May 2011 Grocery Challenge

123budget

Did main shop today so have one more to go (payday is 26th) I have £48.48 left of my budget so I think I can stay within budget this month. Have loads in freezer, loads of baking stuff and standby sachets of angel delight, jellies to keep kids happy. I have certainly changed my way of thinkiing - I wanted to spend £50 in Mr T today so I could use my £7 off voucher but when I got to the till I was £10 under!! - Was determined to use it - the nearest aisle to the till was the cereal aisle so I dashed off and came back with an armful of cereal boxes -the person behind me at the till had to wait but at least I got the £7 off and my lot eat loads of cereal so shall put it by for the next 2 weeks.

hex2

quintwins wrote: »

AF have pg tips (i noticed after i ordered so i'm gutted)
80 pack £1.29
or 2.5kg (1150) £7.49

Thanks :A - will have a look.

Milly-Ann-Molly

Hi all, bought even more today...I need to talk to myself!!! I went for things for work (I get re-imbursed a month later!) but then picked up a 'few bits'...Got a bit crazy on RTC offers in Mr T in the hope of finding 1p items...ended up spending a whopping £52.59 :eek: add that to the McDs tea for the kids and Deisel and I am now only 15p in credit at the bank!!!! MUST not buy ANY more this month...

I now have spent a total of...£224.67/£360 but have to reduce my food limit even further to £250 so as to avoid going overdrawn. I am off to list the cupboard contents now...I seem to have a massive amount of cashew nuts and peanuts now as they are all massively reduced in mr T (some are dated 2012 so I will start my xmas food hamper off today, also got 3 xmas puddings for 25p each...) I do have a habit of buying weird stuff i do not need...:(

Gracie_1827

£11.22 spent at C0-0p today. They had an ofer on Wykes cheese, 2 for £5...hasn't cheese gone up in price recently!!!, Couple of R0binson's barley drink BOGOF and a bottle of vino for £3.99. Used half of this to make Delia's Ragu, used meatballs and chicken livers from freezer......absolutely delicious. Ended up with enough for 12 servings. Also made a couple of loaves of bread from flour stock.

Long_tall_sally

nessie216 - I have one guinea & one rabbit (who live together) & I had no idea that they could eat things like grapes! Would this also be ok for the rabbit as I know rabbits shouldn't have lettuce & guineas can.

I spent again today - quite a bit of fruit & veg from the market plus crisps & dips etc as we are having friends coming to stay Sat night.

PennyGrabber

MumOf2Beasties wrote: »

am thinking maybe a two week meal planner would help a bit?anyone have any tips on how to do this? but also be a bit versatile as we may fancy something different on the day IYKWIM:o

I do a monthly meal planner, but it's really only a list!! At the end of one month, I go through my cupboards and freezer, and see what I've got to use/what's going out of date/what I fancy, etc. Then, I make a list of the right number of meals for the coming month. I also let my 2 children have a couple of choices each, so they feel they're joining in with the planning. Then, the night before, we look at the list and choose something to eat. If time will be limited, I choose something quick, if not, I let one of the children choose - as long as the other one gets to choose at another point!!

I find this really works, as I don't like to be too structured. I used to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner on a calendar for a whole month, but would always fail on the first day! At least this way, failing doesn't happen!!

Some months, I get a little creative, and other months, like this month, are using-up months.

Hope that helps.
PG x

PS - NSD today! My £20something is still intact!

katholicos

Have spent about £30 so far this month, on groceries.Tonight we picked up a punnet of strawbs for 70p and a small plastic tray of raspberries for 49p. We really enjoyed them....but i can hardly wait for my own raspberry canes and strawberry plants to start producing this year.

dibblersan

nikki1986 wrote: »

I was wondering if I posted up some of our fave meals whether anyone might be able to recommend how to cut costs?:
-slow-cooked beef (basics stewing steak, beef stock cube, carrots, onions, red wine, basics tinned toms, served with rice.. does 2 dinners for us)
chicken or pork tend to be cheaper than beef (I don't really like it myself) and still make a tasty casserole. If you do want beef then my local butcher will do me a bag of 'scraps' that's fine for slow cooking and's cheaper than the tesc* steaks unless they're very reduced. personally I'd buy a cheap joint of pork and 1. trim it to make 'scraps' for the slow cooker, 2. cut it into a roast, then 3. a couple of thick 'chops' to have grilled with either sticky sauce, apple and cheese, or mustard and cheese.
-lemon pasta (penne, oil, juice of a lemon, parmesan, basics olives) a strong cheese can be much cheaper than parmesan but not as expensive. I also like to use fish when I can find it cheap (tin of tuna or mackeral is fine) and tarragon with lemon to make a light pasta.
-parma chicken with mash (chicken breasts, parma ham, stuffed with basics mozzarella, served with mash potatoes and some sort of green veg)
as said above, your answer might be in buying a whole chicken then taking the breasts off it - not hard to do. this would give you plenty of chicken for other meals and your breasts, for the cost of the breast alone (depending on breast and chicken). but again here, a good quality smoked bacon will suit this dish as well as parma and can work out cheaper.

it's a question, I think, of trying other ingredients, maybe one at a time, to see if you like the recipie as much with the cheaper subs.

quintwins wrote: »

can i just ask how much you all spend on meat a month? i worked out spend just over £30 a month if i don't get any reductions this includes 9 portions of mince,3 gammon, 3 portions of chicken, 2 portions of fish, 2 portions of sausages,4 portions of bacon, and a roast big enough for 3 dinners

There's just me and sometimes my oh.

I have 2 roasts a month (normally 1 lamb and one gammon or pork, but sometimes chicken)

Then 2 casserole with leftover meat alternate weeks made the week before and frozen.

I have a sausage sarnie each weekend with 2 sausages (8 a month)

4 fish meals (tuna, mackeral or salmon) a month

I normally then have one other lot of meat - bacon, mince, burgers (something cheap but versitile) and have hash, scouse, lasagnie, whatever, which does about 4 meals.

When my oh is about I also buy lunchen meat from the deli (he loves it) for lunchtime sarnies. It's recently gone up to 2.20/kg and I aways get £1 worth.

It's not actually too bad in an omlette or calzone.

I have to confess, after saying the above, I went into the local tesco's in the middle of the day (TOIL due to training over the next and last weeks) and it must have been at their sweet time.

The lovely csa was putting out 8 (I tell you 8 full) of those green trays they use for delivery of reduced meat. :eek:

I ended up being very very bad

I spent £60. :mad:

I'm in the fortunate position when I can do that if I want to, but I didn't want to.

I bought:
2 large joints of lamb (shoulder and breast)
3 big packs of 10 chicken legs,
A pack of steak,
2 packs 12 sausage (cumberland and chilli)
2 packs mince (one beef, one lamb)
3 packs 14 lamb kababs
4 chinese/indian ready meals and
4 bags bits (samosas and the like)
a big bag of indian (meal for 2)
4 garlic breads
big pack belly pork
4 blocks cheese
2 packs meat balls

which, I think for £60 wasn't bad :money: less than 2 pound a pack on average (33 packs)

but still i shouldn't have.:o

I've put the ready meals away for now as my oh is due this weekend and i don't see him often so don't want to be cooking lots, but the rest should do me for months!! I only tend to have meat twice or so a week.

what I didn't buy - which was what i went in for - was milk...:rotfl:

EDIT: I forgot my actual news in my shame. I got an emai out of the blue from tesco the other day refunding me an additional £3.05 for the gammon. The gentleman (not the lady that was 'disconected from me') appologised for my problems and said that their sub's system wasn't sophisticated enough to take into account price per weight and that the gammon I had been given was more expensive so here's a refund.

NOTE: i didn't send of any email about this, it must be off the back of the conversation with the woman. I just chalked it up to experience, but it seems that it's something worth complaining about after all.

Oh, and I get a free lunch tomorrow and most of next week - with as much free tea and coffee as I can drink. Wonder if I should take a doggy bag and a bottle for any leftover milk - I'm turning into my mother..

scotsaver

Morning everyone - should be another NSD today, plan to spend the day on the Allotment so will be far enough away from the Shops to avoid temptation.:o

Dinner tonight our usual Friday, Fish, HM chips and mushy peas.;)

Have a good day everyone.:D

Pixie_Fairydust

Not at all Pixie, lets face it where else could he stay and not have to contribute anything at all. I think it teaches them how to budget as well.
When our now sil lived with us he paid us a little. We took into account his wages, his outgoings and also the fact that they were saving for a deposit on a house and came to an agreement that we were all fine with. It wasnt a huge amount but it certainly helped. He now says that it was something he would have never thought about himself but now they have their own house and budget etc he realises how expensive everything is.

Thanks for the reply. We are having a 'chat' at the weekend, feel awkward but needs to be done. You are right it will be a life lesson and help them in the future.

Mum gave me £20 yesterday when I dropped my dad's b'day pressie off, she made me cheese on toast too, so lunch thrown in, aren't mums brilliant :T

Went to Mr T for some essentials, Lynx body wash is half price, so my son is very pleased with that. Spent £9.60.

Must put £10 petrol in the car for the weekend, so that's the £20 gone!

Have to order my food shop on-line from A$da today, I have the grand total of £36 now, plus a free delivery as I complained about the state some of my shopping was in last time they delivered, something had leaked, not too terrible but if you don't ask you don't get!

Have a lovely day everyone.
Pixie