January 2010 Grocery Challenge

laurasavon

Sorry i've not been on here for a few days, I started a new job this week and i've been really busy.

This week i've spent £28.17 but i need to pop to the shop later for a few more things!

sistercas

just to give you heads up at Costco they have 6 packs of back bacon for £6.45 but buy 2 packs save £5.!!

that works out at just under 66p a pack and its nice bacon too.:j only thing is the offer finishes today I think

Keiss_21

Thanks for all your work Helen, you have done a grand job. It is great though that Mrs M is recovered enough to come back to man (woman??) the thread.

Spending is pretty good so far...hope I will continue in this manner for another few weeks at least, if not months!! Mind you, as the weather improves and starting back to work soon (hopefully), there will be so many more temptations, but I must resist!!

At least the car is working again (flat battery charged), saving a large garage bill (or new car :eek:). Still sniffling with a cold, but hoping the fresh air this afternoon will clear my head.

Will have to get a few things tomorrow, but then hope not to spend again until Friday...here's hoping!

Have a good week everyone.

[Deleted User]

nickynoo08 wrote: »

Morning everyone, i've been mia for most of the month, been a bit mad here lately so i've just popped on to update my spends and to ask you all a question if i may.

Firstly my spends are still going fairly well, still well under budget, but i'd still like to try and cut back a tad more if i could.

Secondly to my question. Over the next couple of months money is going to be a bit tighter than normal, hence me wanting to cut back. Do you find you save more shopping in one place (taking a list and sticking to it) or taking advantage of other shops offers (planning meals around the offers)? I'm lucky as we have a lge tesco, asda, morrisons and sainburys all fairly close to us, plus an aldi and netto.

I think it's cheaper to plan your meals around frugal, healthy and tasty foods and take your list with you,sticking to it if you can. Offers are usually on expensive, branded foods, unhealthy snacks, cakes and ready-meals which you aren't really a saving and taste like plastic and chemicals:rotfl: If you don't have a lot of time, you can make double of your meals and freeze them. Buy a delicious free-range chicken and do the 'rubber treatment' by stretching it for several tasty meals.

Good luck

laurasavon

i've just been to stock up on a few things, managed to get quite a bit of meat with 25% off so shouldn't need to go shopping for at least a week I hope.

Spend today £30.21, I also need to add £6 that hubby spent on meat in the week and 50p for some toast I had at work

Now to decide what have for tea this week...

greent

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Anyway, I have managed to be quite good the last few days & have just updated my signature with a small spend of £6.87 on f & v & bread. I do habe enough food to last the month but my problem is that we normally have spag bol or cottage pie once a week cos these are dead certs in terms of the kids eating them but I don't think I have any mince left but I do have other things so I suppose I should just try the kids with these. E.g the kids are at their Dad's today & there is a huge leg of lamb cooking at the moment just for me & OH, so there will be loads left over from that but the kids have never, ever tried lamb before!

Can you try mincing/ finely choppng in food processor the leftover lamb and make shepherds pie as opposed to cottage pie? They may not even notice

greent x

fabforty

Hello everyone,

I haven't posted much this month as my spending has been minimal. No shopping since last week Saturday which means my second no spend week :T. It makes me wonder why I used to shop on an (almost) daily basis -at least every 2/3 days and what on earth I found to buy. I dug out some old debit card statements from last year and found that one month I spent almost four hundred pounds in various supermarkets :eek:. That definitely won't happen again. I did receive a late birthday present - £50 gift Sainsbury's gift card, no doubt that will come in handy in future. I'll add it to the rest. I remember during my flat broke and cupboard completely bare period, getting a £25 M & S voucher, and using it to buy food and other essentials. Ever since then, I tend to hoard gift vouchers just in case. I have £90 in M&S vouchers (the old paper ones that don't expire, unlike those gift cards), £25 JL/Waitrose and £80 for Sainsbury's.

Now that I have joined a few other threads and challenges, I need to update my signature once and for all - fitting it all in has been a challenge in itself.

Good luck to the rest of you with your own GC challenges, and as always I look forward to reading about your successes and experiences.:D

Alison_Funnell

Hello - sorry I haven't been a very regular visitor. I thought I had completely blown my budget today - having made a £70!!! online order with MrT then I remembered that it is a bulk buy that will cover atleast 4-6 weeks.

So here is my question do I declare over for this month but keep a running total over the following months challenges ( I intend to keep this up all year - maybe with a slightly higher budget) and see how things balance out. Or do I adjust the amount to add the proportion it I intend for January?

SilverCo

Hi everyone :hello:

A LSD for me today, only £3.65. Have updated sig to reflect this. Am not feeling too panicky now about the small amount I have left as there's plenty in the pantry and I'm feeling a lot more creative about the food I already have, thanks to everyone in this thread! :T

Nickynoo - I've only been doing this challenge for a very short time, but I'm learning to look at all the supermarkets to see what's on offer. I do make sure that I have a list of the things I need though, otherwise it could be very dangerous!!!

Thanks Helen Jelly for keeping thread on track and look forward to welcoming back MrsM! :beer:

Hoping for a few NSDs next week, simply because I don't need to spend the money!!

Cheese, salami and bread for tea this evening and making a bolognese pasta bake tomorrow, yum!

Have a good evening everyone!

Silver x

freakyogre

Had a walk to Coop earlier on the lookout for the toilet rolls on offer, but they'd all gone, so bought a box of grapes instead for £1.50 (white/green, but labelled red...made the lady on the checkout laugh!) I didn't get any veg as I didn't fancy what Coop had on offer and the greengrocers was shut, so I may have to go somewhere else and pick a few bits up.