March 2009 Grocery Challenge

moonflower_2

Thank you Rosieben for your help ,I made burgers with 5 Thai spice and garlic tonight.Everybody loved it.

I have just seen other great posts re mince /chicken etc.
I shall pop off and read them.

moonflower_2

Thank you everyone,maybe food will be a little less boring in our house.Also the complete cooking link is great.Is there anyway that I can save it or can I put it into favourites?

Coxy11

Hello everyone,

Only a few days left for my March GC and we will be under, but not declaring until Saturday.

Popped to our local retail park today for the mothers day gifts and went into M&S food store to see whether I could get any of the cheapy pasta etc. that has been mentioned. None in our store (it has a VERY limited range), but did see the baked beans for 41p. Unfortunately DS2 will not touch them with a bargepole (think it is more to do with texture rather than taste) so didn't think it worth stockpiling. I did get some of their jam sandwich biscuits which are on BOGOF for 79p plus one of their meal deals (s/w, crisps and drink) for £2 which was great as I had to eat on the hoof.

HM chicken korma tonight, which was lush. DS1 has a friend over for tea tomorrow so bought some pizzas in MrS which were whoopsied from £2.99 to £2.20 but didn't in the end save me anything as there is a deal 2 for £4. Should've just got ones off the shelf that were in date :mad: .

DD has a friend over for tea on Thursday, so another kiddie dinner, and DH is out for dinner, so a cheapy meal for me - jkt with topping.

Visiting a friend on Thursday who has a big MrA in her town so will try to find some whoopsies to freeze. I only have MrS in my town and I don't seem to visit at the right time to get any bargains.

Good luck to everyone who is struggling.

Coxy

March GC - £375/£316.82

mrspoor

NSD for me today (excluding flowers I've just ordered for Mother's Day, but at least they were ordered via Quidco, so 10% discount & £7 cashback!):D I'd love to cook mum a nice meal or something, but we live 300 miles apart, and our car is dead (again) so it had to be something I could post.

Can't believe how many things I seem to be running low on already. OH decided he wanted to start taking packed lunches again, but we don't have enough sandwich stuff at the mo, and he's really fussy about what he'll take. Going to have to buy some ham, cheese, rolls etc this weekend, but will try and keep cost to a minimum. We've got a new farmfoods opened up I'd like to pop into out of curiosity, but need to work out the right bus to get me there, and to be honest, my freezer is pretty full at the mo! OH is working this weekend, so I'm going to try and cook some meals for next week in advance to get a bit more organised, as well as catch up on the studying I've been neglecting, and the cleaning etc etc..............I've had a lazy couple of weeks!:o

reb

fletch3163 wrote: »

As it's my Happy Birthday today I decided to treat my workmates to cakes and, go figure, I went to the dearest cake shop in the town.

:j HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :j

I never quite understand,why if it is your birthday do you have to buy the cakes?
Seems really weird to me.
I may buy them but if I did I certainly wouldn't share them!! :rolleyes:

Miss_Liquorice

Another NSD for me, hurrah! Looks like I can afford to go wild, though, heading home on Saturday for the week (no lectures! It's better than christmas, haha), next weekend I'm helping at Brownie pack holiday = £40 left to spend on Mon 30th and Tue 31st...

Oh, the life of a student! I'll put that money towards petrol for the car I may be getting on Saturday...

CherryPie

8 days to go and fingers crossed, it may be the first time I go under budget :j I'm away for a couple of days with work next week, so food & accomodation all paid for. 2 Birthdays & Mother's day pressies have left me proper skint, but out of a different budget. Wouldn't it be nice just once to not have to worry about money??

Anyway, back in the real world, have also joined the lose weight forum as there is absolutely no need for me to be the weight I am. Since joining the GC I seem to have more motivation for pretty much everything, cooking, losing weight, de-cluttering and all sorts. So a big thank you to everyone who posts, even if it's just to laugh at their OH's :rotfl:

Gonna try for a NSD today, not had one for a while.

clare1701

Hi, Can i join the challenge please, upto the end of March i would expect to spend £150, in our home there is 2 adults 1 teenager and 3 cats

Hollysan

I'm early posting for once. Usually it has to wait till the weekend. DD and I are at home with a cold. Just updated my sig. and so far we are on track, but lots can go wrong in twelve days!

The poor dog is not going to help the GC for us this month - she is ill and the vet has recommended chicken breasts to feed her with! Not only expensive, but we are veggies! The things you do for pets...

Otherwise it's going quite well, despite having to send OH to the supermarket to top up because I don't feel like going (very risky strategy, that)

Welcome, Clare. You will find lots of ideas for moneysaving here. Actually, I need to remind myself of some of them. I finish work tomorrow, (I wouldn't have worked today anyway) and then its full time moneysaving for me. I want to do a menuplan today which will last us till the end of the month without too many trips to the shops, which will be limited once I am no longer working in the nearest town. I will be working at home though, so need to get organised with that as well.

Have a good week everyone.

Hollysan

Kiwisaver_2

Just catching up and updating my siggy after a month of visiting rellies - phew it doesn't look too bad. Tried to keep it minimal with small shops for essentials and planned meals only, had some really fab meals, desserts every day which we wouldn't normally have. We were entertaining and trying not to appear to be scrimping - it's been a juggling act, but glowing reports back on my culinary skills and how I make it look so easy. If only they knew!

We're gonna be on the egg n chip diet for the remainder of the month.