September 2009 Grocery Challenge

scotsaver

A NSD today so that's good and made Chicken Pie for Dinner tonight using leftovers from last night's Roast - have also made some Soup from the Carcass.;)

Won't have Pud tonight as the Soup and Pie will be filling enough.:D

Off now to the Greenhouse as I have loads of Tomatoes that are ripe and want to make some Tomato Sauce to bung in the Freezer to use at a later date on Pizza or in a Spag Bol etc.;)

Have a good afternoon everyone.:D

Angelfeathers

NSDs yesterday and today for groceries. (We did pop to Argos today to get two bathroom cabinets - they're small but reduced from £20 to £15 so could afford two! - and a couple of other bits, but they came out of the 'home improvements' budget not the grocery one.)

Two weeks after getting my slow cooker, I've decided I seriously need a bigger one! Couldn't fit the whole £7.29 M&S chicken in there so I had to joint it (sort of; it was a bit rough) and just use the legs and wings yesterday, and I'm going to do the rest of the body in the oven with the Med veg that also came in the meal deal tonight. Have also been busy trying Bolognese sauce in the slow cooker for dinner tomorrow, and yeah, can't actually fit as much in there as I would normally do in one batch in my stock pot!

So. I know one thing that's going on my Christmas list!

Had a couple of unexpected bills come through the last few days (we're really in our first month of getting everything sorted and finding out what the bills are and having everything in separate accounts etc.) so have done my sums and worked out we have £180 left for the rest of the month, which includes general spending and groceries. So I am *definitely* looking to come in *well* under my £450 grocery budget this month!

Luckily, I'm well stocked up and I can't see there being any problem with that! :-)

ETA: I am soooo impressed with how well everyone else is doing! This thread is a real eye-opener!

ETA2: Hmm, I'm going to have to fill up with petrol soon too. So make that £140 to spend!

notjustlaura

£50 p/w for one woman plus two cats.

Hello - this is my first post to these Boards so please do tell me if I'm stepping on toes. I've lurked and had a read today so hopefully I've sussed out roughly the way things are done but I'm more of an email girl than a forum girl sooo ...

My usual spend is £100+ a week which, from reading India Knight's The Thrift Book over the weekend, I've realised is ridiculous. I've picked my target of £50 out of the air, to be honest because I have to start somewhere. And I'm going for weekly rather than monthly because a) September's already started, b) I shop weekly and then top up as required (I'm thinking this is mistake #1) and c) I do better working with small periods of time and small numbers. What I mean is that if I say 'I've got £400 to spend this month' then it'll all be gone by Tuesday and then I overspend the rest of the month to 'survive'. If I say 'I've got £50 to spend this week' and use cash I'm much more controlled.

The purpose of my MoneySaving is to a) pay credit card, b) pay overdraft - which will be caused tomorrow when I pay the garage for work to the car, c) save myself a buffer sum (for things like repairing the car in the future) and then d) improve my quality of life by spending on things I love rather than the Tesco shopping.

Today I have spent £4 on 12 rolls of toilet paper from ASDA. I won't be doing a grocery shop this week as I've enough food in the freezer and cupboards to last the week although we will need cat food, flea treatments and milk. I plan to bake my own bread and already have the ingredients.

Sorry for writing an essay ...

Laura

cw18

notjustlaura wrote: »

Hello - this is my first post to these Boards so please do tell me if I'm stepping on toes.

Welcome aboard

No stepping on toes at all..... the more the merrier on the GC

freakyogre

Another £2.45 spent today on 'groceries' which was for 4 yogurts (only cheapy ones as I use them for smoothies) and 4 jars of sandwich spread (I wanted the jars for my spices and they're half price at the moment as new). I actually spent just over £18 in Tesco, but that was for other bits so i'm not counting that

I'm actually going to sit and do a meal plan for next week a bit later. Usually i'll think of it when the post appears, but i'll try and be a bit more organised this time and hopefully i'll know exactly what I need to get then.

Bitsy_Beans

Just updated my sig. Done my weeks shopping and it came to £32 from my budget of £40 so am like this
Next week might not be so good as I've noticed our frozen veg is getting thin on the ground.
Still was very good round the supermarket and only bought what was on my list.
Was really tempted to go and look at the kids clothes but TBH we don't have the money this month and will probably get them from Primark/George anyway next month. I wish I could update my wardrobe every 6 months :rolleyes:
Pay day for H on 22nd so hopefully we can last out til then
Need lots of NSD between now and then (although I plan a baking spree so I don't see why not )
Hope everyone is still doing OK. First two weeks for me were bit disappointing but H went and bought some more items so even though I didn't purchase them I have to reflect the money spent (unfortunately :rotfl:)

Julimk

Did my top-up shop & the guide price was around £15 – came in at £14.34.

Don’t know what the situation is with the FreshNLow milk – I did the list on mysupermarket yesterday & was £1.10 (I’ve never seen the purple one in either of the MrTs I use regularly) but when I printed the list off this morning it was 65p – this is showing in black rather than red, ie as a regular price rather than a special offer & no info on how long this will last.

DD had a little chum over after school & I asked what she wanted & she said ‘curry soup’, so I made that fresh today, as it doesn’t take long. More or less this one:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article1939530.ece

Not sure how it can be described as veggie as it is based on a chicken stock (esp as mine came from my chicken carcass – of course!)

Herewegoagain

Herewegoagain wrote: »

Hiya guys,

Things are still hectic here so not been on much:o

Only spent £25.48 so far this month, and still got loads in, just have to get the fresh stuff as and when:D:j:j

I've had 8 NSD's so feeling very in control. But this is probably where it will go wrong as I'm away from tomorrow and the relief will take over and probably blow my budget. Still, as I've been so good, hopefully they wont bust the budget completely:rolleyes::eek:;)

Hope it's going well for you guys too, best of luck and see you when I get back.

HWGA xx

Hiya guys,

Still not spent any money so mostly NSD's here:T:T

HWGA xx

ChocClare

notjustlaura wrote: »

£50 p/w for one woman plus two cats.

Hello - this is my first post to these Boards so please do tell me if I'm stepping on toes.

Welcome, Laura! This is the first time I`ve done the Grocery Challenge too, though I`ve been hanging round the place for ages. I`ve found it really does concentrate your mind - and made you realise just how much STUFF you buy (and why you`re possibly therefore not as rich as you might be).

My DH has one of those How To Be Incredibly Rich type of books, where there is one tip which has always stayed with me: most people (apparently) get their pay cheque; pay their bills, buy their food and then aim to use whatever is left over to go into savings and to give to charity. The more successful method (again, apparently) is to get your pay cheque, give to charity first, then put your savings aside, then pay your bills and buy your food. Apparently, this is the best way to build up savings, as it makes you focus on getting the best you can from the smaller amount of money, whereas if you think "whatever`s left, I`ll save" you never have anything left! And this way, you do have a cushion every month if you run out of money.

And the giving to charity first? Apparently, it has been proved that those who give to others (apart from just being nice!) create an atmosphere around themselves which brings rewards back to them. Allegedly.

Whether you believe it or not, I`m certainly finding this month that sticking to my (made up) budget is making me spend FAR less than I would normally do. So go for it! And apologies for my essay, too! :rotfl:

rosieben

Hi Laura, welcome to the GC:j as Cheryl says, everyone is welcome here;)

It looks like I'll be moving at some point in the not so distant future so I've spent the day listing food stock in cupboards and freezer and this evening I'll be working on a meal plan for the next 6 or 8 weeks using up what I have in stock. Shame about the 2 online shops I did in August :rolleyes: but the subject of moving hadn't cropped up then!

I gave my bread maker away on freecycle last month - along with a huge amount of stuff so a lot of decluttering already done before I knew about the move :T - so I'm trying a hand-made bread recipe which I'll mix up and leave to rise overnight in the fridge; I have a few bits of veg to use up so I'll make a slow cooker casserole tomorrow using some skirt from the freezer - I'll probably prep the veg tonight. There's nothing much sweet in the house - apart from me! - so I'll probably have a bit of a bake up tomorrow, my dd sent me a recipe for caramel choc brownies and I hear that calling to me......

good luck with the rest of the challenge everyone!

edited to add, I'll put the brownie recipe on the front page list later