August 2010 Grocery Challenge

smiler34

Hi all, spent £4.92 in Mr T today cause I still needed a large bag of raisans and a box of eggs to complete my shopping. A £1 of that was from clothes as I got one of my £10 vouchers changed to a £20 clothing one and the clothes I got came to £21. Anyway that takes my total up to £15.92 for the month.

MIL was also kind enough to give us some runner beans and cherry tomatoes from her greenhouse yesterday so these should supplement some of this weeks meals :-D

CupOfChai

greent wrote: »

I did this with the thread about Aldi foods. I used to refuse to get anything from there on principle:o (although I will happily shop in Aldi/ Lidl etc when on holiday abroad.....) I started off small by buying the grandessa jam and some of the f&v. My shops in there used to be about £3-£5. Now they are more likely to be £25. I still don't buy masses of stuff from there, but will give things a go (and can usually cope with eating something once to not waste it if it is not to my taste - or DS1 (human dustbin) will eat it) I now combine Aldi shopping with Mr S and an occasional delivery from Waitrose. Mr T I use as a corner shop (for emergency bread & milk) because I hate it - but will also check for whoopsies and buy any good offers if I'm there.

I've only got Tesco within any sensible distance now. I'll probably be hounded from the thread for this, but when I did live near enough an Aldi or Lidl I didn't shop there as I don't like them . My mum isn't keen on doing her full shop there for the same reason although she does pop in for things if she's passing. It's not the quality of the food, it was the way it seemed like they would have a completely random selection of products and I could never rely on them to have in what I was after. For example, one week they have carrots. The next week, I need carrots, go in and they are not selling them. So I have to go somewhere else for half of what I wanted, and think well I may as well just get all my shop at that other place in future since I had had to go there anyway.

tracey12_2

I had my weekly shop delivered from Mr T today and it came to £48.00, have already updated my sig. I find if I have it delivered it works out cheaper for me even though I had to pay for delivery as I am not tempted by other food/offers.

I do my order online and then I try and find cheaper alternatives to the food that I usually buy and I find it easier to meal plan with the offers available than if I was in store with a trolley.

greent

CupOfChai wrote: »

I've only got Tesco within any sensible distance now. I'll probably be hounded from the thread for this, but when I did live near enough an Aldi or Lidl I didn't shop there as I don't like them . My mum isn't keen on doing her full shop there for the same reason although she does pop in for things if she's passing. It's not the quality of the food, it was the way it seemed like they would have a completely random selection of products and I could never rely on them to have in what I was after. For example, one week they have carrots. The next week, I need carrots, go in and they are not selling them. So I have to go somewhere else for half of what I wanted, and think well I may as well just get all my shop at that other place in future since I had had to go there anyway.

I find that much more so with Lidl - so never go there (there's not a really convenient one, anyway) Aldi is next to Tesco - and they're my closest 2 shops. Aldi is much more 'reliable' on what they've got in (well, mine is..:p)

CupOfChai

They were the same for me, maybe it differs between branches. Lidl get the strangest things in too, real fell-off-the-back-of-a-lorry candidates. I still remember once going by and they were advertising they had underwater blackboards for sale :rotfl:

greent

CupOfChai wrote: »

They were the same for me, maybe it differs between branches. Lidl get the strangest things in too, real fell-off-the-back-of-a-lorry candidates. I still remember once going by and they were advertising they had underwater blackboards for sale :rotfl:

God, yes! DH and I have been known to go in there (years ago) just to walk around in disbelief and bewilderment at what was on the shelves!!:D

Lindy_-_Loo

had to go into iceland for some of the bits that asda didnt deliver - apart from getting crisps or stuff we c advertised I never really go in there. it was very expensive and yet the shop was choka!

spent £10.75

couteaux

All going well so far! My budget is £200 for the month and I've so far spent 71.95 with a fridge & freezer full. This week is pretty much sorted for meals but have a few people coming over at the weekend and I'm not sure what we'll be doing. Have been entertaining lots at home these last 2 months and it all adds up!

We've still got loads of courgettes from the garden - I've been adding them to everything I can think of. Cakes, stews, roasts, fritters (they were divine!) pasta sauces.... Hoping to make some chutney but nothing else is ready! Last year we had oodles of runner beans, so far we've had 5 beans - from about 15 plants! Not quite the glut I was hoping for..

I should only need to get fruit, some veg and milk this week with lots of NSDs (famous last words...)

jayII

Hi, can I join. I'm aiming for a spend of less than £440 for a family of 4--me, OH, teenagers of 15 and 17, and lunches for me and OH. It should be easily manageable, but I've struggled in the past, due to my laziness and our love of 'luxury' convenience foods.

Time to start meal planning...

ilovetea

Hello,haven't posted for a week,mainly because I didn't spend anything until Saturday.Then it was the usually silly ammount,£10.77, for fruit and veg.On the plus side,I was given some tomatoes,1/2 a large cabbage and a parsley plant from kind neighbours with gardens.
Added lots of bendy veg to a small bag of mince that was lurking in the freezer. Now have enough "bol" for 4 large portions of spag.Love the sound of the baking some of you are doing ,very,very tempting:D

ilovetea x