July 2010 Grocery Challenge

Cheapskate

Hi all
Not off to a good start this month - spent £90 already, out of £400 for the month!! DS2 goes on hol tomorrow, so the rest of us will have to have all sorts of odd meals to stop me spending & make me use up stuff & balance the books
Actually, a big chunk of that cash went on his holiday stuff, so maybe it doesn't count for GC? Any help here?
Hoping for a NSD tomorrow, apart from paper, fingers crossed!
A x

kirstygem

Am quite pleased cos managed couple of NSDs whereas I am used to normally having to go for big shop as soon as DH gets paid on last day of the month. Spent £90.81 today between Tesco and Asda but that will cover nappies and wipes for next 3 weeks and meat for next 2 weeks. Have had a wild Sat night batch cooking shepherds pie, lasagne and meatballs for the freezer!!! Should not need to visit a supermarket til next weekend if stick rigidly to our mealplan, lets see if I can resist a wander round Tescos!!

£90.81/£250

Hippeechiq

hex2 wrote: »

I am certainly not re-stocking for SS1 who has eaten 5 packs of crisps a day for the last week and a months worth of cereal bars :eek:.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but I have a certain person in my household that used to wolf down everything as quickly as they could, regardless of whether or not anyone else had had some. :mad: and no amount of try to reason with them made any difference. My household consists of Me, OH, DD & SS, both DD & SS are adults.

In the end, I came up with this plan: Everything has a name on it

I buy everyone a box of cereal of their choice, put their name on it, and when it's gone, it's gone. So if they want to wolf down their cereal in two nights, knowing full well I shop fortnightly, then that's their problem. No one is allowed to eat anothers cereal.

I do the same with squash/soft drinks/juice

When I buy crisps, albeit SP ones, they're split 4 ways and the kids are given theirs in a carrier bag...again, if they want to eat them all in one night, that's up to them, but they can't have anyone elses share. When I used to buy chocolate bars, I did the same with them.

When I bake, 1/2 of what I bake goes into a tin for OH and myself, and then the kids get a quarter each of whatever I've baked in their own tin. I do the same with ice cream.

Some may find it a bit extreme, but I can't abide greediness and it's completely stopped the problem of fancying something you know you've bought in your grocery shop, only to find that someone else has wolfed it down before you've had a chance to get to it.

NSD for me today by the way :j

guccigoo

well tonight my eldest dd has her mate staying over and they have already gone through half a bottle of robinsons squash :eek: im fuming as my dd pours loads into glasses :mad: i usually buy the tesco's double concentrated but bought the other because it was on offer (wont be doing that again ) so now monday i will have to buy another bottle... grrr teenagers :mad:

Hippeechiq

kirsty822001 wrote: »

I broke my wrist last nite so will be really short of money this month,no work no pay. So my challenge is even more important now!!

OUCH! Hope you're at least pain free soon :grouphug:

Billie-jo wrote: »

On a down side though two weeks ago I brought 2kg of onions for 79p but yesterday they were £1.40 - almost doubled in price :eek::eek:

I noticed that too - in the last week both red and white have shot up in price. It's a sad state of affairs when something as basic as an onion almost/does double in price My local £idl are selling them for 39p per kg at the moment if that's any help - although that offer has been running for a couple of days now, so will probably end tomorrow.

Cheapskate wrote: »

Hi all
Not off to a good start this month - spent £90 already, out of £400 for the month!! DS2 goes on hol tomorrow, so the rest of us will have to have all sorts of odd meals to stop me spending & make me use up stuff & balance the books
Actually, a big chunk of that cash went on his holiday stuff, so maybe it doesn't count for GC? Any help here?
A x

It's up to the individual really Cheapskate, personally, I wouldn't count it, as it wouldn't be part of the 'household' groceries - but that's just me

muffin_man_7

Nicola1303 i like the idea of laminating the list i used to just use those punched pockets must ask my eldest to find my laminator -we share it no point us both having one not used that often. Hippeechiq you reminded me of the days when i used to put names of kids on the lunches for school four packed lunches plus two goodie bags for toddlers hectic at the time but it did work might even try it again with cereal even though its not as bad with three i just try to have what they not keen that keeps it for me i wont eat the same as my son im veggie hes not my daughter is a bit of both not many things she wont eat just so long as not loads shes 13 i will start naming everything from next new box and also date opened and date expected to last til just wish i wasnt feeding their friends most days dont mind if its agreed in advance so ive time to include it in my budget or if they all club together an get what they want and just ask me to put it in oven thats a reasonable option can any one think of any other ways of saying our food budget is for three not six+

oligeo

Bit late in joining, but I really need to get back into budgeting our food properly. I've got £250 in sainsburys vouchers, which has got to last me til 24th July when we go on holiday - but that £250 will also be used to get bits we need to go away, like suncream. I've not got much in the freezer, just a few chicken breasts. We're 2 adults + 5yo + 4yo.

franby64

Morning all

Just updating sig.

I'm also getting a bit annoyed at the way the price of food is creeping/shooting up. And so much of it is complete carp which people are making a fortune out of selling to us. I really resent handing over my money!

Sorry...rant over

Hope July is going well for everybody

savvyshe

Morning all,
Don't seem to find me added on for this month, I posted in June my total for July which was £140 but I think I should have perhaps posted on July's as It was up and running.Sorry for that, silly me:o anyhow have been looking around for some bargains this weekend and found Mr A have Branston Beans for pack of 4 for £1 :Dso stocked up on some of those as these are our favourites, Mr M was supposed to have them on offer for £1.20 for 4 (I think that was the price) but couldnt find them but did notice a lot of gaps where Value products should have been.:mad: When I worked in Mr A 28 ish years ago I know if any product was not selling they used to keep cheaper product in the back till other had sold don't know if they still this I wonder?.
Been very good and stuck to my list and shopped again from freezer and fridge spend £16.52 in Mr A MrM and A*di. altogether I have spent £95.55 so far but have got lots of meat and veg `so may not need to shop till next Friday. Even MrS has noticed the price of food has gone up so it must be bad!:rotfl:Good luck to all the newbies and oldies(you know what I mean) for this months challange x savvyshe

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all

Hello to all the newbies ...and my thoughts are with those having rough times

Its 2 years today that my sis lost her battle with cancer:( -but it seems like yesterday that I was on here asking for someone to look after the list whilst we dashed back to be with her for her last few days -"where has that 2 years gone?"

Anyway-back to the matter in hand... I will update the list in a moment folks -sorry for being slack ....



I have spent €32 so far this month (starting 25th) -but hubby is away this week -so there will be no more spending before next Saturday . I did a freezer re-jig and list the other day ... here is the protein side of things :eek:

• 4 bacon wrapped chicken breasts (1 syn)
• 400g chicken fillets
• 7 chicken breasts
• 1 pack piri piri chicken kebabs (2syns in whole pack)
• 2 turkey steaks
• 2 lamb steaks
• 2 pork steaks
• 14 pork loin steaks
• 1 pork escalope
• 2 marinaded pork steaks (7 syns)
• 500g chinese ribs (3syns per 100g)
• 500g BBQ ribs (4syns per 100g)
• 24 lincolnshire sausages (11syn per 2)
• 24 pork n herb sausages (11syns per 2)
• 18 pork n leek sausages (11 syns per 2)
• 2 x 800g extra lean minced steak
• 9 x 100g extra lean minced steak
• 300g minute steaks
• 6 beef escalops
• 300g lean diced steak
• 2 x 400g gyros
• 4 gammon steaks (huge so 1 does 4 servings)
• 2 pork joints
• 2 brisket joints
• 2 lamb shanks (1 does us both)
• 1 pack sliced topside
• 1 pack smoked ham
• Prawn ring
• 500g king prawns
• 3 packs smoked salmon
• 1 box plain cod
• 1 box white fish
• 2 salmon steaks
• 1 tuna steak

so I guess its safe to say I don't need any meat right now :rotfl:Im going to use the salmon and tuna whilst hubby is away as he isn't keen on it anyway and then I can get a new bag of each
Slimming World is still going great -another 4lb gone this week :j -so thats 40lbs in 11 weeks....still got *mumble mumble" stones to go mind ..but its so easy it is silly :T
Last night I did "buffalo" chicken -it was gorgeous ..and even nicer cold -so I will be doing that again for hubby to have on his salads for work -will make a change....
Tonight is going to be lamb with minted gravy, home made yorkshire pudding and veggies mmmmmmmm
Right thats enouth jabber from me..
Hope everyone has a good day..
off to update the list.....