January 2009 Grocery Challenge

Changingme

Have had to shop in week now have £22.57 left and main shop is saturday,fingers crossed,am of to see what I have left in freezer and store cupboard.:rolleyes:

sistercas

oh-oh I am going to go over this month . I have a few things to get and i am almost up to my limit already. i think I underestimated the budget for a 5 week month :doh:

scotsaver

£7.98 over Budget now as I had to buy some more Fresh Fruit, however, I'm hoping that will be it now as we have everything in we need for the weekend, dinner tonight is Cod, HM chips and mushy peas, eating at Friends tomorrow night and having Roast Lamb on Sunday and already got the Lamb in, so fingers crossed we won't go over by much more and my new Budget starts on Tuesday.:D

Hope you are all doing well, have a good evening everyone.;)

marri_lou

angelnikki wrote: »

Hi shelley, It was me that posted that recipe I use kidney beans and pinto beans because they were the cheapest tinned beans; but you could swap and use black eyed beans or any others that you like instead HTH

Nikki x

If you are really stuck for beans for a recipe like this at short notice, rinse the tomato sauce off a tin of cheap baked beans!

SavvyStudent_2

Hello everyone! I've been lurking quietly for the past week in between revising, sorry! The OH got me a 3.5L hinari slowcooker for £10 in TJ Hughes last weekend so I've been putting it to the test..! Have to say, its really handy

Apart from a loaf and some milk I haven't hit the shops since last sunday when we went to MrM (lots of good offers at the min - 52p buitoni pasta, branston beans 4 for 75p etc - I won't bore you with the rest!). The storecupboard stockpiling is going well! Still have 2x packs of sausages, 1x pack of bacon, 4x chicken breasts and 4x pork chops all crammed into our little ice box so we'll see how long that lasts! I wish I had a proper freezer though (no room!). I've been feeding the OH irish stew all week (our fav - reminds us of home!) from a big slow cooker batch made on tues lol. Its super-cheap too so bonus..! :T

We have a vegetarian friend coming to stay sat night so I'm in a slight panic over what to make thats cheap and that isn't pizza (we make her pizza every time and the OH says I need to branch out lol). Any ideas? xx

marri_lou

SavvyStudent wrote: »

Any ideas? xx

Check out Beyond Baked Beans - its a student website and loads of veggie recipes on it. I bought the veggie cookbook a few years back and I love it so!

http://www.beyondbakedbeans.com/categories/20080711

Penelope_Penguin

Rainbow_Butterfly wrote: »

We have always overspent a bit on food (probably one of the reasons I ended up overweight :rotfl:) and money is getting ever tighter and im desperate to try and bring it down a bit.

Problem is hubby does 90% of the cooking (he's brilliant, im awful) and is a bit of a perfectionist with it.

Also, I am currently following atkins so mostly eating meat (chicken breasts, mince, pork chops, burgers, turkey mince), salads, egg dishes, veg and cheese. I'm doing really well on it and feeling so much healthier.. have never eaten so much greens in my life.. However we must be spending at least £20 a week just on salad greens and fresh veg!

I dont eat any bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, root veg, flour, or sugar.

Hubby is having things like frozen pizza, supernoodles, pies etc when I have things he wouldnt want to eat himself.

I was sitting earlier trying to work out a budget spreadsheet, and I said, would £250 be a month.. his answer no... I said... erm £300? He said no make it £400 a month :eek:

This is probably what we are spending anyway, but I never really added it up!! Im so shocked!

We also have a 20 month old baby, who is pretty fussy, and probably eats 60% toddler microwave tray meals and the other 40% what we are having.

Shopping is done normally at Tesco.. we do also have a lidl and morrisons in driving distance.

Any ideas on how to bring things down would be great :T

You've now had loads of suggestions, so I'll add this to the Grocery Challenge thread.

Penny. x

TurnaroundSue

Right today is our pay day and this is the year that I am going to get my grocery budget under control. At present I put all my groceries and petrol onto a tesco cc and pay the bill off each month from an account which has £400 to pay towards it, but is normally way of this figure and so have to dip into our wages to clear balance (this cc is purely for food and petrol).

Now what I have done this month is pay the bill (which was £678) and have then put £400 into an account to cover £250 for food and £150 for petrol. Each time I use the card (which I want to use to get my clubcard deals) I will transfer the same amount to the cc from the account, thereby keeping the balance at nil and helping me adhere to the food and petrol budgets.

I will now be a regular on this site, looking for recipes and tips along the way. Tonight I am going to go through my cupboards/freezers and see what I have in for the next week and then do a meal plan. I will ONLY buy stuff that I need for next week and nothing else (unless of course it is reduced or a bargin and will help with the following week's meals.

If I can stay on budget then I will be really chuffed, as since I managed to get debt free last August I haven't really seen the benefit of the extra money coz each month it is going to pay the collosal (sp?) for and petrol bill.

Sorry to drone on, but putting it in writing really helps me focus and I know that I will get some excellent tips and advice from you guys on this wonderful forum - now I will shut up :silenced: and if you have got this far many thanks for reading.:T

Flat_Eric

Mrs M Can I set my budget for February at £159.56? Many thanks

On a separate note apart from wishing everyone a very Happy Friday evening :j

can anyone help me with this?

Im doing my online asda shop. now one pack of chicken fillets (386g) is £3.75 :eek: at £9.72 per kg. Now this chicken is on multibuy at 2 packs for £7.00.

Question ! does that mean if I buy two packs the kg price is thus reduced?

i know it seems that this question has an obvious answer i.e. the price of £9.72 is only applicable if you buy one pack but I always get confused in that if an item is on offer, does the shop display the price per kg applicable to the offer or applicable if you just bought one (if you see what I mean - im not explaining myself very well!!!)

tessie_bear

hi hope everyone is well........im freezing today....just the right day for sc food imo....i spotted a lovely bargain today in the coop...£1.22 for half a dozen eggs.....special eggs that are pleasing to people and chickens alike...cadburys cream eggs and the one i had was lovely dh has eaten 5 :eek: blimey... oh to be 6ft 6 and burn off food quick....we are eating out with family tomorrow so thats money saving (and lovely) have a nice weekend tess