December 2008 Grocery Challenge

Julimk

I have done this week’s main shopping (week 4) and am technically now over budget at £103.79 against £100 for the month. But it is only a little bit. I was looking at some old receipts & in June I spent an astonishing £349.52! :eek: So it is a huge improvement.

Me & DD have been laid up for a couple of days with a stinky cold, so I treated us to some nice ice cream (which I hardly ever buy) and some fresh raspberries (whoopsied) and I have bought a medium whole happy chicken for a comforting roast dinner (not reduced, but it will do 3 or 4 more meals plus stock).

I did get some whoopsied corned beef for 30p and some whoopsied Wensleydale for 55p. The value horseradish sauce was 53p but Coleman’s was 2 for £1, so I bought 2 Coleman’s.

We should need very little between now & Christmas; today I bought 4 litres of milk & 8 litres of fruit juice, there are enough HM meals in the freezer and plenty in for lunches & breakfasts.

gailey_2

Sylvan- we dient manage to get to m&s howver the deals always run weekends and usually run fri-sunday and they done a few so im sure enough coming up soon they npramlly advertise in papera nd on tv but keep checking their website.
Also whats on offer is a mix of starter, maincourse with side dish like veg,red or white wine and double dessert all for £10! Its called dine offer.
check website for more details.

However i did notice m&s doing more deals and reductions for customers so you could still pick up some bargain treats.

Sylvan

Thanks gailey. I'll check their website. I can send DH in if I tell him what to get.:D

gillaman

Haven't been posting my sig regularly and am now over budget this month, mainly because I went to Mr A with my dd thinking I only needed some milk and cheese and came out with one or two things I needed but had forgotten about and a couple of things I didn't need at all (but at least they won't go to waste, and I won't need to buy them next month). Not good news in Christmas month, but I really don't think I'll need anything else now. Still making my own bread, soups and main meals.Will get together with dd and work out list and probably buy my half on my own. She works full time so will have to go to Mr A at weekend - don't think I'll be able to face that.

highland_fling_2

Hi everybody,
visited Mr.A the other night and followed shopping list although I must admit I was tempted by some special offers on toiletries. So spent more than I had planned but feel justified due to the fact I would eventually have had to buy those toiletries later and my mother always says "the time to cut a stick is when you see it."
Still within budget although I do realise there is still a chunk of the month still to come. I would normally be throwing money at the cashiers this time of year so feel quite good about how things are going. My cupboards and freezer are groaning and I only have a few bits and bobs to buy for Christmas dinner. Would really like to achieve my target as this is my first official GC.

CRANKY40

Sylvan there's usually a thread about the M&S deal on the grabbit forum.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1010205

savingfortravel

Just looking at the M and S Dine in for £10 list.
Seem to remember that someone posted ways to make the medium chicken on offer last for a few different meals. Is that correct?
SFT

angelatgraceland

savingfortravel wrote: »

Just looking at the M and S Dine in for £10 list.
Seem to remember that someone posted ways to make the medium chicken on offer last for a few different meals. Is that correct?
SFT

Well we all have different ways but today I cooked 2 chickens. We either have sandwiches or roast with the breastmeat and maybe some of the leg meat then we pick the rest for a curry-padding it out with lentils or quorn and maybe a couple of potatoes then the carcass goes in the slowcooker overnight to make the soup stock. Tomorrow I will be picking the bones and skin out of the stock and adding some dried soupmix and/or vegetables, herbs,onions to it to make soup. My 2 chickens cost me £6.50 and will make approx 8 roast dinner servings,12 curries and about 8 servings of chicken/veg soup. Obviously there are other costs involved with the lentils soup mix and veggies but the curries work out at under 50p per serving and the soup at about 20p per serving with all added. Roast dinners approx 80p-£1 per serving depending what veg/extras I add. Got my slowcooker on now and stripped both chickens-covered on plates for sandwiches or meals tomorrow/Tuesday. Curry will be for tea tomorrow and the soup will be for the freezer. O.k. it's late to cook now but it's peaceful as nobody else needs the kitchen-they have all gone to bed so the curry is also cooking and when its done I will serve it up into portions in baco tubs-it will go cold overnight and what we don't need will go in the freezer in the morning. I may need to take another 2 loaves of bread out first though!

natzini

Hello all!
So, so exhausted, but not doing too bad. Still to update my siggie as was so busy yesterday, but will do that as soon as I can. Going to do our food shopping for the rest of the month at the weekend, Sunday morning methinks.

princess_leia_3

Well, I have kind of lost track, but that is down to not being paid enough from work and so we have been using the GC account for everything hoping things will even out soon as we are away for the weekend and then got my last Mr T delivery booked.
So once I am abe to look through my reciepts and get back to normal I will update....the only good thing is that there is still money in my GC account so I know we are still within budget