March 2009 Grocery Challenge

nmlc

Afternoon all

Have just done my last shop of the month OMG the budget is well and truly bust I'm a huge £56.95 over budget. I've been shopping at butchers, supermarkets and farm shop - am beginning to wonder if this is the problem. Spent £22.00 in butchers on 2 x joints of meat, 1 now in freezer and 1 for Sunday lunch and pack of bacon. Although budget bust, have good storecupboard, and freezer stocks - just need to apply motivation to cook different meals and self control when shopping .......! Did main shop today in MrA's £43.63 - did purchase a few extra storecupboard bits.
Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy the sunshine, keep safe and well.
nmlc

Cornishpixie_2

Hi, Although not signed up to the challenge, I like to lurk and have picked up some great tips and receipes. Anyhoo what I was going to say was today I went to M&S armed with shopping trolley and bought the £15 mother's day meal. I bought the ex lage chicken, large tray of veg (though I may add few more pots to that as 6 of us), belgian choc dessert and bottle of wine. There was loads left on the shelfs. I have worked out with the extra veg I already have in, I can make the roast chicken, a curry in SC(really only putting chicken in as Hubby pulled face when I mentioned a nice Veg curry):D and a chicken lasagne. It really is a good deal, as chicken alone would have been £12-91. Some peeps where buying 2 of each. HTH's someone they did have other options.

Cornishpixie_2

Sister cas don't give up just yet. I took 5 attempts at my driving test before I past.:eek: Maybe you could give yourself a break and slow down a bit. You sound like you are putting yourself under a lot of pressure. Something us woman are very good at;) Its sometimes amazing how much we can make with what we have in. When I worked part time I used to feel obliged to spend all my days off shopping without a car:eek: . What works for me is shopping once a month online for basics so I don't have to worry about that. Then I write a meal plan and shop once a week on a thursday morning.(I sometimes have to top up with milk, bread, fruit and veg). Also when batch cooking a little can go a long way. Minced beef 500g can be done in SC with tinned toms, oats/lentils veg and water, gravy granuel, tom puree and make basis for spag bol this did 4 portions. I then added chilli flakes to what was left, in the SC, let it cool and froze 4 portions of that. Plate pies are always good. Then again my family are happy to let me get on with it and woof down the results:rotfl:

meanmarie

Spent another €34.72 this morning, which is all I am spending for the month...there are crisps on there for OH, but I will include it as he can buy any more milk we need before the end of the month...will update sig in a minute. Was looking for fresh yeast as is the only supermarket around with a bakery...they had none!

Good luck to all

Marie

Moniker

Hi everyone, have just updated signature. Spent more than I intended in Sainsbury's tonight but I have just under £15 to last till next Friday, so am still hoping to come in under budget this month. I have also managed to have 13 NSDs which is amazing - am too busy to shop anyway!

Have got my garden veg boxes ready to go out and am just waiting for the bulbs to finish flowering so I can move them and get started. Mind you, I am told by more experienced veg growers that it is still a bit too cold to start sowing, so I am not really behind.

Hope you all enjoy the weather this weekend.

Take care.

love from Moniker

fletch3163

Ten days left for me. Can't wait to see how I did! I feel it's dragging a bit now but my resolve remains strong. Mind you, it seems everything else conspires to empty my bank account.

Washing machine broke down and it cost me £35 to hear it couldn't be repaired. Then cost me £279 for a new one. The car broke down and took c£50 part to fix it. It worked long enough to get DH to his work but unfortunately chose not to bring him back so that cost on v early morning train and taxi fare. Finally I remembered I had to pay c£140 by 26/3 to Argos for my three months interest free. Gee Whizz!! Still, could have been worse, I could have spent nearly 600 quid on food into the bargain:eek:

I didn't follow the meal plan this week but I didn't shop for any food as such, it all still came from the freezer. Right, am off to find the bargains for shopping tomorrow

Julimk

Declaring at £118.46 for March.

I made it! Really there is quite a lot of food in, though I am running a little bit low on pasta & potatoes and pack-up bits for DD. But I don’t feel entirely comfortable if I am low on really basic items.

Am finalising the list for the big shop of the month. Don’t need to meal plan for this, as it is the storecupboard basics, loo roll etc. that I will definitely need anyway.

DD is going to her Dad’s tomorrow for the weekend, so will shop after that & have split the list 3 ways between Mr A, Mr S & Mr T based on the best deals at each, as I will be passing big branches of all of these on my route home.

There are still enough HM meal portions in the freezer for at least the next couple of weeks. The school Easter hols start in two weeks & DD will be at her Dad’s for the first week. So I will then meal plan & batch cook based on the whoopsied meat in the freezer.

S_Wales_Saver

A couple of little spends to report. Had to go to Aldi for growbags when special offer started on Thurs so picked up some extras from the super six, plums, red grapes and oranges as well as some salad potatoes. Also a visit to Julian Graves for spices for my Mumbai Aloo recipe (it was lovely)

Spent £15.87 in total (growbags not inc as they are from a different budget) Also some more NSDs.

Doing OK this month. Still need to get snacks for Disneyland Paris. We did this last summer for Florida, and it worked really well. I got two big plastic boxes and filled them with cereal bars, fruit bars, crisps, dried fruit, small OJ boxes, sweets, and even apples! We bought hardly any lunch or snack foods only water and ice cream (even I couldn't work out how to carry that :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: LOL)

Only 5 days this time so one box will probably do. I think it will be a help, as the exchange rate has gone through the roof this year:eek: :eek: . Apart from that I should only need F&V and milk as well some more bread. I still have 11 days to go but meals are planned til then and everything else should be in stock. Famous last words.:D

Miss-spent_2

My sig is showing well under but I have no money left!
I think this because we have eaten out a lot which I have put in a separate place.
I could manage without shopping for the three of us but am catering for 7 on Sunday so will need to find the cash

I have worked out that I can make a triffle for pudding, all I need to buy is the cream. I have a cake in the freezer left from Christmas and some scones in the freezer that were PR to 10p for 4.
The biggest expense is going to be a large joint of lamb. The last one was £18. Still it is mothers day.

mooomin

I'm going to be sitting at about £215 for March as I get paid on Monday so that's when March ends for me.

I was doing well until I bought the M&S £15 deal I have also used the groceries budget for some pizza, naughty naughty...

So, the month starts for me on Monday coming, and the budget for us is £200 to feed two adults and two (fussy) cats. We'll see how it goes...!