April 2009 Grocery Challenge

Sunny_Donny

Hi All
Mrs McC can you put me down for £160 for May please.
Hit Mr T at reduction time yesterday, so freezer full with meat for May - have 1 chicken, 3 gammon joints, 1 joint of beef, 2 steak pies, one lamb mince pie, so this will see me through most of the month - will be stocking up on burgers - OH loves Iceland quarter pounders 4 for £1 - thinks they are fab!!!
Total for April £170.25 overspent £20.85, but as I was so under in March, not too hard on myself.
BBQ for tea tonight as cooker has decided not to play ball today!! Will call gas man tomorrow!!

angelatgraceland

fletch3163 wrote: »

OK, have done my best Carol Vorderman impression................ and it STILL stinks :eek:

I've counted and it comes to £461.59:eek:
However, £5.09 was for seeds and propogator at Aldi, £28.12 was Easter eggs, etc and £7.13 was for stationery things for DS and DH (need a fist shaking emoticon here). Gosh, can you tell I'm clutching at straws.

I'ver overspent in every single aspect of my month to be honest.
We had cut out fast food joints for about 2 months but have visiting at least 4 this month.
I'd been careful with general spending too but even this has failed me in April (I blame the modern day celebarations of The Ressurection).
I've done TOO MANY visits to the movies at mortgage-sized prices. Note to self and all that.

So, Mrs M, I'd like to declare April a RESOUNDING DISASTER at £421.25.

For May can I have £400 again please?

I think its good for all of to concentrate on Lent more!!!
Very moneysaving if done correctly.
Re the earlier post you made with birthdays easter etc-it goes back to what (Saint);)Martin said many times-they happen at the same time every year-don't let them surprise you-plan them into your budget.
Re the movies-its generally a lot cheaper to buy the dvd(you can wait wait for its release)stay home with a tub of popcorn and a bottle of cola.:money:
If you have to do movies-why not try the Orange Wednesdays 241. Worth getting a sim just for that!
Cheapest meals out(if you have to) is generally pub grub on early bird offers(before 6.30 normally)lots of pubs doing offers of 2 meals for £8 and suchlike)
I had a 2 month ban on buying clothes-that was good as I work in a clothes shop! Temptation!:eek:

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon all

I will declare a total spend of €97.95 for this month and most of that was for the coffee, bread flour, cheese supplies hubby dragged back from the UK for me :T -so Im a happy bunny -it helps that we are becoming simple little souls .... its pretty much:-

• jacket potatoes with cottage cheese n salad
• hm pasta salads
• hm bread with salad and cheese, leftover chicken etc-although we have both decided we prefer plain salad sandwiches :rotfl:
• roast chicken with steamed potatoes n veg...
• oohhh or hm tortillas with various fillings and salad

I keep doing something different -but we eat it, enjoy it and then decide we prefer the jackets n cottage cheese -so I won't complain as not only is it really simple to keep us fed -but its healthy and frugal to boot :j

Today's lunch is leftover chicken with steamed potatoes, carrots, peas and sweetcorn -and I have just taken the bread out of the remoska for tea
The stuff in the garden (and the spare room:o)is going crazy -so we are hoping for lots of veggies for the freezer and lots of salad to keep us going -not to mention my strawberries mmmmmmmm hubby doesn't like them :eek:so hopefully the 28 plants will keep me ticking over once they start fruiting:p

WigWam... ooooohhhh my remoska is my baby ....I think I have had it 9-10months now and still only had the oven on twice in that time :j... it does the best pasta bakes -it doesn't weld to the pan or stick together mmmmm....

Rigth -I will get off and get a cuppa and then have a plod in the garden...
soon be a shiney new month everyone :j

dink1

Hi Guys,

Sorry fell off the wagon (gosh this sounds more like aa then grocery challenge lol) would like to join again. Please put me down for £250 for may Mrs M. Many thanks
Dink1

tessie_bear

hi...fletch hang on in there...good luck with next month...i find i have learnt loads as i have gone along...still have mess ups though

we had a very cheap lunchtoday...sc chilli it could have done with a bit more chilli powder but it was still ok...i made some nice little cakes for pudding..mini loaf tins they looked cute...they have now been eaten so they must have been ok

has anyone got any tips for getting cakes out of tins so they dont stick ....some of mine seem to be welding on to the tins....not a good look iykwim

i think im on budget this month so i might bring it down further:eek: a bit at a time i think

great to see eliza bunny back...u have been busy by the sound of it

take care
tess

AlwaysHappy

OMG, I have had an absolutely disastrous week, for the last fewmonths I have been managing (just about) on our £200 budget for the month and this week (month started 20th) I have spent £194.68 - I fell physically sick at the thought of it. I made the mistake of going to both Makro and Costco this week - I now have dog food,toilet rolls and kitchen rolls for months but only £5.32 cash left. The freezer is absolutely FULL which is the only saving grace in this, though obviously I will need fruit, veg and milk as an absolute minimum. The way I am going to tackle this is firstly go and blow into a brown paper bag so I don't hyperventilate and then try damage limitation. I'll probably be back for help later, and am off to read the feed a family for £20 thread. Having been so good recently this has come as a huge blow!!

SunnyGirl

tessie_bear wrote: »

has anyone got any tips for getting cakes out of tins so they dont stick ....some of mine seem to be welding on to the tins....not a good look iykwim

I line with greaseproof paper & lightly grease that as well. May seem like overkill but my cake tins are all getting on in years now and cakes etc never stick :T

Toonie

AlwaysHappy-perhaps you need a separate budget for the things you buy in bulk? I have a separate one for going to Costco, where I buy toilet rolls, washing liquid etc.

I've had two NSDs which is good but will need to pop to MrT on the way home from work tomorrow to pick up eggs, pasta and milk, but that should be it for the week. I've ordered a HUGE shop from MrS to be delivered on Thursday (payday) which includes all the meat/fish and pasta we need for the next 6 weeks or so and also has packs of juice and squash, tins etc in. Have tried to be more sensible with the shop and took up a lot of the offers they have on at the moment, though one thing I've noticed is the website is adding certain things up incorrectly, like the fresh tagliatelle pasta-I ordered 4 bags at 64p each, which should total £2.56 but the online order says £2.58. Will need to double check this when it gets delivered.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Hi, could you put me down for £220 for May. DH has been made redundant so it's value stuff for me all the way this month!

chivers1977

I am going to join in for May please. My May started on Thursday. I am going for £150 for us - 2 adults and 1 3 yr old. Spend so far £8.76.