June 2010 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Just popped to the butchers this afternoon and came out £8 lighter with 2x pork steak things in a sauce/dressing, a big carton of beef goulash (which OH has already scoffed for tea) and a nice thick gammon steak.

I'm a vegetarian - the things we do for our other half!

Its the "big" shop tomorrow but will try really hard to keep it to £40 ish. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Courgette

Groan, this is my first month sticking to a grocery budget (and I did make a massive reduction from an average of £340pm to £200 for June) but I've gone over already - have spent £208.70. Not too far over I know but there's still quite a lot of month left.

Ah well, I'll still have saved absolutely loads. If I secretly change the target to £240 that's still achievable and still means a £100 saving on last month which is still pretty good. I've learnt loads too so can't really grumble.

Will be over here lots tomorrow carefully meal planning for the rest of the month so we can spend as little as possible.

Sorry, I've not been posting much but I do lurk :cool:

sistercas

greent wrote: »

Chop and fry appropriate amount of chicken - I now use one large breast - we used to use two (I've tried making it with leftover roast chicken and neither of us liked it) in olive oil. Add crushed garlic cloves (we use about 3) or a good squeeze of garlic puree.
Add chopped peppers and onions (quite a lot!) and a finely chopped fresh chilli (or two - depending on required heat) (Or you could use dried chilli flakes)
Important bit - add a good splosh of cheap white wine (we buy Sains basics at £2.25ish a bottle just for fajitas, as neither of us drink white wine) It's in a screw top bottle and lasts us weeks!
Stir fry until mixture is slightly blackened - wine will help with this

c.

is it really that price? i only use wine for cooking so at that price its worth getting


Moniker (((hugs))) hope dd is improving

not doing so well have over spent already :eek: I have noticed how much things have gone up though, I normally buy 2l bottles of sparkling water instead of lemonade at 10p a bottle and this week its 18p :eek:
also basic handwash was 30 something pence and now its 67p :eek:
its just disgusting, I just cant keep to my budget anymore

gabyjane

Cough cough.. crisps??!!..only joking! I'm sure all will be ok and you know you have me & Dad to help you out with anything should you need it..neither of us are very far away so just shout. x

freakyogre wrote: »

I don't think there's any chance of me doing this this month as have very little left! Bit silly really as I have stocked up on more stuff, but left my total the same. Oh well, i'll try harder next month.

I got some toothpaste yesterday - £1.00
Today I spent £3.24 - milk, crisps (grr!) and some reduced strawberries

I'm hoping I have everything I need for when i'm off work. I got some 'emergency' UHT milk the other day (yuck, but better than nothing!) I'd prefer not to pester people for things, but will if I need to. Operation is on Monday and i'm getting a bit nervous now :eek:

highland_fling_2

Good afternoon everyone,

just back from a visit to town and I am delighted. Went into M&S and snapped up lots of bargains.:j

Original Price I paid
White vest top £8 £1
Silk pants £8 £1
Cotton pants £4 £1
2pk bras £15 £3
nightshirt £12 £1
pyjamas £14 £3

Know it is not really GC but just wanted to share my good fortune.

Might be worth some of you popping in down your neck of the woods.

lovelife_3

highland_fling wrote: »

Good afternoon everyone,

just back from a visit to town and I am delighted. Went into M&S and snapped up lots of bargains.:j

Original Price I paid
White vest top £8 £1
Silk pants £8 £1
Cotton pants £4 £1
2pk bras £15 £3
nightshirt £12 £1
pyjamas £14 £3

Know it is not really GC but just wanted to share my good fortune.

Might be worth some of you popping in down your neck of the woods.

Ooh brilliant, well done you, it is soo exciting when you find a bargain isn't it. A couple of evenings i was in Asda when they were doing the final reductions, i got 4 bags of shopping for £4.63, everything was reduced to 10 or 20p!!!:j:j
I was beside myself! when we got back in i put it all on the kitchen table and took a photie! My DD and her BF think i am absolutely nuts!! We got bread loads of speciality ones like cheese bloomers and caraway and rye, cakes, doughnuts coconut tarts, cooked meats, an extra special chicken pie, 3 packs of mini beefburgers, two large salad packs, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, mozarella cheese, tomatoes, sweet potato and butternut squash. the sell buy dates were for the next day so as well as feasting on the Thursday night, i invited my cousin and her family and my mum round for a prematch buffet yesterday, 10 of us all well fed and still things in the freezer! happy days, i will try and post the photo...

highland_fling_2

well done lovelife an amazing haul and you were kind enough to spread your good fortune around by offering hospitality to your family and friends.
I plan to give the nightshirt to a friend in hospital who is fighting her illness with quiet dignity. Might give her a little lift. The pyjamas will go to a neice as part of her birthday present. There were other bargains to be had so texted my friends to alert them just in case any might have been suitable for them.
Just love to find genuine bargains.:)

boultdj

Can someone please shout at me the phrase 'Do Not Take OH Shopping' he's cost me more than I wanted to spend, does anyone want a bald,toothless man who make's a very good cup of tea?????? my total spend so far is $202.69 and I'v still got to get to the end of June:eek:

Long_tall_sally

Haven't been posting much recently. Was feeling rather fed up that I was never achieving target & thought that maybe if I didn't think about the grocery challenge so much, it might actually help by stopping me popping into the local co op so much when I either didn't need to or did, but also ending up buying things from the reduced cabinet at the same time just cos they were reduced.

Anyway, although I have been having more NS Days (just had another 3) I have still failed spectacularly and still have till Friday to go. A part of me thinks maybe my budget needs upping but then on the other hand I know that a) we cant actually afford to be spending this much on food and b) I did have a fair amount of food in the freezer but ended up buying more stuff on Wednesday partly because the joints of meat were half price and partly cos I needed to spend a bit more to be able to use up a £7 off £50 Mr T voucher & a triple points voucher when spending over £40 at Mr S. These supermarkets really know how to suck me in. Then I buy all this meat for the freezer and for the last 3 nights have just had salad for dinner!

Also just remembered another £5.40 that I spent at the Good Food Show Wednesday so will add that on now.

I think I definitely need to try & meal plan even though I find it really difficult to do and also to do more home baking even though I already feel that there is not enough hours in the day and tbh would rather sit at the computer for any free time rather than bake or cook.

hex2

I am up to £384.70 of my £450. I just need milk, fruit and veg - famous last words I know but it is critical that I don't go over and that I start to cut the spend substantially going forward.

I have just done a freezer audit and have 12 frozen chickens again. The co-op keep RTC half price on the free range ones - at £3 a go it would be rude not to.

I know what you mean about discount codes. I hate MrT, but had a £13 off a 90 last month which I used, they made a mess of the delivery and sent me a £10 off, which I could use with a £9 off a 90 but I would be buying stuff for the sake of it and I know they will make a mess of it yet again. I never get them for Mr S whom I much prefer.