March 2011 Grocery Challenge

Hippeechiq

Lucky you lainy - my pancakes were a disaster!. Not made them in 15 years and now I remember why! I've never been able to make them
Had to look up a recipe as I couldn't remember measurements, followed the recipe and method to the letter, and the bl00dy things wouldn't cook, and when they eventually started to (and yes, my pan was hot) they puffed up! :doh: I tried making 2 in different sized pans, both were disasters, so I flung them into the garden and went to bed!

Seems everyman and his dog (and even children it would seem) can make pancakes - except me! Lord knows how you get to be my age and can't make a pancake fgs! And I was really looking forward to them too

savvyshe wrote: »

Thanks for running the thread everyone:T
Its my first post for March and and after adding up my spends it totals £139.12!! so far so I have only £0.88 left until22nd March! I should have known I couldn't have kept in total with it being half term and being on holiday so realistically not too bad.
In the past before MSE we would have booked a 'cheap last minute bargain' :eek:the CC for half term and goodness knows how much that would have cost, I dread to think!.
So this year we have booked a weeks holiday at Easter with the family costing 355.00 (our share) paid with Ebay sales, and booked a week in August using our own caravan paid with Tesco deals for £240.00 so only spends to find hopefully funded with Carboot,family allowance and Ebay sales.:cool:
I have set my self a further challange of £20.00 to add to my grocery challange to keep myself in line in till 22nd March, as somethimes I used to think What the Heck and not bother if I failed in the past (I bit like dieting really) so I am trying to re-educate myself:rotfl:.Anyone elso do the same?. Good luck everyone for this month. savvy x:T

savvyshe Have you tried adding up your receipts more often hun? It helps prevent the "omg! I've nearly spent all my budget and still have x amount of days to go" moment. I do mine daily, but even if you did it weekly it would help.
I also found splitting up my money into envelopes for the month helps. I leave money in my account for one online shop,
I have an envelope for my monthly meat allowance, and then have 4 envelopes - Week 1, 2, 3 & 4 - with £25 cash in each, so even if I didn't add up daily, it's easy to see at a glance how much cash I've spent each week, by how little money is left in my envelope!

When I first started doing this, I just had a monthly allowance and that was it, but as you'll see from my siggy, it wasn't very successful. Whereas splitting my money the way I have, allows me to keep more on top of things. Might be helpful to you or someone else, although, what works for me wont necessarily work for someone else of course - just a suggestion

:T Very well done on your Easter & August holidays!! That must be very rewarding I'd like to raise some cash by selling stuff on Eb@y, but all I have to sell are paperback books, and I understand they don't sell very well. I realise selling books wouldn't buy me a holiday - not had a holiday for 10 years, so I'm kind of resigned to not ever having another one anyway - but some extra cash would be nice.

Pinwheel

Hi
Just updated sig, a small spend on apples in the c**p yesterday £1.26. Not having much luck with apples at the moment, I always like to buy British Coxs and they are often on offer in Sai**Burys, either half price or bogof. The last couple of times that I've bought them they have been horrible, all bruised and soggy, is it the time of year? Yesterday I picked my own out in C**p and got 5 British Braeburns for £1.26, they seem better. Where do you all buy your apples? I've got L**l, C**p, S***sburys and a market twice a week, I wonder if I should try the market.
Have a good day everyone.
PWx

Hippeechiq

Pinwheel Cox apples are usually picked in September & October, so no matter how or what they're treated with to preserve them, they are (imho) going to be past their best by March.

Cox are my favourite apple, but I don't buy them after January for that very reason. In fact, even the last bag I bought in Jan weren't very nice - a bit "woolly" IYKWIM - but then I do like my apples crisp and sharp.

Te$co have some beautiful Braeburns in at the moment. We do grow Braeburns in Britain although I'm not sure if these were as I didn't look

Winged_one

I am doing really badly this week. I had made a shepherd's pie but ended up only me eating it, as DH was travelling so we had pancakes Sunday and I had to use the mince. So I ended up freezing the leftovers this morning which will be a whole family dinner one night next week. I fried up the leftover steak from Sat night for myself last night, and reheated the leftover quiche from DD's Sat dinner also (dated Mon). I still have leftovers in the fridge to use up. And the freezer is absolutely groaning - lots of bags of cooked rice and loads of silly bitty things.

Think I need a day or 2 off cookking and putting DH in charge for the weekend. I have used up a fair few things that were hanging around a while, but I am just in a funk about life I think, so cooking is a chore.

Meanwhile, I went to M&S to get my lunch yesterday (yes, I am THAT bad this week) and cream (to make carbonara tonight as DH won't be home until v late, so want something v quick to make him). I got some cheese too (as we like lots and I wanted something other than cheddar for a change), clementines (need more vit C) and pancakes for DD (cos DH makes them and I am useless). And I had forgotten to add in the pumpkin seed oil and apple balsamic I got in Vom Fass just as they were closing down on Friday (25% off on Fri and Sat, closed at 6 on Sat). Sig now adjusted.

I will be good and use the fresh pasta and last 2 rashers tonight. I think a stir fry dish tomorrow, using a bag of rice and some cooked chicken that are both frozen. And possibly the shepherd's pie for friday night - or else DH is buying a takeaway.

boysma

Morning everyone

Reporting spends at L**l and Mr T yesterday totalling £14.37. Signature updated. Off to catch up on thread now:)

Long_tall_sally

:wave:Hi everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't been on for a while. There are only so many hours in the day & I have been concentrating my time on trying to make more money through ebaying, bingo & surveys etc. However a valve has recently gone on my car & even the mechanic has advised us that it in view of the value of the car, it is not worth getting fixed as the bill would be at least £600. So the car is now on ebay under spares & repairs but I really need to try & tackle the money making / saving on all fronts now so I've come back to join you if that's ok. Its only taken me the best part of 2 & 1/2 days to read through the latter half of Feb's thread & this one!

Angeleatgraceland - so sorry to hear you news. I will be thinking of you tomorrow & hope you receive the news you want to hear.

Hippeechiq - sorry also to hear that your daughter is having a bad week and that things are still tough for you at home. A walk to the sea front sounds ideal for a little bit of relaxation & "you" time. Maybe at the weekend, your OH could join you for a "romantic" stroll!;)

Roger - :TWow, you are doing amazingly well with your NSDs! Don't think I could ever manage that! Even without the use of my own car, I still seem able to spend, spend, spend!

I haven't updated my signature yet because at the moment I can't find a receipt from Lidl so will have to log into my bank account to get the spend figure from there. However so far without the Lidl spend, I am at £145.70 for the month but possibly more. The reason for this is that I have 3 receipts for the 25th of Feb totalling £58.76 & 1 for the 24th of £11.78 & typically disorganised old me cannot remember whether I included them in February's figures or not. Pay day is the 26th & sometimes if I spend the day before that I carry it over into the next month. Think I will have to look at when I last posted on Feb's thread to try to work that out. Anyway, sorry for waffling!

quintwins

morning everyone, i've just been to get my hair done (not from gc) i was abit early and ended up buying 4 sets of hat/scarf/glove sets for my kids for £1 each so i have a £4 spend thiis will come out of my GC because i decided at tha start to include clothes as i tend to get them with my shopping anyway, i've also had to switch my meal plan around for today as i ahve my bro for tea and he's not fussed on quiche so were having it tomorrow and sheperds pie tonight

Hippeechiq

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

:wave:Hi everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't been on for a while. There are only so many hours in the day & I have been concentrating my time on trying to make more money through ebaying, bingo & surveys etc. However a valve has recently gone on my car & even the mechanic has advised us that it in view of the value of the car, it is not worth getting fixed as the bill would be at least £600. So the car is now on ebay under spares & repairs

Hello you :hello: - Nice to see you back. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with selling your car for spares & repairs on Eb@y if you don't mind sharing. My Landrover Freelander failed it's MOT last April, and is still sitting where it was parked when it came back from it's fail. It passed on everything except the warning lights wont go off. They think everything is fine, but can't pass it with warning lights on. So frustrating, especially as it was running fine
Webuy@nycar.com don't!......if the car is an MOT fail, and we can't afford to get it fixed, so there it sits. Breakers would only give us about £25 and I'd rather have it rust into the ground, than give (what is essentially a sound car that they could fix and sell on for £800-£1000) to them for that amount!

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Hippeechiq - sorry also to hear that your daughter is having a bad week and that things are still tough for you at home. A walk to the sea front sounds ideal for a little bit of relaxation & "you" time. Maybe at the weekend, your OH could join you for a "romantic" stroll!;)

Thanks hun - the weekend stroll may have to wait until next weekend though as DD has a Medical Assessment on Monday to see if she is "fit for work" would you believe? I'm dreading it, and we're already suffering with the fallout from the impending appointment. The system is so, so wrong. People with mental illnesses shouldn't have to go through such things.

You'd think the fact that she's under a Psychiatrist, 2 Psychotherapists, the Mental Health Team Worker, her GP and on 10 tablets a day, would be sufficient evidence to confirm that she's a long way from being able to work - but sadly that's not the case, as they have been given all that information, and we still have to go.

Sorry all for wandering OT but lately (as in 2 years lately) it just seems to be one thing after another.

quintwins

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Hello you :hello: - Nice to see you back. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with selling your car for spares & repairs on Eb@y if you don't mind sharing. My Landrover Freelander failed it's MOT last April, and is still sitting where it was parked when it came back from it's fail. It passed on everything except the warning lights wont go off. They think everything is fine, but can't pass it with warning lights on. So frustrating, especially as it was running fine
Webuy@nycar.com don't!......if the car is an MOT fail, and we can't afford to get it fixed, so there it sits. Breakers would only give us about £25 and I'd rather have it rust into the ground, than give (what is essentially a sound car that they could fix and sell on for £800-£1000) to them for that amount!


Thanks hun - the weekend stroll may have to wait until next weekend though as DD has a Medical Assessment on Monday to see if she is "fit for work" would you believe? I'm dreading it, and we're already suffering with the fallout from the impending appointment. The system is so, so wrong. People with mental illnesses shouldn't have to go through such things.

You'd think the fact that she's under a Psychiatrist, 2 Psychotherapists, the Mental Health Team Worker, her GP and on 10 tablets a day, would be sufficient evidence to confirm that she's a long way from being able to work - but sadly that's not the case, as they have been given all that information, and we still have to go.

Sorry all for wandering OT but lately (as in 2 years lately) it just seems to be one thing after another.

our airbag light came on, and my hubby got a lead and some free software and he checked to see what the error was and it said it was a coil spring (which is a cheap fix) and he managed to reset it and the light went off it cost us about £10 all in but you need diferent leads and software for diferent cars might be worth having a wee google, altho if it's been sitting there for a year there might be more wrong with it now

Long_tall_sally

Hippeechiq - That's disgusting about your daughter. It makes me really bad how some people are treated in this country. I hope that the people who have to make this decision see sense & realise that your DD is defintely not fit for work. I bet you wish that someone would just give you a break one day, you have so much to put up with but well done on remaining strong & fighting for your daughter.

Right, while I am on, I will add on the amount spent at Lidl of £58.92 which takes me to £204.62 so far for the month plus possibly the other spends that I will investigate later.