February 2010 Grocery Challenge

jintyb

poohbear59 wrote: »

I thought I had pared our spending down to the bare bones but if anyone can help further I would be very grateful. My £10 per adult per week includes all laundry products, loo rolls etc.


Where does my money go? Mainly on cheese, milk and fresh fruit and vegetables, bread flour, butter and meat. No biscuits, cakes, juices have been bought for ages.

Any more advice would be very gratefully received. I should add we don't live near any shops so calling in for whoopsies is virtually impossible.

If I have forgotten anything that is glaringly obvious please tell me:)

Hi PoohBear - I'm very impressed with your list - you seem to be doing everything right and that is a tight budget. I wish I could get by on that!
Im not sure what to suggest, other than I agree - frozen veg does seem to be cheaper. I use it a lot for soup and also to bung into casseroles and curries. In fact the frozen packs of casserole mix form the base of most of my soups come to think of it! I find there's less waste. I also use frozen carrots for carrot and coriander soup etc. I think fresh fruit is v exp - but I try to buy whats on special that week. If youre not near shops it must be very hard. Sorry Im not much help -

babyboysmommy

sistercas wrote: »

babyboysmummy thats incredible , my bin is full every week , how do you do it ?

I'm not sure, I didn't plan it, it just happened all by itself I'm cooking everything from scratch apart from bread. When I shop I make sure I come home with as little packaging as possible so I don't put things like onions in plastic bags anymore. I take my own shopping bags. We recycle everything we can, reuse everything we can & without any real effort our waste has dropped considerably. The frugal living challenge has help as well, details in my homepage/blog which is a work in progress...

dreamingofmoney

Good Morning

Well i haven't posted yet this month and i can tell cause i went way over budget!!!! I can't even declare an amount cause i lost count about a week ago.

Saying this i am still going to reduce my budget, cause it has just highlighted for me going back to previous ways is a complete waste of money. so forMarch GC £250. Please.

More accountability next month and more posting

Good luck to all, and thanks for all the inpsiration

Dreamer x

Allegra

Payday today, so time to declare - £218.49 for February. Gone over budget, but that's purely down to Asda's cheap chicken offer - five of those for a total of £10, but a huge saving for the meat quota of the next couple of months

For March I would like to go back to my full budget of £250, please - the stock cupboard needs restocking, and DD turns 13 which will mean a few extra quid to allow for food for her birthday party.

dazzle21

Hello! Ok, so i'm over by £4.. on the plus side i still have lots of 'proper' food in the cupboards/freezer. Today my mission is to meal plan, as we have fallen into the trap of ordering a takeaway as DH had to work late and i couldn't decide what to cook...yes i know very silly but i have had enough of cooking and then him deciding as he is late in he'd rather just eat toast..(but if i plan him to eat toast he'd want me to cook!!) Need fruit/veg but i will add that into March's total as most will be frozen (agree with previous posters it's so easy for curries/stews). Declare FEB at £204, March target £250 thank you!!!!

XSpender

I haven't been posting this month and have just caught up with the thread due to not been very well and having limited internet access earlier in the month and boy has it effected my budgets! DH was 40 also and we had a few too many treats and takeaways when I couldnt be bothered to cook.

Updating my annual budget at £548.36 for the year to date. I should have spent £479.29:o Most of this overspend is on toiletries and household as I stocked up on a load of half price shower gel and also I think I have underestimated how much I need to spend in these 2 areas tbh.

I am determined to keep posting next month as it keeps me focused on my spending as I try and clawback my overspend.

I am aiming to spend no more than £210 over the next 4 weeks which will bring me within £40 of where I should be on my annual budget. I need to get back into batch cooking and meal planning this month and start filling the freezer before my baby arrives in May!

turbo5019

savvyshe wrote: »

Hi elizabunny, For the last few weeks I have cut dishwash tablets into 2 and used half for each wash and the results were brilliant and when they ran out I bought really cheap bio washing powder and have used that since and brilliant results again. I won't be buying dishwash tablets again. Give it a go!! Good luck

Went to MrA and found finish dishwasher tablets blue box for £1 form £3.60

Winged_one

I can't declare yet, but I can already declare I'll be gone over the monthly budget (should be OK for the annual target though). In my defence, a lot of the alcohol bought last week will be drank between now and at least the end of March if not longer.

In my planning, I also have a good few strecupboard things to use up in meals. Like a frozen duck for a Saturday or Sunday dinner (which was a whoopsie down to 50%, or was it 30%?). Smoked salmon on special that I'll use for a quiche or scrambled eggs. Lots of frozen prawns for various dinners. And I am making good progress on using up tins, jars and packets of things too. So hopefully that will take the pressure off during March.

But I am still buying all fruit and veg - nothing growing at this stage (winter veg all gone, leeks were so late they're not ready yet, and no new veg in yet, rhubarb delayed with the weather) and everything in freezer is now used up. And I am taking more salads to work, so that is more veg again.

The ham joint that I took out for Sunday lunch went really far. PIL's wanted to get on the road early due to snow threats, so we had it for dinner instead. Used some leftovers (half a slice) to liven up Monday's spag bol (DH cooked it straight after Sunday dinner while washing up). Tuesday night, we used a good chunk to make stilton and ham gratin (a post-Christmas recipe from BBC "Good Food" mag a few years ago), and we got 4 days sambos out of it too. It was so late when we ate last night, that I didn't want the last fajita, so we kept the wrap and chicken mix, which DH says he'll have for lunch on Sat. And I only took out 2 chicken breasts today for dinner tonight - they will stretch between the 3 of us with a jar of curry sauce, some extra mushrooms, and perhaps a few puppodums or some naan to go with the rice.

I need a few easy dinners these days though as work is bananas. So taking slight shortcuts is acceptable to me at the minute (like the jar sauce). And we are going through the cheeses I got in Lidl last week - DH used almost all the stilton in the gratin (it was to get used this week) and DD scoffed the rest straight from the packet (she ADORES any blue cheese). We grated a chunk of cheddar for the fajitas, I did enough to leave a tub of grated in the fridge as it DOES reduce consumption on Sat mornings before I get up! (DH has a habit of making cheese toasties, with LOADS of cheese, and DD often wants one too). We'll use the gorgonzola tomorrow night for gorgonzola pasta (needs some cream, parmesan which I have old stuff chopped, and a pack of bacon pieces to satisfy the meat-fiend!). The Edam ("sail cheese", for the shape) will get opened next week and DD will take it for tea and into creche for snacks, and DH will gobble lots. But it is good for them....

poohbear59

jintyb wrote: »

Hi PoohBear - I'm very impressed with your list - you seem to be doing everything right and that is a tight budget. I wish I could get by on that!
Im not sure what to suggest, other than I agree - frozen veg does seem to be cheaper. I use it a lot for soup and also to bung into casseroles and curries. In fact the frozen packs of casserole mix form the base of most of my soups come to think of it! I find there's less waste. I also use frozen carrots for carrot and coriander soup etc. I think fresh fruit is v exp - but I try to buy whats on special that week. If youre not near shops it must be very hard. Sorry Im not much help -

Thanks for the advice I will have a look at veg for stews as I hadn't considered them. I usually buy fresh carrots too for soups so I will definitely look out for frozen.

LINKYPIE2009

Hi all, Will declare now at