March 2010 Grocery Challenge

poppy-glos

S_Wales_Saver wrote: »

Evening everyone

GC been completely overtaken for me by the death this afternoon of my boss and very close friend. 10 years younger than me and leaving two young children. I've been knocked sideways, and gotta go to work tomorrow and put on a face for the public :(:(:(

Will report spends tomorrow when I can think straight.

Purpleclutterbuck wrote: »

This is a really silly question but can anyone give me the approx price of half a dozen organic eggs? because I've got chickens I've totally no idea of the price of eggs and I would like to know - many thanks (hope someone answers -fingers crossed)
Hugs to all those that need them x

i've seen everything from 60p a half dozen to £1.30 a half dozen locally for 'garden' chicken eggs, i happily pay up to a £1.

poppy x

elizabunny

S_Wales_Saver wrote: »

Evening everyone

GC been completely overtaken for me by the death this afternoon of my boss and very close friend. 10 years younger than me and leaving two young children. I've been knocked sideways, and gotta go to work tomorrow and put on a face for the public :(:(:(

Will report spends tomorrow when I can think straight.

S_Wales_Saver Thinking of you and sorry for your loss.


Another NSD for me today. 2 in a row. A quickie egg & chips for supper tonight as we were at DHs Uncle's funeral today. Hoping to have another NSD tomorrow too.

PS poppy-glos I pay £1 for 6 free range eggs (organic I think) from a friend.

ragz_2

£5 spent on squash and cider.

in a bid to be more healthy I changed our planned roast chicken dinner slightly... (have been getting a bit bored of having this every week but have a lot of chickens in freezer!) so instead of cheesy leeks and butter laden swede mash to accompany the roast veg I just did...

a pan full of roasted mixed veg done with spray oil and rosemary (potato, sweet potato, onion, swede, courgette and carrot). Was easier, quicker and cheaper and an awful lot less fat!

The HM gravy may not have been so heathy though... But I did want to share my tip
Roast the chicken 1cm of water (replace as and when it burns off), keeps the chicken moist, no oil is used but it won't stick to the pan and you can just pour off the juices and water to a pan and make gravy (or do it pan on hob), I add flour, more water and a little gravy granules or powder. I never get much fat in mine but you could leave it to seperate first.

GC not going well as still have a week to go... next moth I may change budget but not include booze or baby stuff like nappies so I know how much food itself is costing because that I can change...

ragz_2

kittynortheast wrote: »

frankly there is nothing in the cupboards or freezers-oh apart from a couple of chickens, I have sinned! I usually buy free range chickies which cost about £7 -£8 we do stretch them out.... was in the co-op the other day and they had their veggie fed barn chickens on offer and they were £2.60 each-quite big as well, so after a lot of deliberation, soul searching and guilty feelings I bought them saving a fortune in the process . It's a 5 week month next month so will have to be thrifty.

Ditto, I thought long and hard then bought 4 of them, for a few quid more than I ususally pay for one... still feel a little guilty though

skilly

morning all,i went to a organic chicken farm on sunday it was so nice to see chickens running around big fields with so much space .i paid £3.00 for one tray of eggs.

Spiggle

Purpleclutterbuck wrote: »

This is a really silly question but can anyone give me the approx price of half a dozen organic eggs? because I've got chickens I've totally no idea of the price of eggs and I would like to know - many thanks (hope someone answers -fingers crossed)
Hugs to all those that need them x

We bought a dozen box of large FR organic eggs from Somerfield/Coop this month which cost £2.89 :eek: Hope that helps.

Oh, and when my daughter had chickens she was selling them with no complaints for £1 for a half dozen.

Spiggle

Well, I just updated my spreadsheet and signature and find that I hit my NSD target :j and will probably exceed it easily so will set ourselves a tougher challenge on it next month. Dead chuffed though!

I still have until the 31st before our month ends but will hopefully fall well within budget (famous last words - hope I didn't just commentators curse myself). I have a list of the few supermarket things we need which I'll get today or tomorrow and we'll get some meat from the butchers on Saturday along with some fruit & veg from the greengrocers. We have £100.43 left in the budget so should come in under.

We'll then think about lowering the budget for next month but it's Easter (eggs for 2 GDs and DD), OH birthday for which we've invited friends for party and we'll be off work for a week so will need to carefully think about how much we want to reduce by for April. Because I get paid last working day of the month April won't be any longer for me than March has been (actually 3 days shorter if I just read my calendar correctly). As OH gets paid same day middle of each month it helps as his goes towards all the direct debits, mortgage, etc.

I actually opened an ISA for him this month for the very first time and we managed to ferret away £500 :j though its only short term as I want to pay off the balances of 0% balance transfer credit cards as and when the promo periods expire later in the year. We don't use them for spending at all.

I'm sure there will be those of you who will think this is blatantly obvious but it wasn't to us until this week: We have for many years bought the own brand packs of paracetamol which are relatively cheap ranging from 16p-40p depending on the shop. But OH buys Re**ie for indigestion which cost a fortune and Nur**en at circa £2+ for 16 to deal with his dodgy knees. Being the MS dragon I have recently been incarnated to, I suggested that he shop around the stores, Boots, Superdrug and Coop for own brands comparing prices. He bought 4 x the quantity of indigestion tabs for only pennies over the price of branded 24s and own label Ibuprofen x 16 for just 36p. Now thats what I call a real saving, and so did he. :money: I just thought I'd share for the other newbie MS challengers.

Well, hope you all have a great day. Keep up the good work and good luck to those who still have a week (or any) of March to go.
Spigs

jintyb

Hi everyone, just popped on to update my sig. Just been to do a bit of f & v shopping. I bought it from A*di and L*dl and out of interest Ive gone on to A*da website and compared exactly like for like. I spent £12.12 and if I'd bought in Asda it would have been £17.09.:eek: I feel like a bit of an anorak but I couldnt believe the difference! Nearly £5 - If you add that over a year its a lot of dosh!:mad:
I never used to bother comparing before doing these challenges so I shudder to think how much money I've wasted over the years. No use looking back tho, onwards and upwards!:j

Spiggle

jintyb wrote: »

Hi everyone, just popped on to update my sig. Just been to do a bit of f & v shopping. I bought it from A*di and L*dl and out of interest Ive gone on to A*da website and compared exactly like for like. I spent £12.12 and if I'd bought in Asda it would have been £17.09.:eek: I feel like a bit of an anorak but I couldnt believe the difference! Nearly £5 - If you add that over a year its a lot of dosh!:mad:
I never used to bother comparing before doing these challenges so I shudder to think how much money I've wasted over the years. No use looking back tho, onwards and upwards!:j

I couldn't agree more jintyb! :T

earthmother

Despite my earlier hopes and attempts, I have to report that a month of various illnesses, and the hit that makes on meal plans, has pushed me over-budget at the final hurdle.

Spend so far, with just 4 days to go, is £283.28 - mostly down to Lucozade and Evian (only water DH will drink 'neat') consumption. I'll need about 4 x 4pts of milk to finish the month, and 2 loaves, so there is still a spend to account for.

On the plus side - my big 'meal' shop I did at the start of the month - the one I struggled to get into the freezer - is almost untouched (filled 5 freezer draws, have emptied less than one ), so next month should be a nice low spend one