January 2009 Grocery Challenge

Keeping_Positive

Ditto the GC thread very useful. £40 with a well stocked larder should be doable just meal plan and be a bit more forward thinking. Today I have been baking treats to save on the cost of shop brought stuff.

MUMOF4_2

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Yes you can surprisingly easily. I regularly feed 5 (me, dh, dd (16), ds (14 & eats like a horse!) and ds (10) for between 30 and 70 a week. I can do it for the lower end now that I know some of the tips on here too!

there is 6 of us and i was managing well before all the food prices went up to feed us at between 40-50 a week, can you share some of your cheap meals you make, including lunches! I am intrigued to know how you do it for £30, i am imagining this is when you use up batch meals in the freezer and just buy fresh fruit, bread, milk and vegetables???

new year tomorrow and i want to cut my budget further!!!

many thanks

bullet_2

If you've already got lots of food in it should be fine.

Pink.

Hi Rachel021967,

The new grocery challenge has just begun for January and you will get lots of help and advice from the regulars there who just like you are working to a budget so I'll add your thread to that one later.

If you haven't already read it Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries which may help.

There are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads which might be useful:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals

Show Jamie How To Cook On A Budget Champagne Contest

Meal idea's under £1

Good luck on cutting back!

Pink

searching_me

happy new year everyone ... to my suprise i got paid early so im in... on friday im putting £150 in to oh accout i use his for the food ... and that it... still have quiet abit of food in the freezer and cupboards so only need fresh foods for now so off i go x

Money_saving_Diva_2

Just wanted to wish everyone a very

Happy New Year!

May it be a healthy, happy and prosperous one for us all. (and may we all beat our grocery challenge every month!!:rotfl: )

with love and hugs

Diva.xx

Flylady_Flower

Hi everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all - I hope you all have a happy and prosperous New Year and are able to make and stick to your resolutions... Love and Hugs to all! :beer:

Hi Mrs M - I would like to be in again this month please - must stick to budget and save as much as we can now, goals to reach and everything. I would like to set my budget at £60 per week from Friday to Thursday starting on 2nd, but I will run it monthly (will do 4 weeks for Jan to 29th) as that is easier so it will be £240 for the month of January... Thank you.

30_something

As I'm a grocery challenge newbie, I spent a lot of time yesterday doing a "stock check" of the food we have at home, and then working out my meal plans for the next 2 weeks. I then went online and placed my usual fortnightly grocery order with Mr T, to be delivered next week.


I just wanted to report back on here how little I spent really! A normal fortnightly shop usually costs me around £100 (I'm aiming for £70 a fortnight on this challenge), but my total order came to....£34.97 and that included delivery :T . I will still need to buy a few extra items that are cheaper elsewhere, but that should come to well under a tenner so so far that's a very good start to the challenge for me.


Of course for this shop I had the advantage of lots of Christmas food left over, so the 2nd half of the month will probably be more expensive. However I have some batch cooking and freezing planned for this weekend, so hopefully it will still come under my target anyway. Actually there's no "hopefully" about it, I will make sure it does :rotfl:


Happy New Year everyone _party_

Frugaldom

:beer: Happy New Year to all when the time comes!

As usual, my budget is annual but it should average £100 per month in the longterm. I went £26.15 over in 2008 but have stockpiles of various things and plan on using stockpiling as main method of shopping for 2009.

Good luck to all the newcomers, hope you all have fun taking part in these challenges. I know that I have learned loads over the past year and would just like to thank everyone for being here and for being so helpful. :T Long may the grocery challenges continue.

recovering_spendaholic

Hi Everyone -

CW18 - so sorry to hear of your loss. I remember reading on one of the other threads that he was ill, but I had no idea it was that serious.


Adrina - sorry about your accident - hope you are recovering okay.

Despite vowing not to go to the supermarket until next week, I went to Tescos today as I needed to get loo roll and Ariel. I ended up spending £56 but it included alot of reduced meat - they had all the Christmas frozen meat and salmon half price so I got a side of wild salmon, a large stuffed pork leg, a leg of organic lamb and a gammon so was pleased. I also got enough pasta, rice and so on for the month so in theory I shouldn't have to go to the supermarket again for ages..... i have now completed my inventory of stocks and am amazed at how much stuff I have in - now I just need to plan it all out in to meals.

I have a large piece of boneless turkey crown left from Christmas Day. It has been in the fridge the whole time but do you think it would be okay to curry it? I reckon I could make about 8 or 10 portions of curry out of it but I am a bit worried about it being off. It doesn't smell off - what do you reckon?

I also have loads of cous cous and bulghur wheat which I am not too keen on really. Do any of you have any recipes for it? It is the plain stuff - not the Ainsley Harriot stuff.

Well, hope you are all having a lovely New Year's Eve.