May 2009 Grocery Challenge

ellemm

Weekly shop done last night in Mr M's. Came to £29.09, pleased with that but on looking at the till receipt and what I put away in cupboards/fridge/freezer, didn't actually get very much for almost £30!

Only "meat" bought was a value chicken at £2.63 and some fresh fish, £4, rest amounted to staples of bread, butter, milk and coffee, fresh veg and fruit. The most expensive item on the bill was the fish, everything else was less than £3 and there were no cleaning materials or toiletries.

So I am struggling to see how we can continue to eat good home cooked and healthy food without going way over my £200 a month budget.

Luckily this month I still have plenty of meat in the freezer.

clutterydrawer

Annoyingly I fell down the stairs last night so couldn't walk to aldi but managed to hobble to morrisons...spent £21 which was more than i intended because I got lured by deliicous mangoes and strawberries. *heavy sigh* I did get really cheap broccoli and bread though, as well as some other bits and pieces. So I might be a little bit over budget but I will have a nice week of healthy delicious food

Janae

£1.09 spent on yeast in Lakeland this morning and I'm hoping that will be it for today. OH has offered to treat us to a takeaway this evening so that won't come out of the grocery budget:). I've built up a list of recipes from the OS forum so hope to be able to vary the menus a bit more now while still being thrifty. Thank you to anyone who's ever contributed a recipe, I've found lots that sound fantastic:T

fletch3163

Me again

Been shopping (minus DH) and spent £49.38.

I've actually not got any "food" to speak of really (barring a quiche for a quid), it's all been fruit and veg, milk, juice cereal, etc so..............

I've got loads in the freezer but just need to do a wee bit work to turn them into dinners. I'm going to mealplan this week also.

Been rethinking things re throwing caution to the wind. In April DH convinced me to enjoy our "wealth" and I did! We had loads of days out, trips to the movies, etc. He just wants to LIVE like that and I don't. I work 50 hours a week to contribute and it's not like I've padded the bejeezus out of every meal, I'm still a work in progress with that. Maybe we just need, after all these years, to have our own money. That way I surely won't resent his frittering ways?

earthmother

Just completed my online shopping - £44 to come from Asda tomorrow and another £53 from Tesco on Wednesday. Might sound bad, but that's a months packed lunches, tins, bottles, juice and cereal, all on special, along with about 3 weeks nappies (which belongs to a different budget so that's to come out of the total) and a 16 roll pack of loo roll - which so long as I keep an eye on it should last a couple of months (considering setting up sentry duty on the bathroom door, lol).

So this week at least I should only need to pick up a bit of fruit and meat (like to get that myself).

Fingers crossed

carolt2

Afternoon everyone, just popped in to catch up on things and update signature.
Called at shops on thurs.
OH went today on his way back from his mums ( not that we needed anything):rolleyes:. But he did buy me some flowers to cheer me up.
Budget is now sitting at £95.55 which leaves £54.45 to last for the next 22 days.
We are pretty well stocked up so am hoping that we can manage it:o

For those who have been mentioning problems with OH, mine loves to go shopping but does not always think about what he is buying/forward planning. Athough he is getting better, like today he bought lots of whoopsied things like sausages for the freezer, parsnips. His main fault when shopping is packing( he just chucks stuff into the bags, he is now banned from buying bread,due to 12 squash rolls he bought home one day:rolleyes:),
He is happy for me to plan meals and do the bulk of shopping and cooking, especially when i explain how much each meal costs and the GC.
He knows he can save more of his money to pay off his loan early IYKWIM.

Moniker

Have just updated my sig and shock-horror - I have about £80 to last to 28th May! I gave in to temptation while shopping for a couple of things in Waitrose - strawberries and asparagus and jersey royal potatoes! (The last two items were 2 for £3). It's my own fault - I can't blame my OH. I haven't shopped in Waitrose for months and I just got carried away - plus he had the list and was lost in Curry's!

To make up for my over-indulgence I spent the afternoon planting my veg boxes - and now have carrots, spring onions, parsley, chives, lettuce, chard, beetroot and raddishes on the go. I am very excited as I have not tried veg before and the boxes look so smart! I hope the seeds germinate - though it's not very warm here at the moment - there is still a nasty cold wind. I shall be popping out every five minutes to see if my'babies' are ok!

Off to cook supper now, catch up with you all later.

Moniker

Barneysmom

HI I've updated my sig after being shopping, once to Aldi for £16.14 and to Mr.M's for £31.50.

Got a chicken for tea from Mr.M's. Not the cheapest one as I don't want to buy them any more, but not a happy one either as the were about £7 or £8, too much IMO.
So I got a fairly satisfied smiling chicken for £3.57, an RSPCA one.

The Cross & Blackwell savoury rice, and the pasta in sauce packets were BOGOF so I got a load of them in. They're really handy and can go with most meat or fish when you're in a can't be bothered to cook mood.


I think due to my OCD (I've admitted to myself I have a problem now) I'm not putting the coffee on the shopping list for a bit, till I can cure my addiction. I can't walk past it any more when it's on offer, and now have about 15 jars upstairs hidden. IT's not really costing extra as it's better to pay £3 a jar then as it was, £5.29 a few weeks ago.

BlimusOreilly

This is my first month doing this challenge and the first month that I have kept a total of all my receipts for grocery shopping and I'm really surprised how much I actually spend in a week. I thought it was a lot less than I'm getting through :eek:. The problem seems to be when I just pop in for a couple of things and end up buying 'specials' and off-list items.
I've always been quite frugal with shopping though (or so I thought) so I'm determined to not go past my budget this month.

tessie_bear

good evening...hope everyone is enjying the weekend...iv been busy baking...cookies and fairy cakes..all aeemed to go down well...im trying to keep a couple for packed lunch on monday but well see

we had a nice tea...chicken drumstix coated in pataks tandoori coating i got it from home bargains for 29p...its nice...if u like tandoori chicken...asda has got muller yogurts for 20p each...we have had loads this week...very handy for puddings

we are going out for a very gc friendly lunch tomorrow...45p hot dog from ikea...and maybe chips...might even loose my head completely and buy some of their donuts

take care
tess