January 2010 Grocery Challenge

poohbear59

Thanks for all the jam ideas.I will be making jammy buns, jam tarts, bakewell tarts and also using the jam with my home made yoghurts.

I went to Mr T and spent £38. That takes my totalspend for the month to £126 out of Febs budget already.Ouch!
I did buy eggs and ground almonds though which weren't on my original list. I did get a few whoopsies which I can add to my meal plan.

Rachel021967

Well I've completely lost the plot. Yesterday I bought crystallised ginger, cashew nuts, brazil nuts and pistachios from Holland and Barratt, and it came to £16.06.
Then I went to Waitrose and bought Quorn peices, lettuce, cheddar, beefburgers, ham,carrots, parsnips, sweet peppers, clementines, cherries, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumber. This came to £27.07 I also went to Sainsbury's and bought doughnuts, hot cross buns and jacket potatoes for £3.09.
Today I went to the butcher and bought a lamb steak for £3.58. I also went to Tesco Express and bought water (I broke my lovely new flask), banana and orange for 81p. Off to update signature.

ragz_2

Sorry I can't find the post right now but whoever wanted to find an offer on

laundry detergent - Persil S&M Tesco £4 for 42 washes

I tend to go by the rule that anything under 10p a wash is a good offer and I like this stuff so I stocked up.

Spent a shocking £76 in Tesco today but as I'm starting feb early I'll take off the £19 I had left over in Jan budget ( I'm very pregnant so allowed to cheat) and call it £55

Did get enough laundry detergent to last months, 4 packs of nappies as Tesco keep running out of the ones I want, and a month's worth of tea bags and coffee... so that kind of makes up for the fact that I didn;t get much actual food

Souk08

Just slightly over and paid tomorrow so that's the start of Feb for me.

£80.14 for Jan, target was £80.

franby64

Hi all

Spent £5.37 in the local shops today but have bumped up the day's total by spending £16.60 on a Chinese meal this evening.
This has to come out of the groceries budget which it wouldn't normally because my general spends budget is completely shot for January!
I've still got £17.43 left up to and including anything I spend on Sunday morning so I might still make it!

Linda32

Hello all, I said £240 for the month so thats £60.00 for the week. My week started on 31st December

So £240.00 to finish on 28th January, that will be 4 weeks at £60.00 per week

Already spent:-

£238.90

Sainsburys £32.05 - thats alot less than normal :T
Co-op £2.26
Co-op £23.37

£296.58 - thats me done for the month. Well start next month aiming at £280.00

slowandsteady_2

Evening all,

just catching up on thread, thanks Mrs M for putting me on list for £100 for Feb.

Unfortunately i didn't end up getting paid from new job:eek::eek: so we officially have no money spare whatsoever (dh full time stay at home dad) . I literally have enough in the bank for essential bills after cancelling couple of non essentials, and some CTC for absolute emergencies in dh account. I think im owed one shift from my last job on Fri (i hope anyway by my sums) which will have to go on diesel, to get to the job that don't want to pay me!

Have just a little bit left in emergency fund which has been obliterated the last few months, which im trying to avoid using as we need car repairs too :( to both cars this month so will have to be dipped into no doubt for that.

What a mess! But all the knowledge ive learned from MSE will see us through and I have full freezers and well stocked cupboards so all prepared thanks to MSE OS:T

Still i have my first f/t wage in about 6 mths to look forward to in Feb and my manager has been sorting thngs with payroll today so im sure things will be ok next month:)

Im actually finding the challenge of the last few months kind of exciting as im learning so much from MSE especially OS so THANK YOU ALL!

Roll on the next month!

elizabunny

slowandsteady hope everything sorts out ok for you very soon.

Terrible day today, I had completely forgotton to clean the filter in my washing machine and couldn't get it to pump out water. Finally managed to empty it by hand ....long story, clean said filter and still it wouldn't work:mad:. Called out repair man for Friday, took my temper out on the kitchen sink with a plunger and had another attempt at emptying the machine and it just started working:j Totally confused by now, but have decided some of the pipes must have been blocked as well. The result, 3 bags of soda crystals and a tub of bicarb. Machine now seems ok (I hope) and repair man will have to be cancelled. The moral of the story I suppose is don't forget to clean the washing machine filter and keep your pipes clear,. Soda crystals seem to help, so I 'm going to be keeping a stock in from now on.
.
I won't post my total for the month just yet as a few more days to go.

freakyogre

Went to Sainsbury's at lunchtime as wanted to get some pillows (bought 2 packs, returning one hopefully tomorrow as they're horrible!!) Anyway, ended up getting a pack of chicken breasts, a bag of pasta, garlic bread and a packet of peanuts. Impulse buys really, although the chicken and garlic bread were recommended by my sister, I always want/need pasta and the peanuts will be handy for recipes. I have a lot of chicken in the freezer now, so will sit and do a meal plan later for next week (before Desperate Housewives starts )
£4.80 spent (not counting pillows!) so will add to February's fast increasing total.

cw18

Just realised I've not posted on here since 18th !!!

Since then my NSD count has increased from 8 to 13 :T

But I've spent on considerably more than bread, milk and veg - which should have been all I needed

I've bought very little at full price : 2x4pt milk, a punnet of grapes, 2 bottles of pop (all from A!di), and 2 packs of Belgian buns from Mr M (on Multisave at the moment - still expensive to me, but I promised myself that if there were still 2 packs left when I went back for final markdown tonight I'd treat myself )

Loads of stuff bought on Whoopsie though..... mainly bread, cakes and pies/pasties.

Tonights haul has been one of my most successful though

2x6pk mini muffins - total 38p instead of £1.50
2x5pk white chocolate chip cookies - each 19p instead of 98p
pack 4 in-store cheese & onion rolls - 26p instead of £1.60
pack 4 in-store creamy peppered steak slices (pasties) - 45p instead of £2.80
pack 4 cinnamon & sultana muffins - 19p instead of 72p
2 packs 25 mini flapjack bites - each 25p instead of £1.99
1x5pk raspberry donuts - 19p instead of 68p
1xcornish cream tea - 35p instead of £1.49
2xpack 10 garlic doughballs - each 19p instead of £1.09
2xloaves (one Polish, one Lemon&Poppy Seed) - each 19p instead of 89p and 99p

and - the best bit - 5 blocks of cheese for 9p each, that should have come to a total of £9.30
352g Orkney Cheddar (was £2.99)
134g Five Counties (was 95p)
228g Farmhouse Cheshire (was £1.59)
342g Red Leicester (was £2.01)
298g Red Leicester (was £1.76)

So total spend tonight on Whoopsies (before staff discount) was £3.90 - and netted me goodies worth £28.10 :T

Looks like I'm on lots of cheese butties/cheese on toast for my lunches over the next week or two (though I'm going to try squeezing some into the freezer alongside the pasties) - and lots of treats for me and DS (and GDs when they're here before school on Friday - hush! don't tell their Mum!! )