October 2010 Grocery Challenge

Sunnyday

Hi peeps,

just popping on to say a big thankyou to CW18 & JayJay14 for the links, i`ll have a look at them tomorrow.:D

SD

Long_tall_sally

Hello everyone.

Gosh, this thread is moving really fast at the moment! I have had 3 more spends to add to my total! £5 in Market on cobs & F & v, £2 in Iceland on bread and £20 in Asdas on Weetabix and gluten free cereal. I have spent so much already plus we had lunch out today which hasn't helped the budget at all but was so nice. (Felt like we were sneaking off as my kids were picked up by their Dad at 1 o'clock so it was just OH & I and we didn't tell the kids we were going. Naughty but nice!)

Congratulations muffinman 7 on your new grandchild and also Xspender on either a new baby or grandchild?

Moozie - your comment about your 2 kids who have "forgotten" that they have moved out made me laugh!

Mrs tooti-frooti - Welcome to the challenge. You will find lots of support on here especially from people such as Spiggle, Hippeechiq and many, many others. How many are you feeding in your house?

jammy_dodger

really determined to keep track of spends thismonth thanks to this challenge
spent £15 /£200 today mostly stocking up with toiletries on offer at asda so shouldnt need any for quite some time

Hippeechiq

cw18 wrote: »

If you have one near you, my branch of B'n'M has some - think it was 49p/tin but can't be 100% sure. I debated getting one in, as I know it's something OH keeps in his house so obviously uses...... but I didn't have a clue what I'd actually use it in, so I left it while I research some recipes

I've no idea what a B'n'M is :huh: so I'm guessing I haven't got one near me :rotfl:

I use it in Pork Satay Curry, Green Thai Chicken Curry & Chicken, Sweet Potato & Coconut Curry, and I only have those once a month, so I don't get through much, but that's not the point - I hate it when something I buy suddenly shoots up in price.

adelight wrote: »

Check all the 99p/£/home bargain type shops? Both 99p stores near me always have it 2 for 99p

We don't have H0me Bargain stores down here, and sadly, I need to get a bus to get to the nearest 99p store or p0undland....£2.70 return, so it would kind of negate the coconut milk being cheap Although, actually :idea: my OH has a 6 monthly bus ticket for work, so I could nab that one weekend!

I'm really surprised that £idl don't sell it - or have I just not looked properly?

katholicos

Ate from the garden & Fridge & Pantry today.

Roated some veggies from the garden, in my new halogen oven: the last of the patty pan squash, new potatoes, parsnips, tomatoes, leeks, parsley, sage, basil (all grown by moi). Absolutely lovely! (Tea)

Also had some minestrone soup and a crusty bread roll. (Lunch)

Grilled cheese on toast (snack)

cw18

Spent a whopping £20.40 of this months £53 GC budget today :eek:


£18.70 of it vanished at Mr T - and I'll be playing a final game of freezer squeeze tomorrow morning (think I'm going to have to pull some more stewed apple out, which means I'm on crumble all week again ).

Even though I didn't/don't need any more meat, I just couldn't resist some whoopsies on stuff I have limited amounts of (pork steaks - pack of 9 for £3.05 instead of £6) or don't have any of at all (beef mince - 2x 250g pack for 65p each instead of £1.20). I'm also on a lot of chicken salads/hot chicken sandwiches for lunches this month (both of which I love) as I got 5 packs of mini fillets - should be £4 each or 3 for £10 but only paid £1.20/pack (with the plan being to use 2 fillets a meal - and the one I opened to make a hot chicken roll for tea had 10 fillets in it). When I got to the bakery they were just about to start final reductions, and as one (clearly experienced) chap was trying to explain what to do to another (clearly new) chap I made a comment that the former picked up on - and it was one that told him I worked in the same role elsewhere. Everything was supposed to be going down to 20p (which I paid for a £1.50 rhubarb crumble cake that intrigued me despite my ban on cakes), but he reduced the part baked ciabattas I wanted to 15p (as a favour to someone who works in the same area, even if for a competitor ). And from the f&V section I got a large bag of lemons for £1 instead of £2 (9 lemons in it, so lots of lemon tea and some baking coming up I think)

So of the £18.70 spend, £11.70 was on Whoopsies worth £29.70

I then paid full price for some grated cheese (on BOGOF), a tub of value cottage cheese, a large pack of value ham, a small-ish pack of value green beans (fancied a change), some red grapes (prefer green, but the red were cheaper) and a jar of marmalade. Also went to pick up the frozen peas I needed, and was debating picking up a bag of sweetcorn while there (not desperately needed, but a lot cheaper than I can get it for locally) when I spotted the value mixed veg - so I saved a lot of pennies and got that instead. The peas are 76p for a 900g bag, and the sweetcorn is 87p for 907g - but the mixed veg is 36p for 907g


The other £1.70 went into the till at L!dl - bananas, potatoes and tea bags (got some cheap ones to try and if, as I suspect, they're too weak for my tastebuds on a general basis they'll still be fine for lemon tea - I drink that a lot less stewed)

poppy-glos

Hippeechiq wrote: »

That's seriously impressive, both on your spend and on your NSDs :T and congratulations on your weight loss, which is even more impressive - very well done

Thanks also for the Cheese & Onion Fryits recipe - they sound lovely

Spends today for me of £5.99 so total spend so far £31.39 - not the best of starts, as I've got nothing much to show for it.

I've been trying to source some cheap Coconut Milk today

I've always bought it from A$da in my online shop for about 76p. It was A$das own brand, but although several different makes show up on My$upermarket, when I actually sign in, it shows none as being available to me, and if I sign into the actual A$da website it doesn't show me their own brand anymore, but one called Kingfisher at £1.09 per tin.

I went to Waitro$e today and it was £1.29 per tin, and my local Te$co only sell Amoy @ £1.93 per tin :eek: so I ended up buying 3 tins out of an Asian shop @ 99p each, but I'm not a happy bunny....why has the price suddenly shot up so much?

hi, coconut milk, i agree, i tend to buy it where i can, last lot about 70p a tin in the health food shop. Last week i tried the coconut milk powder from mr t, i think the box is 250g and 55g plus water is about a tin,so i think it worked out about the equiv of about 50p a tin (about 2.36 i think). I've used it for one curry and it worked well

claire1234

hi everyone,

second grocery challenge for me and a £15 spend in iceland today,
dont usually go there but was convient,
good prices & good offers, got salad & chicken for sarnies, some cornettos and bold which was £3 thats around £4.40 in tesco,

got plenty in freezer and tin cupboard so hopefully just top up shops for us then a big shop towards the end of the month,

love reading this thread, excellent ideas & everyone is so friendly,

skintbint_2

evening all just popped in to update my spends, not good £24 on not very much but will be menu planning and cupboard raiding tomorrow to make sure there is enough money at the end of the month and with the kids being off school the next two weeks will have to be creative with whats there unless they eat pasta everyday! ~(have got 6kg from mrT's when it was £2 for 3kg and thats not couting whats in the actual cupboard) think i'll go bramble picking tomorrow for making jam and for crumbles if the weather is half decent. off to my bed now - have a good sunday all

Hippeechiq

poppy-glos wrote: »

hi, coconut milk, i agree, i tend to buy it where i can, last lot about 70p a tin in the health food shop. Last week i tried the coconut milk powder from mr t, i think the box is 250g and 55g plus water is about a tin,so i think it worked out about the equiv of about 50p a tin (about 2.36 i think). I've used it for one curry and it worked well

Really? Well that's interesting, as I was looking at that very thing on Friday in Te$cos wondering if you would be able to tell the difference...what are the chances of that, eh?

I only use half a tin of coconut milk at a time (as I only make curry for me and OH) so have to freeze the other half of the tin, so if you can't tell the difference, it would probably suit me better to buy it dried then.....I suppose providing you always got milk in, you've always got some on hand then, haven't you, so I might get some anyway.

Thanks for that poppy-glos