July 2010 Grocery Challenge

Kitchenbunny

Another NSD today - yay! We had chicken quesadillas for tea, but it isn't something I'll be doing again as it has too high a faff factor and wasn't convenient really. It was tasty, so I think I'll do it as a Mexican pie with the chicken mixture on the bottom, then the salsa, cheese and bits of tortilla on top. Might work better, methinks, but quesadillas are a no-go in my kitchen

KB xx

oceanspirit

I went to a more expensive shop than usual for convenience and also had a friend to stay so bought things I wouldn't normally for me on my own so spent a bit more than planned - £6 in greengrocer's and £20.62 in supermarket.

My broad beans are producing a massive crop and I am planning to defrost and my freezer in time for the bramley apple season (my mum has one tree which keeps many families in apples). I also want to check my cupboards for dates on dry goods so I'm doing my own personal storecupboard/freezer/hg veg challenge this week so no doubt there will be some strange concotions. I will make a plan so that when I have the opportunity to shop on Wednesday I only buy the bare minimum.

ETA I have just remembered I had a delivery from Approved food at the beginning of the week - £21.82. This means that at £72.47 I am over this month's budget by £11.45 with another week to go. Hmmm, the challenge to use things up gets hotter...

purplevamp

I'm going to bail out of Julys challenge as I've lost track of what I've spent, although I know it's not loads, I just can't find my receipts for last week .

I'll join the challenge again in August, when hopefully I'm better organised

guccigoo

hi ive had 2 NSD's in a row so happy :j we had dinner over my cousins today as she had an op on one of her hands so only has use of the left one, we cooked it for her and the kids and also helped her round the house a bit.

will prob spend tomorrow as need more bananas and a fresh loaf.
have a good evening all

honeybun16

first complete no spend weekend for us in ages and oh boy does it feel good, totally forgot when we were working out budgets that July is a five week month not four which has stretched us considerably but trying really hard to make it as close to payday as possible

pepsi-kins

Hi All,
Well, I have blown the budget I am up to £205.71 from a budget of £200. I did start my July GC a week early, as I was off work so wanted to have a big cooking session, and July is a five week month. So I suppose taking that into account it isn't too bad, to be honest I don't think I could stretch the money any further if I tried. I've been thinking about it today, and we don't waste money on food, just buy necessities really, and I mostly buy shops own brand, and shop around a lot. Oh well, perhaps I can balance the books better next month.

Have a good week everyone

CupOfChai

Have spent £19.91 this week so bringing my total spends up to £83.71 so far this month. Need to pick up a couple of things during next week too that I couldn't get in the last shop. Am now wondering if I'll make it in under budget, hoping so! I have spent a bit more on some stocking up with things that were on offer I think, for instance cooking oils on 3 for £X so got the three bottles instead of just one, now I won't need to buy any more cooking oil for about two years!

Sue14, I don't know how much time you want to spend in London or what you're into but the museums and galleries are generally free, they may charge something to get into a particular exhibition that is on but I find you don't really NEED to do those unless you are especially interested. However I wouldn't advise it if you aren't spending lots of time in London and want to do a lot of things, when me and OH went to the Natural History Museum not long ago we did NOT think we would be there from about 15 minutes after it opened, right until they were announcing it was closing in 10 minutes!

seductivesmile

Evening All!

Unfortunately i have had 3 spend days in a row, but if i am defending myself a little, i nipped to Mr T fri eve to get the last couple of bits to make a picnic for sat as we were at the air tattoo in fairford, and figured it would be cheaper taking a picnic than buying food there, so fri eve spent just under £5, then sat a cup of tea in the services and one on the way back = £4, then today, i did my weekly shop for bits at mr T and spent £8.60, and then visited rents and got given lots of veggies from the garden.
Will update my signiture when i have the receipts to hand, and make a meal plan for the week in the morning, already taken chilli (or bolognese) out for dinner tomorrow so no need to worry on that!
Have a frugal week all!
SS xx

Winged_one

I went to Dunn*s yesterday, and got a few things which we use anyway on special. And picked up 2 boxes of pencils as DD is going to school in Sept, so I want to have a stock of those in the house. But I also cleared out the cupboards properly as part of putting everything away, so I now know exactly what's there. And I had been pleasantly surprised to see certain things are getting used up.

I also went to the plot on Sat morning, with DD. We picked 1lb of blackcurrants, 1lb of raspberries, 7 large patty pan squashes, 3 large heads of brocolli, enough spuds for 2 dinners (no point in taking too many at once), a baby courgette, 3 pods of broad beans, and about 400g of peas (once podded). And I didn't even bring any lettuce as we still had loads at home and it was lashing rain by then! I reckon that, even just counting the beans, brocolli, spuds and raspberries, I had €20 worth of produce!!! (Based on prices in SM yest).

I made 2 jars of gooseberry jam (from a previous picking),1 of blackcurrant jam (Only used 1/2 lb fruit), and soup for freezer, as well as freezing the peas, and using some spuds, squash and beans for dinner. There is another dinner of spuds for Wed, and I will use the other veg this week too!

Next week, I will call in on the way on hols, and get more brocolli, lettuce, raspberrries, squashes, hopefully peas, and a large bag of spuds to get around whoever is in the house for at least 2-3 meals (it's a family owned house so I have no idea how many will be there for the weekend!).

Mostly eating from the freezer this week in terms of meat.

WelshWoofer

Just back from holidays to an empty fridge and freezer and very bare looking cupboards:eek::eek:
Am off to Mr S later this morning armed with a list and a £10 off a £50 spend voucher they kindly sent me whilst I was away. I think I'll be shopping at Mr S for the next 4 weeks as they have sent one £10 voucher to use for the next 4 weeks - thank you very much!!

A bit off topic but I noticed that someone was looking for cheap/free things to do in London - any ideas for Manchester? My sister is staying with me next week and I'm skint! Just for a bit of info -she has to use a wheelchair but can do most things.

Will report back with food spends later.