July 2010 Grocery Challenge

doelani

hi everyone

ok I have to ask, whats " approved food order"? Sorry if I missed it somewhere lol

My neighbour was ar MrA and rang to say 3lt milk reduced to 64p usually £1.28 so got 2, dated bb 11 july so will be gone by then.

ally18

Hi,
I'm still a newbie and this is my first update to my July grocery challenge and I did it!
Went to Aldi for first time last week, armed with the calculator and spent £35 which was my target. Admittedly, I didn't get any toiletries because they will be a separate spend but considering the amount I used to spend at T, this was great.
And, last night I did my first batch cook of shepherds pie and made 3 additional meals which are now in the freezer. I'm so chuffed with myself.
Total so far - 35/210

My only downside this week is..................retail therapy on a newer car . But.......my defence is that it will save me money in the long run on using diesel now, less maintenance (hopefully) and I will go out more with the kids cos I will enjoy driving it. :rotfl:

Plus its a fab colour so its well worth it.:)

Don't think I will be spending so much next week though.

A

Long_tall_sally

Been away for a few days to a Haven site on one of the Sun deals. Cooked in the caravan one of the 3 nights but eat out the other two. I have been food shopping today to Sainsburys. Did go to Tescos but they wouldn't accept the Morrisons voucher that I had from the Sun and couldn't be bothered to go to Morrisons but preferred to spend my money at Mr S! I have included about £25 from spends away which might actually be a bit high as it doesn't include the actual meals or drinks just lunch and bits.

I need to accumalate a few NDS now to try and balance things out although I am also mindful that the kids here break up next Friday & in a way it would be nice to have fully stocked cupboards before then as I hate shopping with my two!

Someone mentioned earlier that they scan as they shop (at Mr T I think it was). I now can't find the post to see who it was who mentioned this (possibly Wantobedebtfree?) and I was wondering how do you actually do that?

I am actually feeling a little more optimistic this month of actually achieving my target but who knows, its very early days yet. I have to get to the 26th of the month.

Good luck everyone!

cw18

doelani wrote: »

ok I have to ask, whats " approved food order"? Sorry if I missed it somewhere lol

Approved Foods is a company (website) that sells short dates/out of date foods. I've had some real bargains from them

cw18

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Someone mentioned earlier that they scan as they shop (at Mr T I think it was). I now can't find the post to see who it was who mentioned this (possibly Wantobedebtfree?) and I was wondering how do you actually do that?

I used to do this at S@feway - so a good few years back, as the store changed to a Mr M before we moved out of the area (which was Sept 2001!)

I had to register to use the system, which got me a 'membership' card. When I went into the store I put my card into a reader, and it told me which scanner to take from the 'bank' of them. As I went round I literally scanned the barcodes of anything I put into my trolley and it showed me a running total (you can also take things off, so if you change your mind it's not a problem). The only draw back was that (back then anyway) it didn't adjust for savings from multi-buys, so I had to note those on a piece of paper to keep an accurate track of where I was.

When I'd finished I replaced the scanner into the bank and had a receipt style voucher thrown out at me, which contained a single large barcode. I then took my trolley and the voucher to a till, handed the cashier any 'problem' items than the scanner had refused to scan, and they swiped those items and the voucher.

The main problem was that - once in a while - the system would say you still had to be scanned in full at the till (spot checks to make sure you were doing it right)..... and one of the very few times it did this to me was on a huuuuuuge pre-Christmas shop. I wasn't impressed as I'd packed everything up as I scanned (they had special trolleys that took crates like come on home delivery - and you could buy the crates for next to nothing and then bring them back time-and-time-again) but had to unpack and repack everything :mad:

Want2Bdebtfree_3

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Been away for a few days to a Haven site on one of the Sun deals. Cooked in the caravan one of the 3 nights but eat out the other two. I have been food shopping today to Sainsburys. Did go to Tescos but they wouldn't accept the Morrisons voucher that I had from the Sun and couldn't be bothered to go to Morrisons but preferred to spend my money at Mr S! I have included about £25 from spends away which might actually be a bit high as it doesn't include the actual meals or drinks just lunch and bits.

I need to accumalate a few NDS now to try and balance things out although I am also mindful that the kids here break up next Friday & in a way it would be nice to have fully stocked cupboards before then as I hate shopping with my two!




Someone mentioned earlier that they scan as they shop (at Mr T I think it was). I now can't find the post to see who it was who mentioned this (possibly Wantobedebtfree?) and I was wondering how do you actually do that?

I am actually feeling a little more optimistic this month of actually achieving my target but who knows, its very early days yet. I have to get to the 26th of the month.

Good luck everyone!

:A Hi there it was me that said it, our tescos has just bought the scan as you go machines in and you register with your existing clubcard takes 2 minutes, then you pack and scan as you go round its great not only can u keep an eye on costs but u pack as u go! When you have finished you go to special tills attach the scanner and all is transferred across. I believe as my other half does it more than me!!! Bless him he is good at frugal shopping that it takes all the deals off as you go along. I personally find it a great way t oshop and keep track. Hope u enjoyed ur holiday. :A

Want2Bdebtfree_3

Aldi's is great try there moisturising face creams only £1.99 each and are fantastic - I used to use expensive ones another reason for my fiancial situation!!!! and moved over after seeing article in magazine.
There meat is great they do loads of offres on fruit and veg and try their fabric conditioner to. Sorry I am a total Aldi / Tesco value Chick now!

Moniker

Just updated sig as had to buy more F&V today and top up on nuts and eggs. Came to just over £17 - not looking good at the moment!

Congratulations Guccigoo on the new job!

catch up later

Moniker

philsmum

guccigoo wrote: »

hi everyone im in a good mood today, i went for a job interview today and got the job :j:j:j wont be starting till August because i have 3 days training at the end of July.
Also a NSD today so pleased with that aswell. hope everyones ok and having a good day:D

Congratulations. Well done.:j

rosieben

kirsty, hope your wrist gets less painful for you really quickly

MrsMC - thinking of you

guccigoo, huge congrats on the new job :T

Just [STRIKE]off to add[/STRIKE] added sunnyday's soup recipe to the front page list

I've had 4 nsd's in a row but off to the c00p for a few small things tomorrow, expecting a spend of under £10. I still have (more than) enough freezer stock in terms of meat, fish etc, to cater for myself all this month. MUST use up these things and empty/clean it ready for the winter re-stock

Good luck everyone :cool: