January 2009 Grocery Challenge

Nancy888

I'm declaring please....£165.65 :mad:

Try as I might I can't get the receipts to add up to any less - but I've got a fair bit of food in the cupboards/freezer so...undeterred I'm going for £150 again for Feb - I'll get there if it kills me....!!!

Well done everyone else....:beer:

sexki11en

Aghhhhhh - I failed miserably here. Both with the spending and the keeping track. I have started again this week tho so when the new thread comes up, i'll try again. We DID reduce our spend tho so that's good.

Edited to add: Can I go for £300 for February please

SK x

elizabunny

Afternoon everyone! Oh my, the cuboards are now looking incredibly battered. I'm still not giving up on January and hanging onto my 12p:rotfl: but this is certainly getting challenging. It's not that there's nothing in the cupboards -it's just that not alot of it goes together now.

I am cooking some Pork in the slo-cooker today, with a few of my remaining veg., but swede all gone when I checked (disappointing) so it all seems a bit of a mish mash. Basically all I have in the pot is:-

The lean part of belly pork (cubed)
3 Sliced Potatoes Sliced (Last 3 :eek: )
Half an Onion (Last one:eek: )
1 Yellow Pepper Sliced (Last one:eek: )

Quarter of a Celeriac Sliced
3 Carrots Sliced (Only 2 left now:eek: )
Tin of Red Kidney Beans
2 Bay Leaves (Won't get fat on those:rotfl: )
1 Stock Cube
Dash Worcester
Seasoning
About 1 pint water

I have absolutely no idea what this will taste like -but it should be ok. The problem is, the potatoes in it are really small so it won't really be a complete meal and in my stock cupboard (Staples) I've only got left, Dried Spagetti, Lasagne Sheets, Noodles, Arboria Rice and Tapicoca I can't make dumplings because the suet has all gone, so I think I will have to make some little cobblers and bake these seperately to add some bulk. Unless any of you clever cooks have any better ideas.

I can hardly wait until Saturday and my new budget. I really think I'm going to look long and hard at what goes in my trolley next month -or maybe not my trolley, because I really feel the need to source my meat from a local butcher and try to source fruit and veg. from local farms/farmers markets. I know this may be an impossible task on my small budget -but at least I can try. At the end of the day -I just want to get the best quality I can, for the cheapest prices possible -perhaps a bit of a tall order......

Anyway February is certainly going to be as huge a challenge for me, as January, as all the Xmas extra's are now gone and the freezer is somewhat depleted.

Well done to everyone this month whether over or under budget. At least we are all aware of what we are spending By the way I don't include any wine, beer etc. in my budget because we don't get it often, so it's only a bought as a treat if we have extra pennies at the time.

Apologies for the rambling post:o

Have a good day everyone!

keld

I've just updated my signature to £486.20 which is a bit too close for comfort. Although to be truthful, I've added in lunch and wine (£81.68:eek:), which I originally didn't intend to. Plus we've had relatives over this weekend and as we don't see them often it's a shame to skimp.

So I've got £13.80 left to see us through to Sunday, well it's possible.:rolleyes: I am pleased I've done this though, because I now have a much better idea of where our money goes and where we can save. I think I'll have to reduce my target for February.

Well done to everyone else.:beer:

fallen_angel_shelley

I have taken £10 out of the bank to cover the rest of the week for the GC so, I'm declaring £170.52p for January. that makes me £29.48p under budget:j :T :j :T so I am going to use the money left over to make an extra paypent on one of my CC.

Shelley x

sharronej

elizabunny wrote: »

I can hardly wait until Saturday and my new budget. I really think I'm going to look long and hard at what goes in my trolley next month -or maybe not my trolley, because I really feel the need to source my meat from a local butcher and try to source fruit and veg. from local farms/farmers markets. I know this may be an impossible task on my small budget -but at least I can try. At the end of the day -I just want to get the best quality I can, for the cheapest prices possible -perhaps a bit of a tall order......

It certainly seems to be the time when buying British is going to be very important and I will be trying to do that but as you say there are limits when we are trying to stick to a small budget!

I've had my MRT delivery and my son commented that although the kitchen is full there's NO food:rolleyes: What he means of course is that there's nothing he can just go and pick up and eat :rotfl:

notenoughcash

jackie_w wrote: »

Hi everyone,

ive absolutely no idea what i spend my money on. My oldest is 11, and he is eating me out of house and home just now. The other night, he had sausage casserole with veggies and mash for dinner, then he had quarter tub of ice cream, then he had 2 apples, 2 oranges and a banana, then he had a yogurt, then he had some fritters, all in the space of 3 hours. He would have had more if I let him, so he said I was sending him to bed hungry :rolleyes: .

My eldest son will be 11 this year and he's much the same when it comes to food, he eats his meal, finishes everyone elses and then declares starvation an hour later. He is like a stick, not an ounce of fat on him, but very very active. I grow a lot of my own veg which helps with main meals and often do a big batch of thick veg soup in slow cooker which he has with HM bread so is relatively low-cost. I do tell him he has to stop sometimes as I'm sure some of it is out of habit rather than hunger. I very rarely buy in crisps or biscuits, but do dometimes do a HM flapjack or dessert after a meal as a treat. The drink suggestion is a good one, especially water as it may put him on until the next meal!

wendywitch

I've found my missing receipts so I've updated Jan's total. I'm still under but at a more believably amount.
The receipts were from the food I brought my girls to take to Euro Disney at the weekend, lots of Fairy washing up liquid which is on offer at Asda and a large Tesco's take away Indian from when I just couldn't be bothered to cook

NSD for me on Sunday, Monday and today. I have a shopping list growing on the fridge door but only NEED to get some yoghurts, cheese and ham for DD2's lunchbox for next week so I'll get them tomorrow as it's Tax Credit day.
Thinking about it I also need to get some baby toiletries for BIL & SIL's new arrivals nappy cake, hopefully that should be it :rolleyes:

Sylvan

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Ok, maybe yours is slightly smaller!

:rotfl:It's a new version of "My dad's bigger than your dad":p

I found an even smaller one on Saturday. Had to go over the top to pick up DS5 from his GF's so we went into every Co-op on the way. The one nearest the top has only two tiny shelf units and one chiller! I bought 2l of Woodpecker cider from them for £1.49 (BB31/1) and some tins of JW tuna in springwater. The biggest one had the tuna on offer too (and half price chinese sauces) but only ours had the noodles and none of them had the mayonnaise.

I've overspent, since we managed to get to FF, where I went mad on cheap milk and frozen veg and then DH popped into Mr M's to look for whoopsies and ended up with offers he thought I wanted:rolleyes: (Bless him). Still would have been OK if I hadn't gone into those Co-ops. Naughty Orkney Star - leading me into temptation!:p

I'll update my signature later, when DH eventually gives me his Mr T receipt from Friday and Mr W from yesterday.

Mrs M, please may I go onto the annual budget, at £3000 for the year. I think it will work better for me since I have strange shopping habits, depending on weather, mobility, transport availability and relevant offers...

Off to try catching up with the thread!

yummymummy05

ok posh dinner tonight - butchers had an offer on 4lb's of rib-eye steak for £12 that worked out at £1.20 per steak!! Had to get petrolm so picked up bread, bananas and yogurts too! All in all spent £14.63. will update my sig now!