January 2011 Grocery Challenge

fedupandskint

Declaring at £103.66/£150 for Jan :j


Feb budget is £140 please Mrs M - my new month starts tomorrow with a £10 monthly budget reduction. Let me see if I can be as good as this month and eventually get it down to £100 - now that would be an achievement

Rejoining the challenge has really helped me focus on not buying for the sake of it and to use up what I have in. Still plenty to go so should manage ok for next month too

Hippeechiq

Welcome to all newbies :hello:

helen_jelly wrote: »

Isn't it amazing that when you get a random group of people together with the same aim, how much can be achieved. I am not a cook!! I don't like cooking!! The kitchen is my least favourite room in the house!! One of my aims this year is to learn how to cook from scratch even if its only a few meals - DH does the cooking for me and I do the cooking for the kids but I really need to ease his burden and thats the only thing I can do to help. He is laughing at this - and says Watch the budget go out the window now!!! Isn't he being a beast. I can hear him laughing in the other room - MEN!! Seriously though, my kiddies eat alot of carp food and this has to stop, DH will cook us a lovely curry but we can't save any for the kiddies cos they won't eat it so having spent many an hour pondering this I have reached the conclusion that its down to me to lead the way. I've adopted the "Second Purse" idea from Mothership as I think thats a fantastic way of saving some more money and have started making alot more use of the bread maker this week and now need to try another thing - a meal - one new thing each week where possible and soon not even my DH will recognise me. most of what I'm doing is down to all of you on here and another forum I post on so..............................

THANK YOU

Inspirational, funny, intelligent, caring are but a few of the words that come to mind when I think of my virtual friends on here

Love Helen x

That's a fab post Helen :T and is exactly how I feel about this thread and the people on it

prettypaula wrote: »

FYI m&S doing whole chorizo for £1.49 at the min... i think thats a good deal... if anyone loves it!

Damn! I Paid £2.29 for one last week, but thank you for sharing, it's always good to share bargains

I seem to be having a very good month, considering I've reduced my budget by £25, but I'm conscious of the fact that some of my success may be due to having food left over from Christmas - although, apart from a Gammon Joint, I don't think that has been the case.

February is also a short month for me, as my month always runs from the 1st to last day inclusive, so I think I may have to wait until March to see how I'm really managing, IYKWIM. That said, I'm still very pleased that I've only spent £236.94 out of my £250 budget so far. So £13.06 left in the kitty, up to and including Monday, and I think all I need is Bread, Ice Cream & Milk :j

Well done to all those come in on or near budget :T, and good luck to those - who like me - don't finish until Monday

NickJW

Another NSD since my flatmate is cooking. I will need to get something for lunch tomorrow. It feels weird not posting here as much, but that's because I'm not spending any money in supermarkets which has to be a good thing right?

I've also cut back drastically in spending in general. I can't remember who mentioned it, but I've taken heed and started my AF (alcohol free) days, and I am SHOCKED at how much money I've saved! My bank balance hasn't looked this healthy at this stage of a month for a LONG time! Any under-spends are going to be used on finishing paying off any debt, then added into a holiday savings fund.

So - thank you to the person who mentioned that they had started (I know I could go back reading through the past posts to find out, but I'm feeling decidedly lazy today! Sorry )

ETA: I hope your husband is okay Spiggles, and well done to people posting fabulous results already (my month finishes on the 31st Jan so I'll be here for a bit longer still)

Flat_Eric

I have been missing in action this month. I'm not sure what happened but following my return to work on the 4th January, it seemed to take all my effort to get back into the swing of the work routine particularly as with the bad weather before xmas, things hadn't been done that should have been done meaning the start to the year was very hectic and my best intentions on my food spending went out the window !

I had Mr T deliver two weeks ago and I'm intending on having another delivery on Saturday. I did a virtual meal plan (i.e, I fancy this, that and the other) and bought accordingly. Some of these foods remain uneaten almost two weeks later because plans have changed, I've been too lazy to faff making ??? or I just haven't been bothered so some two weeks later, I am finding that some of the food I bought has gone in the bin :eek: either because it is now out of date or has gone mouldy

When I find myself throwing something in the bin, I feel very cross with myself. I am sure I read somewhere that of every 3 or 4 bags bought in the supermarket, the contents of one end up in the bin. It would be an interesting experiment if there was a person at the end of the checkout who relieved you of one of your bags as soon as you paid for it and promptly dumped the contents into the bin in front of your eyes. It would certainly make me stop and think.

I've got the day off tomorrow and I intend to sit down and plan my menus for the next two weeks. That will take me up to valentines weekend. I'll try to plan for the whole month but will concentrate mainly on the next two weeks so that when I go to order my Mr T home shop, I am only ordering stuff that I know I am going to use. I don't want to find myself in two weeks time throwing stuff out.

Out of interest - what do other people use to meal plan ?? Do you write it in a spreadsheet / diary / etc ??

gdyr1945

Going to collect grandsons tomorrow for weekend. It is lovely being a granny; so much easier than being a parent. All the fun: none of the responsibility!
Always budget for 'treats' when they come. They love going to Frankie and Benny's so could end up there for dinner. We have them to stay 1 weekend a month plus the odd day. They live too far away to see more regularly, about 2hrs driving each way.
Thanks to Ts club card vouchers we have had lots of great days out at very little expense.

Thanks to ALL the information, help and support from these boards we now have 'spare' money (what an odd concept) so taking them out doesn't cause problems.

Will be too busy for next few days so will catch up on Monday. Good luck, hugs and kisses to all.

freakyogre

£4.77 spent today.

£1.98 in Asda on ice cream bars, chocolate mousse and toothpaste. £2.79 in Tesco on cheese and Pot Noodles...I know they're rubbish, but they're handy for lunch when I don't know what to take (and were only 44p)

Apart from the toothpaste and cheese it was all rubbish actually! Nevermind. Also got some shoes, bras and bedding in Asda, but that isn't counted in this total.

guccigoo

omg im over again this month, declaring £342.87 :eek::eek:, will i ever reach £250 on the plus side i know im spending less than what i would normally spend so just have to try harder each month.

Well im sticking to cooking a new meal each month, im going to be cooking Jamie Oliver's peri peri chicken just got to get a couple more bits then away i go

Big welcome to all the newbies :wave: and good luck with the challenge.

Mothership i would do the purse but i cant seem to get my head round it and figure it out, never was any good at maths :rotfl:

minnie2

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Minnie2 Sorry you've had such a sad day hun :grouphug:



I also do this, but I buy the cheapest food bags I can find, put whatever inside, then I put that bag inside a zipock/sealable bag and put a small piece of paper in between the two bags with (I keep all junk mail I receive that is blank on the back for this purpose, and also for writing shopping lists on) for example, 200g Chicken Breast diced 26.1.01 written on it.

By doing this, I always know what's in the bags, and how long they've been in the freezer. Double bagging them also helps stop them getting freezer burn, although that's not much of a risk for me, as because I put the date on everything I freeze, I rotate my stock by putting the most recently purchased underneath what has already been purchased and frozen. Value/Smart Price food bags are as cheap as chips, but are very thin, so when I've used them once I throw them away when I defrost whatever is inside them, but I reuse the ziplock/sealable bag.

PennyGrabber If you do make the Chicken Bacon Roast, if you remove the skin first from your thighs (and drumsticks if using) before wrapping the bacon round the chicken, it makes it a far healthier meal. I've made it both ways, and whereas, I normally prefer to leave the skin on my chicken, in this instance is nicer without the skin on, although you then have to add a tiny bit of oil to the pan/dish you cook it in for the potatoes.

I did have a NSD today after all, so I'm now up to 13

scotsaver wrote: »

Gracie_1827 - Happy Birthday :bdaycake:

minnie2 - sorry to hear about the Funeral.

MRSMC - Please put me down at £248.65 for Jan, £1.35 under but every little helps. Please put me down for £250 for Feb please.

Right, now that's done and I'm ready for Feb, already updated my total as I've got Donald R. order coming on the 25th of Feb and I've been to Lidl this morning so I've already spent over £96 but we WILL be within budget for Feb as we WILL have to live out of the Freezers to make room for the Delivery, got loads in there so I know we will be fine.:p

Dinner tonight is Cottage Pie, not sure what veg I'm serving with it yet, will see what's in. Not planning to do a pud as this should be filling enough.

Good luck for those still to delcare.;)

thanks everyone!! glad its over!!

Hippeechiq

Spiggle - Sorry to hear about OH hun - how awful, must've left you both badly shaken. I'm relieved to hear all the tests have come back ok, and that he seems to only be bruised and stiff.....Better that he wasn't knocked off his bike at all but thankful for small mercies and all that, eh?

sistercas wrote: »

you put me to shame , that is so organised and such a good idea
my freezer is packed with unidentifyable objects , shoved in freezer bags with nothing to say what they are or how long they have been there
I really must adopt your organised wayj

Thank you But maybe I have more spare time than you hun....I wasn't quite so organised before being made redundant and knowing what's in the freezer helps me meal plan better and in turn makes my budget planning run more efficiently because it enables me to spend less because I know what I have to meal plan with, rather than buying something I "like the look of" that I might eat at "some stage"

Again, I appreciate that I may have more time that others - but since January 2010, I've been trying to try out at least one new recipe a month. It went a bit haywire at the end of last year, but on the whole I've managed it. This has resulted in my menu plan being made up from a whole load of new recipes, with just a few old tried and trusted recipes from over the years.

I had become a bit bored of eating the same old, same old, but this has renewed my enthusiasm for meal times, and I actually look forward to what's on the days menu. I find instead of thinking: "oh no, not this again, I really don't fancy this tonight", I now look on the fridge in the morning to see what my planned meal for the day is, and think: "oooooh good, we've got that tonight" and funnily enough, despite only now spending ½ of what I was spending on food a year ago, we eat much better for it

minnie2

cant remember if ive put my total or not so can i be put down for £150 for Feb please!

still got £8.66 of Jan budget left 4days to go!!