January 2009 Grocery Challenge

Flat_Eric

Im very pleased to report my first NSD! so pleased
I am well into planning my meals in the diary I bought. Have planned roughly the next 10 days with just a few gaps which I hope to fill in now that Im home and I have all my food mags etc to hand.

I think come next month, I might just have this GC business cracked !:j

Julimk

Week 4 main shop today & £12.31 spent, which just leaves £2.14 for the last week. It was at this point last month that I went over & I am still under at the mo & should only need 1 or 2 little bits like milk.

I got some exotic dried fruit mix for DD’s pack ups in Julian Graves for £2.16 for 500g, which compares favourably with Mr S’s exotic dried fruit at £1.79 for 250g & is much better than the individual packed lunch packets at 38p for 50g. I have plenty of the smallest size of lock ‘n’ lock tubs. Just hope she likes it!

In Mr T I got some whoopsied cheddar at £1.18 for 400g and some spring onions for 45p. The veg oil at £1.06 for 1 litre was cheaper in the 1 litre bottle than the larger size. And bought some other bits and pieces like spices, butter, soya mince (checked Holland & Barrett but Mr T was cheaper).

My parents gave me an A4 diary for my birthday, which I can use as a proper spending diary, and also a lovely recipe journal that I can write recipes in & keep together, instead of the odd bits of paper!

katholicos

I've just been looking through my spending diary and in the past 14 days i have managed 6 no spend days! I'm so pleased with myself because this board and its members are helping me to learn different ways of managing my finances and to not be ashamed to call myself a homemaker.

Out of the £320 i allowed myself and the kids for the month, i now have £88 left for the next 2 weeks, which scares me slightly though :eek: but i think we'll manage.

I'm going to try so hard to not go over budget and I did at least resist the urge to go bootsing in their 75% off sale today :cool:

tessie_bear

good evening....hope everyone is going strong withtheir challenge and hasnt been too tempted by the 75% off in boots (i have been quite tempted:rolleyes: )...for tea we have fajitas that were reduced on many levels....reduced chicken and peppers 29p tortillas from [EMAIL="h@me"]h@me[/EMAIL] [EMAIL="b@rgains"]b@rgains[/EMAIL] and salad from market 50p.....very good [EMAIL="....h@me"]....h@me[/EMAIL] bargains is great for cheap food i got [EMAIL="am@y"]am@y[/EMAIL] black bean sauce for 20p which was £1.29 when i looked in the coop so all in all not a bad day.....oh and i got a fiver card from sainsburys for complaining about some sausages that werent overly fresh have a great evening tess

elizabunny

Evening all! Just a quickie to say another NSD for me today -so that's 2 in a row:j . All this HM food is so filling isn't it? We felt so full after dinner tonight we could hardly move -I really can't believe how well and how cheaply you can eat when you put your mind to it. We'll be looking for slimming classes:eek: if we go on like this......I think the dogs need another walk.........or two

PS. Everyone is so positive and resourceful it really does help me to keep on track, so thank you:A

clutterydrawer

I am doing quite well by means of living in the middle of nowhere with no transport. I can only get to the shops on weekends....ran ot of bread on tues....been eating potato scones ever since ran out of milk....tough. :rotfl:

My friend is giving my a lift into town on saturday though so all my acheivements will be ruined i expect.....supermarkets are the nearest i get to a trip out these days, very exciting!

Free_in_Three

Evening Everyone:hello:

I have been feeling a bit fed up as once again I am over my budget this month. I have done a big stock up shop to use a £9 voucher from Mr S and also stocked up on soap powder, toiletries, DW tablets at the cash and carry. We have started to use the farm shop for our veg and spuds and buy lots more fruit as we are both on a diet and I hadn't budgeted for this as I hadn't realised how much weight I have put on in the last 6 months:eek: However there are too many lovely things there and we always buy meat or baked goods we don't really need.

I was going to drop out of the GC and just be a lurker while I brush up on my OS ways but I have noticed that some of you are doing an annual challenge which I think will suit me better. I am not sure what our monthly budget should be tbh so this way I can work out what we spend as I tend to pick a figure I would like it to be rather than what it is likely to be. I am hoping to come in at under £200/month and work towards getting our spend down to £150/month.

This is my plan of action:

• Shop online fortnightly for store cupboard items/staples/milk and yogurts. I don't have the opportunity to shop for whoopsies so I am best avoiding temptation by keeping out of the shops
• Buy dog food at Aldi (my 2 love it and its the cheapest tins I can find)
• Continue to make my own bread and packed lunches
• Continue to menu plan, cook from scratch and freeze, use up leftovers
• Don't throw food away - use it! ( I have got much better at this)
• Try a weekly veg box scheme for veg to keep me out of farm shops
• Shop once a week at green grocers for extra fruit and veg if necessary to stop me buying things I don't need in a supermarket
• Keep up with the posts on here
• Still use a £200 monthly budget and record spending but don't beat myself up about it if I am over - I am going through a learning curve!

MRS M please can you transfer me to the annual challenge and put me down for £2500, Thanks


Apologies for the long post I just needed to get my thoughts organised.

Free x x

gillst_2

Nsd yesterday and today, so £11 remaining still. Had chicken stir fry last night, 2 chicken breasts for four of us, 2 peppers that had started to wrinkle in the fridge, a couple of onions and some bean sprouts. Today was chicken and chips (made at home) with peas and lashings of piccalilli - yummy. Noticed that a 1ltr box of long life skimmed milk was past its best before date so used this to make a semolina pudding. No one realised the milk was out of date (over a month) Both days I have used things that I would have in the past thrown away (wrinkled peppers and the milk). Feel I personally am making progress in not wasting food.
Not sure how long the £11 s going to last however. Feel that I am fighting a losing battle with my family. Came home from work tonight to find that my 2 DSs had eaten a whole new block of cheese (for lunches in sandwiches), the last 4 eggs, whole packet of bacon (8 rashers) a whole loaf of hm bread and a large tin of chicken soup (despite the fact that there was a large turreen of hm chicken and veg soup in the fridge). Youngest DS is at home all day at the moment, having lost his job just before Christmas and not having found a new one yet, but DS1 had been out at work, but got home before me. I walked in to find that he had just made himself a 2 egg and bacon (4 rashers) sandwich to see him through until dinner was ready!!!!! Fridge now looking like Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard, but I am determined not to buy any more - they will have to learn - what I buy is to last and once the budget is gone its gone and we will be using what is in the house - there is plenty, just not a lot fresh food. Just found that they have opend a tin of celebrations chocs that we got for Christmas, that I had been planning on saving for Easter - Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg
Sorry for rant.

angelatgraceland

gillst-I get this problem too!!!! The only thing that works is I leave an a4 notice in the kitchen written in black marker telling them what they can eat and what they are not allowed to touch!
Sounds drastic but it works. The other thing I did was to invest in a second fridge which is in the garage-padlocked! That has the "future" feeds in it! Sounds extreme? Nah-thats how I keep the spending down. They will do as they are told!

pinknfluffy

I have spent 2 thirds of my budget and still have two weeks left, if I can't make it in budget in January when I had loads of stuff left from xmas when can i make it. People on here seem to do so well with so little I must be doing something wrong....never mind I will keep plugging away and try to keep as close to budget as possible.