February 2009 Grocery Challenge

hilstep2000

I've taken out £100 in cash, hope it can go that far!:rotfl:
Spent £3.23 in the greengrocer, and have a fridge and freezer full, so we'll see!

hugedebt

Hi All
You have inspired me!! My first month on the GC, so am going to try for £340 for us to include food, toiletries, nappies for two & cleaning products.

Good luck & thanks for all your amazing posts!!

hd x

goldfinch68

Went to our local farm shop today to see if their veg is any cheaper than Tescos. Some is but I couldn't believe cucumbers were 1.29! Are they having a laugh? Tonight is pasta, chicken, sweetcorn with pesto and tomorrow will be something in the slow cooker. First weekend in ages without the usual bottle of wine - but will save twenty quid per month. Missing it already!

TheBees

Hi all
We've spent over £100 of our budget already but we're well stocked up and have a meal plan for the next couple weeks sorted out.

Scotsaver - Here is my advice regarding shopping at the butchers. Hope it helps!
1. Ask friends and locals to recommend the best butcher or take a look in the local butchers windows at the quality of the meat. I chose not to shop at one because there were flies in the window!!
2. Don't be embarassed. I had always bought all my meat at the supermarket but went to the butcher for the first time last year after watching Hughs programme about chicken. I mentioned this to the butcher on my first visit and admitted I might need help. Any good butcher will welcome you with open arms.
3. I normally ask for 6 or 8 sausages or a certain amount of rashers of bacon rather than buying by weight.
4. If I buy mince I buy it by the pound and if I need 3lb I will ask for it to be put in 3 separate bags so it's easier to freeze.
5. Once you become a regular the butcher will get to know you and ours often throws in the odd free sausage!
6. Our butcher puts the total price of the roasting joints on them so you don't have to guess the price. If yours doesn't then you could say how uch you want to spend and he should find you a joint that you can afford.

After watching Jamie and his pigs I went to the butcher and asked for a pork shoulder to roast. He said several people had been in for them since the programme too. He went out the back and offered me one for £4.99. ( a pork shoulder that is!!!) Great value so I can't wait to cook it tomorrow.

queen_of_string

£150 for Feb please Mrs M I made a complete mess of Jan due to eating out and OH visiting from Canada. Have had a bit of a rethink on what's included and what's not so will reduce to £150 and see how we go :-)

WelshWoofer

Evening all!

Couldn't stay away from Tesco and managed to spend £47 :eek:
Only went for a smallish shop and ended up buying a few more treats than usual and stocked up on dog food that's on special offer.
Also went bonkers and bought some tuna steaks that were almost £5! Hope they're good?

That means that I've now spent about £50 of my £160 budget and we will be OK until next weekend at the earliest.
Fruit seems to be one of the most expensive things that I buy and I buy a lot of it (OH and I eat about 3 or 4 pieces a day each), salad is also extortionate at this time of year but again we eat that too! Makes us sound like saints but I also bought crisps, custard slices (as a treat), frozen yoghurt and choccy biscuits.

Tomorrow it's tuna steaks with spicy salsa, new potatoes and salad for tea - better be nice for the moeny I paid for it!

May have to pick up some milk during the week for cereal but other than that I refuse to go in a shop!

JayneC

Hi everyone,

well I'm only a week in and I've already spent over £150 and got less than £100 for rest of month:eek:

But I've done a monthly online shop at Tesco and got all tins, cereal and baking/storecupbaord stuff. Plus stopped at a roadside farm shop yesterday and probably bought enough veg for the month for £12.50 - bargain.....:T Though I'll have to chop and freeze it all so it doesn't go bad before I can use it all!!

Baked loads of cakes + puds today so they should last the week for after teas and lunchboxes and I've done meal plans for next 2 weeks from food I've got in, so I reckon I can do it if I pay attention:D

kezlou

Hello all,

Is is okay if i join the grocery challenge? Never done it before:o
If its fine please could you put me down for £400. I usually spend less than that but may as well start high in case i mess up, which i probably will.

This is for food, toiletries and cleaning products inc me and OH's weekly lunch out on a Thursday and pack lunches all week for my two young boys.

Thanks again

Good luck everyone

elizabunny

Evening everyone! Phew I'm exhausted tonight due having started shopping at 8.30am. Finished shopping at 1pm:eek: Then did a load of cooking. Started off in the local Farmers market and brought Cabbage, Jerusalem Artichokes, Onions, Carrots, Swede, Turnips and Parsnips £5.90p but fab. quality. Then went to a local Farm and picked up a sack 56lbs Red Potatoes for £5 and a huge net of Onions (Don't know what the weight is maybe 20lb-30lb) for £3. Then onto another farm shop for a Kilo of braising steak (herd reared locally) and then onto another local butcher for 1.5kg Pork Shoulder (watched the Jamie program. Then onto MrL and finally MrS.

Cupboards now well stocked, Lots of Pulses/lentils/flour amongst other things and 8 litres of milk -some for freezing.

Couldn't wait to start cooking, so after dividing up all the meat into manageable amounts, I put most in the freezer and kept out 225gm braising steak and 475gm Pork Shoulder. Both of these have been minced in my new mincer:j From the Braising steak I made 7 HM Beef & Veg. Pasties and a lovely Lasagne. From the Pork Shoulder, Pork & Cranberrry Sausage Rolls for DH packed lunches next week and a Sausage and Onion Lattice (In the freezer with that one). Finished off by making a HM loaf and a double batch of Twinks Hobnobs.

I hope we will be ok for Feb. because I have already spent.........£83.39:eek:
But I'm feeling positive and am really trying to get my head round meal planning. Must say, I really enjoyed shopping at all the different places, even DH said it had been fun. The local butcher -who we have never been to before was extremely friendly and helpful and had a really well stocked shop with reasonable prices. So I will be back there again,

Going to put my feet up now, so have a good evening everyone.
Going to update signature now.

mumzyof2

elizabunny wrote: »

Evening everyone! Phew I'm exhausted tonight due having started shopping at 8.30am. Finished shopping at 1pm:eek: Then did a load of cooking. Started off in the local Farmers market and brought Cabbage, Jerusalem Artichokes, Onions, Carrots, Swede, Turnips and Parsnips £5.90p but fab. quality. Then went to a local Farm and picked up a sack 56lbs Red Potatoes for £5 and a huge net of Onions (Don't know what the weight is maybe 20lb-30lb) for £3. Then onto another farm shop for a Kilo of braising steak (herd reared locally) and then onto another local butcher for 1.5kg Pork Shoulder (watched the Jamie program. Then onto MrL and finally MrS.

Cupboards now well stocked, Lots of Pulses/lentils/flour amongst other things and 8 litres of milk -some for freezing.

Couldn't wait to start cooking, so after dividing up all the meat into manageable amounts, I put most in the freezer and kept out 225gm braising steak and 475gm Pork Shoulder. Both of these have been minced in my new mincer:j From the Braising steak I made 7 HM Beef & Veg. Pasties and a lovely Lasagne. From the Pork Shoulder, Pork & Cranberrry Sausage Rolls for DH packed lunches next week and a Sausage and Onion Lattice (In the freezer with that one). Finished off by making a HM loaf and a double batch of Twinks Hobnobs.

I hope we will be ok for Feb. because I have already spent.........£83.39:eek:
But I'm feeling positive and am really trying to get my head round meal planning. Must say, I really enjoyed shopping at all the different places, even DH said it had been fun. The local butcher -who we have never been to before was extremely friendly and helpful and had a really well stocked shop with reasonable prices. So I will be back there again,

Going to put my feet up now, so have a good evening everyone.
Going to update signature now.

Wow I cant believe you went to all those shops and only spent £80 and thats with the best meat from markets/butchers/farms and also local veg. Well done you :T :T

Everyorne

I know alot of us have been going on about buying from local butchers etc... I was wondering what anyone thought of those big vans than go to carboots/markets?
We have one here on a tuesday and last time i got 10 pork steaks for £10 and 12 chicken breast fillets for £10. Is this not as good as butchers meat? I know its proberly thebits that aint good enough to sell elsewhere. Im not sure