February 2009 Grocery Challenge

BADPENNY_2

can i join this please - £200 for feb my month will start 6/2/09

pixiechick99

Hi there,
Can you put me down for my usual £200 please? Have failed Jan...about £30 over but will post that on the jan thread...;)
I'm sure I could get this down as there's only myself and 2 dds 11 and 9, oh and a rabbit:p That includes all packed lunches, cleaning stuff etc....will try harder in Feb:rolleyes:

rosieben

mummyyof5 wrote: »

....
Also is there a link anywhere to Twinks hobnobs these sound so like some I used to make but cannot remember the quantities.
...

Twinks hobnobs recipe - and loads of other great recipes on the front page of the GC thread

Edited to ask, please, if you're including a recipe in your post would you please highlight the recipe name or put it on a separate line - it would be much clearer when people click on the link to your post. Thanks so much

WendysWorld

nickynoo08 wrote: »

Hiya everyone i'm busy planning my first shop for feb and as ever i'm trying to think of ways i can cut costs. One thing i was looking at was longlife milk. I've never tried it before and would like to know your thoughts on it. My thinking behind changing to this is that we currently spend around £11 a week on milk or 10% of my monthly gc money, i've looked at costs and it is certainly cheaper than buying fresh. Also i'm what you would call an impulse buyer. Its a habit i'm trying hard to break and most of the time i'm really good, but it always tends to be when i'm just popping out for milk when i spend a blummin fortune. So what i'm hoping is that by have the milk in i wont need to pop to the shops for milk therfore saving me picking up any impulse buys. It may seem a bit extreme but if its gonna save me money.....

Don't know if you've been replied to yet (still haven't got to the end! But when we were on holiday last year in Spain we stayed with friends. They used only longlife milk in the summer as it's so hard to keep milk when it's really hot. I'd never tasted Longlife before and I was pleasantly surprised! So much so that we just buy a few litres of milk during the once-a-week big shop and I get a few litres of longlife for the rest of the week. We have a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old but we all go through milk like it's water!
What I'm rambling about is that you could go half-and half for a couple of weeks to see how you get on. We don't really notice the difference to be honest.
BM

mrssnowy_2

Mrsmc £180 for Feb GC please

Shopped at local butchers today,all his meat is sourced locally,the beef from a farm that is a mile away,mutton 3 miles,all very good quality.
Anyway bought 9 large faggots(have to buy when I see them to freeze cos not always available,we have 1 and a half each as they are big!) 1lb rump steak(treat for tea tonight) 1lb braising steak(SC casserole to do 4 meals at least) 2lbs lamb shoulder to make cawl(about 8 meals with loads of veg)
That little lot came to £17.34-should be about 20 ish portions.Some,most really, will go in freezer for another day,when cooked.

DH is converted to eating cornflakes for breakfast instead of bread,so haven't made so much this month,good job as time has been tight.Proves he's not very well,that and the fact that he hasn't been out of the house for nearly 2 weeks:eek: Both of us have lost a few pounds as a result.

Task this month is to use up more stuff out of the freezer,stupid upright freezer is so difficult to store and find things in,but haven't any room for a chest freezer.

That is about the sum total of my meal planning,apart from the fact that we mostly have either porridge or cornflakes for breakfast,HM soup or a sandwich for lunch,then something else for evening meal.DH diabetic(Type1) so needs a portion of carbohydrate with each meal.

Nice to see so many newbies,welcome and have fun being OS

night all
mrss
PS forgot to say I buy Somerfield semi skimmed long life milk,great for HM yogurt,sauces etc,and not noticeable in tea.

BADPENNY_2

i have a carton of long-life in the cupboard for emergancys - quite often when i pop out to buy milk i end up spendin 20 quid or more on implulse buys i also try and have a pint of the real stuff in the freezer too, the same goes for bread. (in the freezer, not long life )

goldfinch68

I would like to set our February Grocery Challenge at £400
please. Our payday is 20th of each month but I would like to run this challenge from 31st January to make things easier. Won't declare January budget because I started halfway through and also lost a few receipts etc. So this month I will try harder! There are four of us and I have recently discovered the wonders of the slowcooker so we ate much healthier last month. I also need to say no to wasting £4 or £5 on a bottle of wine and a chocolate bar every once in a while and whining "well, you've got to live a little..." is not an excuse is it!! Looking forward to life without being constantly overdrawn... :rolleyes:

lillibet_dripping

Hi Mrs. M.:j

Can I play this month please. I watched January's thread and it has inspired me to have a go.:o

Please put me down for £250 for the month


My month will run from 1st to 28th (or is a leap year?)
Wish me luck!:T

Barneysmom

HI I've spent £45 this week in MR.M's. I thought this month I'd try and find out how much coffee we use in a month. Can't afford/won't pay for Gold Blend any more so we've switched to Kenco and I got 3 x £3.00 packs of that and we'll see how long it lasts1
Tea bags last us forever as I only have a cup every once in a while, I reckon I'll have to drink more tea./
Our kettle broke, so I had to buy a new one which was £20 but don't know if this should come from the food bill or not.
We hava a bit of a glut on salmon pieces in the freezer so we'll make some sort of salmon en croute thingys next week for one night, and I'm dying for a shepherd's pie so we'll do one of those too. Got a piece of pork as it's quite cheap, we'll have some tonight for tea and the rest tomorrow. I wouldn't eat it after that though, I don't like keeping cooked pork.

jtb2412

Thanks for the new thread :beer:
Hi everyone and welcome to all the new challengers ! :hello:

Popping in from the Jan GC thread (thought I'd better move over lol).

Tracy.32 ........ have spent a lot of our Feb budget already too but taking comfort in the fact that I have a freezer full of meat and prob only have to do top-up shops for the next 2 weeks at least. Think you have to do what's best at the time and if you have to go over budget or dip into next month's in order to 'bag a bargain' then so be it . Keep thinking to myself I ought to do the 'yearly' amount but at the moment I'm sticking with it to see how I get on. If I dip over in March then I think i'll swap over.

Have updated sig with my Feb spends (even though we're not quite there yet) :rolleyes: .

OH popped out yesterday and got a sack of spuds that should last us the month and I also sent him to Mr S to get some of their £1 milk - he found some whoopsied ready made gravy for 10p :eek: - I NEVER find any that good so i've told him he can go shopping from now on :rotfl: . I can't repeat on here what he said :eek: .

Right off for some brekkie - have a great weekend everyone.