November 2009 Grocery Challenge

SavvyStudent_2

Hi all!

Erm, I've been a bad girl <hangs head in shame>.

Haven't done the GC since about Feb, I'm down on the annual list, but the OH and I haven't stuck to it at all. A lot has changed since then (no longer a student, 3 months into a new job, we've moved to Manchester and only just getting settled in really!). I've been re-evaluating our finances over the past week or so and would really like to cut back again, as I'd like to save up a bit of a nest egg, which isn't going to happen if we keep eating out and going mad at the supermarket etc! Got paid on the 28th which has brought me out of student overdraft finally, and set a litte money aside into savings, have enough in my account left in the black to cover rent / my direct debits etc, have now done all my xmas shopping (and wrapped it up lol!), and would like to live the rest of the month on the money in my purse for food (£80) without dipping back into the bank account!! I get paid again on the 25th of Nov and would like to use it to bump my savings up a bit. I reckon it's do-able, we have quite full freezer / cupboards at the mo, and I've been cooking a lot from scratch again. Tonights dinner will be HM pizza (ham and mushroom, might make 2 and freeze one!) so the OH doesn't bring home a takeaway. I'm on nights all this weekend, and will be taking my own food (and some squash in a bottle, my biggest vice is diet coke from the vending machine!). Please can you erase my annual challenge entry from before, and put me down for £80 for November? Thank you! :cool:

ellemm

First shop of November tonight so sitting here at work in my lunchbreak with my freezer & storecupboard contents list and meal plan making the shopping list :rotfl:

Mostly buying fresh meat to do some batch cooking at the weekend, as now have some space in freezer thanks to storecupboard challenge.

Will also get fresh fruit & veg and dairy stuff so hoping to keep within budget.

Have loads of stuff for baking so again will do some batch baking.
Have a good weekend everyone

taka

Beki wrote: »

Coffee - £8
Milk - £25
Butter/marge - £12
F+V - £32 (farm shop is v. cheap)
Meat - £12 (need a change from pork every so often)
Fish - £16 (although, we don't strictly need this, so could be cut out?)
Pasta/rice - £5
Tinned goods - £12
Flour/sugar/eggs - £20
Pets - £50


Does anyone have any ideas? I'm going to trawl through the recipes on this page to see if i can find some good pork recipes so we can have a bit of variety...

Some thoughts... ...

Have you made sure you are buying your basics from the cheapest place? Have you tried looking on something like mysupermarket to make best use of offers on the products you use or could use instead or even which place is cheapest for what you need (assuming you have multiple supermarkets accessable)?

Sometimes the basics/value stuff or own brand is actually MORE expensive that the finest equivalent... ... It doesn't do any harm to double check prices per 100g/kg/unit.

If you get loads of flour / eggs / sugar / coffee / milk / butter etc - is there a cash and carry / costco / makro or similar nearby that you could investigate prices? It may be better cheaper to bulk buy catering sized stuff (though not necessarily - a good offer in the supermarket may be better value if you stock up). Another place is an asian supermarket or similar - the ones near me have massive bags of flour that work out much cheaper per kg than the equivalent in MrT for example.

Oh and butter and milk for example can be frozen if you have room alongside all that pork! :rotfl:

Some of this involves space to store it all though...

Outdoorlass

Hi

I am joining in please. last month went a bit wrong as we had birthday celebrations and lots of sleepovers:rolleyes:

So this month 28/10 to 28/11 I am setting my target at £350.00 for 2 adults. 2 children.

Good luck everyone.

Trinny

Hello everyone

Please keep me at £170for another month. OH has discovered Aldi/Lidl and the joys of trying new stuff.

It should have saved us money but he went on a shopping trip and now the storecupboard is so overstocked that stuff falls out when you open the door.

This month i am determined to keep him out of the supermarkets - to shop for top ups and to try to use up all the stuff he bought on his last shopping spree.

Two steps forward and one back ATM in my MSE pursuits



Trin

lil_me

Please can I be in, with an attempt at £260 for a family of 4, all meals eaten in or out apart from school lunches for one which he gets free. Includes dog and lizard food. I have a few bits in but not a great deal, enough to last until Monday when I shall start from.

nmlc

Afternoon all
Just an update of the spends, not looking so good already! Have done weekly shop a MrA's spent £76.92, MrL's £9.00 and Butchers £28.00, so total now spent £221.87 out of a £350 budget and this is only the 2nd week of the GC! On a positive note, the outside freezer is now full as is the inside one plus the fridge, and the food storecupboards are full to bursting, so realistically I should only be shopping for perishables for the next 2 weeks at least! (that's the plan anyway!?). Have made HM bread 4 times this past week and hob nobs and choc chip cookies all went down really well and were enjoyed so will endeavour to keep this going especially as the sweet item to put in the lunchboxes. I'm meal planning every week for the next week but am starting to get bored with the same food so need to research some new recipes.
Have a good weekend everyone, keep safe and well, hugs to those that need them.
nmlc

searching_me

hello im back after the last 2 months went soooo badly im restarting all my moneys been moved around so im now doing it from the 1st of every month ... which is sunday for me soooo ...

mrs m can you pop me down for £140 this month ...

i have a stocked freezer and enough baby milk and nappies to last til next month so wish me luck xxx

ariarnia

just posted this in the October thread by mistake.

Slightly vexed as I asked my parter to pick up some crusty rolls to go with the beef stew we're having tomorrow, but the MIL decided to go out and buy a large tin loaf and now I don't know if this should go in our budget as it doesn't fit with this weeks meal plan and there's no way I'm going to be able to fit even half of it in the freezer - guess I'm going to have to breadcrumb it for in something at some point!

Any suggestions on how to do that as I've never done it before and don't have a blitza.

It's from an expensive bakery, so probably count it as 2.50 towards the food shop, as I've no actual idea of how much it cost.

helen_jelly

Evening everyone
Been shopping [central heating fixed for £80 including parts - phew]
Spent £85.71 at MrM, got half way home and remembered the £5 voucher Grrrrrrrrrrrrr so going back tomorrow to spend another £30 but struggling to compose a list double Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Budgets done up to and including searchingme - thanks
Helen x