February 2009 Grocery Challenge

angelatgraceland

tessie_bear wrote: »

hi....i should hang head in shame ive spent £1.70 when im suppose to be spending nowt...i did get some reduced veg in the coop....they have stew bags with a few carrots 2 onions a parsnip and a swede they were 60p today which i thought was quite good.........also sainsburys have all baby toiletries half price so i bought a couple of bit..i suppose that is what people mean about having some money in reserve for bargains....it seems a false economy not to get things u regularly buy when u see a great price....spending money to save money iyswim

happy pancake day
tess

Definitely the way to do it. It will save you money in months to come so those months should be a bit lower which will mean you have alittle reserve pot for more bargains. The "other" side of snowballing!

CherryPie

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Ooh, the thought of being able to go shopping at the beginning of a month is so exciting!!! (Does that make me really sad?!)

I love it when it's near the end of the month and the cupboards & fridge are running low, it makes me invent some new & interesting meals. And some disasters too!! :rotfl:

But I too now love the first shop of the month, it's so much easier now when I go to Mr T's armed with a list of what I actually need instead of wandering around putting things in the trolley I don't need. Then throwing half of it away.

Am off to make pancakes for Mum & Gran now. Gran (95) just out of hospital after 2 weeks and apparently fine! She's a trooper.

XxX

mummyyof5

£17.00 in Home Bargains today but that included some basics I was running short of

teabags (100 for £1)
Walkers crisps (14 bags for £1) bought 3 of these for kids packup.
Vimto,skips for LO,and treats and chocolate bars for packup too
Other odds and sods including some air freshener I have been looking for for ages,£6.79 on the net only £1.69 in HB.

Went to Morrisons and spent £3.00 on bananas,GD apples 5 rolls for a £1 for my packup for babygroup,and whoopsied cooking apples(4 large ones for 35p) will make 2 crumbles on Thursday and freeze one.

So £20.00 to add to total now £390.37p

SunnyGirl

My budget is probably going to go to pot this month as I need so much tomorrow (shopping day). But I'm not beating myself up over it I didn't know how much I'd be spending by adding another 16yo boy to the house IFYSWIM? I'll have a think over the next few days what the budget will be for March. Hope everyone is going okay with their budgets. Off to beat batter now for pancakes - for pudding though as my middle ds ate 12 last year and now there's 3 boys plus dd plus dh who manages to eat a fair few himself! I don't like pancakes myself lol!! Sausage pasta for tea anyway which is already made just boiling the water ready for the pasta.

smiler34

Hi all. Just did a weekly shop on asda for a couple of weeks time and I really struggled to keep the budget under £50 (which is what I am trying to aim for) Plus I didn't buy any nappies, wipes or loo roll, so can't imagine how I would be able to keep it under £50 if I had to buy any of these extras. Seriously need to get daughter potty trained on a night, I know it will only save me one nappy a day but that is a whole pack every two months so it all adds up.
Anyway back to the subject, I really don't know where I am going wrong and some of the meals I planned even used items from the storecupboard. This is my shopping list. Any pointers would be appreciated xx

Free Asda Magazine 1£0.00
Square cut wholemeal - medium 2£0.94
Organic white cheddar - mild 2£3.48
Plain flour 1£0.43
Self raising flour 1£0.43
Sugar - caster 1£1.94
Glace cherries 1£0.94
Writing icing - mixed pack 1£1.75
ASDA Extra Special tomato sauce 1£1.75
Baby potatoes 1£1.00
Baking potatoes pack 1£0.69
Carrots 1kg£0.87
Round lettuce 1£0.62
Bananas 1£1.24
Big Saver apples - gala 1£1.57
Clementines 1£1.67
Cheese and tomato pizza 2£2.00
Stir fry - crunchy 1£0.98
British chicken breast fillets 2£8.00
Pork loin steaks 1£4.00
Chicken paste 1£0.45
Cornflakes 1£1.14
Egg noodles - fine 1£1.16
Cooking sauce - Balti 1£0.98
Pasta bake - spicy tomato and pepperoni 1£1.27
Cooking sauce - chinese curry 1£0.71
Peas 1£0.85
Yogurt - strawberry and raspberry 1£0.43
Mince - beef 1£0.97
Pure apple juice 2£1.12
Baked beans in tomato sauce 2£2.48
Chopped tomatoes 1£0.33
Red kidney beans - chilli 1£0.33
Whole fresh milk 1£1.53
Semi skimmed fresh milk 1£1.53
ASDA Extra Special sausages - Cumberland ring 2s 3£6.84
Eggs - minimum net weight 1£0.82
Disney Princess cake 1£8.97
Back bacon - unsmoked 1£1.23
subtotal£66.19
multisave discounts-£4.30
e-voucher discounts-£3.50
delivery£3.50
estimated total£61.89

Cake is for daughters birthday and yes I do know I should make one!! lol
My meal plan is;
Pork chops, veg and potatoes
Fry up
Baked potato beans and cheese
Pasta bake
Chicken balti
Chicken stir-fry
Chilli and rice

The icing and flour etc is cause I am doing a bake sale for comic relief. Any ideas.

tjp70

Hi. I am a newbie and would like to join the March Grocery Challenge.

Please can you put me down for £230.

Many thanks.

OrkneyStar

smiler34 wrote: »

Hi all. Just did a weekly shop on asda for a couple of weeks time and I really struggled to keep the budget under £50 (which is what I am trying to aim for) Plus I didn't buy any nappies, wipes or loo roll, so can't imagine how I would be able to keep it under £50 if I had to buy any of these extras. Seriously need to get daughter potty trained on a night, I know it will only save me one nappy a day but that is a whole pack every two months so it all adds up.
Anyway back to the subject, I really don't know where I am going wrong and some of the meals I planned even used items from the storecupboard. This is my shopping list. Any pointers would be appreciated xx

Free Asda Magazine 1£0.00
Square cut wholemeal - medium 2£0.94
Organic white cheddar - mild 2£3.48 does it have to be organic ?
Plain flour 1£0.43
Self raising flour 1£0.43
Sugar - caster 1£1.94
Glace cherries 1£0.94
Writing icing - mixed pack 1£1.75
ASDA Extra Special tomato sauce 1£1.75 a tin of chopped toms, a bit of garlic paste and a pinch of mixed herbs may be cheaper ?
Baby potatoes 1£1.00
Baking potatoes pack 1£0.69
Carrots 1kg£0.87
Round lettuce 1£0.62
Bananas 1£1.24
Big Saver apples - gala 1£1.57
Clementines 1£1.67
Cheese and tomato pizza 2£2.00 - easy to make dough, topping can be chopped tomes/puree and you can use a mix of value or mozarella cheese- may be cheaper ?
Stir fry - crunchy 1£0.98
British chicken breast fillets 2£8.00 - get a whole chicken and use all meat ?
Pork loin steaks 1£4.00
Chicken paste 1£0.45
Cornflakes 1£1.14
Egg noodles - fine 1£1.16
Cooking sauce - Balti 1£0.98 - make your own ?
Pasta bake - spicy tomato and pepperoni 1£1.27 - make your own ?
Cooking sauce - chinese curry 1£0.71 - make your own
Peas 1£0.85
Yogurt - strawberry and raspberry 1£0.43
Mince - beef 1£0.97
Pure apple juice 2 £1.12
Baked beans in tomato sauce 2£2.48
Chopped tomatoes 1£0.33
Red kidney beans - chilli 1£0.33
Whole fresh milk 1£1.53
Semi skimmed fresh milk 1£1.53
ASDA Extra Special sausages - Cumberland ring 2s 3£6.84
Eggs - minimum net weight 1£0.82
Disney Princess cake 1£8.97 - I suppose this is a one off, otherwise could you make it yourself ?
Back bacon - unsmoked 1£1.23
subtotal£66.19
multisave discounts-£4.30
e-voucher discounts-£3.50
delivery£3.50
estimated total£61.89

Cake is for daughters birthday and yes I do know I should make one!! lol
My meal plan is;
Pork chops, veg and potatoes
Fry up
Baked potato beans and cheese
Pasta bake
Chicken balti
Chicken stir-fry
Chilli and rice

The icing and flour etc is cause I am doing a bake sale for comic relief. Any ideas.

I have put some ideas on (pink), its mainly the sauces. Once you have a few store cupboard basics (tinned toms, garlic puree, italian seasoning, chinese seasoning, curry powder- which you could buy for not much more than all the sauces you are getting this time) it is so easy to make sauces yourself, they taste better too. There are some links at start of Grocery Challenge, and also on other recipe threads.
Also do you ever have leftovers ? If so keep these, freeze and use as bake potato topping etc.
hth a little.
Finally, congratulations on your news of impending arrival .

smiler34

Thanks for advice orkneystar, the reason I got that cheese was cause it was on offer 2 for £3 otherwise would have been the value stuff. Good idea on the sauces and sad thing is I already have all the stuff you mentioned to make sauces in my storecupboard, probably just need some garlic paste. thanks again hun x

P.S. the extra special tomato sauce was meant to be 50p so don't know why it came up as £1.75??!!? Also don't mean to be thick but what's GC?

OrkneyStar

smiler34 wrote: »

Thanks for advice orkneystar, the reason I got that cheese was cause it was on offer 2 for £3 otherwise (I would have got that too then ) would have been the value stuff. Good idea on the sauces and sad thing is I already have all the stuff you mentioned to make sauces in my storecupboard, probably just need some garlic paste. thanks again hun x

P.S. the extra special tomato sauce was meant to be 50p so don't know why it came up as £1.75??!!? Also don't mean to be thick but what's GC? Grocery Challenge

Hope you get everything sorted out. When I first started doing sauces myself I always had a couple of ready made ones on stand by for tired days (and such-like!). If there are offers on sauces I will sometimes get the odd one or two as back up.
Regarding the sauces on here, the sweet and sour one is lovely, can thoroughly recommend it.
Some others might have some much better ideas than me!

tessie_bear

smiler34 wrote: »

Hi all. Just did a weekly shop on asda for a couple of weeks time and I really struggled to keep the budget under £50 (which is what I am trying to aim for) Plus I didn't buy any nappies, wipes or loo roll, so can't imagine how I would be able to keep it under £50 if I had to buy any of these extras. Seriously need to get daughter potty trained on a night, I know it will only save me one nappy a day but that is a whole pack every two months so it all adds up.
Anyway back to the subject, I really don't know where I am going wrong and some of the meals I planned even used items from the storecupboard. This is my shopping list. Any pointers would be appreciated xx

Free Asda Magazine 1£0.00
Square cut wholemeal - medium 2£0.94 make your own use bread mix
Organic white cheddar - mild 2£3.48
Plain flour 1£0.43
Self raising flour 1£0.43
Sugar - caster 1£1.94
Glace cherries 1£0.94
Writing icing - mixed pack 1£1.75
ASDA Extra Special tomato sauce 11.75 is this 50p ?
Baby potatoes 1£1.00
Baking potatoes pack 1£0.69 just buy one bag pots and do more mash ?
Carrots 1kg£0.87 buy value
Round lettuce 1£0.62
Bananas 1£1.24
Big Saver apples - gala 1£1.57
Clementines 1£1.67
Cheese and tomato pizza 2£2.00 make own
Stir fry - crunchy 1£0.98 buy seperate veg and cut up
British chicken breast fillets 2£8.00 buy a whole chicken and cut up
Pork loin steaks 1£4.00
Chicken paste 1£0.45
Cornflakes 1£1.14
Egg noodles - fine 1£1.16 use the value 10p ones
Cooking sauce - Balti 1£0.98
Pasta bake - spicy tomato and pepperoni 1£1.27
Cooking sauce - chinese curry 1£0.71 buy 4p value one
Peas 1£0.85
Yogurt - strawberry and raspberry 1£0.43
Mince - beef 1£0.97
Pure apple juice 2£1.12
Baked beans in tomato sauce 2£2.48
Chopped tomatoes 1£0.33
Red kidney beans - chilli 1£0.33 use value ones
Whole fresh milk 1£1.53
Semi skimmed fresh milk 1£1.53
ASDA Extra Special sausages - Cumberland ring 2s 3£6.84 thats dear down grade a bit ?
Eggs - minimum net weight 1£0.82
Disney Princess cake 1£8.97 buy and enjoy special day
Back bacon - unsmoked 1£1.23
subtotal£66.19
multisave discounts-£4.30
e-voucher discounts-£3.50
delivery£3.50
estimated total£61.89

Cake is for daughters birthday and yes I do know I should make one!! lol
My meal plan is;
Pork chops, veg and potatoes
Fry up
Baked potato beans and cheese
Pasta bake
Chicken balti
Chicken stir-fry
Chilli and rice

The icing and flour etc is cause I am doing a bake sale for comic relief. Any ideas.

hope that is clear im rubbish at computers....could u downgrade your cake sale and make cheaper cakes...choc crispys or smarties instead of glace cherries
hth
tess