October 2010 Grocery Challenge

slbhill

I think the grocery challenge sounds great - please may I play too?

I need to cut back our household costs, and this can only help! I've been tracking my costs for a month or 2 now so I've a reasonable idea where to start - I'd like to start from payday next week so I guess I should wait until there is a November thread?

I was wondering though - are brand names swear words here?? They seem to be treated like them and I am a bit confused (nothing new there then :rotfl: )

And one more question - from reading this thread a lot of people seem to favour buying "little and often" rather than doing a big shop every week or 2. In the past I've found that boosts my spending quite a lot - I admit possibly due to bad planning and a lack of self-restraint! - as well as increasing my petrol costs. Are there good reasons for the "buy teabags and shampoo today and then dog food tomorrow" kind of approach?

LannyLee

slbhill wrote: »

I think the grocery challenge sounds great - please may I play too?

I need to cut back our household costs, and this can only help! I've been tracking my costs for a month or 2 now so I've a reasonable idea where to start - I'd like to start from payday next week so I guess I should wait until there is a November thread?

I was wondering though - are brand names swear words here?? They seem to be treated like them and I am a bit confused (nothing new there then :rotfl: )

And one more question - from reading this thread a lot of people seem to favour buying "little and often" rather than doing a big shop every week or 2. In the past I've found that boosts my spending quite a lot - I admit possibly due to bad planning and a lack of self-restraint! - as well as increasing my petrol costs. Are there good reasons for the "buy teabags and shampoo today and then dog food tomorrow" kind of approach?

Welcome to the mad house :rotfl:

I think it'd horses for courses to be completely honest, some prefer to do 1 or 2 big shops online per month, reason being if you don't go to the SM you don't spend!

But some like to meal plan & shop acc to what they need for the month, others like myself tend to be Whoopsies addicted & then end up with a freezer & store cupboard so jam packed that they find they don't need to shop for a whole month.

It will prob take a month or 2 for you to find out which works best for you, so Good Luck & welcome along

katholicos

Placed an order for £166.00 of groceries today.....BUT...i was helping mum do an online grocery shop, it wasn't my grocery order :-D

No spending today for me. Yay!

Shysarah

Ooohh time to have a tot up..

£1 on onions in Tsco Tues
£8.99 on a huge bag of cat litter in local petstore on Weds
£2 on cashew nuts in HBargains, £1.76 on Stardrops (Found it after a long hunt so bought 2..lol) in Wilkos, £1.99 on 2lbs of bacon offcuts on a market stall (Brilliant)

Oooo that adds up a bit - £15.74

Ok, better update my sig

S x

TizerCat

aww gettin a bit close to my £120 budget now spent another £9.91 in $sd$ and then £20.98 in Pets corner for puppy pads x30 and spray!

Then when I got to work I looked them up in the internet and found that the small packs of puppy pads in $sd$ worked out at nearly half the price per pad of the bulk buying in PETs corner. I really must look for things cheaper else where before I buy!

still this month is a learning curve next month money saving in earnest

freakyogre

43p spent yesterday lunchtime on a box of paracetamol and ibuprofen as i've hurt my neck (again).

Then popped into Lidl after work and got a pack of 3 peppers (79p), 2 cartons of fruit juice (59p each on offer) and a HUGE block of cheese which will last me ages! (£2.99 for 1kg).

wssla00

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Oooo- I'm liking the sound of that - thanks

Sorry to hear you're feeling rough. This probably wont appeal, but whenever I was unwell, my Mum used to make me either Mash & Baked Beans - inoffensive and no strong flavours (though not sure how you'd feel about chewing a baked bean to swallow if you cant stomach tomato soup) - or scrambled egg on toast, which is pretty bland if you don't add seasoning. Em...plain boiled pasta or noodles tossed in some butter maybe?


Thanks for the suggestions both of you and hope the effects of your meds eases soon wssla00 :grouphug:

Cheers me dear have made some rice the easy way (Jamie Olivers way- can't believe I didn't do it this way before) and put in some spring onion finely chopped up and some sweetcorn. I will eat a bit later when I'm feeling up to it. I have started to settle so may even attempt a poached chicken breast.

sistercas

welcome Slbhill you will get lots of good ideas on here

I think the reason people dont type full supermarket name is something to do with the fact the more their names are typed the higher up they appear in the search engines , maybe that would give them an unfair advantage , i'm not completely sure to be honest

hippeechiq was reading another thread where you had posted and just want to give you a (((hug))

we have had beans on toast for tea , costed it out at 90p for the four of us :j ( 2 tins of branston beans 50p and 8 slices bread approx 5p a slice )
I could do with doing a few more meals as cheaply as that

edited to add wssla00 can you share jamie's easy rice recipe please

wssla00

Hello sistercas it was one mug of rice to two mugs of water, a splash of olive oil on top then covered with a lid on a medium heat until all the water is absorbed. None of that running until it's clear rubbish and it was so light and fluffy!

I am awful at rice but that seemed to work!!!

sistercas

wssla00 wrote: »

Hello sistercas it was one mug of rice to two mugs of water, a splash of olive oil on top then covered with a lid on a medium heat until all the water is absorbed. None of that running until it's clear rubbish and it was so light and fluffy!

I am awful at rice but that seemed to work!!!

thankyou , that does sound easy , i'm rubbish at cooking rice it goes all sticky and clumpy
i will defo give that a go