March 2011 Grocery Challenge

NickJW

Thanks tigerfeet. Glad I asked - it makes more sense now! :-)

TheThriftyScrumpers

Morning All
Just updated my signature with my weekend spends.

The trip to the butchers went well. We got 1/2 lamb all portioned and ready for the freezer for £65. It was 12 kg (including bones) We felt like we got a good deal but would be interested to see what others think.

Made a lovely stock from the bones and got enough meat off them to make a stew padded out with veg and dumplings.

Call in at Mr T's last night as I was passing at about 8pm to see if I could get any woopsied items. Nothing, the shelf was bare and there were lurkers!! Never mind.

I hope you all have a great day xx

tessie_bear

hi....still going quite well here...just making some cakes and need to think up a pudding for tonight....might do a jelly...we like the sugar free lime flavoured one

making kebabs for tea....i got some piri piri sauce in b and m so will use that on the top of them

i made chocclares chinese chicken yesterday...very nice made the kitchen smell lovely....thanks for posting

take care
tessa

laineyc_2

Morning all.

I only need to pick up onions and chilli peppers today. Need to finish my meal planning for the month.

lotti379

£6.90 in Waitr*se yesteday, taking us up to £159.88/£200

Off to update sig now!

rosieben

bexs.ua wrote: »

Well everyone I'm here to confess :o ............ I thought I was doing really well, but after yesterday I feel this month may fail....

don't be disheartened bex, you're making progress - think how much would you were spending on groceries before you joined the challenge

I'm trying fortnightly online shops instead of monthly; I'm hoping it will keep me better stocked with veg and fruit and save me having to buy from the expensive and poor choice available locally.

I've been craving salads, so I stocked up wtih some goodies from the farm market yesterday - one of my rare shopping expeditions these days; I thoroughly enjoyed it but I remembered when I had the car it was a weekly chore I hated!

123budget

Well didn't manage to avoid the locals shop during the week as needed milk and couldn't resist choccie biscuits. Over budget by £31.42 but thats it now for the month as pay day in 2 days. So declaring total march spend £481.42/£450.
Think realistic budget for April will be £500 due to school holidays. Think I am going to attempt a monthly meal plan instead of a weekly one - does anyone else do this?

tigerfeet2006

Yep! I have just done my first monthly meal plan Took some work to set up but it looks as if it may work.

Did 5 weeks of meal plans and wrote out all the recipes . Then did a list of what I needed in my store cupboard to do the month. I now have a piece of paper and pen taped into my food cupboard to write down anything that starts to run out.

I then did a meat list with 1, 2 ,3 , 4, 5 next to each so I know what week I need it for and I can tick it off if I manage to get it on offer one week.

I then have a weekly shopping list of stuff that runs out or is perishable ie: milk, eggs, veg, meat for that week (if I haven't managed to get it before then), sandwich stuff, cereal etc.

I have back up recipes for if a meal isn't a sucess that I can swap in for next time. I also have stuff from batch cooking that is in the freezer so if needs be I can substitute a meal in from there.

rachbc

Current toal runnign at 187.66 after a weekend trip to aldi and a couple of other small spends. With 9 days to go I think I will make it as fridge and freeze still full - need milk, bread and possibly some fruit. Away this weekend which will help!

Hippeechiq

Despite my original concerns, I'm finding that doing just one online shop a month is actually working out better for me, as it frees up more cash for buying the weekly bargains at Te$co & £idl - and it's also saving me a delivery charge too

Apart from potatoes (which I buy in my online shop) I prefer to choose my own fruit and veg, and I would love to buy locally from my Green Grocer but his prices are extortionate, which is a shame, especially given that most people on here say theirs is cheaper than the SMs - mine certainly isn't!
I live in a very affluent area though (so I fit in a treat ) where the words "recession" and "hard up" don't appear to be in anyone's vocab except mine, so maybe that's why.

Should be a NSD day today. A$da delivery and a couple of small spends Monday and yesterday bring me to a total so far of £188.81

Can't believe I'm on the last week of my 6 week meal plan....it only seems like 5 minutes ago that I sat down and did it. I've done a quick additional menu plan for the last week of the month, but am going to have to knuckle down soon and do another 6 weeks.

Menu planning has been a revelation and godsend to me, especially given that things at home are often unpredictable due to DDs illness, and sometimes I find it difficult to think and focus and make decisions myself some days - so the fact that it's all written up and decided for me for 6 weeks removes a lot of stress from my life and makes me a lot more efficient in managing my money.

I love the fact that we are eating better because of it and eating a different meal every day for 6 weeks too means we are enjoying our food all the more too, and we don't get fed up eating the same-old, same-old.

So I'd say go for it 123 As tigerfeet says, it can be a bit of a mission getting it all together, but once it's done, you can forget about it, so it is soooo worth the effort.