November 2008 Grocery Challenge

biscotte

Morning,
did my bi-weekly shop today to bring my total to 754 CHF;. this should see me through to the end of the month bar some milk and veggies.

Reading through this thread I am amazed at the bargains that you all find and how well you budget. I put in a big total this month as it's the first month but have got through it really rapidly. It a learning process I'm sure.

princess_leia_3

Spent £5.50 over the weekend on various bits like milk etc. We have plenty in now so I will make do til month end before doing another big shop, will just need milk and F & V hopefully!
Loving that recipe idea Tessie Bear thanks

annelouise_2

Hey all apologies for my absence as once I got back to the Uk I'm back working 50 hours a week and have checked out forum occasionally and tried very hard to continue with MSE challenge.

Kids take packed lunches,I order Mr A online every 3 weeks and use a code,then to top up shops every 3-4 days for packed lunches f&v.My freezer is only small here but I still save leftovers and have a lucky dip once a fortnight for the kids.

Have got a cooked joint of pork out for a roast dinner tomorrow but me and OH are having pork and pepper chow mein tonight.

Bestest big news is.......we are moving to Darwin,Australia in a few weeks visa's awaiting.So with all that going on I am very carefully not over buying and still use my menu plan which is a godsend.:T

DD9 is having a birthday party next week and have bought a few party staples - rainbow drops and party rings.Have hot dog rolls ,crisps to buy and fairy buns (doubling as the birthday cake) to make and decorate with my massive stock of sprinkles and toppers.Will buy a small packet of sweets instead of party bags and won't spend more than £15.00 this week as I have the hotdogs at the back of the cupboard.

Lasagna,Toad in the hole and Roast beef on the menu later in the week.

Will try and post more often and keep in touch,any other Oz located moneysavers I'd love to hear from you as Woollies,Coles and Target are going to be my local shops!!!!!

annelouise

boredofbeingathome

Just wanted to add my best wishes as well. I used to overspend a lot and convinced myself that i could justify it because we were eating healthily, then when i began to look at how much i was throwing away..i realised that it was our hard earned pounds going in the bin.
All of the above ideas have helped me tremendously, and as you can see by my sig i have reduced our bills by an awful lot probably over £400 if the truth be told. There are 4 of us at home now and my DD2 has problems and i include her dietary stuff here as well.
We eat better than we ever have, HM bread is far too addictive though! Our cupboards are full to bursting, i am now a hoarder( storecupboard) rather than a thrower, but it is all accounted for and will be used.
So good luck and this board is so inspirational for ideas, that soon you willbe wondering how you managed without it.
BOBX

*BigBird*

Julimk wrote: »

I can cook Jamie’s Chicken & Leek Stroganoff & Delia’s Chilli Chicken without any chicken, let the sauce bit go cold & then mix in left over chicken without resulting in reheating the chicken until needed.

Also planning meatloaf, chilli con carne, bolognaise, beef stew with dumplings, sausage with lentils, sausage casserole, chicken with lemons & olives, chicken with garlic, cider & cream and butter beans with bacon & mustard. And will make some stuff useful for lunches, such as vegetable soups, smoked mackerel pate, quiche & flapjacks.

Can I come and live with you, please? Your mealplan sounds fantastic! Any chance of a recipe for chicken with garlic, cider and cream? That one sounds particularly delicious.

Chicken supreme for tea this evening - I can't wait! It was one of my favourites when I was growing up, but I'd never thought to make it myself until I joined in the GC and started looking for ways to use up leftover chicken (other than the usual sandwiches).

Got my MrA delivery coming later, but I'm now wondering if actually have enough freezer space for all of the things I'm planning to put in there. I can see me having a very cold evening, out in the garage, desperately trying to cram stuff in! :rotfl:

Lynn11

Good luck and hope that you are able to reduce your monthly shopping budget. My budget was creeping up but now I really watch what I buy and see if we really need it or can we wait a week for to buy the next washing up liquid etc. Now I have an expensive week of £60 which includes nappies etc and then the following week I spend £30 so it evens out. Every week I go to my local fruit shop for my fruit and veg, which tends to be cheaper and down the high street I go to the fish shop for my eggs as they are 90p compared to £1.30 in the supermarket. Also I try to visit Lidel every 2 weeks to try to stock up on some things - do not think I could do a full shop there. I buy my bread at farmfoods or iceland as it is 95p for Hovis or Kingsmill or 2 for £1.80 if I am in a town where you have these and put them in the freezer. Recently I have managed to but my grocery without buying stuff for the freezer and having meals out of there.

Scubabe

Hi,

I wanted to join in the huge chorus of people welcoming you to the Old Style board, and to congratulate you on working hard to dig yourself out of the hole you've found yourself in! We've all been there!

Our household spending is £300 per month, this has to include everything which isn't a household bill - so this is for all human & animal food, cleaning products, takeaways (we still allow ourselves 1 per month!), wood & coal for the fire, household items (e.g. Christmas cards, or buying a new can opener, or a new set of pillows, or whatever). Some months it is easy to stick to the budget, some months it is really hard. No matter what though, I *always* take this out in cash and I have a special "housekeeping" purse that all the money goes into, and when this purse is empty, it is empty, so I cannot overspend.

I've done the meal planning thing which everyone on here raves about, and it truly works.

I also have now got a store cupboard, and we bake our own bread, so now we don't run out of food so there are no more 7pm-race-to-Tescos-for-an-onion-and-spend-£40-on-stuff-you-don't-really-need trips We have enough flour to bake bread, enough pasta and rice and tinned foods to last about 3 months, and a freezer wedged full of food. So now instead of shopping every few days, I do one big shop on pay day and get everything in that I think we'll need for the month, and then we'll only need to buy milk and veggies throughout the rest of the month.

When we go shopping now I don't just grab the Tesco branded stuff - I look at everything. For example, when we went shopping on Saturday, I had forgotten to buy chicken at the butchers and I realised we needed chicken for a curry this week. So I looked at all the free range chicken options in Tesco and I couldn't believe it, but Tesco Finest Free Range Corn Fed chicken breasts were cheaper than their regular free range meat... so we got a superior product for £1.20 less than its mid-range cousin. Oh, and I definitely always use my mobile and add everything up before I get to the checkout so there are no surprises, it gives me time to take the "luxuries" out of the trolley if I have overspent.

Also I was about to buy a huge 8.8kg tub of washing powder from the farm store, I had never seen such a huge container so I was certain it must have been a good deal... but I held off from buying it and went home to check Tesco Online, and it's actually really expensive - same brand I normally buy, but £1/kg dearer! I am so glad I didn't buy it and for once I stopped to think about it and research it before I just got it spur of the moment... that was a big change for me

Oh, while I talk about the farm store, I need to urge you to research pet foods - don't buy them from Tesco as they are all poor quality anyway, buy them from a pet store or farm store. I don't know what pets you have, but if you have a dog, have you considered changing their food brand? I feed my dogs a brand called Skinners, it is really good quality and not full of colours/preservatives like some other brands, and they have a "working dog" range called Field & Trial. You do not need to have a working dog (farm dog) to buy it, but because it is working dog food it is VAT free! The Skinners Maintenance food is only £14.90 for a 15kg sack, that would last a large dog 6 weeks. Check it out, it could be a good option for you. I buy online from GJW Titmuss feed store and you get free delivery when you buy 2 x 15kg sacks.

Anyway, there's a few options for you, please let us know how you're getting on and definitely ask if you have any questions - I am so thankful I found this forum I now have a freezer and pantry full of food and I'm saving money, and better yet when I take a meal out of the freezer for dinner I'm also saving time!

Cheers

Ness

dazzle21

Hello, ok i was rather over ambitious this month, i dropped budget to £100 from £200 last month (which i didn't manage!!) This month we're already over..we're standing at £145 (I've rounded up!) but i have a freezer full of chicken, mince, mince and fish amongst other things and have managed 2 NSD's so far, with another one planned tomorrow. I have however been given a NOTW £5 voucher..so i'm tempted to pop in on Friday and buy some staples like rice/pasta/tins/nappies and a couple of items for Xmas which will totally blow my budget but then December will definetly come in far cheaper than i am anticipating? hmm..i'm not very good at this!

princess_leia_3

Mmm Dazzle, I am very much like this, but somehow it just doesn't work out like that for me! But I guess if you are strict and only buy staples it could work???? I would not be able to pass such a voucher off so I would use it and then reduce next months target
Good luck

Beki

Taffyscot wrote: »

Hi Distressed
Do find out when your Tescos marks it's food down. Food that has an expiry date that day can get reduced by 25% then later in the day by 50% and then by a whopping 75%. I had 4 kids at home and when they were teenagers my God what I didn't spend on food for them all. I wish I had known about all the discounted food then because now I do not need as much and tend to still by all the bargains because I can and because they are that bargains.
It is amazing what you can buy loads of loaves of bread for 9 pence. I got 4 cheese and onion pasties tonight for 58P perfect for lunches. I got a huge bag of spinach for 40 P and 2 large pork chops for 29 P. Then I went to check out and my huge bag of groceries for £9.00 and I used £3.50 in coupons that I found in the store so it only cost me £5.50. There are loads of ways to make your money go further. Hope this helps.
Taffy

i agree with this :T

we went to asda yesterday at 2pm, and left at 3pm. we hung around a bit for the bargains, but it as worth it

10 blocks of canadian cheddar (freezable) - 29p each
8 covent garden leek and potato soups (freezable) - 15p each
2 extra special salmon fishcakes - 20p
a whole side of salmon (now cut into portions and frozen) - 20p :eek:
2 pots of honey roasted salmon flakes - 20p each
a whole tray of bbq chicken legs for the OH - 75p

it's amazing how much we saved! i think it was somewhere around £38 we saved in the end!!! :T good luck! xxxx