August 2010 Grocery Challenge

unhappy_shopper

Not a good first month on this GC
Already over the budget and 5 more days to go...
Good thing is that I have been putting more effort into buying cupboard staples rather than crisps, drinks etc. when trying to use the conditional spend voucher at MrT. WIll update my sig. later when I have recorded some of the missing bills.

Winged_one

I had to get meat for yesterday's dinner, and bread and milk until the end of the week. So I spent €10 yesterday. Today's dinner though is practically free, as it is the tomatoes from the garden, our own garlic, and the remains of a pack of linguine I bought over 3 years ago (we only have this dinner about once a year) - squishing the tomatoes and garlic together with a dash each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, seasoned, and mixed into the hot pasta. I will use a loaf of garlic bread that we didn't need after all last weekend (as our visitors never materialised) and I'll freeze the second baton for another time.

Tomorrow, I don't know yet if we will have PIL arriving in time for dinner (or if they will want to eat in their hotel), but I have plenty in to deal with it either way. And I don't need much over the weekend or for next week either - bread and milk, one roasting joint, and tinned corn - I think that's it. So the annual total, while being close at this point (I am only under the average for this point by €24, but should be well under as this is the peak time for our own veggies - but I have a lot of stores to use up also which will reduce spends in the next couple of months), is still OK. I still have a lot of baking ingredients on hand, jars of sauces, sugar for another few batches of jam, and rice and pasta too. What I need to do is actually train myself to stay OUT of the supermarket every second week. And I think I ought to make this week one of those as I need so little, and DD has everything she needs for school already.

greent

Have to confess to going to Mr T today to use my last Sun voucher Spent around £60 but vouchers brought it down to under £40. Didn't need all that I bought - but made up my spends by buying items that we will use that are on a good special offer Brings me to £354.30 for the month

Still have a couple of Kg of plums to destone and take to m-i-l's freezer, along with some peppers and runner beans....

Hippeechiq

Wow! So many of you are bringing your month in on budget. Well done :T

Happy Anniversary greent

goodlife_wannabes wrote: »

Hi I don't know if this will help but I am also on slim fast. The rest of my tribe have full fat milk, so I have taken to buying skimmed milk powder, adding it to water with the sf. As I'm blending it anyway I can't tell the difference and it saves a fortune

Thanks for the suggestion goodlife wannabes I do always have skimmed milk powder in stock as it's handy in case you suddenly discover you're very low on milk.....and also, if you make it up and add it to any remaining milk, no-one notices the difference - especially if you don't tell them

I always use if for making the custard for a trifle, white/cheese sauces or when I make Angel Delight and such, just to bring down the fat/calorific content too.

I'm pretty sure though, that, a couple of months back, when I actually marked on the tin every time I made up 1pint or a ½pint, and then divided the total amount of pints I got out of a tin, into the cost of the tin itself, it didn't work out any cheaper than buying fresh milk, as I remember being a bit disappointed at the discovery - but if anyone knows different, please say, as that would indeed be a big help

I also remember being very disappointed to find out that it's cheaper per pint to buy 4 pints of milk than 6, but I've been finding that out on a lot of things lately.

I had a 2kg bag of Long Grain Rice in my delivery from A$da yesterday for £2.43. When I was browsing their website last night, I discoverd that it would have been cheaper to buy 2 x 1kg bags @ 98p for £1.96, which would have saved me 47p.

I'm so annoyed with myself, as I usually check these things since discovering that buying a bigger pack/bottle of anything doesn't always equate to cheaper.......although I'm sure it used to, didn't it :huh:

wssla00

Afternoon all an NSD for me today (and the rest of the week come to think about it....:)) I have lots of seeds to sew today- all new herbs as I seem to be using more and more at the moment so will get them in the ground!

Have a big organic roast chicken for dinner tonight- I ordered a high welfare one but waitrose didn't have it in stock so they gave me an organic one for the same price good old waitrose!

May go for a wander round the garden to see what produce is ready and get all the seeds sowed plus some salad as it's all gone now!

Have a good day all!

greent

Thanks for the anniversary wishes, peeps! DH has sent me a lu-urvely bouquet of flowers (he's still up North until about 10.30 tonight) - but we go away tomorrow morning until MOnday! (camping - hope the weather improves!!)

Post has arrived and Mr T have sent DH 4 x £10 off £30 shops - 1 for each week of Sept. Much as I don't like Mr T, I *will* use these - that's a good offer. I'll still need a!di too for pain au chocolate and wraps (and maybe f&v) I'm going to see just how low I can get Sept spends, I think.... I will need to get stuff for packed lunches, but will try and make cakes and biscuits for them (I usually make these for when they get back in from school and they have something like a 2finger kitkat - whatever's on offer - at lunch) Good job I have lots of dark choc and cocoa in - they've put in requests for brownies at least twice We have lots of rice and couscous and maybe enough pasta... Theoretically I should need to just buy bread, milk, cheese, yogurts, eggs and ham from Mr T next month (and maybe cereals) - but that'll never happen!

SherlockFan85

Well, this probably was the wrong month to start this challenge!

I unfortunately have no idea where i am at the end of the month, due to the following reasons:

1. family holiday in Devon meant had to buy numerous food items at random times, and was not paying attention to the amounts at the time. This lasted a whole week :eek:

2. I changed jobs mid July and have not yet been paid yet (a balls up in the HR dept means that i won't get paid till Tuesday now!! This means my OH and I have living the last month (which included the annual holiday!) on 3/4 of our monthly wages. Thankfully the job pays a fair bit more than my previous one, so once the wages are all sorted i'll be better off. Lucky, considering the lack of jobs available in general...

This, combined with huge spends of totally unneccessary items throughout the final half of the month (OH spent over £150 on c**p for his bike, and he's barely ridden it all month!) :mad:

So...will definitely get back on track for next month. September is always a good month to start a fresh challenge :T

Good luck for everyone at tallying up time, see you for the September thread!

Hippeechiq

greent wrote: »

Theoretically I should need to just buy bread, milk, cheese, yogurts, eggs and ham from Mr T next month (and maybe cereals) - but that'll never happen!

You never know hun - it might at least you're approaching the new month with a positive attitude

Hope you have a nice weekend away. OH has been on holiday this week, and with the exception of Tuesday it's rained solidly down here since last Thursday - up until mid-day today :eek: so hopefully, the sky has run out of rain the weather is on the turn.

At last I can add another NSD to the months tally - still doesn't stop me being over budget though, but it stops me being more over budget

NickJW

Hi All

I spent a whopping 19p on 2 HUGE onions today. I was going to go to Mr S, but saw a shop accross the road opening their vegetable stall outside. I worked out that their onions cost 59p per kilo and in Mr S they cost £1 for a 1kg bag. I'm very pleased with this discovery! I don't know if everything else is as cheap because they are loose, but everytime I need veg I'm going to go to Mr S's website, check the price per kilo and see if the veg shop is cheaper.


My flatmate has gone to ChinaTown to get some Soy sauce, Pak Choi, Star Anise and Chinese 5 spice powder for a Chinese stew (have braised beef and everything else in stock) for me on Saturday - I'll have to give him £3.70 that tonight. It's much cheaper than the supermarket....

Have updated signature

WelshWoofer

Just back from Mr T and managed to spend pennies under £43 using the Sun voucher.
I seemed to buy a lot of tins and packets and plenty of fresh stuff so it will see us through until next weekend (I hope!).

I have written a meal plan and wrote the shopping list accordingly but I was surprised to see how expensive Mr T is getting. I have been shopping at Mr S for a few weeks (due to money off Nectar vouchers) and went back to Mr T for the first time in what seems like ages.

Just a few examples - a bag of spinach at Mr S was £1 and £1.50 at Mr T. Cereal (both own brand) - £1.20 ish at Mr S, £1.54 at Mr T.
It just seemed generally more expensive for the type of thing I buy. Does anyone else see the same thing?