December 2008 Grocery Challenge

angelatgraceland

Gailey-well there are a few ways you can cut back but a little at a time is best as it does take some adjustment.You say about cereals being guzzled with lots of milk. Some of us have reverted to buying full cream milk and watering it down a bit. If you do this I would personally do it in a ratio of 3 parts milk to one part water. Mrs M says that the flavour improves overnight and others have verified this.
I used to stock up on crips biscuits and so forth-maybe about £10 a week at a guess. Gradually I made new rules. The first was-no bought cakes-homemade only. Then I cut down on crisps and biscuits. I now only buy them as treats. This has taken best part of 6 months to become a firm habit.
You say hubby doesnt like quorn or lentils but maybe you have been trying to switch from meat rather than to mix them? Try 3/4 meat and 1/4 quorn and get him used to that. Then try adding some lentils-make it a gradual change.
Stock cubes-what are you buying? Im using tesco value at 29p for 10-a big difference to oxo for instance.
For sandwich fillings we use egg mayo quite often. Using value mayo-about 49p as opposed to hellmans at about £1.20. Using value tuna and f-r eggs.
We also do tuna and cucumber, sliced sausage and egg-mayo,ham and pickle(I try to buy ham trimmings in co-op).
I tend to buy frozen vegetables rather than fresh in many things as often veg has gone to waste in the past.
I freeze any leftover portions of anything-they do build up as meals for when you are in a hurry.
I check the cupboards before I go shopping to see what I need-but if there is a really good offer on a food staple I stock up on it. I DO NOT however stock up on junk foods on offer-sweet stuff crisps cakes or expensive fizz.
I do buy fizzy drinks in moderation when on offer at a really good price or the own brand ones. We have fresh juice but again-we slightly dilute it or sometimes have orangejuice and lemonade which makes it stretch.
I buy cheap squash but not too often as honestly-its junk. I sometimes order online and keep updating my order before it arrives with things I need and cut out the things I dont. For instance, I ordered Kenco coffee on my Asda order but found that Waitrose have larger jars on offer which work out cheaper(2 x 200g jars for £7) as opposed to 100g for £2. A little saving here and a little saving there. I also buy tescos own value coffee at 38p for myself as Im not fussy but hubby is and I drink gallons of it whereas he only has about 3 cups per day so I let him have the Kenco.
Never run out of basics! Milk freezes well but needs regular shaking while defrosting. Cheese freezes ok but can become crumbly so grating first is a good idea. Check the price per kilo at the cheese counter against prepacked and get the best value-it varies a lot. Hope that helps.

LeLLe

Some great tips there Angela

Well, i visited Mr A today and spent just under £30 which i'm really impressed with (but it wasn't through choice i'm afraid :rotfl: ) Just hope it'll last til Tuesday :eek:
Also, tin of tuna been sitting in the cupboard for a while, not sure what to do with it. Bit fed up of having it with potatoes or pasta.. any other ideas?

Free_in_Three

Just popping in to update my signature. I am really chuffed so far having spent £41.78 in 2 weeks. This is my first proper month on the GC and I have even been making my own bread!!

I need to spend another £40 or so this weekend, the majority of this is on enough dog food from Aldi to keep the furballs going until after Christmas. Their tinned dog food is the cheapeast I can find at 32p a tin.

I also want to get to Aldi to pick up those 39p offers on F&V trouble is its started to snow again so if I am going I better make it soon.

mommyof4

Hi this is my first time on here, although I have lurked for a while. I find it truly inspirational. Am trying to manage on £35 per week for 4 of us, myself and DH and two sons, 6 and 2 years. My DH works in a supermarket and we get 15% discount on groceries there. Decided to keep all receipts for 2009 and work out how much we have saved over the year.

princess_leia_3

Spent £1.50 on milk for kids yesterday but it will be a NSD today as its so horrid out there, I was going to Mr Ms to get some of the BOGOF custard for Xmas pud and condensed soup half price for sauces/pasta bakes etc So I will get them maybe tomorrow/Saturday. I will also need more F & V & milk at the weekend and no room in freezer to store much as I am waiting for the turkey!

kookgekje

LeLLe wrote: »

Some great tips there Angela

Well, i visited Mr A today and spent just under £30 which i'm really impressed with (but it wasn't through choice i'm afraid :rotfl: ) Just hope it'll last til Tuesday :eek:
Also, tin of tuna been sitting in the cupboard for a while, not sure what to do with it. Bit fed up of having it with potatoes or pasta.. any other ideas?

Hi LeLLe.

Why don't you try mixing it with a chickpea curry. Fry a sliced onion with some garlic and ginger (I leave out the ginger sometimes if I haven't got any). Add some curry powder (as much or little as you like), a tin of drained chickpeas and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Let it simmer for a bit so it thickens a little and then add the tin of (drained) tuna. Warm through and eat with chapati's, naan or rice. This is making me feel hungry now and I might just have to make this for dinner tonight. It's even better the next day but I would only add the tuna at the last minute.

Enjoy!

Moniker

Just doing my usual Thursday update having been to Sainsbury's this morning. I spent just over £50, but that included a whole leg of lamb to put in the freezer - they are selling them nearly half price. Have updated my sig.

Have just set up the online payment for DD2's rent of £450 per month! She is still job-hunting and says she can pay us back out of savings till the end of Feb but after that .... I am very worried about her. She has applied for at least 20 jobs in the last 2 months and is signed up with an agency, but hasn't even had an interview! Still, at least she can come home if the worst comes to the worst.

Off to cook the lunch before going to work myself - thank God I am full time now and OH has plenty of work too. My heart goes out to all those families facing redundancy or repossession over Christmas.

Thanks to everyone here for your great recipes and moneysaving tips - I am sure it makes a real difference and there is a great morale boost from feeling in control of your finances! Keep up the good work everyone!

love Moniker

kayharcombe

Did some jobs for my nan yesterday, and went to mcds`s for breakfast, which was 2.89, but wont do that again anytime soon. Was driving all over the place running around as she just moved, Am taking it out of my grocery budget, even if only to teach me not to do it again.

Am collecting 1/2 a pig from the farm at the weekend, so will be an expensive week foodwise, but will keep me in meat pretty much till the end of the month, along with my freezers full of meat and fish. am resolving to buy no more meat, fish or chicken for the rest of the month, and its not like that i would even get close to running out. total spend this week should be less than 140, and next week i should be able to live on 30, leaving 230 for last 2 weeks, which should be fine, even with christmas.

Hoping to reduce next month to 300, 75 a week for 1 adult and 3 kids should be plenty, especially if buying meat in bulk, i pay 2.25/kg for free-range rare breed pork, which is around 1/4 of supermarket prices. 1/2 pig is around £60, but lasts months, we get lambs too, need to get into a good rotation with it and mroe importantly, get the stuff out of the freezer and cook it, rather than think theres nothing in so getting takeaway or last minute stuff.

going through mbaz`s feed a family for a month on £20 thread, and truly inspirational, i need to pull my finger out really so i can get debt free, and have more to enjoy life with

Kay

Sylvan

Oops:o. I blame the novelty of living in a village, with a shop, instead of being half a mile away from the nearest neighbours. I can't get there on my own (decrepit old fogey) but DH was snowed in today so I suggested toddling across to check out their latest offers.

£10.88:eek:

Mostly frozen food, milk and whoopsies, but that BOGOF Boursin was completely unnecessary.:o

lola34

Well its only the 4th and I have already spent £80.46 out of my £300 budget but that should be it until next week now:o , three small trips to Mr T's and a big one to Mr A's, is it best do shop little and often or do it in one big one?? I can't decide:rolleyes:

This did include goodies for christmas- nibble and soft drinks. Just need to get the Bud thats on offer and then we're done for drinks as we have the rest already and I always get 6 bottles of wine off my Nan that should see me through:rolleyes: