November 2009 Grocery Challenge

franby64

I find raw pasta a bit hard going but I can easily sit and munch my way through a packet of raw instant noodles. I break them up a bit before I open the packet and eat them like crisps!

Spent £7.05 this morning, mostly on fruit but better than yesterday which was over £12. Still can't get it as low as I'd like but I'm not buying anything I haven't planned for and I'm not throwing much away - so that'll do for now!

Frugaldom

Glad the cauli sauce worked out OK BigMumma, I used the veg 'stock' from boiling garden veggies to cook the rice for veg curry and it was lovely tasting, too. I'm still on my 'eat out the storecupbaord and freezer' challenge, so I'm still within budget but it's very, very tight.

I heard about the Te$co voucher thing a couple weeks back and thought it was rubbish! Not living anywhere near one and not being on a delivery route, it means that on any rare occasion I get the chance to go, the BOGOF bargains will be off limits to me, so they've lost my rare custom whatever. It was normally a home delivery to mum's when I was visiting her but A$da being within walking of her house means I'll opt for there from now.

Eltee12

4 NSD's so far for November. Need to get eggs and mushy peas today.

supemarket shop tomorrow

Butchers, Bakers etc. on Friday

Keiss_21

elizabunny wrote: »

keiss 21 Thanks for that, what a great idea! The bottle I had was lovely sort of oblong shape, it would be perfect for a flavoured oil or vinegar and I know just who I could give it to for Xmas:j Hope you are feeling better now, my son had asthma when he was young.

Glad to be of service elizabunny. Asthma has calmed down a bit now, thanks for your concern...I managed to get 7 hours sleep last night, getting better!

I am trying to get things done in 15 minute bursts today, a-la Flylady.

So far I have:

• taken clothes off the airer, sorted and put away things not needing ironing
• washed, dried and put away all the breakfast dishes
• put a blanket and nice table cloth over the gateleg table (to protect the surface) in the kitchen - AT LAST, it has been waiting months for this!
• odered two Karrimor jackets from Sports Direct (£30 down from £99.99!) - though there seems to be a problem with the site as it is taking ages to authorize the order :mad:
  
• Sent an email to S-D about above probs - never had a problem with them before!
  
• Found out one of the jackets is out of stock, so ordered another size :mad: (It will fit at least one of us:D!)
• put a second lot of washing on.
• Sorted out one of my kitchen cupboards, only a few more to go!
  

I am altenating 15 minutes of activity with15 minutes on-line and then back again. This means I can actually get things done about the house and I don't feel guilty about being on the computer a lot!

Yippee my Lakeland order has just arrived! :j

Now I can get going with more bread making (old tins waaaay past it!, bread kept sticking!) and cook up more crab-apples for jellies (ran out of jars, good lids and labels!!). What a productive day I am having today, despite the yeuchy weather!!

I am even getting my hair cut today (friend coming round this afternoon), only £10 for a cut & blow-dry...and she is good too! We can also catch up and have a good natter.

Have a good day everyone.

SunnyGirl

Just updating spends from this morning. I'd unusually forgotten to put rice on my shoppping list last week :eek: so needed some for tonights curry and the usual culprits of bread & milk . Total of £4.73 so not bad. I've got my 2nd weekly shop of the month tomorrow & the menu plan & shopping list is already done. I just need to add some bits that we've ran out of onto it. I use a notes feature on my mobile phone & when I see something is almost used up I add it to the list then transfer it onto the paper list downstairs. It may sound complicated but it works for me as I always have my mobile with me and can put things on straight away. If I waited until I was back downstairs I'd have forgotten :rotfl:

It should be a cheap week hopefully as the menu plan has a couple of meatless, filling cheapies from my childhood on it like Onion, Potato & Bacon hotpot, falafel in pittas and HM corned beef pasties. I must have been getting all nostalgic when I did it last week!

Edited to add: Does anyone know what this weeks Super 6 is at Aldi? The website hasn't been updated yet. Thanks in advance.

XSpender

Hello All :hello:

Just popping in to update my signatures and budget breakdown. We had DDad over for dinner on Sunday and spent more than I expected but worth it as he lives abroad and haven't seen him in 2 years. Some wine and chocs not used so will use these at christmas so have added their cost to christmas spends.

I have decided not to include the £23.67 I spent on specific things for Dad's dinner as this was a one of so will come out of my spends budget. Not many leftovers apart from cheese and crackers which DH will demolish over the next few days.

Budgets are looking as follows:

Budget Spent
Food £160 £126.09
Dog Food £30 £31.96 (enough to last til end of month)
Toiletries £15 £12.52 (Stocked up on bogofs)
Christmas(Food) £10 £33.16
Cleaning/Laundry £25 £9.54 ( still need washing powder)
Food Out £10 £0.00
Alcohol £30 £16.36
Delivery Charges £8.00 £3.50

TOTAL £288 £228.15

That leaves me £60 for three weeks which is do able if I can go shopping on my own and not with DH as he always wants stuff on the last and I can't say no:o We also buy more treats when he is there so that will get cut down too.

I have found that I have not stuck to the meal plan half the time and also have not used the stores as much as I had planned. That is the plan of action for the next 3 weeks!

XS

taka

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Edited to add: Does anyone know what this weeks Super 6 is at Aldi? The website hasn't been updated yet. Thanks in advance.

Can't remember it all but...
plums @49p a punnet
Carrots ~29p I think
red apples
Cabbage
Cucumber ?????????
...erm I'm not much use am I! I bought the plums... :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Winged_one

Need to update my sig, but busy week and last weekend was busy too. I spent more than I expected, but I had forgotten about pullups for youngster (bought 2 packs as I often forget and then have to do mad dash at bedtime to local store at lots more expense), and I also ended up spending on wheetabix (needed 1 pack but on good offer) and a few other offers that were on things that we use anyway.

Still well on track to come in under budget this month. And got a 5c/l voucher off petrol as well.

ETA- Sig updated. Also forgot to mention 2 more NSDs for me so far, and hoping for another today!

SunnyGirl

taka wrote: »

Can't remember it all but...
plums @49p a punnet
Carrots ~29p I think
red apples
Cabbage
Cucumber ?????????
...erm I'm not much use am I! I bought the plums... :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Thanks for that think I'll buy the plums and red apples. Can't say I'm in the mood for cucumber in this cold weather either

elizabunny

Hello everyone.................weather really yuk here.

I've decided to have another apple peeling day. I keep looking up at the branches and they seem as full as ever but now I have 5 huge bags of chopped apples in my dodgy freezer ready for pies etc. Just hope we don't have a power cut as that is when the freezer decides to go on the blink and we have to turn it upside down and then back up the right way to get it going again not funny! I'm not risking any meat in there at the moment as I can't afford the loss.

My day started well. I opened my bits and bobs drawer in the bedroom to get out some hand wash for the bathroom and somehow the top had come loose and three quarters of the soap had emptied itself inside the drawer to create a lovely gooey mess:mad: So the drawer had to be turfed out completely, cleaned and dried. I need more hand wash now as well.

Just about to tackle a few more apples to make a crumble for pud tonight, mght make some sort of apple cake as well. Also going to make tuna fishcakes for dinner. 4 NSDs in a row now -if I don't buy anything today. Hope everyone is well and doing ok with their budgets.