January 2010 Grocery Challenge

peetzil39

Evening all,
Slowandsteady, I'm a health visitor and your own will no doubt tell you the same at the clinic - cows milk is perfectly ok to use after 1yr (full fat to age 2yrs) most of the iron will come from other sources in your wee one's diet. We get so hung up on things like this these days, the formula manafacturers want to keep us spending on products as long as they can, and their adverts are so convincing

WendysWorld

Not doing too bad this grocery challenge - although I have a sneaking suspicion it's mainly because of all the food left over from Christmas! Spent £86 this week. £22 on Veg Box, £18 in Butchers and £46 in Waitrose. Shouldn't need any more as I'm off to Ireland to see the folks for the weekend on thursday.

Ayeshalush

Haven't spent any more so far so hoping to ciome in under budget.

I think I'm going to go for £70 for February.

Thanks

Ali
x

Flat_Eric

I am declaring January and my first GC challenge attempt of 2010 as
"gone completely pear shaped".

I thought this month would be easy especially with two full freezers and a fridge that never seems to be empty but I didnt count on being ill for two weeks thus there were lots of emergency spends (mainly on tissues/cough medicine/treats to try and make me feel better).

I think I have all my receipts (not completely sure) but I know I have gone over budget.

So must try harder for February. Im learning all the time from this experience so may be one day I will come in under budget.

Aims for February -
to meal plan properly and to use up freezer contents ! Not to buy too much "just because I might cook it". i.e to only buy the fruit and veg that will be used rather than having it sit in fridge/freezer for ages. i.e. the celeriac I bought 10 days ago..... (amongst other things)

welshkaz

just nipped to coop for some bread and bits spent £9.00 but had a huge jar of nescafe in with that 300g for £4 and had some whoopsies for tomorrows tea £232/£280 spent so looking good so far.

Rachel021967

I bought my daughter some 50p sweets and I forgot to include her breakfast club money which is £11. I'm going to go way over budget as I will have to do a small shop to last until next weekend. I could feed them on veggie mince until next week but my OH will protest and get himself a take-away. Off to update signature.

KITTY_2-2

Another NSD for me which makes 10. That was my target for the month and wasn't sure I would get close so very pleased :T

Not much left in the kitty but also don't need a lot. Should just be bread, milk, eggs and sandwich meat.

I get paid next Friday which makes February a longer month. (We get paid the last week day of the month) May be a little more difficult to maintain the current level of spend as the cupboards are starting to run down and I will need the usual household stuff stocking up. Have to shop around a bit more and take advantage of the offers at each of the supermarkets.

Does anyone know the best times to hit the 24 hour stores for whoopsies? My local Mr A never seems to have many apart from after 3 on Sunday afternoon :huh:

freakyogre

Oops. Well I was on track, but ended up in supermarkets today so it's all gone wrong!

Went to Morrisons earlier and got some fruit juice, bananas, peppers, chick peas, cucumber and some syrup and ginger cake

Then went to Tesco on my way home as needed to get something for dinner tomorrow (planned meal has changed) so got a chicken and some potatoes, carrots, cabbage and broccoli for a roast as haven't had one for a while. Got a few other bits and some toilet rolls, so to be fair just over £5 of my Teco spend was on them.

We also went to the cash and carry and I got a box of crisps and some sweets (the jelly babies were looking at me). I won't count these though as they'll be spread over a couple/few months.

If I take off my toiletries and toilet rolls for the month, i'd actually come in under, but that would be cheating (but tempting)

I'm going to have a think about next month as I went freezer 'shopping' today and have found one i'm going to order and hopefully have delivered next week. I'm sure I will spend more filling that up for the first month so will make up a rough list and go from there.

angelatgraceland

slowandsteady wrote: »

Thanks Weezl-i have been wondering the same actually. I think ive been lulled in with that ad where they have to give the baby 20L of cows milk to get the right amount of iron so i worry now! I am going to the baby clinic tues to get her weighed and im going to ask them as she has normal whole milk with her porridge. She just turned one on 30th december and i too have been waiting for that first birthday to come! Formula milk is so expensive. Unfortunately i wasnt able to breastfeed cos i was very ill after her birth and am probably a bit of a worrier regarding her diet as she is still so tiny as was prem. Im ok on what foods contain iron but just not the quantities and ideal types are iykwim.

Hope health visitor tells me its ok to stop and 'growing up' milks are just a marketing ploy!

What I did with mine(tho a long time ago it was the same situation) is that I used the formula as a supplement to the cows milk and weaned them off the formula over say 4 months*in time). So-say I was doin 8 bottles of formula a day before the 1 yr mark Id do say 4 of each at one year, 4 cows, 3 formula at 13 months,6 cows, 2 formula to 14 months,7 cows 1 formula at 15 months and scrap the formula at say 16 months. This fitted in well with the increased ability to eat a variety of solids. It doesnt have to be all or nothing and it does reduce the bills. Milk is still cheapest in Iceland if you can get to one-just £1 for a 4 pint bottle on all types.
Thinking of diet Ive been aware of my cholesterol creeping up over the past 2 years and it went up to 6.5 and I was on my way to medication for it. This year its only 5 so what did I do different? I reverted back somewhat to the eating habits of when we were rather poor and Ive had a lot of veggie meals made with beans and pulses. No fancy margerines or youghurt type drinks or anything else which has good marketing-just changed my diet a little- got more change on my shopping and brought it down by nearly 25% so Im now a healthier person as well as spending less. Good food does not need to be expensive-it is often cheaper but you need to plan better as the beans and pulses need soaking overnight on many occasions and sometimes a rapid 10 min boil for beans before cooking. Planning-the key word!
:money:

angelatgraceland

fabforty wrote: »

Hi everyone


I still have plenty of store room basics (pasta, tuna, rice etc plus basic toiletires). Not very MSE I know, but I'm not ready to go back to the empty cupboard days just yet. I could probably survive for
2-3 weeks without buying anything (I wouldn't starve but I would be bored), I can't help thinking 'just in case' - typical Capricorn.

Now I think keeping store room basics in reasonable supply actually is VERY MSE because if you use it all up one month it just needs replacing another month. Except where you either want to use stuff up-or are rather skint-it is best to keep you store cupboard topped up and rotated on a weekly basis. That way you always have all of the key ingredients to make economical meals and cover last minute emergencies which usually prove expensive. So no-don't aim for empty cupboards! It will just catch up with you and you will then have a big overspend restocking. Better to spend 3 or 4 quid replacing a few bit every week and have things to fall back on-that to me is MSE but if you saw my cupboard youd think WW3 is on its way(or more snow).I think you are doing well.:j