February 2010 Grocery Challenge

HowlinWolf

Okay mammoth shopping day today.
L*dl £28.64 (also bought a cold frame and two new cushions as ds wee'd all over mine but they are not coming from the grocery budget)
A*di £22.68
Mr S £128.78

So I have spent £180.10 of my budget. EEEEEK that is going to make the rest of the month very challenging. Mind you I have stocked up on dishwasher tablets and laundry liquid whilst they are on offer. I should have enough now until about mid May. Also have enough loo roll until the end of March at least and enough night nappies and baby wipes to keep ds going until the end of the first week in April.

I've restocked the cupboards following a lot of eating out of them in Jan and Feb and the fridge is so full you can barely see the fridge light, so I am not worried - yet!

HowlinWolf

Perriwinkle wrote: »

Can I join please?

I managed by my self last month by following this thread, but as we have lost a full time wage due to illness for at least six months while OH has treatment, I think I might some help and moral support that I know you offer on this board.

I would like to manage on £200 but think it might be a bit unrealistic so would be happy if it comes in at £225, to feed four adults. We have had to make some fairly drastic cuts to our food budget, although I make everything from scratch it has been quite hard. But you guys have given me so much advice and help that I'm sure I will manage.

Perriwinkle

Perriwinkle, welcome, you might find Weezl's feed two adults and two teenagers healthily for 100 a month thread interesting. It's on the how much have you saved section of the forum

monks

£82.38 spent out of my march budget :eek:.
Had nsd 26th:D , 27th spent £10.18 for few treats for cinema and birthday tea so pleased with that ,nsd today - rest £72.20 for this months school dinners !!! :mad: know i could and was making them for much less a few months ago but they are really enjoying them at moment and trying some foods they wouldnt touch at home so hopefully will benefit in long run ! (probably something to do with deserts they dont often have though!)
Off to work in a few mins with packed lunch and no money ,working two nights now so aim for 2 more nsds .

Coxy11

Well picked up a soggy and tired DH and DS1 from scout camp this afternoon and my 'gifts' of food are:

21 navel oranges
6 apples
12 bananas
20 green peppers
8 red peppers
3 jars of curry sauce
500g long grain rice
500g block of mature cheddar (unopened) plus another half block cling filmed

I've sliced the peppers and frozen them, but am stumped what to do with all the oranges. I don't have a juicer machine - only a hand juicer. Any ideas gratefully received. Apples and bananas will go for snacks or possibly use the bananas in a cake later this week.

Coxy
xx

HowlinWolf

Coxy - what about marmalade?

ChocClare

And she nips in on the last day having been conspicuous by her absence for the last couple of weeks - February has just whizzed by, probably because it's my birthday next week and I'm in serious denial...

So anyway, JUST made it under the wire and can declare at £293.97 :T

Have to admit that there was some serious overlooking of things to get it to that (decided not to include hair colour as I had to buy TWO this month because of drastic colour change - which ended up looking NOT AT ALL different from how it looked before) BUT at the same time I am proud of the fact that I have included today's shopping - which is effectively part of March.

In other good news, having had to spend out thousands in the last week of January - and I mean literally, thousands of pounds :eek: - I am pleased to report that the tax man has now refunded us two of those thousands. Well, he's said we don't have to pay it to July, if truth be told, but it does help the old cash flow, which is what we were aiming for.

AND I have discovered lots of new recipes this month - not least because Waitrose is giving away their Winter cookbook free with any purchase (OK, so it was only 50p to start with) and there are some really yummy recipes in there, most of which seem to involve stuff which I've got lurking in my freezer anyway, so that's a bonus.

PLUS despite the fact that I have lost two - count 'em - TWO hens this WEEK , the others have all started laying regularly again which is another "free" source of food. And I've got little tomato plants waving at me from the conservatory windowsill, so we're on a roll...

Hope you've all made it chaps! Onwards and upwards for March!

ETA - ooh, and I was off over half term and spent NOTHING. Woohoo!

NJW69

Just spent £42.85 for an online shop from ASDA for delivery on Tuesday. So thats £42.85/£250 out of Marchs budget.

NJW69

banwa wrote: »

NJW69 wrote: »

Sorry to be awkward, but I can't find the recipe for the Chinese style pork anywhere and it sounds yummy. Could someone please post a link?

It's here.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=29534967&highlight=#post29534967

Perriwinkle

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Perriwinkle, welcome, you might find Weezl's feed two adults and two teenagers healthily for 100 a month thread interesting. It's on the how much have you saved section of the forum

Thankyou, hadn't seen this thread, will check it out now. Everything helps.

Perriwinkle.

ragz_2

£1.14 spend on bread (yes, I went in to Tesco express and only bought the bread, despite tempting whoopsies that weren't really a great bargain as I didn't need them but before this challenge I'd have bough thtem for the sake of it) so very pleased with that.
Didn't make it to do the big shop so will have to do that tomorrow as need potatoes for dinner...