January 2006 Grocery Challenge

swizzlebabe

Doing well sofar- but did have quite a bit in the freezer.

Been going to the supermarket, but after having to take a child last week, and the week before the whole family on a sat aftternoon, I will be shopping online from now on!

Going to try and do a two weekly shop, as always run out if I try to do a month-too much for me to handle!!

Also going to try again to get the children to eat more what we eat, but don`t like having to throw stuff away. Any tips?

I have a slow cooker, buy the children don`t like any thing in a sauce.

The only meals we can all eat together are

sausage and mash and peas= although 1 child will not each mash so has potatoe smiles

Fish in batter/bread crumbs,chips and carrots- same child again has alphabites or smiles as does not like chips

The fussy one will eat roast potatos,veg,yorkshire pudding- but has sandwich ham with his roast as he does not like meat or chicken.

I know that I should have made hime eat it,but that is another story.

Time for change for the budget, and may me a meal out, from money saved/ plus would go out if i thought he would eat it!.

monkmorency

I'm joining the challenge for the second month. I overspent by £35.91 last month, which was largely down to a last minute splurge for Christmas :rolleyes:

Still, I'm feeling super confident this month. My cupboards are well stocked and reading the OS board has really inspired me to do more home cooking. I did my first ever traditional Sunday dinner this weekend (well, a veggie version of anyway) - yey!

I also had a slow cooker for Christmas which I think will work out well once I get to grips with it, and either find or invent some more vegetarian recipes.

I'm aiming to make up for last month's overspend, so I suppose my real budget is £164. Bring it on

EMPTY_PURSE_5

Ordered my first online shopping .. just 1 weeks worth, as will have to budget that way or will lose track ... so 50.00 per week grocery budget.

Found that online I did not buy anything that I wouldnt use, and no experimental buys as cannot see anything unless physically go looking for it .. so online is a winner.

Only 1 problem ... tesco online do not accept visa electron, so had to put on my credit card, not too chuffed about that !!

Millie xxxx

FrankieM

Hi everyone...I'm doing really well this month.
Been on a really tight budget this month cause wanted to get all CC's paid off at the end of this month and it looks like I'm going to manage it.

So normal budget is £50 per week, but this month I've been shopping fortnightly...
So first shop came to £53.32
second and hopefully last shop of the month came yesterday £50.01.

How cool is that. My OH is not too impressed but its only for a month....I figure you can put up with anything for a month...

frosty

Hi everyone, my budget is going really well,I have only spent £75.00 so far,my budget is £200.00 for 5 adults and all the animals.

catznine

Unfortunately I have had flu bug and the family (bless them) did the weekly shop so have gone over target this week! £70 plus the organic fruit and veg box to come (another £11.50) so £64.72 for the rest of the month. But lots of healthy food in

Mrsbojangles_2

I was doing well, then yesterday we were out looking for furniture, popped into Sainsburys, for a "few bits" (never shopped in S's) before and they had some good deals on like a massive pack of Charmin loo rolls half price, so I picked up a couple, as you do(lol) Now i'm worried that i'm going to go over budget (yikes)

kiwichick

You may find that as you have stocked up while on offer that even if you go slightly over this month you may come in under next month as you wont need as much. I'd have bought the loo roll too, better to have saved in the long run I reckon.

Mrsbojangles_2

Thanks Kiwi,

It was a good deal, 9 of the very large rolls, equivalent to 18 it said on the pack, reduced from £5.99 to £2.99!

BTW congratulations on your weight loss, how have you done it? I need to lose quite a bit of weight too xx

sophistica

Hi
I have joined the challenge but I am adding an extra dimension to it - I am a single woman with a cat. My groceries bill is astronomical (too emabarrassed to say how much but you could feed an army on it)...and the cat will only eat Sheba and premium cat biscuits, so I have given up there.

My challenge with a difference is to spend £10 on food (not cleaning or cat food) but prepare at home restaurant/gourmet quality meals while sticking (more or less) to my weight watchers diet.

I think I have succeeded last week (my book keeping is not up to much). I am eating a lot of soups ...I made an excellent one with fresh salmon offcuts with sweetcorn, celery and potatoes this week. And I love the deals at the supermarket at the end of the day, fresh mangos, cherries etc. BTW has any one noticed how the supermarkets rip us off on fresh fruit and veg. I go to the Indian areas of town where you can get all sorts of things at a fraction of the price e.g. 5 mangos £1 or Coriander 15p per bunch and tomatoes 15p a pound.

I reckon we could all live really well if we only used the supermarkets for their loss leaders (budget range products which are all hidden on the bottom shelf - cast your eyes down when you are shopping -it is an education!) and then buy their reduced stuff and BOGOFS and then go to the local ethnic areas/markets and £1 shops for everything else.

And I think that the biggest money saver is learning how to cook - making stuff from scratch like jams, cakes, biscuits...in fact this week I feel as if I have been eating in a restaurant every night. So that's me £10 and great food.