August 2010 Grocery Challenge

Hippeechiq

Spiggle wrote: »

And the comments on the con on larger sizes are bang on. Yes, I think larger did always mean cheaper (economies of scale and all that) but no longer. Anyone else feel we're constantly playing a game with the sm? It's a sort of hide and seek or from their view 'let's see what we can scam them with this week/fortnight'! :mad:

Totally, as you quite rightly say, they constantly seem to be coming up with one scam after another, and it definitely did used to be cheaper to buy in bulk. It does my head in, it really does :mad:

suzybloo

Well thats my first month over on the challenge and I declare £461, slightly over but definately a lot less than I used to spend with a lot less waste.Next month will be from shopping delivered on the 27th August to the shopping delivered on 24th September so I am going to aim for £420 this month now that I have got into the way of it. Menu planner all done for the next ten days, and have checked the cupboards to see whats in them. I have lots of cleaning stuff and baking stuff to use so hopefully this will be too high!!!

notjustlaura

Spiggle - I've had the same experience with MrT and MrS. At the moment, MrS is consistently cheapest of the four offered by mysupermarket. As I like it best this suits me fine!

Flat Eric - I heartily recommend mysupermarket. Don't worry about own-brand products - it can convert from one to another although you do need to check the substitutions are acceptable to you if you switch your shop from one sm to another.

Today was fairly disastrous budget-wise as I've had three unplanned spends and one planned. Guess which kind involved most ££s? I shall have to draw in my horns next week and claw back but, fortunately, the whoopsie drawer of the freezer is full. Sig updated.

Tomorrow will involve further spending, unfortunately. I can feel the reins slipping through my fingers but am determined to get back on track. I know what I need to do tomorrow but I shan't buy anything extra and then Saturday should be NSD.

guccigoo

nsd for me today, i was going to do my weekly shop but decided it can wait till tomorrow. I ususally do it at mr t but think i might go mr a or mr s as these seem to be cheaper according to some people
It will be my last shop of the month tomorrow so will declare then.

I watched the waste programme tonight that was on last night and was horrified by all that waste :eek: pass it to me i will make use of it!
anyway have a good evening all

cw18

Today was a spend day (Direct Debit went out of the bank), so I did a 'spot' of food shopping as well - and am now over budget for the month yet again!!

Topped up on milk - got 2 more of the 50p 1% from Mr M. What we had in might have lasted until Sun/Mon, but next spend day isn't planned until Tues and I suspect the offer ends on Sunday.
Discovered I'd no chips in the freezers and finished off the sweetcorn last night, so replaced both of those
Used the last of my (non home grown) potatoes tonight, and my home grown ones are tiny baby ones so not suitable for some of the meals I have planned (plus DS isn't a fan of them :mad: ) - so picked up a pack of 4 baking potatoes which should see us through to the end of the month

I then went and checked out the Whoopies...... always dangerous, even when I'm trying to be restrained

Picked up :-
pack of 6 strawberry Petit Fil0us (9p)
pack of 10 slices of chicken (9p)
tub of tuna salad (that's lunch for tomorrow sorted for just 19p :T)
block of specialist Lancashire cheese (normally way beyond my budget, but wasn't going to turn down a 462g block for 19p )
french loaf (been wanting to try this for a while, but have never seen it reduced below 49p -- tonight it was 25p )
cross-cut batard (a customer on Tuesday evening - when I did my last Whoopsie hunt - was raving about them, so figured it's worth a try at 19p)
but the best bargain of the day was two trays of cooked Topside of Beef. 79p a tray, and a combined weight of 780g. I've now split this into 8 portions of 90-105g and popped it into the freezer, so that's 8 roast beef dinners for me after DS moves out

Total spend today came to £6.30, with £2.60 of it being spent on Whoopsies with a 'real' vaue of £21.91.
The beef alone came to just £1.58 against an original cost of £11.62 !!!!

4kids4cats

Hi folks.
Have just added up all my receipts for the last 10 days and updated my signature. Also included is last night's shop - I used mysupermarket for the first time - brilliant!!:D I couldn't get over all the clever features like swapping products to save money and calories. I usually find MrA cheapest and it was on mysupermarket too - I was really shocked at the differences in prices - if I shopped in Waitrose I'd be £50 poorer today! (Actually I wouldn't cos I didn't have an extra £50!) I did stock up on lots of heavy things as I am still car-less and it came to £74.44 which I thought was pretty good. I am a big fan of Belvoir soft drinks and they had Pomegranate and Raspberry Presse for 50p a bottle instead of about £2.65 - I couldn't quite believe it - bought 6 (some for Christmas).
I am shopping very differently this month - partly because I was away for quite a bit of it and partly because lack of car means I am thinking very carefully about whether I really need things before I set out on my bike - I am going to try and keep this up when I have another car as it is really saving me money. It does mean I haven't had any NSDs though, as we are shopping little and often, but I only have to get through till next Tuesday and I still have £127.94 left in the budget - I should make it for the first time!:):)
Also wanted to say I tried out Spiggle's marrow recipe last week and it was delish. Went down very well with my lot - I did half of it veggie and half with bol sauce and they all ate it (except youngest, ridiculously fussy boy - he ate none of the middle but had the marrow with his pasta!), so thanks for that one! I am actually hoping to be given more marrows now! Eldest daughter did come home the other day, at 6am after a sleepover to do her paper round, with a large courgette - someone had a box with 'help yourself' on outside their house, so she did - I'm getting them trained!

muffin_man_7

4kids4cats thank you for tip about bike i normally get a bigish shop every 2 weeks used to get home delivery from mrA but lately half of the things i need are not available online so end up going to town might get my son to lend me his bike and see how i manage that way how do you pack up shopping when on a bike never done that before but always a first time when school go back will go back to walking that way can't get too much cos it hard to pull heavy load in my freezer trolley best thing i bought last year just hope it lasts a while as not seen anymore since i've got 5 days left i'm already over so will keep it a need only and hope to beat july total at least it will be a step in right direction

kirstygem

Declaring for this month at £241.82 of £230. Little bit over but did reduce from 250 last month so not heart broken. There have been some odd combinations at meal times last couple days to clear freezer space for next month. Can I please be put down for Sept £250 as have my DDs birthday party to cater for.

brodie1_2

Hi all,
decaring 324.44 thats 24.00 pound over.
cheers Brodie1

WelshWoofer

Hi,
Thanks to everyone for their comments about Tesco prices. I thought I was right but it seems I am!

Next week I'll be going back to drawing cash out of the bank and going to Mr S for the supermarket stuff (bread, milk, tins etc) and to the local greengrocer for F&V.

I'm trying to economise this month even further with the grocery budget to help out other areas a bit -we have enough meat and freezer stuff for another week (after the forthcoming week) so hopefully will just need fresh stuff and the odd thing - I'll try to make it under £30 - miracles can happen!;)