February 2010 Grocery Challenge

ragz_2

£3 spend on Friday - butcher van at Hailsham Market. Two huge chops with so much more flavour than supermarket ones, unfortunately only made it there as it's half term so won't be a regular thing (really need to find a good butcher!).

£50 spend in Tesco today. Stopped myself buying 4 tin pack of JW Tuna tins for £2, despite being a great offer (usually cost over £5) I already have 3 tins in the cupboard and hardly ever eat the stuff so I'd be getting them just for the sake of it. I actually took them out off the trolley and gave myself a mental lecture!
Needed spread and got 2 tubs of Bertolli for £2 (DH's favourite but I never buy it full price).

Didn't buy any treats or anything that wasn't in the meal plan so should stay within budget just about, allowing for a trip to co-op for milk and cheap berad at some point alter in the week. (Still have two of my 20p loaves in the freezer though).

Was so annoyed for not knowing the "5p off a ltr of fuel when you spend £50 instore" offer is on at Tesco! I filled tank on my way in then got the voucher after my shop and realised I'd have saved about £2.50... and I'd only passed the minimum spend by 28p!

Maisie_M

Have totalled the weeks spends for this week and its £61.71. Had only one NSD which is why my total is a lot higher this week than others. My Tesco spend and my veg spend were a lot less than last week and its the 'just popping in' spends which have made the total rack up.

In saying that I am still £50.18 til the end of the month which is over my weekly budget so that's good as it means I should at least come in on budget this month.

Have a good last week all.

lizziebabe

Hi all - hope you have had a good weekend.

Have updated my signature to include 2 more spends. On Friday bought a newspaper and some magazines - :eek: spent £10.68 - aren't magazines expensive!! Well they are my treat as don't smoke or drink very much - only in company. But still ................

NSD on Saturday. Today I met up with DD for a late lunch as she was working until 3pm - Had a restaurant voucher which kept the price down -and don't need supper now.
Today bought milk and a big box of cereal(625gm) for £1.29, it was half price.

Tomorrow is her Birthday so we are going to Brizzle to meet up with DS who is at Brizzle Uni for another lunch!! My diet will have gone out of the window this week - will have to eat no point soups until I get weighed on Friday

Only a week until the end of the month and have been keeping to target well - however haven't had to buy any cat food - (cat on special diet as he is a diabetic) and had my £50 back from A*el & C*le to spend on groceries. Will probably cut back a little on the March challenge to £160 and see how I go.

Keep up the good work everyone. :wave:

Oh Moniker please can you post the recipe for your Chicken Marengo it sounds delish. Thanks.

rosieben

SunnyGirl, glad you enjoyed it; when I read it today I laughed just as much as the first time; I enjoyed Mrs Excellentexample's posts too

Winged_one

I wasn't great at the weekend. I went to Lidl as we needed wine and a few other things, and I bought a lot of cheese (we eat lots and the Lidl cheeses are good) and lots of F&V. My usual bacon pieces and parma ham. And a pizza for lunch next weekend (DH loves them). I DID spend almost €65 on alcohol (10 bottles of wine and a 10 pack of Belgian beers) but they will last a long time. And it does means I spent over €40 on the other bits and pieces (and I even came away with no offers apart from veg seeds which I need anyway).

Then I went to Mr. S on the way home from the gym - and I didn't need loads but it still added up to €90. I spent €20 on steaks (for PILs visiting) and €12 on a nice bottle of wine (that one is for a present for neighbour who fixed electricity last week). So I suppose the rest wasn't dreadful - an overall food spend of roughly €100 this week.

We don't need much else next weekend in terms of our own food. But we do have visitors coming on Sat for dinner, so I will be buying 6 fillet steaks for that and some cherry tomatoes and french beans and lettuce - I think I have everything else I need already. So I may just come in under this month.

And I won't need to buy alcohol for March, very little cheese, and there are a good few stores dinners to get through yet. (I am working on emptying freezer, but DH was in IKEA on Sat so got meatballs, and the prawns were on bogof in Mr S so I bought those as we use them a lot, and we needed more peas - which were on 50% extra free luckily as I never look in freezer cabinets unless I need something!).

Winged_one

Oops, I forgot to add mealplanner for the week:
Sat - Steaks and chips (for PILs)
Sun - roast ham (from freezer), baby carrots (fresh from garden) and last of HG cabbage from freezer
Mon - Spag bol using mince from freezer
Tues - Stilton and ham potato bake (using leftovers)
Wed - Chicken fajitas (incl HM guacamole)
Thurs - Feta chicken and roast pots
Fri - Possibly penne a la gorgonzola
Sat - chicken salad; fillet steaks on griddle, roast spuds, roasted tomatoes and french beans; apple pies (using pastry in freezer)
Sun - possibly the duck from freezer

tallullahbelle

I'm massively over this month... and still almost a week to go. Will need to have a major rethink... went to shops today and spent £77 which is good really as I was in the habit of just buying and not really aware of how much my food bills were getting out of control. Have spent £468.85 so far... thought I'd get by on £300... shows how out of touch I am. Hopefully will keep on track in March, but it is DS1's birthday so will have to make allowances for that...

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Hi guys!
Haven't calculated to the exact penny but I think i'm at about £85-ish. Got lots of whoopsies last week so my frezzer is nice and full again. Am off on Wed/Thurs so will declare my final total then.
As for meal planner... OH and I are only together on Tuesday and he says he's taking me out for "date night" Other night we're either at family or i'm working late so OH will probably choose to make a sandwich or something different to what I plan!!!

poppy-glos

went to mr t for yogurts, bread and potatoes, sandwich meat, bought other things on offer (2 for one cheese, 3 pop for £3, half price mango and pears), replaced the biscuits and curry sauce used last week. £18 spent. £3 left on the budget, will do it this month if i stick to mealplan!

huxley

snow again here so I wont be spending any money:D It will be chicken soup and bread for dinner, soup made from yesterdays roast left overs, bread is rising at the mo and Im going to attempt a fruit loaf so that there is something sweet/comfort to eat. I am getting quite a few chicken carcass's later they were given to a friend who works a farmers market, the farmer joints the chickens and then sells the carcass's for stock making but there were no takers and they didnt want to take them home so they are coming my way:D for free. Going to try and make meat free meatballs later using a sad looking aubergine hopefully they will bulk out tomorrow dinner.