February 2009 Grocery Challenge

cw18

Not sure how much use this info will be to others, but.....

Just wandered down to our local S/flds, and was chatting with some of the staff....

Confirmed it's to become a Mr M (we have a C00p with a 2 minute walk, so one store has to change hands since C00p took over S/flds). They said 'about 8 weeks, give or take' but the bit that may be of interest to others is....

They're expecting it to be like W00lworths got, as they have to sell off ALL STOCK before the takeover. So I'm going to be trying to live out of cupboards and freezers for the rest of this month, as that's the only way I'll have space to make the most of any really good offers that come up :rolleyes2

So hopefully my grocery budget will be well under at the end of Feb -- but I'll be transferring anything left of this months budget into next (which I wouldn't normally dream of doing) as the budget is likely to get a hammering in March

procrastinator

laurasbump wrote: »

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Thinking of trying Aldi or Lidl. I moved from shopping in Sainsburys to Asda as I figured that Asda would be cheaper because there's more choice. What do you guys regularly buy at Lidl or Aldi?

Laura

I can walk to both so I go once a week if poss to check out their fruit ad veg offers. Lidl is furthest away so that may be every 2 weeks. Last time I was there I got onions half price, apples, advocado (Mr T must freeze his as they are always black inside.) I check out their non food offers, but rarely buy as I'm trying not to bring any more stuff into the house.
Aldi, I go once a week, last week picked up potatoes 49p 5Kg, they were as good as the T ones, carrots, oranges, tomatoes, Kiwi fruit, spring onions.
before xmas I also picked up several jars of olives, artichoke hearts in oil and other luxuries. Still using these up. As I walk I don't buy to much at one time. Have bought milk and cheese. I'm veggie so don't look at meat, fish or ready meals.

carolt2

jackie_w wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Hope you are all well. I need a bit of help.

I always buy Free range chickens, and have decided I would like to buy better quality of butcher meat too, however, I dont know where I can actually get Free range Butcher meat. My local butchers dont sell this .

I live in South Lanarkshire, (just outside Glasgow). Does anyone know where abouts I can find out about Free Range butcher meat?

Jackie xx

Hi Jackie, I have found this butcher

http://www.campbellsmeat.com/index.cfm

Seems to be based in edinburgh but deliveres to alot of dfferent area in the uk. Although they do seem abit pricey of this one
http://www.farmerschoice.net/How2.php
HTH


Not spent anything of our budget for this month yet, am hoping to go to shops in a few days to re stock as the fridge is looking empty.

Compingirl

Hi folks, Well i'm already £200+ into my budget for this month but thats OK. Been off today 'cos schools closed so took advantage and did some long over due baking!

So ready for this week and leftovers for the freezer/work lunches are chicken curry tonight, fish pie tomorrow and chilli pepper pork Thursday(mmmmm) and ive made 30 chocolate chip muffins! 20 in freezer already and about 2 left in tin for tomorrows schoold dinners! They are gannits in this house!

cgx

Lynn11

laurasbump wrote: »

Decided to include petrol, baby food and toiletries in budget this month. Am also aiming not to spend anything until the weekend. May be a little tight as I'm not sure the baby's formula will last till then.

Thinking of trying Aldi or Lidl. I moved from shopping in Sainsburys to Asda as I figured that Asda would be cheaper because there's more choice. What do you guys regularly buy at Lidl or Aldi?

Laura

I tend to go to lidel every 2 weeks roughly and buy the dry pasta/macroni, some of the cold meat is nice and reasonable price, small cartons of apple juice for lunches, a huge bit of cheese which lasts mostly 2 weeks, their own make of porridge, tinned beans & sausage, hake fillets from the freezer section and other brand names which are on special. if you are aware of prices you roughly pay in the supermarkets, you can guage from this and try some of their own brands to see if you like them. I have started to shop at sainsbury and I think there prices are reasonable and good selection.

nickynoo08

princess_leia wrote: »

More milk for me today :rolleyes: I have never kept a track of how much milk we use but I think I might start as we have gone through 24 pints in a week :eek: that equates to approx £40 a month on milk alone :eek: I can't really cut it down as most of the milk is for ds's 5,3 and dd 1 and we have seperate 'green' milk .

Anyway its another fiver down and we are only on feb 3rd :rolleyes:

We go through loads of milk too. I've just started buying longlife full fat milk for my little un. It only works out 3p a litre cheaper but when your going through that much milk it'll soon add up. Ds has a large cup for breakfast and before bed so 1 litre lasts him 3ish cups.
Me and OH have also cut our milk consumption down too.

moonflower_2

1st shop since 23/12/08 very pleased with myself as I bought lots of basics before christmas and I am only just running out,the fridge was bare and the cupboards empty.

Although I do have enough pasta all shapes and sizes to last me at least a year!!

Went to sainsury's tonight and spent £48.95. I have still to buy cleaning and washing powder and things like that.

I am trying to have as many NSD days as possible. However I have had to but milk ,bread etc.

I am trying to be really focused, I am shopping for myself and a very fussy 15yr old teenager,who only want to eat rubbish and I dont buy it!!

Thanks to everyone on this site for their motivation.

starflower_2

cw18 wrote: »

Not sure how much use this info will be to others, but.....

Just wandered down to our local S/flds, and was chatting with some of the staff....

Confirmed it's to become a Mr M (we have a C00p with a 2 minute walk, so one store has to change hands since C00p took over S/flds). They said 'about 8 weeks, give or take' but the bit that may be of interest to others is....

They're expecting it to be like W00lworths got, as they have to sell off ALL STOCK before the takeover. So I'm going to be trying to live out of cupboards and freezers for the rest of this month, as that's the only way I'll have space to make the most of any really good offers that come up :rolleyes2

So hopefully my grocery budget will be well under at the end of Feb -- but I'll be transferring anything left of this months budget into next (which I wouldn't normally dream of doing) as the budget is likely to get a hammering in March

Thanks for this!! We also have a Co-op and Somerfield in our town so in the same boat, had heard that Morrisons are taking over the Somerfield store so will be keeping an eye out for their clearances!!!!

angelnikki

People on here have been mentioning needing to do top up shops to buy milk. I only have the one shopping delivery per week and have to make sure there is enough to last the week as I cant nip out for things that have run out. The way I get around having enough milk is we use value UHT milk. (54p/litre) We have this on cereal and in tea/coffee, etc and it tastes fine to me. We don't get this for DS as he's too young for skimmed milk (we get him the pure whole milk as it stays fresh for longer - but I'll be looking into the cost difference of longlife whole milk for him instead ) but for us the value UHT is fine. It keeps for ages and means no need to go and do a top up shop

Tonight I had my first delivery for the month. I used MrS this week so I could get my meat from them (instead of using MrT )

I found MrS's website a bit of a pain to use compared to MrT's :rolleyes: Maybe it's because of my M.E. but I really struggled to be sure what I had ordered with MrS. MrT groups all your fruit, veg, meat, tins, etc which makes it a lot easier to check through your order; MrS doesnt do this. In the end I had MrT's site open in a seperate tab and added all the same things to a basket on there just so I could look through my order easier

The total came to £76.54. This included £13.50 on nappies, £1.50 on toiletries and £5.61 on household items. So the total food cost was £55.93.

I got 2 packs of organic sausages, free range chicken breasts, lamb mince and beef stewing steak which came to a total of £17.60. This is enough meat for 10 meals for the 3 of us/30 portions. It only cost me £3.81 extra for this to be free range/organic :T The only other meat I will need to buy for the month is some beef steak mince (£5 for 2x500g, which will do another 7 meals for the 3 of us/21 portions) which I'll get next week.

Off to update my siggy...

Nikki x

Julimk

DD’s school was closed again today, so I was working at home. We should be back to normal tomorrow, as there is very little snow left & no school closures currently reported.

We popped over to the Co-op local for a couple of bits & even though it is only 2 mins away we slid all the way there & back, as the partially melted snow had frozen into ice sheets over night. Will go to Mr T or Mr S (pass both on way home from work) for a couple more bits tomorrow.

TrixieB – we are off to Oz in August. Yay!! Long story, but basically to visit relies (so sorry to out Antipodean chums who have us Poms landing on them). Working on a bonus to be paid in April to cover the huge ticket price, so just need to find spending money.