February 2009 Grocery Challenge

Buddingblonde

I have been looking at the household budget as I am trying to save money as I am facing redundancy next month. I have managed to bring down the household food budget.

One large free range chicken was £6 - it did one roast dinner for OH, then went into 4 portions of chicken, onion and mushroom curry, and then the stock made enough soup for at least 6 large portions of soup (I used potatoes, onions, lentils to make a really really thick soup) - all the extra meals were frozen. So that was 10+ meals for around a £1 a portion.

This week I took 250g of mince and made a 3 portion lasagne, 2 portions of bolognase - all of these were frozen. I would think that this worked out about a £1 a portion.

I then peeled and cooked a 2.5kg of potatoes and made into mash - the bag cost me 69p from aldi and with that I have frozen 2 large portions of mash, made some gnocchi and also some potato pancakes. All of these have been frozen.

Frozen veg was then used to make a veg stew and I topped that with dumplings - I think the dumpling mix was 30p a bag and although I can make them myself I thought I would make the mix for a change.

So that is probably the basis of 2 weeks worth of meals - breakfast and lunch tends to toast and jam and sandwiches - frozen veg will be served with meals (£1 a bag from farmfoods) and I will be making scones and drop scones for something sweet to go in the lunch boxes.

I am finding that it takes practice and a lot of cooking from scratch but getting the food budget down is do able - I dont have time to cook everyday so sunday is my cooking day and although it took around 4 hours to make everything and clear up I know that there will be no expenses other that bread at the end of the week for next weeks sandwiches.

I guess what I am saying is dont lose heart - change one thing at a time and you will get your budget down.

mags50_2

yayayayay!! well done :T:T

Silaqui

Thanks for sharing in my joy lol. I have no idea how I did it - meal planning is probably the main thing.
Also I make things go further like I will buy a 500g pack of mince and divide into 3 before freezing. Then I bulk the meals up that I make with them with veg and things so they last a couple of days anyway.
Actually I think I know how I might have cut down - I have started to go to a swimming club a couple of times a week which means I have only had a short time to make tea before going back out again. On those nights we have started to have quick meals like homemade chips and egg, or beans on toast, which are coincidentally pretty cheap too. That must be part of the reason.
Argh rambling - sorry!
x

s4aRainyDay

my first GC is not going quite so well, my first monthly shop budgeted at £150 came to £196 but this did include a special meal for sat and a couple of cheap dvd's, so i don't think my list is too far off. Just need to sit don with the receipts and work out how good my guess budget was!!
rd
x

Julimk

Hi all

The end of the month is tough isn’t it? I do love food shopping, but nothing in the budget at the mo. Still a NSD, as predicted, as was ferrying DD’s friend home after the sleepover & then DD down to her Dad’s.

The big shop at the beginning of last month came in @ £80, though that included quite a lot of meat & fish, as I had just got my 2nd freezer (mostly special offers or whoopsied, of course!)

I have been refining the menu plan for March, based on what is in, and the only meat on the shopping list is a pack of sausages & a large FR chicken for a lovely roast next Sunday, when DD comes home. The leftover chicken is accounted for in the menu plan & the carcass will make stock for soup, which will be whatever veggies are leftover after the batch cook.

The main shop for next month is currently coming in @ £54, based on mysupermarket, which is a good improvement on last month. There are some reductions available on the ‘swap & save’ but don’t want to compromise on the ethics of the meat etc. This will cover most of the meals, including breakfasts & lunches, and should then just need milk & fresh fruit through the month & can buy whatever meat is reduced.

As DD is not here until next Sunday I am hoping to do the shop on Thursday (working at home day) & have Saturday as a cooking day. Will see how it goes.

Juli

brummiebabe

Haven't updated for ages...so thought I'd better!! Have so far spent £293.76 of February's budget. Considering there's only 9 days left...that's not too bad!!

Have had some bad news though...DH's firm are going to be reducing his hours (to avoid redundancies) which , with my upcoming cut in Child Tax Credits, will leave us around £500 down each month!!!!! I've worked on my budget though, and it's just about do-able, if we suspend a few payments (eg to DH's pension) and cut food budget by £50 per month. So March is going to be a BIG challenge for me.....

Anyhow....£106.24 left...lots of nappies, wipes, washing powder, cereals etc in. Will hopefully come in with a bit to spare!!!!

TrixieB

awww no Brummiebabe, that's a big cut in money isn't it?

MRSMCAWBER

Evening all

Hugs to you brummiebabe...thats one of the reasons im hoping that the army will leave us in Germany, now I am waiting for a major op later in the year (fingers crossed we will be here until hubby finishes his 27 years service-about 3 years)
The financial implications of going back to the UK are :eek: ..as it is we don't pay car tax, TV liecence, and no tax on petrol (we pay 38c a litre at the moment so under half the uk price) then to top it all we would lose about £300-£400 a month (extra allowances for being abroad)....I hope things pick up for you soon

On the grocery front...still Only spent €60 this month and quite shockingly I didn't realise how late in the month we are we get paid in about 8 days... so this month has been a good one so far..

I just wish this snow would give up and go away.... I want to start setting my seeds :mad: ..

Hubby is on duty today and I have been ill all day -so haven't eaten a thing... bit drastic -but one way of saving the pennies :rotfl:
huby is off for the rest of the week -so we will have to see how that affects the rest of this months money
hope everyone is having a good weekend

Tracey.32

Evening everyone :hello:

Come to update - I find I'm only doing this weekly at the mo, tho' I am keeping up with posts on a pretty-much daily basis.

Not really done much in the way of grocery shopping this week, other than a bit of fruit and bread. Also got foil containers at C0stc0 - a mixed pack with 65 of the square individual ones and 30 of the bigger 2 serving ones - £6.31 which I didn't think was too bad for the quantity.

Made the warm bacon and potato salad in the week which was very nice, then used the rest of the bacon in a sausage casserole yesterday. Also made Twinks this weekend and weetabix cake to try and limit the half-term damage that DD will do to our cupboards! :rotfl:

Hoping for at least 4 NSDs this week as I am totally skint (even with being still under budget!) and it's still quite a way to the end of the month for me - only 12 days actually, but seems like a lifetime...

Everyone seems to be doing ok - well done!

elaina79

Well I seem to be nicely on budget for this month. Spent £82.04 last week and that included a little bit of junk (chocolate) as a little treat.