - i hope you can find something that will work for you

tirlittan

Is anyone doing the grocery challenge from 15th to 14th each month? Just thought it'd be easier for me to do it from pay day to pay day. Bought more food yesterday, but that should last me till the end of my month (29th or maybe 28th as that's really the last day in UK). Total spend so far £71.87 out of £100. Will go and update sig now.