November 06 Grocery Challenge

cheerfulness4

Catzine - Sometimes you just need a one off break don't you. Glad you enjoyed yourself. The worst time is when you blow it and you didn't enjoy whatever the extravance was. That's a real bummer!

Pigpen - 8 kiddies?? wow, your breadmaker must never be off. :eek:

Well, have found that making my own wholemeal bread is going to be a lot cheaper & nicer than buying it. AND last night DH and DS2 both guzzled it down. All more pence in my purse.

cupid_s

pigpen wrote:

the bizarre thing is.. I hate it.. I would go without rather than eat wholemeal!! I think it tastes like tree bark! (yes I have!!)

Have you tried Burgen wholegrain and cranberry bread? I hate wholemeal bread but love this and very rarely buy anything else now. It's good for you, which is the only reason I bought it in the first place.

On a different note. I worked out exactly what I spent on groceries last month and it was less than £110 for 2 adults. That is amazing for me. I am going for £100 this month. So far I have spent £13!

newlywed

cupid_stunt wrote:

On a different note. I worked out exactly what I spent on groceries last month and it was less than £110 for 2 adults. That is amazing for me. I am going for £100 this month. So far I have spent £13!

What day did your month start on? :eek: I wish I'd only spent £13 since the beginning of the month!! Although each month I am spending less than the last one....

cupid_s

newlywed wrote:

What day did your month start on? :eek: I wish I'd only spent £13 since the beginning of the month!! Although each month I am spending less than the last one....

The first! Last month I got a bit carried away in tesco at about quarter to 8 when the nice lady was reducing everything. Then I spent about 4 hours trying to fit it all in the freezer, before my mom and dad came to visit bringing 43 chicken breast fillets and a joint of beef with them!

So I have enough food in my freezer to feed a small army (or to do me and hubby about 70 main meals). Hence since the beginning of this month I have bought:

1 venison joint
buffalo burgers
potatoes
carrots
raspberries
strawberries
and a few lots of bread and milk!

newlywed

Hmmm. Feel a late night trip to Tesco coming up next month!!! There's never much that we'd eat in the reduced section of the small Tesco at lunchtime, except white bread for the boys

twistyfing

am new to this but would love to give it a go

worked out over the weekend that some months we spend £400 :eek: On average though it is 320 pcm over the year so I am trying to keep to a budget of £300 for November

have £55 left til the 1st of Dec....

btw - there are 4 of us 2 adults and 2 teenagers we have all started to make our own lunches and our pets food is budgeted for seperately (dog on James Wellbeloved and 2 cats on Iams)

cupid_s

good luck with it twistyfing.
there are loads of good tips here for cheap meals i've cut down my budget so much.

newlywed

This is definitely the right place for it!
I halved my shopping bill just in the first month of meal planning properly and shopping more carefully (and making from scratch rather than buying ready-made cakes, sauces etc). Spent a bit longer in the kitchen but for the halved bill, our stomachs haven't felt anything about a lack of food so far!!!

Got some way to go yet on reducing the food bill though!!

pigpen

twistyfing.. I'd stop gettingt he iams.. they actually aren;'t that good for your moggies anyway as the nutrient balance is wrong.. something cheaper would probably be better for them. I average around £600 a month for 2 adults and 8 children that eat like they have never been fed! so £400 is a lot.. I have 2 cats and 2 rabbits too.. the rabbits cost more to feed and care for than the cats!!

Cupid_Stunt ... No i've not tried anything else.. I have started sneaking a cup of wholemeal flour in the whiote bread which I make for myself.. I am allrgic to red fruits anyway so cranberries are out anyway.. and cherries which I think are DIVINE and strawberries which I also LOVE! .. isn't it just unfair?!

BusyGirl

I blew the budget by £30 and I blame it on the time of year as I keep buying little bits and pieces of food for Xmas. I have managed to reduce my monthly grocery shop by around £100-£120. I'll try again next month but I will probably go over with Xmas coming. So I might pass the challenge in the new year (hopefully)!