January 2010 Grocery Challenge

JayneC

Hi all, ventured to Aldi yesterday and spent £70.80, but got loads of store cupboard stuff. THis weather is making me want to stock up!! Got milk and bread for the freezer as I'm sick of having to get it every day (and ending up at local Spar where it's loads more expensive!)

Still within my budget, but got another 2 week to go and only around £50 left!! Have set an anuual budget though so hopefully if I go over this month I can claw it back later in the year! Am planning to grow more veggies this year so hopefully that will help the budget over the summer.

highland_fling_2

Good morning everyone,

well lentil soup ready and will be having lamb chops for dinner. What did people do before we had freezers??? Although in present climate food would probably keep o.k. in a box outside.

My GC purse is looking good at the moment, so if I see any non perishable bargains, I think I may be tempted to buy them for my store cupboard under the stair.

Wont be going to shop until Monday when I am at work. Not attempting any unnecessary journeys. Not snowing here at the moment but it is freezing hard, so snow is solid.

Please remember to try to ask any elderly or infirm neighbours if they need a wee bit of help. Just popping in with milk or bread or a flask of hm soup may make them feel less isolated and anxious. We too may be in that position one day.

poppy-glos

Today i have done an online order with approved foods, not sure whether it will be money saving or not.. will need to see if we use what i ordered - :eek:. £16.70 incl delivery, incl quite a bit of treat stuff to hide in the shed but will be ms if it comes out and goes with us when i would otherwise buy the same things at 5 times the price.. Bought the veg cous cous and the sainsbugs nut roast mix, so will be looking out on here for creative recipes with those...

Been working a bit more on my storecupboard challenge.. another tin used up today. Given i'm finding it such a bore to empty my stores hopefully it'll make me think again before refilling the cupboards :rotfl:.

Be very careful outside everyone, i've cleared the snow from the front door, now its thawing a little i think it was a mistake as i have sheet ice rather than snowy ice outside the door now..

fallen_angel_shelley

Hi. I haven’t done this challenge since about August last year, got a bit side tracked with uni and after 3 years of being single I have meet someone:j but its about time that I got back in the GC. Could you please put me down for £100 for January please, I know it sounds a lot for 3 weeks but I need to do a major restock and some batch cooking.
Shelley x

cw18

Budget is holding up this month - even with me allowing for what I'm using from my stock-pile.

In the first 10 days of the month I've had 6 NSDs (shouldn't need to go out for anything today, so assuming it remains an NSD) and

• actually spent £13.10 of my £117 budget
• used £20 of groceries from my stock pile

As I'm moving the value of my 'stock pile' useage from my GC budget into a 'stock pile fund', this means I've allocated £33.10 of my grocery budget - but I'm still approaching £5 under where I should be at this point in the month

This is fantastic, as we've been eating really well - including several 'treats' I bought for Christmas and didn't open until after New Year, and a (Whoopsied) lamb shoulder joint I bought for £4 on Christmas Eve that we're having today Can't remember the last time I cooked a lamb joint due to the cost (reckon it must over 3 years ago), so I'm really looking forward to this

ellemm

Hi all, not been online as out of the country since 23rd December (what about this weather!! we have been in Greece in lovely mild sunny weather - brrrrrrrrrr!)

Please can I go for a yearly total of £1440 Helen? as have joined the 2010 Frugal Living challenge.

Happy New Year everyone (belatedly!)

Got a lot of reading to do to catch up.

slscarborough

Amazingly I seem to be on track for this challenge at the moment. I am very impressed with myself as I havent been trying that hard. Think if I come in under budget I will lower next months budget to £280. Am in the process of potty training DS2 so hopefully shouldnt have nappies/pull ups to pay out for soon.

OH and I have decided that I will go back to work in March and he will be a SAHD so am going to have to start training him soon on grocery shopping. he did it for 18 months previously after DS2 was born so it shouldnt be that hard.

herewegoagain2010

I'm in the mood for baking, but have used the last of the castor sugar. :mad:Rather than trek out, I was going to whizz some normal sugar in the blender. Going through the cupboard I've found 2 packets of ready mix shortcrust pastry, which are just add water. I've still got loads of mincemeat in the cupboard, so it looks like it's mince pies for us. Who said Christmas was over? The children will be happy as they lurrrrrvvvveee 'em!

yummyhoney

spent €11 yesterday as ds2 and i went for coffee:rolleyes:
my shopping day is tue and i'm so scared of driving after 2 near misses on the ice this week that i'm going to go today and stock up,,will upate later!!

ceebeeby

Thanks BigMummaF - I'm a huge fan of the Sneaky Pennies thread, and have learnt some fab MS ways to cut corners.

We're already down to 'essential dish washing only' (lol!!) and have got each very full load down to costing 2p per cycle with help from the thread (we run it about 2 - 3 times per week but has to be megga full.

My bunny is a wee bit precious and can't stand newspaper / materials / straw anything. She shoves it all to one side and would literally sit out in the cold rather than use it ... mad girl! She's so old, I just pander to her.

I'm quite mean on soaps / powders etc. as well. A full load of school uniforms gets half a tablet, I can't think why I would ever use a full tablet (never mind the recommended 2 :eek::eek:). If something isn't heavily soiled but more needs a good freshen up, then I just wash it with a teensy bit of heavily diluted softener, or water. Seems to work very well.