November 2010 Grocery Challenge

XSpender

Cobbled together tea was very nice last night and no complaints from DH about being hungry;)

First spend of the December challenge today; £11.65 on my veg box delivered this morning. Really pleased with this week's as everything in there will be used up as it is stuff I would normally buy.

We are off to Mr M tonight, as long as there is not any more snow:eek:, and need quite a bit but have written a list and a meal plan so as long as I keep DH in check we should be fine. I will make him something to eat before we go which should curb his desire to chuck a load of rubbish in the trolley as he is hungry.

slbhill

Payday today so I am declaring for November - £183.27 spent from a budget of £180. I am happy with that, not going to get annoyed by £3-odd!:beer:

Yesterday's weekly shop was whoopsie heaven! I rarely buy many because most things at my local Tesc0 are only reduced a bit, and it's often "premium" products so even with the reduction they're still more expensive than a standard or value one. Last night, however, 2 packs of sirloin steak at 40p each made me very happy - a steak is a real treat and at that price it would be rude to say no. 2 tubs of chilled beef in gravy (pie filling or stew starter) down from £3.50 to 35p each, and suitable for home freezing, also fell into the trolley, along with 3 boxes of mushrooms at 8p each (2 of which had a couple of days left on the date & looked perfectly fresh!). And 23p for a posh sandwich for today's lunch so I didn't have to make any last night. Fantastic - I guess it was somebody different from usual marking prices last night, I hope they become a regular on Thursday evenings!!! Either that or the machine was stuck on 90% off :beer:

The challenge has definitely helped me feel more in control of my grocery costs, so I'd like to join in next month as well please, with 2 weeks at home over Christmas to add to the level of challenge. As my freezer is (very!) fully stocked I'm going to aim for £160 in December but if there is any big expense on booze then I'm going to exclude that (is that cheating? LOL).

Winchelsea

Hello all, have not been here for a while.

I have £1.87 left in my food purse, but feel sure I won't have to spend any more until the end of the month. I got my fortnightly veg box on Tuesday, and have plenty of stuff in the storecupboard and just enough eggs, cheese, etc, in the fridge.

It does help with the finances, being a veggie (have been since 1978). Another advantage - I always had a weight problem until then, but despite nice loaded plates of lovely dinners I tend to lose rather than gain now. Just have to make sure I bake, then I'm fine! (Bread pudding, muffins, chocolate cake or brownies..... etc, etc, yum,yum!) I always make my bread too, but sometimes forget and do it a day late! - then it's something like crispbread from App Food!

slbhill

LannyLee wrote: »

On that subject where can I get reasonable cat food from, my 2 are fussy & will only eat it from a tin with either gravy or jelly & MrM have stopped doing there 24 tray for £9.50 & they won't east ASD@ supermeat food so it's pointless getting there 24 pack.

Any ideas?

Have you looked online? Mine has to have medicated food (dry) & I found it cheapest at Pet Supermarket, especially with the 5% cashback on Quidco. I just had a quick look & it doesn't look as cheap for tinned food as your 24 for £9.50 - but which supplier is cheapest seems to depend a lot on what you're buying so it might be worth a look round. Of course if your cats are "real" then as soon as you buy a big stock they'll go off it forever!!

de1amo

we are up to about 291 gbp so far--we started from a completely empty fridge and freezer and now have quite a store so we should last to the end of the month and then i will judge how much the value of 'stored' food is to get as accurate an idea as i can!--i dont know whether to add in the value of the food we eat in our business??--i have also added in takeaway food because we have that at least 2 times a week and i feel supplements our intake!!

findingmyfeet

hi everyone,
hope im ok to ask on here-im having to doa buffet for ten people the weekend before christmas half kids half adults and thought if i plan it now i could do all the food homemade and make it alot cheaper for myself. what would you all suggest as possible dishes and what could i do to make it look fancy for not much cash. Cant ask anyone to bring anything with them as i would feel real bad as they are much worse off than me, only need one bottle of wine as adults are driving anyway. aparently kids are total junk food eaters as well. Any suggestions greatfully recieved.

i thought hm pizzas , quiches, wedges, etc but then got stuck

thanks

losingpatience

Hmm you could make scotch eggs, sausage rolls, pies, frittata, cakes ( muffins, cupcakes, victoria sponge etc ), homemade breadsticks with some homemade dips . Are you wanting to do anything hot? A batch of chilli or curry with some rice or homemade bread maybe?

rosieben

de1amo wrote: »

--i dont know whether to add in the value of the food we eat in our business??--

surely you need to keep that separate as you said the person who bought the food at work shops economically?

NickJW

Updating a few spends today - £2.78 in Mr T, £5.14 in Mr S, and £4.85 in the local shop - £12.77 in total. Still under budget with a few days to go so happy. It's the best I've done so far in this challenge, and that's even with food still in the fridge, freezer and cupboard! :T

Still need to get some BOGOF bagels from Mr T tomorrow, but I'm hoping that should be it.

Quick question - I've bought some chillis, but I definitely won't use them all before I go away. If they stay in the fridge until the week starting the 13th December will they still be okay? And if not, do they freeze okay?

de1amo

i wish i could get our school chef to shop for us!! she shops at the equivalent of Mr T and we go to Mr Waiter by our bills!!i am a Mr L shopper in the uk with occasional trips into Mr A so definately not Mr Waiter--i agree that their is no quality difference between Mr L and Mr waiter in the uk but i believe you get more variety of products in Mr Waiter eg fresh fish etc---we eat that at least once a week here!