October 2010 Grocery Challenge

jintyb

Good morning!

Small spend today, cream for my quiche I'm making later and coleslaw and potato salad to go with it! Bought the said c/slaw and pot salad in Mr T on Friday but when I got home I realised they were dated for the same day :mad:Have dodgy tum anyway, so dont want to risk eating them.
I m making a big quiche and that will also cover my lunches for the next 2 days with salad so not too bad!
Have spent £1.59 out of my Nov budget which starts today!

franby64

Morning everyone.

Well I'm making a real hash of October!

Had an A*da shop last night which just grew to nearly £90 somehow and this has left me with about £45 for the rest of the month.
I have a meal plan for next week but I'm going to have to sit down and stretch it out for all the rest of Oct. I'm also probably going to have to plunder my C*op tokens giving me about £73 to spend in all (Xmas is going to have to look after itself!!:eek:).

I think one reason is I've been buying more bacon and eggs and cheese recently just because I fancied them - need to go back to porridge for breakfast. I do have a fair bit of dried stuff, yellow split peas, lentils, chickpeas, cannellini beans, barley and loads of noodles so I just need to be adventurous (and vegetarian I suspect) and we should be OK.

Good luck everybody.

cookiemum

Added up the weekend little spends and they came in at £25.77:eek:

It is going to be a very close one this month so planning lots of stew type things and soups in the slow cooker this week. I don't think my cupboards have been so bare for a very long time but desperate to hold out on the online shop. Wish me luck!

LannyLee

franby64 wrote: »

Morning everyone.

I think one reason is I've been buying more bacon and eggs and cheese recently just because I fancied them - need to go back to porridge for breakfast. I do have a fair bit of dried stuff, yellow split peas, lentils, chickpeas, cannellini beans, barley and loads of noodles so I just need to be adventurous (and vegetarian I suspect) and we should be OK.

Good luck everybody.

I think that's going to be the first thing to go for us, bacon at the weekend, think it's going to have to be a treat & not every Saturday & Sunday as it is now. :eek:

Hopefully this will be better for my purse & our waistlines :rotfl:

moonpixiewitch

I am at the halfway point in this month (the first one for me). I have spent over 3/4's of the budget and have now got some unexpected bills to pay before the end of the month (payday). So we are going to have to survive on whats in the cupboards and freezer/fridge for the next two weeks ! :eek: - lets hope I have bought wisely or the next two weeks could get quite interesting !!

Identifying problem areas has been a real eye opener too , going to waitrose on the way home to pick up "bargains" when they are reducing stuff has virtually stopped :j - i keep telling myself they are only bargains if you need them ! Aldi has become a bit of a star player , as has lidl (on hubbies way home from work), and went and got some stuff to make xmas puds and cakes at the weekend from sainsburys with my nectar points.
Next month will be the last month of buying fresh whole organic lamb direct from the farmer up the road until next year (we do this for 3 months per year sept, oct & nov). It does hit our food budget hard (£125) in those months but it is unbeatable quality and flavour and it is supporting our own local rural economy. We keep all the big joints in the deep freeze to use all year round for special occasions and when we have guests to dinner. Having said all that if we didnt buy it this way we probably wouldnt eat that much lamb as its soooo expensive to buy as joints and chops in the shops.
I did make 2 lots of soup at the weekend , one is lovely one isn't . I used a packet of the "soup mix" pulses and pearl barley with some stock and veg , what I have now is "soup cake" . even when reheated you still need a knife and fork not a spoon !
At least its filling ! i just know i will get complaints from the "low carb" husband when I get in

mookybargirl

Was in Mr M's at lunch and they had potato scones/cakes and I like them so was going to get them for the freezer. Reduced from 64p to 60p. Suffice to say I didn't bother with them

I've noticed the whoops stuff are more expensive than they used to be, even when I'm in the shops later in the evening.....

Winged_one

I had forgotten a purchase of 2 bottles of wine, which I added in. I also went to SQ on Saturday, when we got meat for the week (DH picked a chicken dish for Sat and we got a couple of other bits, including 4 lamb burgers which were free at the checkout). And I went to Dunnes yesterday - where I got a trolley load (having not done a "proper" shop in about 4 weeks) so did a lot of stocking up - tins of corn and soup were on special, as was a lot of baking bits, and I also got my Hallwe'en sweets (I got 6 bags, but I picked things that I will make good use of later if I don't have lots of callers). I got an idea from the special occasions board to use the little bars of Dairy Milk for the school Christmas fair.

I know I have over-spent for October, but if I spend another €90 in Dunnes before the end of the month, I will get an additional €30 voucher for December. And the things I bought will get used in the next 6 weeks or so. So I am ofsetting that too.

Menu this week:
Sat: Chicken with honey, mustard and cheddar stuffing
Sun: Proper roast chicken, roast spuds, HG carrots
Mon: Pizza (DH away and twas on special)
Tues: Chicken and mushroom pie (using leftover roast chick, and making sauce with fresh chick stock)
Wed: Lamb burgers
Thurs: Chicken tikka
Fri: DH is to do something nice (he is taking day off)

Hippeechiq

Lovely menu Winged one

Well, I've had spends on Saturday & today on milk, bread, crackers and 16 sausages totalling £7.75. Monthly spend to date £213.38 with £58.12 left in the kitty for the remaining 13 days. Panicks me a bit, until I divide £58.12 by 13 and find it's approx £4.47 per day, and then I find myself thinking, that considering I'm hoping for a few more NSD's, then surely that should be achievable? :think:

I will of course need a shed load of milk during that time - so far this month I've purchased 27 litres :eek: - bread, f&v, cereal, yoghurt, ice cream, and I also need some pork fillet (although I could jiggle the menu planner around so that particular recipe falls in November) and 8 chicken thighs, possibly some cheapie biscuits, oh, and maybe some meringues to go with some frozen summer fruit I have - but surely that should come in under £58?

Unless I've forgotten something - which I probably have - I may just still be able to do this. It's just that I've only done one big shop this month (first one was so big I couldn't afford a 2nd, and I always do 2 a month normally) and it freaks me out a bit as I keep thinking I'm bound to run out of things.

By the way - last month, I bought a mini sponge flan case (on a whim) about the size of a tea plate, and now I can't decide what to do with it.

When I was a girl, my Mum used to buy the larger ones, put drained mandarin oranges in it and then pour jelly over it (if I remember correctly). I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this one, but there's no way it would hold a pint, and possibly not even half a pint of jelly, so would any of you girls have any suggestions as to what I could make with it at all? pretty please

rosieben

Hippeechiq wrote: »

... By the way - last month, I bought a mini sponge flan case (on a whim) about the size of a tea plate, and now I can't decide what to do with it.

When I was a girl, my Mum used to buy the larger ones, put drained mandarin oranges in it and then pour jelly over it (if I remember correctly). I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this one, but there's no way it would hold a pint, and possibly not even half a pint of jelly, so would any of you girls have any suggestions as to what I could make with it at all? pretty please

I used to do this but I used a quick jel sachet rather than a pint jelly; just enough for a sponge flan case (though I think I used the larger one too); I have some in the cupboard...... another dessert sorted for this week

I just check online, 52 in sains, 68p in tesc

XSpender

Oh my! I am almost too embarrassed to post my over spending this weekend:o. The only good thing about it is that I am recording it which I haven't done since June and I am including the coffee and lunch out that we had as well as the wine and beer we bought. I need to get it under control as my maternity pay stops in December and as I was made redundant in May I don't have a job to go back to.:eek:

I have menu planned for the next 3 weeks and I only need a little fresh stuff but why do I keep buying stuff that's not on the plan and how do I stop? I must be addicted to grocery shopping:o:o