October 2010 Grocery Challenge

bramble1

I have completely lost track this month! We've been really skint so have been picking up bits and peices as and when we can afford it. We've totally cleared out the fridge of all food, and the freezer only has a few bits and bobs left! I don't think i've got over budget , but will do better next month.

Sunnyday

I`ve just updated my siggy yet again, yesterday i woke up at stupid o clock so i decided to pop to mrA and picked up some good bargains. Their strong white breadflour is still 50p so i stocked up on that.

Think i have enough to last until Christmas now :rotfl:
I also had a rummage through the reduced shelf and picked up a double pack of razorblades for 25p, toothpaste for 50p and a reduced pack of dogfood for 40p :j

This morning i woke up early again so went to MrS for the 30p veg and also picked some up for DDad so another big saving there. Tonight DH is taking Ddad to MrM to do his weekly shop, on the list there are only 4 items for us so we should be fine.

I only have less than £3 to cover this and i know that DH will probably throw a couple of extra items in so i`ll probably knock off the price of part of the flour mountain and add that to next months - i could probably add it to Januarys the way i`m going with it

I sorted the kitchen cupboards out yesterday as i still haven`t found the right place for some things since the kitchen was fitted but we have tons of food in and both freezers are rammed full. I can sympathise with those of you who can`t seem to stop spending because just lately i`ve been the same. The good thing is that i`ve managed to do it and not have a wild overspend. I don`t intend on stopping now as i end up doing this every year just in case we have a bad winter.

I`ll do a storecupboard shop or three after winter when the pennies are tight, this makes sense to me as i remember last winter when the deliveries couldn`t get to the shops and the shelves were bare in a lot of places, i feel a huge sense of security knowing that i can shop from home for a couple of weeks if need be.

I have a very unusual chilli cooking in the kitchen atm as i`ve thrown pretty much everything that needs using up into the pot It should all taste good though and if its sucessfull i`ll do it again, i usually just make soups with the leftover bits so this should be a nice change.

Happy shopping peeps - not long to go now

SD

hedgesparrow

CupOfChai wrote: »

.
Plus I sort of like food shopping (weirdo, I hear you all cry!).

Me too! I love food shopping and hate shoe shopping. I feel sick in TKMaxx but could wander round a food shop forever.

We spent £3.50 on milk and tea bags - going to do a big shop tommorrow.

Flat_Eric

I went to Mr S instead of my Mr T home delivery and spent £37.06 which is much better than the £130 odd planned shop from M T. Ive planned my menu for the week basing my meals on what I have in my freezer.

I will be starting my beef rogan josh curry soon which will do for tea tonight and Monday. I think until the New Year, I will do a weekly shop at my local Mr S Metro but plan my meals around whats in my freezer and needs using up. This week's menu (below) includes lots of things hiding in my freezer !

Sat 23 : Beef rogan josh
Sun 24 : Out
Mon 25 : Beef rogan josh
Tue 26: m&s potato and veg mix with quorn
Wed 27: Pasta
Thus 28: Lamb kebabs with cous cous
Fri 29: Jacket chips, ham and fried eggs
Sat 30: m&s burgers, jacket chips
Sun 31: casserole
Mon 1 nov :Jacket chips, ham and fried eggs

Here are my lunches which I have so far planned:

Today : jacket chips
Sun 24: Out
Mon 25: UFO meal from freezer!
Tue 26: Chick pea dahl and bread
Wed 27: UFO meal from freezer !
Thur 28: pasta
Friday 29 : Pub

cookie9

£19.37 as went to M&S to get some stocking fillers first and got their fishcakes 2 for £3 and a chicken kiev for the freezer. Have cold bug so want some easy cook stand bys. Ran out of jam and needed some peanut butter for sandwiches and did a top up shop at Mr T.

Need a chicken, vegetables and some rice for £11 now to stay in budget. Off to do a freezer check now to see what is there.

wssla00

Afternoon all £21.35 spend in Asda today (see? this is why I love Home delivery- if I don't see it I don't want it!!!) but got all the ingredients I needed for Jamie Oliver's indian with some ciders for the x factor and a magazine for after (cheaper and more relaxing than going to the pub!) plus a magazine and some snacks including a pack of fruit pastilles and 24 fruit shoots. They were doing them for £4 but for some reason, one was reduced to £2.80. When I checked my receipt they had charged me the £4. So back I went to the customer services desk who duly refunded me AND gave me a £2 voucher. So all in all 24 fruit shoots for lunches cost me 80p! Bargain!

Going to have some R&R this afternoon and just take it easy.

Have a good day all!

greent

Afternoon all!

Well we're just over 2/3rds of the way through the month - and I've spent £5 over 1/2 of my budget - very confused. Normally by now I'd be getting close. I have a stupid amount of food in, too - have resorted to hiding it in cuupboards in the garage so DH doesn't see it! I know that I've not missed any receipts - so haven't a clue how I've managed it!!

It's a good place to be - but confusing at the same time!!

sharronej

greent wrote: »

Afternoon all!

- have resorted to hiding it in cuupboards in the garage so DH doesn't see it!

this really made me laugh - hello my name is Greent and I'm a closet food shopaholic :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I could just see us all at shopaholics annonymous :T I'd be sat in the next seat! I have jars/tins etc tucked away in my wardrobe

Well done though on being so comfortably into your budget this late in the month :A

I've just done an inventory of what's in the freezer because as you can see I have £3.50 to last until Sunday - it's going to be an inventive week for sure and it's half term! :eek: The freezer was also getting too frosted up so used it as an opportunity to do a very quick defrost (with boiling water).

I have found

4 packets of diced turkey breast
1 packet of birds eye findus crispy chicken
4 Beef Burgers
5 fish fingers
5 packets of tortilla wraps
bag of chips
big bag of c*stco hash browns
7 bags of bacon (2 slices in each)
2 Mince and Onion
2 Mince
1 Quiche
2 Chicken Kievs
Lamb Broth
2 Chinese Chicken
1 Packet fish cakes
dish of cooked frozen plums
10 chicken pieces
3 sausage
cooked lamb
2 bags meatballs (split down from c*stco)
Piece of Cooked Pork
1 bag mixed veg
1 bag chunky veg
1 bag steam rice
2 baby dinners
Gammon (for pasta dish)
frozen mash
2 samosas
2 small bags onion bhajis
1 puff pastry sheet
1 500g bag cheese
1 small packet stewing beef

Phew, didn't realise I had quite so much in there now all I need to do is put them into meals! I do however need to make sure that we still have lunches rather than two main meals a day iyswim?

Hippeechiq

Flat_Eric wrote: »

Out of interest, why did doing one big online shop mess you up ? Me and home delivery shops = disaster! (see my post above). I love the flexibility of HD but overspend and know I need to reign in. I used to work on the basis that I would do one HD a month and shop accordingly. bulk buy offers and stuff I needed for the month except two weeks later, I would find myself doing another "monthly" shop. I canceled an order I had planned for tomorrow but did initially think of only ordering the items needed for the week with the plan that I did another order next Saturday. but if I did a HD every week, I would be spending at least £24 in delivery charges.... which is a lot
?

Hi Flat Eric
Regarding delivery charges - I can't speak for the other SMs but A$das do 8hr delivery slots for £2 and delivery slots after 1pm of £3. It's also cheaper to have a Tuesday & Wednesday delivery before 1pm which is £3.50, after that it starts to go up, but the dearest delivery is £5.50 on peak days at peak times, so if you shopped weekly but chose 8 hr slots, your total delivery charge for 4 weeks would only be £8

I normally shop every other Tuesday/Wed - which is normally twice a month - but every so often because of dates, it means 3 shops fall in one calendar month (IYSWIM)

This month was one such month, so I decided I'd do one BIG shop. I don't really know why, but it's just messed me up. If I shop fortnightly, I try to divide my budget equally and spend roughly the same amount on each shop. This stops me buying too much of any one thing, because I know that in a fortnight I'll be shopping again anyway. But because I was doing one shop, I went over the top and spent more of my budget than I should have done, and more than I would have done if I had done two separate shops

It's almost like I thought, "well I've got to have loads of this, and loads of that because I wont be shopping for another whole month" which seemed to cause me not only to panic buy, but to buy too much of the wrong thing.

I think I'm just a creature of habit, and need to stick to what works best for me That said, I'm now faced with a November with 3 shop dates, so I don't know what to do again this month, but I do know, I won't be doing one big shop again!

Online shopping has been a godsend for me, and the one reason it wins hands down for me, is because like Rosieben I constantly have an ongoing online order, to which I add things almost daily, and then I tweak it to the amount I need it to come to, to be within my budget, before going through the checkout....it's surprising how easy that is to do, by filtering out what you need from what you want something I was never very good at when I went to the actual store to do my shopping.

I prefer to choose my own meat and f&v, so as I'm within a 1½mile walking distance of a Te$co & £idl, I get my meat mainly from £idl and my f&v from both - depending on who has the best offers. I have £100 cash per month for such purchases, and divide that between 4 envelopes (sadly, labelled week 1 - 4 :rotfl:) so I have £25 cash to spend per week for meat, f&v, milk, bread and the odd thing I might spot on special offer, which again, helps me to manage my budget better.

I appreciate that everyone doesn't necessarily have the time or shops available to them to do this - but this is how I personally manage my budget.

Sorry for the long winded post - but I hope it makes sense, and that some of it might be helpful

A NSD day here - so up to number 9, and boy do I need it!

ETA: I never allow any substitues either

sistercas

a NSD for me :j:j
having HM chilli and tacos for tea ( the tacos were on offer in mr S)

have decided to have a wander over to the store cupboard challenge as my cupboards and freezers are bulging and really need to reduce it so i can clean them all out

I prefer to do my own shop rather than get home delivery , whenever i have had them in the past i havent been at all impressed with the quality of the veg or the substitutions