February 2011 Grocery Challenge

martafdz

Blue cat, I know what you mean, I am also a teacher and i cannot find anything long term. I had received 3 calls for supply teacher work since the start of the academic year, all the rest had been for cover supervisor with teaching assistant rate. I have accepted anything that comes my way, though, because I really needed it. I know it's shooting my own foot and if I accept work for less they will not pay me more but I need to pay my debts so until then I am accepting everything. I might be able to suggest agencies around the NW if you want, I work with a few and can tell you which ones are calling me atm. Send me a PM if so.

Salford is next to Manchester, in fact Salford starts pretty much next to the city center so the Art Gallery, the Manchester Museum and even the Museum of Industry and Science are really close. If you go closer to Salford Quays then the Imperial War Museum. If you haven't been to the area I would highly recommend it. If you come in a week day there are some offers you can use from the restaurant vouchers here because there is a Bella Italia, Costa Coffee, Pizza Express, Cafe Rouge, Chiquito, Frankie & Benny's, Beefeater Pub, Burger King and Harry Ramsey (sp?) around the area, so you could use some 2x1 in main meal or so. Also a Vue Cinema I think the only days you cannot use it are Fridays and Saturdays. There is a tram directly in front of all this that take you into the city centre, in case you want to park into The Lowry Outlet mall (I think is 4h parking free with some spent, even a coffee, you need to stamp your car park ticket) and then go to the city centre with the tram (there are family passes for £3.5 or so but can't remember how many people the ticket is for). The BBC buildings and a new foot bridge are now finished, you can wander around. The area is really nice for walking around the canals... you can tell I like it :rotfl:

eveie189

Thanks Martafdz for helping with the 2nd purse thing, although Mothership PM'd me a little while ago so with both explanations I think this is definately something I will work into my GC

Mothership - Thankyou for taking the time to send me the 2nd purse info and i'm glad your day went well.

Eveie

mothershipton

having a successful grocery month so far only spent £155, We are also being quite successful in not spending as we only have £150 in the bank account till payday. Have got to find another £500 to pay off 0% card in april. Fingers crossed we make it

Candy_Belle

Morning All

Hugs to all that need them:grouphug:

I'm declaring £214.72 for Feb as my month runs from 21st - 20th.

Could you please put me down for £235.00 for March

Have a good day everyone x

SOT2011

Another expensive (relatively) weekend of food shopping for me.

Did my food plan and list for the next week, then went to L**l first and got what I could, then Mr T for the rest.

Unfortunately between Mr T & Mr L shop, a few things got added to the list, including the ingredients for some yummy chicken wings and a bottle of wine :eek: so ended up spending £79.71 in total - £16.49 in Mr L and the rest in Mr T. Well over target weekly spend.

This brings monthly spend to £238.51/£300 target with one more weekly shop to go.

On the plus side, chicken wings were lovely and we have all the ingredients to make them again apart from the chicken, and we should (I really hope we can) be able to get a few store cupboard meals for next weeks plan so the last weekly shop to fall in this month's budget should be a smaller one.

Having said all this, I am dissappointed that not doing better - 90 % of the time seems to be going ok, then seem to fall at the last hurdle, still a long way to go on this as is only the first proper month of it for us, but I had hoped that the £300 target would be an easy one to stick within and it has not proved as easy as I hoped.

Catslovelycats

Morning all
Wondered why my grocery spend is so low this month. Realised that I haven't been adding in my school dinners and break time snacks and coffee....
Off to get some groceries later so shall come back and update/correct my siggy with the tru figure.Haven't posted on here for a while so I shall make the point of trying to catchup onall your posts too.

highland_fling_2

Good morning everyone,

having stew, mash and brussel sprouts for dinner today. Usually have a full roast dinner but have a lot of paperwork to finish so opting for the easy option.

Have a bag of carrots in fridge. Hopefully will sit and grate them later and bag them up for freezer. Really convenient when making soup.

Might make a few doughballs to go with stew. depends how well I progress with paperwork.

Hope you all have a frugal day.

quintwins

well i spent £15 on fish and chips yesterday and £5 on happy meals, tbh the week i've had as made me relise there are alot of things more important than money so i will still be doing the challenge but i don't care if i go over, next week is going to be very stressful aswell so i will prob get a few treats then aswell, hope your all well

WelshWoofer

Just back from Mr T's and actually came in within budget:j:j
I had budgeted £40 but hoped to spend more like £30 as I had some clubcard vouchers (£7 worth). I actually spent £29 after vouchers and managed to get more than I thought I would for that.

I'm starting Slimming World again this week (hello Mrs M!) so bought lots of fresh veg and fruit, no naughties apart from 1 pack of choc digestives (value of course!) for OH and things for packed lunches. I don't really like bread and find lunches a struggle so have decided to make a pasta salad, some couscous and a salad to take this week.

I even managed to get my 8 pack of Diet Pepsi in the total (on offer) and the Cappuchino coffee stuff that my mum likes so am very pleased.

Today's dinner is a mini lamb roast from the butcher for OH (quorn sausages for me) with broccoli, carrots, roast potatoes, peas, yorkshires and gravy. Yummy!

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all i popped into town yesterday and got a few bits so need to add £5.00 to my total £171.14/250
I have quite a bit left so have added things I bought that aren't necessarily 'grocery' like 2 wash baskets, and some tupperware....but they all relate to the house and i have to take the money from somewhere so will take from here! I still have my last weekly shop from this month to go so really hoping i can get it all in under budget esp as i am just running out of lots of things!