August 2010 Grocery Challenge

sofababe

Just done an Asda online shop, I find it better than being allowed to wander around an actual shop:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Easier to stick to the list.

£40.10 and about 13/14 meals bought so shouldn't need to go anywhere shoplike for several days:j:j

verynewmoneysaver

Have done tesco shop for tomorrow. £38.63 (not counting delivery). Counting today as NSD day as payment will not come out till tomorrow!

Spiggle

Hi All, :wave:

I so agree with all the comments above on having veg (I don't have fruit this year ) straight from the garden. We've been eating our courgettes, green beans, dwarf french beans, mange tout, some pots, and baby carrots for some weeks now and it has made a huge difference in terms of what we've been buying and the flavour of our food. We have loads of tomatoes coming (all cherry types) but they're nowhere near ripe yet. We've a lot more potatoes to have too but giving them an extra week to get ready for our plates. Yum, yum! :drool:

Well today we made our first spends of the month at the greengrocer, butcher and su**rd*ug (£15.72 total added to sig) and I'm about to do an online shop which I will add to sig later. (I prefer to list the amount the day I order as if I went to the sm the money would be gone today anyway.) We now have a lovely piece of brisket slowly cooking away at the moment. Smells delish. That will feed us both for days to come and is such a reasonable (economically) and tasty piece of beef. We will have it with veg, yorkshire pud and gravy (for a couple of days), it will get used in sarnies, or get chunked up and thrown into a casserole. OH does a lovely crispy shredded beef with it too which if we wanted to we could turn into a lovely chinese style meal. Tender, tasty, versatile and cheap now thats my kind of meat!

I should say that we don't batch cook in the same way as many people on here because firstly we don't have a huge freezer and my capacity is limitless for eating the same thing (usually with little tweaks) for days on end. So OH may make a large bolognese, lasagne or just savoury mince and will tweak the way its served over a period of time until its gone.

The most important rule in our house is that no food gets wasted. May seem harsh to some but if GD1 (and her mother before her) wants a dessert or treat then she must eat all her food. No compromise.

A very dear friend came around yesterday and spent the day with me dejunking my wardrobes, cupboards and drawers. I was just so daunted by the quantity I couldn't attack it on my own. She was absolutely brilliant.:A I'm ashamed to report that I had 3 full black bags for our local charity, a medium to large bag for the textile bank and a whole black bag of coat hangers! :eek: My friend is convinced they get together and reproduce in the wardobes. :rotfl:

EDIT: I forgot to say that I've also got four choice pieces that I'm going to attempt to sell on eBay. Never sold on there before - unforunately I do know how to buy from it - so wish me luck.

I can't tell you how good it feels to be clear of all the stuff. Mostly they were clothes that just didn't fit any more. Some were just plain wrong on a lady of my young years. Others were just forgotten about because there was so much I could never see what was there. The bedroom smells so much better too?!?! I'm thinking of giving the inside of the wardrobe a bit of a makeover now with a lick of paint inside (it's built into the alcove).

Keep strong my fellow challengers - Rome wasn't built in a day and we won't beat the sm and retailers coercion in one week either. Always remember that at every step we take on this challenge we learn something that will help to reduce our spending. And even if over budget we're probably spending far less than when we started (I was on £600+ per month back in February for just two of us and two cats! :eek:). This thread has wonderful, supportive knowledgeable and friendly people who are alwaysd willing to lend an ear, offer advice, suggest a recipe or just send a hug when you're feeling down, so don't forget to read and post.

Ok, onward with the online order. I'll pop back later just to update my sig again.

Take care,
Spigs

[Deleted User]

Don't get disheartened by impulse spends, it just reminds you the next time .We have all been there I can remember back last year when I never bothered to think about what I was buying and just 'shopped automatically' in Mr T's and Sainsbobs.Now I keep £120.00 per month seperately in a special 'food purse and only use it for food and nothing else I have gone from spending between £60-70 per week to £120.00. per month .Bear in mind there is only me to feed as well.
It's 'baby steps' and you will get there in the end.Even if you only go a little over budget, the fact you realise it makes all the difference. My 'left over cash' each month has gone to help fund this years holiday. On the last day of the month I stick it away in an account and don't touch it at all. in fact if you look at my sig you will see that this month I am not even drawing my usual months money but using whats left over from July to keep me going until I go away in 9 days time
So chins up chums as we have all had 'splurgy' days, but back up on the wagon :):)

~moneysavingnovice~

Whyyy is buying your first home SO expensive??

It's like every 1p I save in Mr S, I splurge £1 on solicitors/surveys/furniture/removalvans yada yada yada. Arghhh!

Oh well, suppose I would be even worse off if I wasn't watching the grocery budget!

A NSD as far as food goes for me today, and won't have a fridge next week (not being delivered til Fri) so will have an interesting shop trying to find entirely non-perishable meals!! :rotfl:

KITTY_2-2

:spam: reported

Had another spend day today even though I wasn't supposed to be going out! Spent £9.75 at local freezer shop.

Signature updated

freakyogre

Well, not officially groceries, but I will count these in my total (but if I go over I may remove them! )

£3.73 spent yesterday in Boots - bandages and some dressing for my foot.

I had a very nice surprise when I got home yesterday - 5 envelopes from HMRC each containing a cheque for various amount totalling over £500 :eek: I am still not convinced they're real as look like Monopoly money, but people are telling me they are! I've never really claimed for anything before but assume they're linked to a tax form I sent back to them a couple of weeks ago. Said a BIG thank you to one of my colleagues who helped me fill it in as I probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

Anyway today I have bought a newspaper (36p) and a bag of sweets (39p) <-- the sweets were to celebrate. It doesn't take much to please me

I will probably spend something tomorrow as another colleague has offered to take me to Sainsburys so I will check tonight and see what I 'need'.

Kadeeae

brodie1 wrote: »

Hi Kadeeae,
dont forget what they say about us in Norfolk 'its normal for Norfolk'.

Ooo another Norfolker! (Norfolkian? lol) :hello:
Well, a bit late getting in, but Mr. A arrived safely yesterday and the grand total was £110.41. Tried the once a month big shop, but just doesn't work for us so this time it's for two weeks...we'll see how twice monthly goes.

Glad to see even more newbies, there are more ever time I pop in! Welcome all!

guccigoo

well today i have spent a MASSIVE 20p and that was on a paper so doesnt go into my food budget :j
havent been anywhere apart from the local shop as my youngest dd is still ill, has been since sat and boredom is now setting in by being indoors. We hope to go out friday to Greenwich park and will be taking a picnic so i will be going out tomorrow to get bits for that and also will be ordering my weekly shop prob tonight.

Made a HM puff pizza tart, recipe i got out of the good food mag and that went down well :T. Will be making another one tomorrow as dh wants to take it to work friday for his lunch anyway thats enough of me, happy frugal spending everyone

JayJay14

Just over a week into my August challenge and I have got up to a really good start - only £9.46 spent and so far 5 NSD's out of 8. :j

The main thing is I'm not going to Asda as often but I will need to spend some serious money soon - I've been running down the freezers to use up some of the long term stores and they will need to be replenished soon. I need to batch cook some chilli and a few other things so that wil be a job for the weekend. Made a huge batch of ratatouille last weekend so that will keep OH happy for a while.

Need to make myself a proper shopping list for tomorrow evening to minimise the risk of overspending so I will do that while I'm watching Midsomer - see, multitasking.:rotfl: