June 2010 Grocery Challenge

poppy-glos

good news.. i have managed to splurge a bit, had a meal out plus bought what i fancied for dinner last night, and still within my one thirtieth of budget per day rule for the month!
found a couple of bargains other people may like to know about - they had tins of kidney beans in lidl for 20p each (used them last night, just dandy in our chilli), and co-op have coconut milk at 59p a tin (bargain as now £2! in tesco).

chins up all, incl long tall sally, we are all living and learning as we go along..

recovering_spendaholic

Well done to all of you who are managing to stay within budget - I just wish I was one of you:o I made 120 cakes for DD's fundraiser which cost me £30 and have taken it out of the Grocery budget, and today I went to Tescos for a "few bits" and came out £70 lighter:eek: In my defence I did buy loads of half price sirloin steak off the butchers counter (£25 worth) - It was lovely 21 day matured stuff on offer for today at £8 a kg and the butcher let me choose which sirloin to have it cut from, and they also had a HUGE smoked gammon joint reduced from £30 to £12 so that was £37 spent on stuff to last ages which is now all in the freezer. AnywayI am now £23.80 over budget! I only need to get bread milk and fruit and veg so am hoping to come in at around £400 for the month - better than the £600 I have been spending but I could still do better.

Lovelife and Highlandfling - well done on your bargains!

Mrs M - I have upped my budget to £425 so that I still keep a limit - can you change it please? If I don't do this I will just keep on spending because I know I have blown it!

WelshWoofer

Well the weekly shop has been done and I've managed to spend...
£4 Farm foods
£2 Pound shop
£5 Aldi
£31 Mr S

Total of £42.
Not too bad I suppose.
I'm just about on target fot the month with 4 weeks of the 5 shopped for with about £57 left for the last week. I've tried to stick to £45 a week for all food, toiletries, cleaning stuff and dog food and pay for it all in cash rather than sticking on a debit card and not keeping track.

freakyogre

kirsty822001 wrote: »

meant to say good luck with operation 'Freakyogre' dont worry too much about challenge main thing is a good recovery,rest and treats after an op :-)

Thanks kirsty

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I find that if I buy a pack of stir fry it is usually on offer for 2 for ... and if I buy 2 then one invariably goes off. I bought a packet of Tesco Value frozen stir fry the other week and it is fantastic - you get a full 1kg and it is really nice and crispy when cooked - I can really recommend it and there is no waste as I only use as much as I need!

I get this too. I live on my own so the fresh packs are no good for me unless I want it 3 nights in a row! This is really nice and has so many different vegetables in it, it's lovely. The price has come down from when I used to buy it too which is even better

gabyjane wrote: »

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

Aww thanks sis No doubt i'll be bored by about...Tuesday (!) so i'll probably be annoying you by text/online
I'm blaming the girls at work for the crisps as I went to Sainsburys with them and only needed milk, but they dragged me up the crisp aisle and...well, we all know that's not a good idea with me I do have one of the two bags left though; chicken and thyme. I'll be good and save them for next week :A

guccigoo

hi all, about £5 spent in m&s today, im over my budget so i thought what the hell :rotfl:on a good note ive batched cooked shephards pie and lasagne for the freezer as well as potato wedges so thats a couple of easy meals next week i think im going to up my budget in july as i think what im on now is too low. Anyway off to eat my chinese takeaway. tomorrow will be a nsd :j

tessie_bear

hi...had a few spends today...went in to town and had a look at the market...got a bowl of salad bits for £1 and a bowl of veg also £1 the salad was nice we had half for tea and will try veg tomorrow

popped in to sainsburys and theey have x5 kitkats for £1 which my ds likes to eat after his swimming lesson....might go back and geta coupleof packs

i wish my coop still did the halfprice free range chickens...i got loads but they seem to have stopped selling them....cant think why

tata tess

franby64

Hi all

Saturday seems to be turning into a bit of a splurge day after the NSDs I manage after my mid-week delivery. Spent @£20 today and was hoping for an NSD tomorrow but have been caught out again by the dreaded cookery lesson:mad::mad:

So tomorrow will be a spend day (mushrooms!! and doubtless some other junk!!) and hopefully Mon and Tues will be NSDs if I manage to plan it right.

pipersky

Haven't been posting as no internet in the new gaffe... the only way to explain my reaction would be deleted by the MSE team, but suffice it to say I was very not myself! Have also lost track of what I have spent this month totally now... Oops... I do think I am still well under budget though (I would guestimate around £130 spent) but will just keep a track on what I have spent from now on and start again properly in July, when things have settled down.

Not had chance to catch up on the thread yet (internet only just reconnected) so (((hugs))) if you need them x

Hippeechiq

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

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.

Some people find it a breeze to meal plan and batch cook, but not everyone hun :grouphug: So try not to be so hard on yourself.
I can't quite get myself properly organised to batch cook, I find things don't turn out as well when I try and batch cook as they do when I bake/cook the odd thing on it's own. I don't know if that's because I've got a lot on my plate at the moment and so don't concentrate properly - or whether I just wasn't cut out to batch cook/bake....either way, I've stopped giving myself a hard time over it. We can't all be domestic goddesses

I also struggled with the meal planning....trying not to repeat meals, or the vegetables with the meals, or have the same meat two nights in a row, or pasta or veggie meals two nights in a row - it's such a mission. I've stuck with it though, and tomorrow will finish the last meal of a 4 week plan. I sat down Thursday, and planned the next 4 weeks too.

The 1st 4 week plan took me almost a whole day :rotfl: Thursday, it took me - on and off - about 3 hours. But the sense of satisifaction when you can see 4 weeks of planned meals in front of you, none of which are repeated, is pretty bl00dy wonderful quite frankly But more importantly, it stops me impulse buying and I (almost) always just buy what I've planned for - which has meant I'm spending less money.

When I first started planning a week at a time, on separate pieces of paper I wrote Sausages/Pork, Beef, Veggie/Cheapie Meal, Chicken & Curries (we don't eat lamb) and on those pieces of paper, I wrote the names of each Sausage/Pork recipe I cook, each Beef recipe I cook, each veggie recipe I cook, and so on.

Then on a another piece of paper, I wrote Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

So, for example, if I decided we'd have say Sausages on Monday & Thursday, Chicken on Tuesday & Saturday, a Veggie/Cheapie meal on Wednesday & Sunday and some kind of curry on a Friday - then I spread out the pieces of paper with the recipe titles on, on the table and chose a recipe off the Sausages/Pork sheet for Monday & Thursday, a recipe off the Chicken sheet for Tuesday & Saturday and so on. Then all you have to do is decide what vegetables you're having, and whether you're having pasta/rice or potatoes with your meal.

Once you start to write it all down, it's easy to see that you had say, boiled potatoes, carrots and peas for last nights tea, and so you don't repeat those veg the following day, and then all of a sudden, it all starts to come together.

It is a bit daunting initially, but it's training yourself to think in a certain way. Just try and do 1 week to start with, and see how you go eh?

Sorry for the long post, and it being a bit off topic - but planning meals has made such a difference to me, I hope the above may be of use to someone else, who like me, used to struggle with it.

Ooops - forgot a spend of £5.81 today - June spend so far £223.09

yummymummy05

Just wanted to say thanks to hex2 for her cheesecake recipe - dh (who doesn't like soft cheese) just licked the bowl - am leaving it to set 'till tomorrow!

stocked up for the week today - came out of MrM's £14 lighter but with three full bags and 2.5kg spuds and 1kg onions!! might need to get some fruit for next week but my month ends on 30/06 yippee!!!!