October 2009 Grocery Challenge

scotsaver

nykmedia - can't come up with any suggestions I'm afraid, I'd be inclined to agree with Cheryl, if I had any donations of fruit etc I wouldn't factor it in, same goes for the stuff I've grown in the Garden this year, I know I'm saving money on buying fruit & veg but it's not factored in anywhere.:cool:

Talking of "free" food, today's Lunch was Leek & Potato soup using veg from the Garden, the base stock was a chicken stock from "Bucket Chicken" we had last night for Dinner, recipe from the "Economy Gastronomy" programme. The family loved it and it was just as tasty as any Takeaway and made better knowing that it didn't contain any hidden ingredients.;) The soup was delicious too, this is the first year that I've grown Leeks, was really easy and the taste from them was amazing and made even better by knowing that it hadn't cost us anything - I love the thought that we are eating "free" food.:D

Dinner tonight is Roast Pork and all the trimmings with HM Bakewell Tart for Pud.;)

A NSD today but must pop to Lidl tomorrow morning for some Bananas, a little bird tells me they are down to 38p a Kilo.:j

Off now to make some shortbread for this week's Lunchbox nibbles. Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.:D

Changingme

I brought a bunch of 7 bananas from Mr T's last week and this for 35p.

taka

Spent £4.25 in A1di and £8.27 in MrS today so I now have £30.48 left for the month to keep me on track for my yearly budget.

My budget is the equivalent of £110 a month now but I'm going to need to cut back on everything soon so this is a number that needs to fall. It should be possible as I live alone and am veggie so no expensive meat etc. I decided (yesterday!) that my GC budget will have to fall to the equivalent of of £90/month... so the challenge is can I keep to this for the rest of this year? It'll be good practice for Jan onwards when I'll have no choice...

Hmmmm... that means I have £10.48 left for the month now... :eek: What's even scarier is I haven't managed to be under my origional £110 a month equivalent at the end of any month this year! :eek::eek:

This should be fun... :rotfl:

elizabunny

Hello everyone!
Finally managed to get out with DH for a small grocery shop -wish I hadn't bothered though as I feel back to square one re: the slipped disc. Never realised how much I took mobility for granted. Anyway, the cupboards are looking a bit better and we now have a decent supply of fresh fruit etc. Also managed to get into our usual butcher and stock up a bit. The problem now is standing and cooking:mad: However managed to make a few apple and blackberry crumbles whilst sitting at the table and DH put them in the oven. I really need to stock up the freezer again. MrL had a good offer on dishwasher tablets £3 for 45 which I thought was great -think I should have brought more and there was a good choice of veggies at special prices eg. corn on the cob for 15p each, bags of salad potatoes for about 35p? - 39p? sorry:o. NSD today hopefully.
Have a good sunday everyone!

666paw

Hi everyone

I would like to declare my Oct total as 179.88 so just under budget :j:j:j, I know its not under by much but is it under. Also has 20 NSD out of 30.

Of to start November's now, see you all there when it gets started.

P.

georgiesmummy

hiya peeps

have been watching with interest and decided that im going to have a go for November.
im forever overspending and stuff just duplicated to the point i have 2 freezers and 3 cupboards full of similar bits n bobs, but yet i still manage to spend £400 a month on crap!

have decided im going to stick to a budget and see if i can stick to it, so before Novembers comes in im going to sort the freezers out and eat what we can without making another trip to supermarkets before payday next friday.

look forward to having chats with u all and becoming part of this fab community

Dee x

mark55man

so just did the sunday shop - trying to get some whoopsies - but there were none and this was 3:10 TO 3:50

anyway £55, for a weeks shopping - using lots of recipes from the front page

tonite - coq-a-leekie soup (that's the scottish version I'm not allowed to type :-)
Monday - cheesy potato layer (with some sausages for the non veggies)
Tuesday - pizza - (2 for 1, but aren't they all - needs to be quick on tuesday)
Wednesday - HM fish pie & veg - (use prawns and cod up from the freezer from a few weeks ago)
Thursday - HM cauliflower cheese
Friday - chilli (got me oats ready) - vege chilli or quorn sausage rolls for the kids

fingers crossed

EDIT : Hiya GM welcome aboard

helen_jelly

Georgiesmummy - Welcome and Hi, check out the fantastic recipes on page 1 and please shout if you have any questions, there are lots of lovely clever people on here who will help out. Feel free to post your November budget whenever you are ready to and I'll make note of it, ready for posting at the end of the month. Happy no shopping

666paw - Well done on coming under, thats fantastic and 20 out of 30 NSD's is amazing, I'm lucky if I get 3!!!!

I've not updated my spends yet but have the receipts to do it. DH and I have discussed not shopping much next month in order to run down the freezers ready for December [they are full to bursting] and he is fully on board with it, thankfully.

Have a nice evening everyone [I'm off to iron]

Helen x

freakyogre

I went over to see my brother and sister on Friday and we took my brother out or an indian for his birthday. It was really nice (but won't be included in the total!)

We then went shopping on Saturday so I ended up buying some bits, some needed, some not, but got some good news on Friday so a few bits won't hurt (I started a 'temp' job 4 weeks ago which was originally just for a week, but was extended to 4, it's now been extended to the end of the year - still not permanant, but better than nothing!)

Picked up some beef planning to do a stew, but after routing through my cupboards, I found some packet mix sauces so i'm going to do beef bourguignon in my slow cooker on Tuesday, hoping it's yummy!

Also popped down to Coop earlier as noticed they had Daz washing tablets on offer, i'm running low and they were only £2 so thought they were worth getting.

Quite close to my total, but will carry on and see how it goes. I'm currently looking for a second hand freezer as think it will save me money during the winter (I have a freezer in my fridge, but it's tiny).

dazzle21

Hey all, just checking in! We've all had flu so been emptying the cupboards we've spent a small fortune on paracetamol/cough meds/calpol/orange squash etc! But we're doing ok.. mainly as the cupboards are even more bare! I'm hoping to pop to Costco this week and do a replen which may tip us over but should mean Nov will be nice and low Hope everyone is ok, going to read backwards through the thread now x