May 2011 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Well done chums you are all doing so well and keeping up the good work. 9 more days until the end of the month and I only have a small amount of essentials to buy tomorrow which will make it my third day at the shops this month.It seemed starnge at first staying away from shops but its paid dividends this month as I have almost halve my budget.By using up what i have and adpting stuff in the cupboard I will have a decent wodge to put away towards our holiday which are 12 weeks today :)The other good thing about staying out of shops is I have got more work done indoors My porch has been repainted and my bathroom is gleaming My bedroom is the next big deep clean and declutter room due this week.I am going to take the nets down this morning I the sitting room and my big bedroom and stick them in the wash and whilst their doing I shall do the insides of the windows .My DD is coming for coffee after lunch so she will put the nets back up for me.Its one of those overdue jobs which will keep me out of the shops and indoors until late afternoon when I go to youngest DDs for dinner tonight.
I have made a big list of to-do jobs that I am going to work through this week.
Good luck with the rest of you everyone seems to be doing very well.
Cheers JackieO

eveie189

Hi,

I know it's a bit early but can someone please put me down for £400 for June, it's a 5 week month for me. I have just quit work so should be able to get a real handle on the grocery budget and do more home cooking.

Thanks
eveie

dawn060861

:j Thank you all so much, some great ideas. I am re reading and taking notes. I have a slow cooker and will get it out of it's box:o and read the book my Mum got me it is full of recipes. I am also going to buy some little pots and an ice lolly mould today ad make my own jellies and desserts and ice lollies for the kids.
We do eat fish but just did not but it this week. I could not tell you that last time I went to a market so am going to explore my local ones and also know there is a really good butchers not too far from me too. I love the idea of halving the ammounts of washing powder, fabric conditioner etc and will be trying that too.
Bread - yes I am guilty wastind bread , I have a breadmaker which I have used once so I may give it another go.
I only buy low fat crisps for the Grandchildren and they only have one bag each a week. I do like diet coke once in a while but am weaning myself off it as I know it is no good for me.
My local Aldi is five minutes way and so next week I will be doing my shopping at Aldi,the butchers and the market and will report back.
I have been so lazy and reading your replies has spurred me on to make the changes that I know I need to make.
I am quite a good cook and love trying new things and will be cooking from scratch too.And not buying processed meat for packed lunches, will try a gammon joint and chicken instead.
thanks again dawn :T

AlwaysHappy

Morning all, my month ends on the 19th so I would now like to declare at £201.07/£200 which I think is my best month ever - one of these days I might actually come in on target, but each month the prices go up and up - constantly having to get more creative. Good luck everyone

mama67

midnightraven3 wrote: »

i just looked in asda to see how much (scottish) pancakes were a packet, 90p:eek:, buying 3 of those, £2.70

this is the recipe i use, and you will make 24 ish from this, for less than your 90p for 6, and they freeze brilliantly, and they are very quick to make, just dont make the mistake of buttering while its still hot, or there will be NONE left:rotfl:

its a blog, but the recipe is from the book i use, and this blog has good pictures (buts in NOT my blog, i dont have one:():D

http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/05/scotch-pancakes.html

have just made these, can't believe how easy they are, my 2 boys will think xmas has come when they get up to these

freudianslip

dawn060861 wrote: »

:j Thank you all so much, some great ideas. I am re reading and taking notes. I have a slow cooker and will get it out of it's box:o and read the book my Mum got me it is full of recipes. I am also going to buy some little pots and an ice lolly mould today ad make my own jellies and desserts and ice lollies for the kids.
We do eat fish but just did not but it this week. I could not tell you that last time I went to a market so am going to explore my local ones and also know there is a really good butchers not too far from me too. I love the idea of halving the ammounts of washing powder, fabric conditioner etc and will be trying that too.
Bread - yes I am guilty wastind bread , I have a breadmaker which I have used once so I may give it another go.
I only buy low fat crisps for the Grandchildren and they only have one bag each a week. I do like diet coke once in a while but am weaning myself off it as I know it is no good for me.
My local Aldi is five minutes way and so next week I will be doing my shopping at Aldi,the butchers and the market and will report back.
I have been so lazy and reading your replies has spurred me on to make the changes that I know I need to make.
I am quite a good cook and love trying new things and will be cooking from scratch too.And not buying processed meat for packed lunches, will try a gammon joint and chicken instead.
thanks again dawn :T

Hi Dawn

Re: the Aldi thing. It is knowing what is nice and what you get along with. I was sceptical and dipped in and out of Aldi never really liking or believing I could shop for a whole week there. That was until recently when my shopping bill (2 adults, 2 children) went through the roof, even while trying so hard to keep it below £60 I just couldn't. Aldi has been the life saver for me these past few weeks. I'm learning what works still but can't beat it for price. Also their cleaning products are ace, and I'm using their moisturiser (1.99) and in all honestly I can say it's better then the £8 a pot stuff I would previously use.

Who knows, in a few months I might be bored of Aldi but if cost floats your boat I'm quite happy in there at the moment.

GreyQueen

There's such good advice up here already that I don't need to re-cap (and have squirrelled a little something away for my own needs, he he) but one thing you can do is...

Get into the poundstore and 99p store and whatever local equivalents you have. They sell tinned, bottled and packagaged foodstuffs too, include Loyd Grossman sauces in my 99p store. Lots of the stuff in these stores are very big brands. Some of these are "short-date" ; in other words not too far off their "best before" but plenty have months to go before they get near date. You can get keen deals on squashes and fruit juices and canned goods, off- shapes biscuits and lots of naughty things as well as storecupboard staples. They also have plenty of excellent value branded toiletries and cleaning products. My Poundland and 99p Store even sell milk and eggs and, occasionally, big bags of spuds.

I don't know if you have a car and if you get out into country areas but roadside stalls often appear and have keen deals on bags of spuds and carrots and sometimes other things, too. Plus you might see "cottage gate" type stalls selling a few excess from the garden particuarly in late summer. I have seen boxes and bags of plums and apples put out free for the taking, too. If you do go driving out in the countryside, make sure you've got some cash in small denominations to take advantage of these opportunties.

My best advice is to be an opportunist and always keep and eye for a keen deal, subject to having the ability to use/ freeze it in time and to always remember to buy the goods, not the store. As someone whose worked in a food processing factory, I can testify that the biggest and most modest brands are coming from the same place and you often can't slide a whisker in between them for quality, either; it's often a rip-off to buy Big Brands.

HTH.

espresso21

CherryPie, I take a betablocker every day which helps to decrease the frequency of them (I'm down to about 1 a month which is much better than it was) and immigran recovery to get rid of them (Immigran comes in packs of 2 at £7.99 per pack so it's not cheap but at least it works). Apparently the other migraine medication isn't suitable for me, or so my doctor tells me. My doctor keeps telling me "I will grow out of them" but I do wonder when!!!

CH27

Some of Aldi's fruit & veg offer this week are

6 tomatoes for 39p
radish 39p
spring onions 39p
cucumber 39p

scotsaver

Hi everyone - just logged on to update my total with this weekends spends, looks like I'm on target so fingers crossed.

Dinner tonight is Roast pork and all the trimmings.

Off to water the Garden as we have still not had any decent rain, just a light shower early this morning.