April 2011 Grocery Challenge

DireEmblem

Hi all,

Just wanted to say thanks for the great thread. I've had a bit of an expensive weekend(gambling), and after I got over my hangover this morning, I've thought about how to set about sorting my finances - first step food.

I'm lucky in that I already keep most of my records in a SS, and have downloads of credit card statements etc. Over the course of a year, I have spent approx £1200 that I know of on groceries, and a further £300 at least that I know about(excluding cash) on "Junk food" - pizzza/take-away etc. I also spend around ~£20PW at the work canteen, of which I am going to cut out all the bottles of coke/sprite etc and swap for water(free). I think I could get this figure down to £8-10 a week.

So all in all, for 1 person I know I spend at least £2500 a year on food(probably nearer 3.5-4k inc cash) which I think is a lot, especially considering I get my main meal at work mon-friday, so mornings/evenings I should just need a snack.

Now I used to cook a lot, and I have what I consider to be a great book - "curries of the world", so I decided to take my favourite indian food I get and see how much it would actually cost me to make myself. A Chicken Jhalfrezi with Naan and rice would cost around £8 on materials, and feed 4, so £2. The usual I spend on this myself is in the region of £15-£20 a pop, so a 90% saving to be had there, without me even looking around buying up bargains. The Jhalfrezi can easily be frozen/reheated, the rice could be cooked on the day, and the Nann, I could just half the quantity i cook/keep in the fridge.

So rather than having 1/2 take-aways a week, i could reduce that to 1 every 2 months say.

With being off work this week, I plan to take the next step and hunt through the cupboards to see what I all have, and then come up with a rotational meal plan/shopping list. I'm not going to be terribly strict, but have a guide for say meal choices through the week/do a shop on the friday for fresh goods I need to cook with at the weekend.

My final thought is to completely split my food bills from the rest of my finances, so I can get a better grip on it. Some CC's give 4% cashback I believe on grocery shops, and to begin with I might take advantage of the £10 off a £50 shop at tesco/asdas to buy up a lot of the cupboard items on offer. Doing this I can then keep tabs, and any money saved can get put towards some fund of my choice, and set rewards for myself when I reach my targets.

How low do you think I could go/maintain?

fancypottery

Try investing in foil containers, I cook enough for 6, a big curry fan; then put 2 portions on one person containers in the freezer.... They cone in so handy. I can do a tomatoey curry, a coconut based curry and a lentil based curry... That way we don't get bored of one flavour and it's good if people fancy something different!
My kids refuse to eat the same thing 2 days in a row so this helps stretch thd effort and finance!!!:£:beer:

moneytree1

I would like to join the May challenge can you put me down for £180 thanks.

rosieben

quintwins wrote: »

...
does anyone have a recipe for stilton and brocolli soup? i checked the index but couldn't see it i have a brocolli here that could do with being used (was only 11p) so thought i'd make some soup and maybe use some of it as a pasta bake aswell

try here

welcome to our newbies and our returners MrsMc will be along to add you to the index

Hippeechiq

martafdz wrote: »

I finally bought a chest freezer!! I found one in J0hn L3wis at £189 A+ energy, apparently made by Electrolux (Zanussi/AEG) and it is just the right size for me too (55cm W and 60cm D). They have an offer of £20 off in JL items, so I paid £169 and they deliver on Thursday (del is included). I thought it was an amazing deal.

That's a very good deal martafdz - free delivery too! Excellent.

Hello & Welcome Elmo, Brassic, Dire Emblem & moneytree1 :hello:
You include whatever you want in your GC Brassic - the challenge isn't a competition (we're all here to support each other, whatever our budget) it's about finding a budget that suits you, and trying to stick to it, and it's up to you what you include in it and for that very reason, it's difficult to answer your "how low can I go" question DireEmblem

quintwins wrote: »

while i was there i saw chicken fillets reduced to £1.50 for 3 big ones/4 med ones so i bought all 3 packets and got 11 chicken fillets for £4.50 i'm gonna count these in mays budget because i have meal planned for the rest of the week anyway, we don't really eat alot of chicken fillets because there so dear

Lovely bargain! I find dicing chicken breast before freezing it makes it go a lot further. 100g per adult ample providing it's padded out with other ingredients

Mothership wrote: »

I was going to send you some water retaining gel lol. I buy it at the end of the season when its cheap You can use bath water etc to water your plants + tea, coffee, I put spent tea bags on top of the pots sometimes, the plants love it.

Aw, bless you for the thought about the water retaining gel good tip for getting it at the end of the season though
I've read before that you can use bath water and washing up water to water plants, but don't understand how it can be good for them with the likes of washing up liquid and bubble bath in it?
We drink gallons of tea in our house, so tea bags wont be a problem.
I really need to start making a note of all these tips as I wont remember them all, that's for sure - head like a sieve these days.

Didn't have a NSD after all. OH nipped out and got 8pints of milk so I didn't have to carry them tomorrow, so another £2 to add to my total.

quintwins

rosieben wrote: »

try here

welcome to our newbies and out returners MrsMc will be along to add you to the index

thanks i only have one brocolli but do you think a brocolli, spinage and stilton soup would taste nice?

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Lovely bargain! I find dicing chicken breast before freezing it makes it go a lot further. 100g per adult ample providing it's padded out with other ingredients

we haven't had a full chicken breast in about 4 years unless it's been in mil, i tend to do 1 and a few slices of bacon for chicken and bacon casarole, or cook one and do half in pasta and half for sandwichs (we have a wee chopper that helps strech to afew sandwichs) or 1 for a chicken pie, i prob shud dice them since i never use them full anyway, i'd say i have about 25 or more in my freezer now so that will last us ages

rosieben

quintwins wrote: »

thanks i only have one brocolli but do you think a brocolli, spinage and stilton soup would taste nice?

not sure about the spinach tbh but this recipe uses just one brocolli head I'll add this one to the index

quintwins

rosieben wrote: »

not sure about the spinach tbh but this recipe uses just one brocolli head I'll add this one to the index

thanks i'll try that instead, don't wanna have to buy extra stuff really but i have all that in

Flat_Eric

I'm reporting in with my total for this month unknown but a complete failure and way way way over budget. I can't even begin to guess at just how much I have spent this month but my last two mr t shops (a week apart) probably = my budget alone give or take a few quid and then there was the short stop at mr t yesterday for a few extra bits for a bbq as last minute guests and when the young lad pressed the total button and said £53 please :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: actually he had charged me twice for a bottle of wine so £48 odd but still.....

I haven't kept my receipts this month and although I could probably work out from my bank statements (as most payments paid on debit card), I won't get a true reflection because I have also requested cash back on many occasions.

So I am going to write off april and try much harder in May. I will post soon with my budget for May which I need to think about.

I'm going to stop getting cashback and I might even go back to having my grocery purse. I shall also try to plan menus around what I have in my fridge and freezer / cupboards because my freezer is full as are my cupboards. Why is it though that despite having probably enough food to last me ? months, I still feel the need to buy more?

Nimeth

I had No Spend Easter weekend!:cool: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but then it wasn't hard as I spent the entire weekend wedged in a garage trying to change the engine out of my car. Will probably have another NSD today too as I have no plans to go out of the house except to give the engine crane back to the hire place.

I plan to sit on my posterior all day, drinking tea and watching movies.:laugh: