January 2011 Grocery Challenge

Tracey2609

Lola76 wrote: »

Hello Everyone!


Thank you for all your tips and notes!!!

After setting a challenge for this month i seem to be thinking twice before going close to the supermarkets. usually i shop on Saturdays but then i pop in to Mr. W or Mr. C op a few time a week for bits and bobs.
things that started me off:

1.did a stock take of my cupboards, i seem to have amongst other things 12 packs of pasta, 19 cans of all sorts of peas and beans, around 4 kilos of different sorts of rice,and had to get rid of an out-of-date meringue nests and vacuum packed beetroot today! this shows that i had a little idea of what is in my cupboards...

2. stock take of my freezer - it had, 12 breasts of chiken, 2packs of mince, 2 bags of prawns, 3 packs of sausages, 8 (!) tuna steaks, Ham and 2 huggises (not sure what to do with them) they have been brought to us as a gift. large bag of freshly frozen bluckcurrants. 2 packs of tortilla wraps. a loaf of bread

3. wrote out a menu for this week. all food is based on the contents of my cupboard and fridge. i will find it not as hard to stick to my 40 pounds.

i have a slow cooker and use it a lot for the last few years. Bread machine however does not get used as much, is it really cheaper to make my own bread rather than buy a loaf from the shop? if so is it still cheaper to use ready bread mix?

The only problem I have with home made bread is that it gets eaten quicker in our house - especially when it's still warm! Shop brought bread lasts longer!

angelatgraceland

I now fancy some cauliflower chees too! I think Ive got a bag of cauli in the top of my freezer(reacheable). I could do it half cauli and half pasta-Im tempted!

Caltha

madras79 wrote: »

.so temting to buy food, i swear i am addicted to food buying its like having withdrawel symtems stop buying so much food.i need this thread like therepy any one else like this.

Yep, I'm exactly the same. Its like fighting an addiction. I know I use a trip to the supermarket as an excuse to avoid doing other more important stuff that needs to be done.

Winged_one

I had to get milk this afternoon, and got some small bags of popcorn to stop DD getting into my stash of Walkers Baked (my niece and nephew gave me a 6 pack each for Christmas, when they were over from the UK, as the kind I really like, ready salted, aren't sold over here!). And a bottle of calpol as there seems to be something brewing in DD. So an additional just under €7.

Lunch was an old tin of condensed tomato soup, with a small tin of tomatoes, an onion and some herbs I'd dried from the plot. We made a dinner of a beef stew using a whoopsied pack I'd frozen, with frozen leeks, peas and beans from the plot too.

I am somewhat annoyed though that entertainment budget took a hammering. Megamind was too scary for DD, and she knocked over the popcorn on the way out, so we went for a cup of coffee instead (she really needed some "mommy and me" time today). I managed to pick up a lovely Christmassy cookiejar for a very good price, that I have put away to fill with cookies as a present next December. But I must stop spending otherwise for a while, until next paycheque comes in. (Was OK, but forgot that I'd paid in IKEA - will transfer money from savings tomorrow to offset).

Long_tall_sally

I had another smallish spend today in the Co op. I had noticed yesterday that they had mullerlights yogurts half price on the packs of 6 but didn't get any then because the dates on them weren't very good so got some today with better dates. Also got some veg, some whoopsied prawns for £1.20 & some pate for 50p.

Pixie Fairydust - I don't really have any tips to give you because as you can probably tell from my signature that I am not very good at this grocery challenge malarky even though I have been trying for a while! I just wanted to say however that my DS aged 9 is also diabetic (as well as having Coeliac disease so has to have gluten free food) & I don't think that this makes it any easier to keep the food bill short. I obviously don't know what regime your son is on but mine is breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, bed time snack & then quite often 11 pm snack before I go to bed if his levels are not high enough & it certainly all adds up (especially at G/free extortianate prices!). He is due to change onto a different regime in a month or so which means that snacks will not be so necessary & I look forward to that, although of course I will have to convince him then that he no longer needs them!

Sorry, I am waffling a bit! :cool:

Pixie_Fairydust

Thank you SilverS and HappyCrafter for your tips, will take note, will try the baguette pizza idea, they love pizza!

I will try to cut back gradually as I think doing it in one go will be too difficult.

Would love to try some easy cakes/biscuits, will look at the beginning of the thread.

Am thinking of getting a bread maker, I've never had one and people at work have given me mixed reviews? What do you think? Have been told not to get a cheap one as you are limited to what you can make, is this right? Can you leave it running overnight?

Thanking you all in advance.

Will do my Jan gc myself then may go public in Feb, see how I get on! :T

laurasbump

I'm running a bit late on this one - looking to stick to £400.

I have a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 toddlers.
Our grocery bills has been running to £650 plus monthly since September. Since we're in serious debt this is definitely unsustainable.

I'm going to limit us to £400 a month for now as I need to buy nappies for both children this month and I usually bulk buy depending on who has the best deals.

I know we can do this - the cupboards are full but we just can't stop shopping!

Laura

Keybilly

Hippie, my first NSD today. :-)
It's going to be a spend day tomorrow, I'll be picking up some veggies and eggs from the farm shop near my uni. Also, I need decent coffee at uni otherwise I fall asleep. I could take a thermal mug with me but the coffee tends to be cold by the time I reach my destination. The decent coffee is £1.50 so it's not as bad as the other coffee shops charging £3 for a cappa.

To ensure we keep our food bills down, is there a list of foods that are taxed? I guessing sweets and crisps have risen in cost due to the increase in VAT this year.

Well done to the peeps who have had 3 NSD's - I'm well jealous.
Kx

bramble1

Keybilly do you preheat your thermos before you put coffee in? I never knew you had to do this nad got annoyed my tea was never warm!

fedupandskint

Well it was a spendday for me today with 2 prescriptions to pay from, lottery work money due for the last time now its ending and then realised as it was a spend day surely it would be a good idea to buy some milk and fruit juice cartons needed for later this week

toddled off to sainsbugs and returned £11.38 lighter for 8 pints milk, 18 catons of basics fruit juice in apple and orange, 10p double cream for freezing 300ml, half price macoys crisps 6pack, half price 4 cans napolina tomatoes (my weakness) basics tuna and sweetcorn and a lettuce to have in tuna and sweetcorn sandwich next week. Might have been some thing else? Apples and pasts. Anyway that should be it for this week as have enough clementines and bananas for next week