March 2010 Grocery Challenge

angela30

hello everyone,
my budget is £140. for 2 adults 3 kids and 3 cats.
I will not need and toiltries or cleaning stuff thsis month should'nt really need any for the next few months lol, and have 24 large cans and 2 large bags of cat food
have sorted out my day to day diary this month for menus and no spend days. so im hoping to come in under budget this month.
best of luck to everyone this month..:j

ChocClare

Two days into March and not a penny spent - oops, not true, just remembered I bought myself a bun earlier as I had to go straight from Rainbows to KS4 parents' evening. Nearly no spending! :mad:

Storecupboard meal tonight which was YUMMOLA - out of Waitrose's 50p winter cook book (free with any purchase last week). I made it because I had every single ingredient in the house already - I imagine it would be more pricey if you didn't, although you could do your own roast veg for cheaper. Anyway, even my super-fussy son said how fantastic it was:

Packet of chicken thigh fillets (Whoopsie, in freezer)
Packet of frozen roasted veg (languishing in freezer for ages)
Jar of Waitrose Essentials tomato and basil sauce (99p from Waitrose, my daughter's favourite standby, already in cupboard, but you could use any brand, or make your own)
Pasta - for four people, use the amount of pasta you'd usually use for three
Mozzarella - I had Tesco's value Mozzarella in fridge - one of my staples at 47p)

Chop chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with oil and mixed herbs; bung in oven for 10 mins while you put pasta on to boil; when this is cooked, drain and mix in frozen veg and jar of tomato sauce. Take chicken out of the oven and mix everything up together and put back in dish chicken was in. Top with sliced or shredded mozzarella. Put back into oven for about 25 mins until piping hot and the cheese melted and golden.

My DD is a veggie, so I put some of the pasta/sauce/veg mix in a separate dish for her before adding the mozzarella. Both versions were delish.

Keiss_21

kittynortheast wrote: »

Thanks very much to Pink Winged and Mrs M for organising this thread, it's only the 2nd of March and I've already lost it as well I think!! I'll give it another month but think it may have to be a £375 rather than a £350. I could cut down more but we don't go out for meals, have takeaways once in a bluemoon and buy up bargains galore, if its not on offer I don't buy it (sometimes buy nice meat from the farm shop), so I feel a bit mean cutting down completely when we aren't actually in debt any more but... still don't have spare cash-Where does it go? What do I buy?!!!

Did a batch of spag bol today for freezer and have started putting my HM bread ready thinly sliced (aldi electric knifey) in the freezer so it is always fresh, had chicken on sun and mon, sandwiches too!! Made some turkey carcass stock soup at the weekend, it was lovely (was rather extravegant at christmas and had an organic turkey-every last bone and piece of gristle was utilised!!). I meal plan, throw nothing away, take up every free meal offer, so I do try! What more can I do??? Suggestions gratefully received!

Sounds like you are doing pretty well kittynortheast, how many are you feeding?

I am aiming for £350 too...and there are only 3 of us (DH, DS2 and myself)...and the dog...oh, and the wild birds that I feed daily! DS2 has just turned 17 and is a VERY KEEN rugby player...needing nearly 5000 kcals a day :eek: :eek: (waiting to hear if he has got into the Scotland under-17s). He is also diabetic (Type 1) so I do lots of home-baking, cutting out/down the sugar, and now some of the fat as well. Also, DS1 comes home from Uni. mid-March and will be with us for a month...despite being much less bulky than DS2, he is a non-stop grazer...so food just disappears!!!

I too have been trying desperately to get the costs down, and you can see from my siggy, I am gradually getting there, yet still not reached my target. I have been off work for the past 14 months and we have just about run out of reserve savings...so I have been trying hard to cut our expenses. Admittedly, they are much less than this time last year, so I am going in the right direction!!

Being unable to drive (or even think) for a large part of last year meant I had to rely on DH doing the shopping. Nowadays, I try to do at least one big on-line Mr T shop a month (and yesterday's was BIG!), then getting the rest that I know I can get cheaper from places like Lidl or Aldi, and my local green-grocer. I am gradually getting a routine sorted, and really want to come in on or under target this month. I include all food, house-hold stuff (eg shampoo, batteries, dog and bird food...even compost and seeds (F&V and herbs)...but don't include meals out (hardly have them), clothes, presents or car expenses. I do however keep a note of what, where and when I spend, - on everything....and the spending IS getting less, just not as low as I would like!

Oh well, we can but keep trying! I am hoping to get back to work soon, but I will still try to keep a tight rein on our spending, at least being at work will give me less time to spend!! Also, my work isn't near any shops so I will not be tempted (will also leave my purse at home to make sure!).

So just keep on trying kittynortheast...you may over time you will find a few things that help you reduce your spending just a little bit more.

Here are two steps which I made early on to save money...and they save quite a bit:

• Buy full cream (blue) milk and water it down by half... I didn't tell anyone for weeks and no-one noticed! Now DS2 does it himself, and finds "real" semi-skimmed (green) milk quite creamy! This means I get twice as much milk for the same money! :j Do it slowly at first if you are worried watering down by a quarter at first perhaps; and don't do it for under-fives - they need the full-fat milk.
  
• Change your clothes-washing materials: I use approx 1 tablespoon of washing powder, with approx 2 tablespoons of washing soda crystals for the wash and use approx 1 teaspoon of vinegar instead of fabric softener. I actually use spiced white vinegar as I can get 5 litres for £2. The clothes don't smell once dry, honest! It also means, in this area of quite hard water, the washing machine doesn't fur-up and keeps sparkling clean!!

I would dearly love to pick up more whoopsies, a good way of cutting costs, but I am never near the shops when they happen...or there's nothing worth having if I do find some. I also find if I go whoopsie-hunting, I tend to end up buying lots of other stuff I didn't need to, so no saving at all!! So at the moment I am better to stay away completely. However, I do stock up when there are good deals on things we would get anyway eg Tesco's version of Shreddies...we have 6 upstairs atm - no room in the kitchen for them!!

Good luck kittynortheast. There are lots of other people here who will give you more advice...probably much better than mine...some things work better for some folks than others.

Right, definitely going to bed now.....night, night

scotdebs

Hi all well after 2 NSD I will have to venture into a supermarket today I need:
- normal milk est £0.86
- aptamil (for baby) £8.49
-meat for sandwiches for DH lunch £1.45
- bottle of wine for book club on Thurs night £4.51
The key question is will i control myself any buy nothing else........................ - repeats to self......... I will not take more than £15 into Mr A

wish me willpower

SunnyGirl

Just back from Netto and it came to £54.80 so very pleased. I have approx £20 to spend in the butchers later and will not need anything else this week :T

Scotdebs Willpower vibes coming your way Don't look at anything else while your in there. Remember it's only a bargain if you really NEED it before you shop again next week/month :rotfl:

Coxy11

Morning (I would say 'Good' but had bad news yesterday re: DS1 senior school - didn't get any of my 4 'choices' - I wonder which 'percentage' I fall into then.....:mad:)

NSD yesterday but popping to the library later and need to find some suitables items for the children to dress up in tomorrow (world book day). Charity shops here I come!

Have a good day all.
Coxy
xx

ragz_2

Spent £13.50 at co-op on Monday, added to sig. Also ordered a veg box and some pork for tomorrow from A&C but may see if I can cancel as I don't really need them...

ragz_2

ragz wrote: »

Spent £13.50 at co-op on Monday, added to sig. Also ordered a veg box and some pork for tomorrow from A&C but may see if I can cancel as I don't really need them...

No, I can't - so another £22.93 there :eek:
Oh well, that'll teach me to get carried away!

franby64

Morning all

I behaved myself in the C*op yesterday but went to town in Tesco on reduced bread which fortunately I managed to shoehorn into the freezer so that was OK.

Only needed a couple of things today - DS is off school with fluey symptoms so got him some orange juice - also bought rolls, choccy biscuits and mushrooms.

Need to do a bit of batch cooking to use some stuff up - unfortunately I've just filled the freezer with bread!

scotdebs

Hi all looking for a couple of receipes from the more experienced GC folks to stop me heading into MR M&S Foodhall
- potato rostis
- macaroni cheese (i dont like cheese which is why i have never bothered to try and make this but DS2 likes it)
would be great if I was able to freeze them as well