December 2010 Grocery Challenge

NickJW

I never thought I would say this but it's raining and I'm SOOOO happy! I love the rain today! (Sorry Hippiechiq) The snow is melting and I managed to get into town with my friends to do some Xmas shopping! :j

Well....more of the shopping was for me :o. I haven't been proper clothes shopping in over year (I've bought a couple of pairs of jeans and maybe 4 T shirts in 2010 until today), and I must admit I got carried away with GAP 30% off all jumpers, and Debenhams 20% everything. I spent about £250 on clothes, which did also include a new coat and boots for the winter, which is shocking, but sorely needed since my other clothes are turning into rags at the moment.
HOWEVER - everything I bought was discounted, and I didn't pay full prices for everything....

Also spent £20 on a meal at a lovely Chinese restaurant - that included starters and a couple of drinks. Will update signature. Lunch was a late 3.30pm so I haven't had anything for dinner

I also need to go into town tomorrow (Oxford Street) to finish off buying presents, but I'll take a McDonalds voucher tomorrow. I know it's not perfect, but £1.99 for a meal is a lot cheaper than going to a proper restaurant. I'll be on my own so I may finish earlier and just go home for a late HM lunch instead. I'll see how it goes.

Monday I'm going to start the Christmas food shopping (meat, alcohol, cheese and party food), so I just need to get veg the week before xmas day.

I feel like money is slipping through my fingers at the moment - my fault, I know, so I'll see how I go at the end of the month!

katholicos

Heyup folks, NSD number 4 today. Dug some Quorn mince out of the freezer and bunged it in the slow cooker with a large two litre bottle of LLoyd Grossman Chilli tomato pasta sauce and a tine of kidney beans. Plenty for today and tomorrow and i ate some tonight with some brown rice. Very tasty :-)

janie-h

Hi all
Was very naughty/lazy and forgot to take lunch to work on Thurs & Fri, so spent £6.00 on sandwiches, crisps and coffee.

Also, nipped to local today for much needed loaf of bread (£1.00) and 2 choccie bars begged me to buy them! (74p).

I WILL be more organised next week and fill out my meal planner and stick to it!

Just off to update my sig, hope you are all keeping well in all the snow x

pepsi-kins

Hi All,
First spend of the month today, got some extra bits for Xmas, but not going mad. I was going to buy some cakes and mince pies etc, but then thought I've got all the ingredients in the cupboard,so I will make as much as I can, rather than buy unnecessarily. We had our annual company meeting yesterday, and we always have a raffle, I won a nice tin of biscuits, choccies and savoury snacks, so pleased with that, only spent £2 on the tickets (never usually win anything)

I spent £24 today in Mr A, on hair stuff which was 2 for £5, and tooth brush heads which were half price, I stocked up on these, but won't be using them until next year, so I will count them in next years budget.

Someone (sorry can't find the post now) was asking earlier about Mil0 drink, I've seen it in both Mr. A and Mr. S, its in a bright green container.

Have a good week everyone x

LolaLemon

sort of disaster day today
My Scotch broth is a lot better than last night (as i always find with broth, the longer it lies the nicer it tastes.) anyways, today was my 3year olds first christmas treat with his nursery - a trip to the local cinema (no charge for him or me!) so i thought id buy some popcorn as i hate the smell after making it at home, plus we kinda slept in a bit, all goes fine, the film was great - well i thought so, my son didnt lol- it was Megamind.... we took a trip in town, ive been trying to get him waterproof gloves, probably ski'ing ones, but they've been sold out consistantly they have them in my size but im not paying £12-15 for them, im not making snow/ice balls lol whilst out he needed to toilet and our town has no working toilets just now!! so we went to a cafe, HAD to get lunch as u cant use without being a customer (grrr) son got burger and chips (£4.50 kids menu!), i got chicken noodle soup (£1.90) and 2 diluted blackcurrent juices, total was £8ish!
we went to pet shop as ive got him a cold water tank for christmas, just a little one from b&m at £10, so looking at some guppies/goldfish, i recon he's going to be super excited! (bit of a let down from a kitten tho lol).
Son needed toilet again so left and went to Mr T's (where i parked the car)
and spent near £7 on
2 litres of full fat goats milk(£1.34 ech, 4p cheaper than normal),
2 loaves, h0vis i think, (£1.20 each or 2 for £1.50),
jar of strawberry jam (36p) (Mr T's own label)
New House Card at £1.50 , met my cousin and his girlfriend and he tells me he got the keys last week, he's gonna take my tumble dryer taht i have used 3 times in 3 years!
local paper 40p
Cant remember if i got anything else, dont think i did

For my first shop of the month, its not bad, i did forget to get meat for packed lunches this week and butter for baking, i like a big pack of stork, i have half of one left, but its my birthday this week and i promised my son id make a cake (the big jumbo cupcakes! I'll add one to my crochet blog on my profile as i cant add pics/links yet) and i like to bake on christmas morning for the neighbours who are fantastic (and a lot older than me, but if i called them elderly or penshioners, they'd give me a good swipe across the head lol) so need at least 1 tub.

I have some sort of meat defrosting in the fride, think its stewing steak or something similar, so going to put that in the sc before swimming tomorrow. have some mince to use up as well, so maybe half n half for mince n tatties/shepards pie and spag bol n that sould be us for a few days, hopefully.

Tonight for dinner we had loads of my broth soup with buttered bread, what was missing was salt! i had put in some garlic salt but no ordinary (sea) salt. tasted perfect when i added some lol

toddles*

Spent £45 online from Mr A last night. Love sitting at home with a brew and doing my shopping online. I used to love browsing the supermarkets but with a 2yo little girl who wants "everything" its just such a chore.

Went up the loft yesterday to get my toddlers xmas pressies out. Whenever i see something she will like either at Carboot, NCT sale or freecycle and shes too young for it I save them all in the loft. I managed to get her out about 15 pressents. along with only a couple ive bought from an actual shop. Saves me a fortune and shes not going to know they are used toys and only cost me £1 each rather than £29.99 each! I think with the money I save it will pay for xmas dinner lol


happy Sunday everyone

kippers

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi and welcome youngmummy,

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the sm try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - We didn't start using this until recently and I think it was because I predominantly shopped at MrT but became increasingly peeved by the prices they now charge. The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. MrM is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br**d F**d 4 Less too.

Invest in a breadmaker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use there and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for f&v than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs at £1.25 per half dozen there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at that price. Obvioulsy if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better healthwise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

Spigs

Fab post, well done:T:T:T:T:T

Yesterday I bought some bits and bobs...ham, cream, hard marg (for lovely mince pies) and i am now left with £95 until 24th Dec.

I am having friends over on 24th Dec so i must leave some money for this. After much searching on here i have decided the cheapest option for 6 adults, 2 teenagers and 3 kids, is a big bowl of chilli to serve with a choice of either rice or jacket spuds and a h/m pizza for the kids. I'm not sure about pudding yet as i will have xmas cake, mince pies and a chocolate log (all h/m) anyway, so not sure if i need anything else?....what do others on here think?


Anyway i must must keep the money saving up

Flat_Eric

Morning all

I am pleased to report a total spend so far this month of just £34.37. I haven't really done a proper shop for a few weeks which has meant that I am either using up what I have or have gone without.

I will be doing a shop today so will have a further update to report later but as I have to carry it home on the bus, its going to be limited to just what I can carry and I think I should limit myself to a basket rather than a trolley so that I don't overbuy and then struggle home ! (my favourite party trick!)

I will probably have a home delivery shop next weekend. I haven't had one since mid October. I haven't missed the financial headache home delivery shops give me although I still think they (if done properly) are the best option.

I have tried a different approach - going to the supermarket weekly (its a metro type store) and buying just what is needed for the week albeit my last visit for a "weekly shop" cost me in excess of £100 and I didn't even get a petrol coupon or any other lovely coupons to thank me ! I did have a list but as I walked round the store, I found myself throwing stuff into the basket either because it was on offer or it took my fancy. SO I think I am going to go back to a Home delivery shop but have one once a month and buy all the basics, tins etc, loo roll, cat food and then shop accordingly every week for the rest of the month (for the essentials, bread, milk etc).

Hoping to come under budget and not overspend this month !

jintyb

Morning all,

Spigs - thank you for that wonderful post, I'm going to print it off and stick it up in my kitchen so I will have a reminder of why I do this!:A

Nick - enjoy your new togs, sounds like it was a well deserved and needed treat!;)

mummyroysof3

kippers wrote: »

I am having friends over on 24th Dec so i must leave some money for this. After much searching on here i have decided the cheapest option for 6 adults, 2 teenagers and 3 kids, is a big bowl of chilli to serve with a choice of either rice or jacket spuds and a h/m pizza for the kids. I'm not sure about pudding yet as i will have xmas cake, mince pies and a chocolate log (all h/m) anyway, so not sure if i need anything else?....what do others on here think?


Anyway i must must keep the money saving up

I think that sounds a lovely meal, i wouldnt do anything more than that