July 2010 Grocery Challenge

spendaholic

Did my weekly shop on Saturday and was delighted to bring it in at £30.60 against a £40 budget. The savings pot is getting better.

Hippeechiq

With regard to can you tell the difference between normal and UHT milk

cw18 wrote: »

but I can in coffee or on cereal.... yuck from me!

I'll 2nd that! _pale_

I always used to keep Te$cos Dried Skimmed Milk in the cupboard. If I was running short on milk, I used it in baking to save my fresh milk. Not tried it in tea or cereal, but have seen others on here say they do and they can't tell the difference, so that might be worth a shot. It's also a lot lower in calories if you're making up a custard or cheese sauce with it.

Te$co have just stopped stocking their Light Choices version, which used to be £1.67 for a 340g tub - I only ever used 50g to make up a pint or 25g to make up half (the back of the tin says more, but it always turned out fine) and that used to make me 7 pints of milk in total, so it's a good stand by to have. They've now started stocking a Value one at £2.17 for 454g, but I've not tried it yet - I've bought A$das equivalent of Te$cos light choices to try

doelani wrote: »

Morning everyone,

after my NSD yesterday had to go to MrA this morning, was there for 8.05am lol spent £38.35 so total for month so far is less than £50 :j

I got a few whoopse's, big bag of pears for 40p and big bag of carrots for 20p. I needed carrots for soup I am making but will give some to neighbour as will never use them all lol.

I really need to go to iceland to get some stuff, we love their chicken steaks 4 for £ and I usually try and keep a few packets in fridge. Think I will try and leave it another few days though and try for another NSD tomorrow lol

Doe

Well done! - you're doing better than me

Want2Bdebtfree wrote: »

Hi - I am new to this as only joined yesterday as thought it would be moral support and fresh ideas to get rid of debt... My Grocery challenge for July is £220 thats for 2 Adults and 1 Puppy. I also want to loose weight so this can help further. With regards to Grocery challenge we have swapped down to Tesco's own brands now for All Purpose Cleaner, Toilet Cleaner and my other half came home with their value conditioner which I ranted and raved about as I have long hair thats highlighted... Well I was proved wrong its great. 24 pence and its great. Try Aldi's version of comfort too... Hope this tips help I am trying everything to get rid of my debt and when its gone I will continue shopping this way and saving money... Here's too Grocery Challenge success.
July Challenge £220
Week 1 - £51

Welcome Want2Bdebtfree :wave: This is my first month too, and I'm not doing too great so far :rotfl: But I am determined, and the support of others on here will help me I'm sure.

There's no an Aldis near me, but thanks for the tip on Te$co Conditioner, will definitely be giving that a go

Am hoping for a NSD today, I'm running a bit low on milk though - we get through a 4 pinter a day, and for me, it's cheaper in Icel@nd, which is why it wasn't included in my A$da delivery yesterday - but I might make up some dried skimmed milk and add it to what I've got left and see if anyone notices :shhh:

rentawitch

Went to country butchers at the weekend and also Lidl's - Do batteries count as groceries?

We won't mention what I DID spend in general at the weekend although I did buy the most beautiful sage green gypsy skirt yesterday from a charity shop for £5. - It really looks new and I am wearing it today

But I did spend another £30 on meat from the very good quality butcher in Wincanton I must try and make it last and not eat it all at once! (not literally!)

Need to do some NSDs now

Winchelsea

seductivesmile - About the UHT milk - I find the low fat or skimmed ones absolutely fine, no noticeable difference in taste, but the semi-skimmed is revolting (IMO!)

~moneysavingnovice~

Need some advice on how to reduce the food bill further. My main problems/vices are:

-diet coke (totally addicted): it's normally on offer in Mr S but still- not sure how to get this one down as when I don't buy it at Mr S, I buy it at work and spend three times as much
-alcohol: I love the pre-made mojitos in Mr S but at £5.55 a pop I must stop! Any recipes for cheap mojitos?!?
-non basics: I've switched to basics for a lot of stuff, but not tried it with toiletries or cleaning products because I think they won't work as well- any truth in this myth??
-cheese: we get through a lot, any cheapy substitutes??

Thanks for any help! Must come in below my target this month :T

cw18

~moneysavingnovice~ wrote: »

Need some advice on how to reduce the food bill further. My main problems/vices are:

-diet coke (totally addicted): it's normally on offer in Mr S but still- not sure how to get this one down as when I don't buy it at Mr S, I buy it at work and spend three times as much

have you tried the non-branded versions? I'm not a fan of the 'value' ones, but find the stores own label (and the ones from A!di / L!dl) acceptable

-non basics: I've switched to basics for a lot of stuff, but not tried it with toiletries or cleaning products because I think they won't work as well- any truth in this myth??

I use value for a lot of my cleaning stuff. Still sometimes buy a thick bleach to compliment it though.

I have a stock-pile of toiletries (didn't realise until the last few months quite how much!) The only things I've bought recently are tootpaste (value is OK and is probably what I'll buy from September, but DS doesn't like it so tend to get 'own label' - or bigger names when on offer) and toilet/kitchen rolls, which I won't buy the value of as they don't last / have no absorbency IMO.

-cheese: we get through a lot, any cheapy substitutes??

we can use a lot as well. I stock up when on offer (and especially when Whoopsied), and it can be frozen as well. Rare for me to have less than 3kg in the house at any time

poppy-glos

my name is poppy and i cannot resist buying things!!

went to mr t for carrots and to check the whoopsies. Got whoopsied finest chicken kievs (and may go back at 8 as they had masses of whoopsies which may still be there and further reduced later...)
also bought 3 tins of toms for a £1 (working on the basis of them going up in price?? in the next few months), and more value fromage frais (for lunchboxes but also thought i'd try mixing one with icing sugar for a fairy cake topping - they are made with partly cream cheese and a tv cake chef uses cream cheese and icing sugar for his so thought i'd give it a go).
will update siggy at end of day as may spend more later. still within my 31st budget so all happy.

poppy x

Lindy_-_Loo

we usually shop at tesco on line and then into netto for fruit, veg and anything thats cheaper or on offer. Had free delivery at sainsbury code so used it this week, got some good offers(better than tesco) and lots of basics range but still over £50 without fruit etc.

havent shopped at asda for many years as our asda went downhill. would it be worth trying as an on line shop - is it cheaper that other supermarkets? Hoping someone will shop there and maybe tesco so they could give advice?

thankyou x

Want2Bdebtfree_3

Hippeechiq wrote: »

With regard to can you tell the difference between normal and UHT milk

I'll 2nd that! _pale_

I always used to keep Te$cos Dried Skimmed Milk in the cupboard. If I was running short on milk, I used it in baking to save my fresh milk. Not tried it in tea or cereal, but have seen others on here say they do and they can't tell the difference, so that might be worth a shot. It's also a lot lower in calories if you're making up a custard or cheese sauce with it.

Te$co have just stopped stocking their Light Choices version, which used to be £1.67 for a 340g tub - I only ever used 50g to make up a pint or 25g to make up half (the back of the tin says more, but it always turned out fine) and that used to make me 7 pints of milk in total, so it's a good stand by to have. They've now started stocking a Value one at £2.17 for 454g, but I've not tried it yet - I've bought A$das equivalent of Te$cos light choices to try



Well done! - you're doing better than me



Welcome Want2Bdebtfree :wave: This is my first month too, and I'm not doing too great so far :rotfl: But I am determined, and the support of others on here will help me I'm sure.

There's no an Aldis near me, but thanks for the tip on Te$co Conditioner, will definitely be giving that a go

Am hoping for a NSD today, I'm running a bit low on milk though - we get through a 4 pinter a day, and for me, it's cheaper in Icel@nd, which is why it wasn't included in my A$da delivery yesterday - but I might make up some dried skimmed milk and add it to what I've got left and see if anyone notices :shhh:

:jHave you thought about having milk delivered from amilk man daily as it could work out cheaper as you only buy the milk and are not tempted to buy anything else..... Te$co own brand soap is great too I can not believe how much money we have saved by swapping to own brands. I used to think nothing of spending £120 a week on food shops frightening and could add to why I am in the mess I am in!!!!
Also Te$co are doing 5p off a litre of fuel until sunday so I always make sure I hit the £50 to get it then have alighter shop next week if necessary.
Another value I intend to try being happy with the conditioner is their value shampoo... 11p abottle! I have just taken the label off the conditioner.... NSD x 2:A

mama67

DH is officially on a 4 day week as of now with a possibility of reducing to a 3 day week if things don't pick up.

So we are going to once we have sorted some stuff out use his day off each week to try to do a carboot sale weekly. We have some on Wednesdays and Saturdays here as well as the usual Sundays.

At least it is the right time of year to try and do these.

Veggies and salads are coming along nicely so that will help with the food bill.