July 2009 Grocery Challenge

boredofbeingathome

Hey El, getting lots of sound advice. Have to say SS is sounding like a pro on the Oldstyle now:T....seems weird saying that.:D:rotfl:

carolt2

Evening all, just logged in to update signature and catch up on thread, our total is now sitting at £165.07:eek:, have managed to stock up on things like cat litter/cat food/juices etc, things that will keep for some time.
Got alot on at the moment with one thing or another.
Currently waiting for test results on a close family member who might have the nasty big C :eek:
If i get much busier i might have to put the GC on hold for a while.

Will try and keep up with GC thread.

sistercas

I seem to have completely lost track of the budget will try over the weekend to pull it all together .

helen_jelly

Scotsaver - Thanks for the info on the cheese - sending DH to get some tomorrow

Helen

TheBees

Evening everyone.
Not been on for several days but keeping on track with the challenge.

Did a big shop at MrT today as we'd run out of all the basics including bread, milk and tea bags and the fridge and cupboards were nearly empty. I made a menu plan and more or less stuck to the shopping list.

My big tip of the day is to save all those money off coupons from magazines because they all add up. Some supermarkets won't take them if you don't buy the product and sometimes it depends on who serves you too. I normally go to the more "mature" cashiers rather than the teenagers and casually mention that I've got some vouchers and was wondering if any of them will go through the til! Today I got a whopping £8.00 off my bill and last month I think it was around £7.50....
Out in the garden we've got loads of lettuces and french beans which we've been eating. Tomatoes are green and courgettes and cucumbers on their way...
Good luck everyone. PS anyone got a recipe for courgette cake please?

randomer

I've always thought of my family as reasonably frugal but I realise how much money was disappearing on numerous unecessary shopping trips.

It's pretty basic for some of you advanced money savers but the list and weekly shop is the way to go.

Dear lloyds tsb has done it's worst and given out bank charges again and there's no way I'm going into debt this month.:T

cw18

Yesterday I was really pleased with how things were going.

Target to end of yesterday was £57.39, and my spend was just £19.87 :T

But I went to Mr T today and racked up one heck of a bill :eek:

Spent £33.04, so my spend to end of today is £52.91 against a target of £61.21 - so nothing like as impressive an underspend any more

Of this £6.98 was on crisps!! I've been meaning to pick some up over the last week (DS and I often have a pack with our lunches, and we've only 2 or 3 packs left in the house) but hadn't got around to it, so I took advantage of the BOGOF offers on Mini Chedd@rs (2x12 packs for £2.45) and the McC0ys S&V Crinkle Cuts (6x6 packs for a total of £4.53 - these are a definite favourite for both of us, so always stock up when on offer )

Another £2.93 went on 6 litres of ice-cream..... we've been working our way through what I had in the freezer, and were down to half a tub of vanilla which is the only ice-cream I'd bought so far this month.

I also spent a whopping £11.51 on cakes, which was more than a third of my spend !!!

Today is younger DS's 18th birthday, so I decided to do a surprise birthday tea for him, me, DD and GDs £7.98 of the cake spend was on a rich fruit cake for his main b'day cake as he's not keen on sponge ones, but the look on his face when he realised what type it was made it well worth having forced myself to part with the money for it

He's really, really good about not asking for treats or expensive food items - to the point my friends find it hard to believe - so I reckoned he deserved to have his favourite type for a 'big' birthday:A

paulgee31

If nobody has already suggested it, check out charity shops for Student Vegetarian Cookbook, they have some great, tasty cheap recipes.

---

Got an iPhone check out the HotUKDeals RSS app on iTunes

DrFluffy

£3.40 today - mushrooms, eggs and milk.

I've not bought a chocolate bar for almost 3 weeks!!!!

Olliebeak

If you can buy enough bread and milk for the week/fortnight/month and have enough space to put it in the freezer, that's the way to go.

It's going out for bread and milk midweek that often pushes up the spending.

I love to buy whoopsied bread at the end of the day. You also often get bottles of milk whoopsied as well, and those freeze.