February 2009 Grocery Challenge

orchid-96

I need to update my sig for a spend today, but am too tired now to pull out the receipt, I know its about £35-£40 ish so am going to probably be at budget now....I have got visitors this weekend so had to get stuff in for a nice meal for Sat night and other bits that I would not usually buy like nice crisps....I seemed to put loads of stuff away but can hardly remember what I got- I did get a nice joint of whoopsied pork for £3.50 so thats Sunday dinner done...shouldn't need anything else now really as I got stuff for the kids packed lunches for next week as well...and apart from alcohol (another budget) I think I have the weekend sorted......

Night all

PennyGrabber

Hi all, I'm back after my children having been with their dad for four days. I spent the time tidying, cleaning, catching up with friends, and apparently, going well over my budget!
Hmm, I know I set myself a ridiculously low target, but I do have a pantry FULL of stuff, you'd think I'd be able to sort it out! I'm just addicted to the supermarkets...
Updating signature, will set a slightly more realistic budget for next month. This was my first month though, and I had 2 aims - to see how much I spend in a month, and also to work out what my weaknesses are, with a view to fixing them and then being able to spend less!
Have worked out that I spend loads more when I actually go to the shop, however, I miss not going, and find stupid reasons to go, like DD wants to make lasagne, so we have to go and buy the ingredients... I also find that I go shopping when the children are with their dad as something to do that isn't housework, so I need to take up my cross stitch or something again. ARGH!!!
PG x

scotsaver

queen_of_string wrote: »

Please let us know how you get on with that pie scotssaver as I have it on my meal plan for next week, apparently its their most requested recipe ever.

tried their chicken pot pie yeterday and it was yum, there are some nacho pinwheels on the american site too, am dying to try them ( any excuse to use my new convetion oven )

edit, the one i found is on the betty crocker site but yours looks similar.

Hi queen of string - the Cheeseburger Pie was really nice, unusual but really nice and we all liked it which is good as usually OH has something different to the rest of us as he doesn't like Pasta, curry, rice, sauces etc etc and is a real meat & potato man, so good to find another dish that we can all eat together.;)

Dinner tonight Fish, HM chips and mushy peas.:D

Have a good day everyone.;)

TrixieB

£6.45 to add for odds n sods.

TurnaroundSue

Have finished this month's shopping challenge and although came in over budget by £72.25 this is still way better than my usual spend. Normal around £500 mark so at £322.75 am quite pleased with that.

Next month though I am going to try and use Mr T as little as possible. I have found a local butcher who delivers for free so long as order is over £30. Have also found a local greengrocer who delivers for free, min order £15, so me and friend are going halfs; will buy all my frozen stuff from Farmfoods, so hoping that next month will be closer to budget.

ps forgot to say that bought cat food in Pets World and saved myself nearly £3 on what it would have cost at Tesco

WelshWoofer

Just had to tell you.....

OH went off to Mr T's armed with a list for bits and pieces for the weekend's visitors (he's paying for it as they're his old friends) and came back having spent £99!
Its ages (almost a year) since he went shopping as I tend to do it all - he may pick up the odd bread or milk but that's about it - and he almost fainted at the till!
Granted it did include some beer and wine but it was mostly nibbles and the odd bit of real food and quite a few extras that seemed to fall into the trolley.
It gave him a real wake up call regarding the price of food these days - he can now understand my moaning every Saturday after the big shop!

Sometimes shock treatment does really work:rotfl: :rotfl:

AT LEAST IT DIDN'T COME OUT OF MY BUDGET!!!:rolleyes:

BigMummaF

russetred wrote: »

Off to make a cheese and spring onion potato bake to go with pork chops now.

Apologies RussetRed for editing, but could please post the recipe? I use Wilja white potatoes[20p/ ld from our little pet shop:j] as the are the next best taste to Maris Piper with the resilience of Estima, but you can never have enough 'ways with taiters' to jazz up a meal can you
After traumatic technical tantrums, our poota seems to have settled down once more so I shall rejoin the Challenge if I may. I'll have a think about specific numbers & will post those closer to the time.
As for how things are now.....:eek: I have local access to MrT with Messers S/M/Lidl & Iceland within 10 miles, no 'friendly' butchers & a farm [f&v] shop whose produce doesn't keep long enough to justify the distance I have to travel to use it So consequence was, on visiting MrS yesterday & getting three small bags of bits, my purse came home £40 lighter :mad: I wouldn't have minded if I had actually bought things to justify that kind of expense, but 97% was at least own label if not value AND on offer!!!!! The iceberg lettuce was full price--£1-09 :shocked::shocked::shocked:-- I soooo hope I can get them to grow this time around :undecided

DdraigGoch

BigMumma, I can SO understand your position! I remember it being [LAST YEAR] that, on average, a bag of Morrisons' shopping was a fiver, you could guess fairly accurately how much money had been spent by how many bags .... now? It really is at least a tenner a bag, and I'm buying cheaper stuff too. How does that work?

Oh, if only I could get Wilja potatoes, they're my very favourite. I too am hoping that I can get iceberg lettuce to grow, but with being gifted a black thumb instead of green fingers I'm not holding my breath!

I'm now over my budget - DH "celebrated" by buying a takeaway. It was lovely, and I really enjoyed it, but, oh dear, next month's going to take a battering!:rolleyes:

northern_star

Am over budget by a couple of pounds so will declare at £190 for Feb. There's only today and tomorrow left for my 'month' and I think all we will need is another 2 litre milk. This Grocery Challenge is really making me think about what we spend. I think we've gone over this month 'cos we've all had minor ailments that meant popping extra things from the medicine aisle into the trolley. Will try to keep to budget next month and 'itemise' spending to get a clearer picture. Can you put us down for £168 for March please? Thanks

prudence41

Hi All

I have just discovered the Grocery Challenge thread and although it is late in the month, I would like to join.

It's just me and I'll set my monthly GC target for £100.

I've only read a few pages of your posts and once I've done my job hunting tasks for the day, i'll take a look for hints and tips from the veterans.