March 2009 Grocery Challenge

Hollysan

Good morning everyone,
Have just updated my sig and total stands at £136.90 for the month so far. This includes a bulk buy of washing powder and a £92 delivery from Mr T's. I am determined to do it this month after failing in Jan and Feb! However I don't finish work until later this month, so until I have more time it will be as frantic as this week was, and although I haven't resorted to convenience stuff, being veggie the kids have been having veggie sausages quite a lot!

Today I am intending to do some baking for the freezer, with lunchboxes in mind, and will also do the meal plan for the week. I am also going to go to Mr T's to stock up for next week, which seems to work better than small shops, which add up alarmingly if you go to the supermarket. Why is that?!

OH is around more for the next few weeks as well, so need to plan some nice suppers to keep him happy, he is a real foodie, but which don't break the bank.

What is really frustrating is that I am itching to get sowing, but I don't have any compost and no time to do it anyway! At least OH has done some digging and topped up the soil in the veg beds with some leftover topsoil we had from eighteen months ago.

Good luck everyone for this week.

Hollysan

betty_blue

Morning everyone

I've had a reasonable week £68.28 spent on groceries for me OH and DS. I've just done my meal plan for next week based on what I have in my cupboards, I'm hoping to have a good week as we have visitors next weekend which will inevitably result in a spend:eek:

MadamMim2013

Hi all,
So far I've only bought bread and milk this month, been using up what we have prior to the move in 6 days!!!!!!:eek:
Everyone's fed up with pie tho... chicken, bacon, apple etc, etc!
We're only going to have a small fridge freezer instead of a larder fridge and freezer... I'm gonna miss the space
Well done to everyone who's doing well, will catch up with u when I can!;)

jackie_w

Hey everyone,

Definetly needing all your help now. DH is no longer working, so, will need as much help as I can get with regards to the grocery challenge, as we are having to live off our savings until DH and/or I get a new job (we dont qualify for help).

I have done some shopping in March, dont think its much but im not too sure because this last week, my head has been all over the place.

Going to do an inventory of the freezer and cupboards and take things from there.

Will update my spends later as will have to go shopping for fruit & veg.

Jackie xx

Rowan9

Good luck Jackie. You are definitely in the right place to receive advice! Hope for a NS couple of days as we have enough in. Forgot to say yesterday that Rainbow have their own concentrated washing liquid (for clothes) at BOGOF. I find it really good.
w

crazyaboutsaving

Hello all,

We've been doing very well so far this month and are determined to use more from the cupboard to make meals this week before placing another grocery order. So far so good! :j

Just an interesting point, I got some discount codes from Ocado.com, whom I've never shopped with before. I thought I'd compare their prices with my grocery basket I already have set up on tesco.com. I searched for the nearest similar items at the lowest prices. When I included all the discount coupons for Ocado, it STILL came out more expensive than shopping with Tesco. :eek: I also noticed there wasn't options for local produce and milk, or inidividual items (for eg. I usually order 3 inidividual apples instead of a full bag since it's just me and DH, we can't eat them all before they go bad)

Anyhow, just thought some of you might find my comparison interesting....

Moniker

Hi folks

Have just popped in to update my signature. Have managed to spend nearly £160 of my budget but am feeling quietly confident as I only had to buy F&V and milk on Friday and it came to under £30. I have a freezer full of stuff, so although I will need to buy a larger joint for next weekend as both DDs and MIL are here for lunch I think we can manage to eat out of it for the rest of the month.

Very excited as I bought the compost yesterday to start off my veg boxes. It's based on the Square Foot Gardening idea which I was alerted to on this site, but of course we are metric now and so I have 4 x1/2 metre square boxes. The boxes are plastic (bought with money we got for Christmas from MIL.and fitted together very easily. I have lots of salad stuff and carrots and beans to do - but the weather here is awful today - sleet and hail showers so I haven't been able to go out and position the boxes and fill them up with soil. Still it's no great loss as it's still too cold to start sowing outside I think. Probably won't start till the end of the month now. But it makes me feel good knowing that I'll be growing lots of lovely veg and salad for the summer!

Off to do some sewing (not sowing!)now. Hope the rest of the weekend is kind to you all.

Love Moniker

Miss-spent_2

Hi updating my sig
Spent £42.57 in Asdas yesterday. Grocery challenge doing well so far but I have spents loads more on eating out, coffees, lunches etc. Just seem to have lost heart in it at the moment.

Flat_Eric

My spend for March has crept up to £85.61 leaving just £14.39 available for the rest of the month if I am to come in under budget. That is not going to happen but if I can get away with just £150 for March then I will be more than .

I have bought a pretty tin to keep all my receipts in and whilst I havent really been following a food plan as such, I have been using what I already have in my fridge/freezer rather than visiting the supermarket every 5 mins and when I have visited, I have bought the bare minimum / just what I need.

Really fancied a casserole for tea tonight and managed to get some whoopsied meat in sainsburys yesterday :j. I love those little yellow stickers!!

I have been reading the posts on this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=826963&page=8

some amazing tips!

I am also becoming more critical. for example complaining about the quality of food when previously I just would have kept quiet so refunds gained this week include 89p for a bakewell tart that didnt have very much jam in it! and £1.85 back from asda for some banana and toffee cereal bars which were horrid! I think the lady in m&s thought I had lost the plot when I handed her the e-mail from m&S customer services and asked for my 89p back but 89p is 89p!!!

Following the tips Ive been reading on the thread above, Im now only using only one washing tablet instead of two and half the amount of fabric conditioner. so a box of washing stuff will last me twice as long now. apparently it isnt good for your machine to use too much.

enjoy the rest of your afternoon everyone



I have also stocked up on soda crystals, borax and white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda for some cheap alterantive cleaning methods.

JayJay14

Just popped in to update sig.

Baked bread for lunches and have a small beef joint in the oven but can't be bothered with making all the trimmings just for the 2 of us. But I will have to think of something soon are it will be sarnies again:rotfl:

Managed an NSD today so really pleased about that.