January 2010 Grocery Challenge

jtb2412

Well, it's the 1st of the month and I've been shopping already :rolleyes:

I spent £69.77 which is under budget for this week so I'm very pleased with myself. I stuck to my list (mealplanned for the week ahead and made a list before I went) :j.

I am on WW diet though so my food bill will be a little higher than usual for a few months (lean meat always costs so much more than the other stuff :rolleyes:). However, once the allotment is up and running again we'll have more fruit and veg than we know what to do with so during the summer months, the food bill reduces drastically. :j

Right off to update signature, have a good week everyone :beer:

Money_saving_Diva_2

Happy New Year all!

We had our Tescos order yesterday and spent £57. I cannot even work out where the money went (My OH went through the order and added things after I had finished it *sighs*)

Anyway, he has stocked up on bread flour and yeast which is sensible and we now have a toilet roll mountain, but I don't think he has really grasped what we are doing this month.. I have told him we will have money every week for things we run out of but at this rate we could live off this shop for about the next week.. :rotfl:

Anyway, total of £58.90 spend so far this financial month and we are only 4 days in.. :rotfl:

Hope everyone had a good New Years Eve and that 2010 brings abundance and contentment for all.

Diva.x

SarahNeedle1872

helen_jelly wrote: »

Just been to MrS for a bag of sugar - it cost me £21.39 as there were some bits reduced and I got a bit carried away with what I thought I needed [oh the shame of it]

Will go and update figures now and siggy

Helen x

I've just done the same.... spurred on by the fact that I have one half empty drawer in the freezer, I went in for a few bits and came away with four packs of chicken, two packs of casserole mince, two packs of ham, some iced buns (yummy!) and a RM cottage pie (oh the shame ) all reduced to half price or less! So my 'cheap' weekly shop turned into £50.58! I will learn one day.... maybe!

Sx

Angelfeathers

Bother! I didn't realise Sainsbury's was open today! I was intending to go shopping today for my son's birthday party tomorrow, but Tesco (my usual) is closed and so is Asda. I didn't bother checking Sainsbury because it's right on the other side of town and I don't usually go there. But it would definitely have been useful to go there today instead of having to spend time going to Tesco tomorrow morning and <i>then</i> have all the preparations to do!

Ah well. At least I got some stuff from the M&S £10 party food offer so I haven't really got a lot of party food to get. It's mainly the fondant icing and food colouring for the cake, some fresh fruit and salad and some paper plates.

Oh, and loo rolls. :-)

angelatgraceland

Another NSd today. Ive emptied and cleaned my fridge so used all the salady stuff to make a salad. DD (15) has made her very first quiche-first time she has made pastry and it has turned out absolutely perfect(with me looking on and advising).
Also going to do homemade wedges to go with it plus the salad. Also made bread and butter pudding as she really likes it. So we have had a bit of a cooking day.
Ive made some individual trifles-tho trifles without topping as I want to cut down on the fat a bit. Used some continental fruit cocktail, one value jelly, some dry chocolate cake. Cost not inc cake 68p for 7 servings. DD ate up the remaining fruit cocktail. I realise I have a fair amount of out of date/nearly OOD food to use up. All dried stuff which will be perfectly safe-just I do stock up rather too much!
Budgetwise it doesnt matter yet if I go over as DH still hasnt taken the leap into early retirement and Im working twice the hours I was last year. However-if I keep costs down now we will have more for the future and we will be in good habits. Im going to revert to my "waste list" again-to alert people not to waste. We had a lump os pastry over today from the quiche. DD said bin it-I said no-it turned into a cheese and onion pasty which we shared! It is so important that we teach our young ones not to waste. It may even save them getting in debt in the future!
DD is starting college cookery course in September so I want her to learn a few basics first! Pastry was a new one today.
I may now start on an inventory of my cupboards and work out a few dishes to use up some of the stuff!
I cant inventory the freezer-there really is too much in there and its quite a large chest freezer. Ive made a few New Years resolutions and one of themI must start today-tidying up my paperwork!
Good luck all you newcomers-there really are some great people on here with some good ideas.
Mollymoggs I feed my moggy quite a bit of chicken when we have one and sometimes tuna. The cat food you buy is mainly water, expensive water and cereal and nowhere near so filling. Chicken is generally very tolerable on a sensitive stomach. Iceland sell some packs of plain ready cooked chicken in their freezers. Frozen tuna can also be cooked for the cat as can coley, whitefish etc. Tinned food is indeed convenient but I do feel you get little true food content for the money and often I find fresh is cheaper or the same cost.

angelatgraceland

signs_of_recovery wrote: »

Oh, and I can cook, and have been very poor in the past, which is a huge asset. :rotfl:

Now that really is a good way of looking at life! Positive about having once been poor-exactly where I come from in life! It teaches us how to manage. We did, and we can do it again-even if the reasons are slightly different!
Cooking is such a valuable skill which some take for granted. One of the most essential skills-goes hand in hand with good money management of course. So much is available to use to makes life easy that a lot of us have taken the easy, expensive route and have become slack with our finances. I tidied up my finances at the bank the other day and the guy on the phone said he wouldnt even try to sell me a new product/rearrange things for me as I obviously had it all sussed out and knew what I was doing. Now-that is Good to hear!

Kitchenbunny

Finally used my Nectar vouchers today and spent £42.97 at Sainsbugs, making a grand total of £12.97 to pay. Also spent 5.73 at Tescadiddles on things we couldn't get elsewhere, so a grand total of £17.80 for my first spend of the year. I'll amend my sig now.

Kitchenbunny xx

slowandsteady_2

Happy New Year all.

Im sorry to post but i have worked out that if i dont post on here, that i become complacent and will spend money on food i really really dont need.

I am (sort of) ashamed to say that today not one of us has bothered to get dressed and we have just watched tv and played with dd on the floor with her xmas and birthday toys! So NSD. However, nowhere near me is open so that helps. I need credit for my phone before monday though.

Today me and dh have just had brunch, had some eggs, evening meal i havent decided yet as i have leftover duck and potato gratin thing from yesterday, and i also have some beautiful king prawns i might turn into something nice.

Otherwise a quiet day, dd going to grandmas overnight tommorow and it will take all my willpower not to flop on the sofa and order a chinese takeaway tommorow, but i need phone credit more! So back on here i will be if thats ok. In fact i will go and look in the freezer for something quick and easy tomorrow evening.

Happy New Year all!

dreamingofmoney

Hiya Everyone
Could i please, please re join and have a budget of £300.00 I am absolutly desperate to save money this year, i have booked a hol and need £3000 for balance and spendo's etc etc. And the only way i can do this is with the help of you good people.

Wish me luck, am noew going to read all previous posts for some inspiration.

Dreamer

SarahNeedle1872

Angelfeathers wrote: »

Bother! I didn't realise Sainsbury's was open today! I was intending to go shopping today for my son's birthday party tomorrow, but Tesco (my usual) is closed and so is Asda. I didn't bother checking Sainsbury because it's right on the other side of town and I don't usually go there. But it would definitely have been useful to go there today instead of having to spend time going to Tesco tomorrow morning and <i>then</i> have all the preparations to do!

Ah well. At least I got some stuff from the M&S £10 party food offer so I haven't really got a lot of party food to get. It's mainly the fondant icing and food colouring for the cake, some fresh fruit and salad and some paper plates.

Oh, and loo rolls. :-)

Not all of them are open, but if it is open today, it should be doing 10-6, so still time if its not too far

Sx