June 2011 Grocery Challenge

CRANKY40

Total spend of £17.59 last week. I've updated my signature. The slimming world thing is still going well. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of fruit and have been tending to fill up on veg and salads rather than fruit. I have one pot of salad leaves that are useable in the garden, one pot coming up to ready, and I've just started four more off, so hopefully that will save some pennies.

Sue14

I spent £1.35 on milk earlier in the week, then today I spent £3.96 in the 99p shop, £5.54 in Wilko and £31.23 in Mr A's, including a pack of whoopsied baby new potatoes, and a 180g pack of chicory for 20p each. I've never had chicory before and have no idea if we're going to like it, but thought for 20p we should try it, now I'm not sure what to do with it, does anyone have any ideas please?

Yesterday I made some bread rolls, using the flour and yeast that my friend gave me a while ago, so practically free, but when I told OH I was making them he offered to go to the shop to buy the rolls 'to save me time', which was very nice of him, but I had to explain that there's no point in having the breadmaker and ingredients, if he goes and buys stuff for our lunch instead of me using what we have! I made 8 rolls, so we used 4 for our lunch yesterday, and the rest I put in the freezer for next Saturdays lunch.

Living_proof

I haven't had a chance to catch up with the news this weekend, but hope you are all doing well with your budget, but if not just dust yourself down, pick yourself up - and there's always July.

I seem to be spending less every week now as trying to use store-cupboard stuff and being very strict with myself about buying things just because they are good value. Also seasonal food is pretty good - I got another 12" pineapple for 99p in Lidl at the weekend and that is about two week's breakfast for me! On the downside I nipped into T Metro on Saturday for one item, used the self service scanner and forgot to take the £5 note change when I tendered a tenner. Very unlike me, but I was bursting for a loo and feeling very flustered. I haven't added it to my spend and will just put it down to experience.

quintwins

morning all, hoping for a nsd today, i need milk because mines out of date but it still tastes fine so i'm gonna wait til tomorrow, dinner is pork casarole, made with diced pork shoulder that i got half price a few weeks back and a bag of casarole veg i got reduced to 10p and froze ages ago, and the dregs of a bag of frozen mixed veg (value might i add) so a very cheap dinner, not only that but we will be having the leftovers on wed so it will be doing 2 meals i giggled my meal plan around so i wouldn't need to buy onions and can use the veg hidden in my freezer so all i need this week is milk and a bag of spuds which i can get from the farm shop up the road


must not spend money....must come in under budget this month..... i can do this

XSpender

Get well soon The Bees.

I take it that an honest person didn't had it in then Living proof? I very nearly did this myself the other day. It is a silly place on the machine for the notes to come out.

Spent £25 in Mr S yesterday on a fresh top up shop and am shocked at how much it cost me. I bought 6 bananas,5 large oranges, 2 bags of apples, large bag of red grapes, half price pack of new pots, 15 eggs, 2 loaves, 3 x 4 pts of milk on the 3 for £3 offer, 12 value fromage frais, 2 x 400g of mature cheddar on offer at £4, a small bottle of lucozade for DH and £1 of kids sweeties for me. It is the fruit that is just so expensive. I shouldn't have had to buy the grapes as I bought a small bag earlier in the week to do for my lunches this week and DH decided to have a couple but they were so nice he demolished the lot!:eek::mad:

I am over the £150 budget I set myself but this was an aim for the moon and hit the stars kind of budget. I will be pleased if I come in at under £250 but I know if I put that as my target I will go over it.

My meal plan has gone a bit to pot but I have not bought anything extra for meals, we have been eating what we have in. Might have a go at a lasagne tonight or it may be bolognaise pasta bake and GB depending on time and what the sauce looks like:rotfl:

I have run out of a lot of stuff this month and will need to stock up out of next months budget. I need nappies, wipes, vegetable oil, lentils, sugar, dog food, toilet roll, kitchen towel, shampoo, qu0rn pieces, meat, sausages etc. DH has tried a different kind of razor and blades to keep costs down over the last few months and it is not working for him so we will need a pack of his razor blades too which cost £25 from C0stc0 but last about 9 months. I am going to allow myself £75 next month to cover these items.

CRANKY 40 - you have inspired me to have another go at planting my own salad leaves. The last 2 years they have failed miserably but my pots of herbs on the patio are flourishing so I will plant up a pot of leaves and put it in the same place.

Oops I have written war and peace, best get back to work

Chloris

Top up shop in c0-0p. I have updated my signature. The c0-0ps 25% off free range chucks ends tomorrow, so I picked up the last one in the shop. It will do 2 maybe 3 meals.

Winged_one

I actually did OK on my big grocery shop this weekend. I got all I needed (including a lot of stores, cleaning things, loads of meat and 10kg of potatoes), and had a €31 voucher to use (money back from loyalty scheme), so only spent €95.

But I had fallen off the wagon the day before. I went to M&S late in the evening (rather than a takeaway), and found one nice dish which was spicy (so needed a pasta dish or seomthing in case au pair wanted food too). As I found some nice pasta dishes on "3 for €8.50", I got 3 and will use those this week or freeze. But then I found a better dish for dinner (spatchcock chicken) and got nice new baby potatoes to roast and a large bag of spinach. But I forgot to put back the curry. And I was feeling low so got a tart citron for desert. Dinner for DD, and a pack of spring rolls for nibbling on also went into trolley. And had to stock up on cheese portions for lunches as well. And a carton of strawberries too. So I ended up spending €67 there !!!

Well, the chicken did 3 dinners and 4 lunches. The curry was lovely on Sat night (I cooked jasmine rice and steamed sugarsnap peas at home). The pasta dishes will be great standbys in freezer. DD ate the rice dish which was good (she needs to get back to decent food after being ill, so some tempting is required). The tart last us 3 nights. The strawbs will be nice over the next few days. The cheeses will stop us going for crisps for lunchboxes for a few weeks. I still have some potatoes and half the spinach that I'll use later in the week.

The freezer is getting back to bursting too. I made a fish pie for last night, using old brocolli and the last of the nice store-baked bread in crumbs too. Some fish went into freezer cooked and flaked to throw together a pie in minutes, and there are 2 portions left from dish to freeze or have for lunches tomorrow.

I had gotten 2 packets of mince, and effectively got a 6-pack of fresh burgers for free (3 for €10 deal) in supermarket. I'm freezing the burgers individually (great for last minute BBQs then!). I used the mince to make a large and a smaller lasagne, and have a tub of meat sauce leftover as well - smaller dish and leftovers are frozen, large one is for tonight and I will have 2-3 portions to freeze that can be just microwaved. Doing the large batch meant I could use the large tin of toms I've had for ages - I added a couple of carrots, half a courgette and a pack of bacon lardons (all chopped in food processor) to bulk it all out, and a dash of red wine from the open bottle.

Menu for this week is:
Fri: Chicken and roast potatoes
Sat: Monkfish curry, jasmine rice, sugarsnap peas
Sun: Smoked cod and brocolli pie
Mon: Lasagne
Tues: Chicken and sauce (possibly a curry) with rice and extra veg
Wed: Macaroni cheese (may chagne though)
Thurs: Nasi Goreng
Fri: All out (if I get home without having eaten, there's loads for easy "ding dinner" after drink)
Sat: Curry from freezer (?)
Sun: Possibly bacon and HG cabbage

I shouldn't need to get much next weekend though - milk, bread, fruit and veg, cheddar, and some bits from Lidl that we are out of (brioches, lardons). Sainsbugs run is looming in about 3 weeks, so should have used up most of the freezer stocks by then too.

ragz_2

Living_proof wrote: »

On the downside I nipped into T Metro on Saturday for one item, used the self service scanner and forgot to take the £5 note change when I tendered a tenner. Very unlike me, but I was bursting for a loo and feeling very flustered. I haven't added it to my spend and will just put it down to experience.

I left DH's £14 pack of baccy and a TV guide behind after I bought them in Morrisons on Saturday, called up the next day but it hadn't been logged so that's money lost too. Bummer isn't it?:(

Have no onions left, half my meals require onions. If I go shopping for onions I will buy more than onions... hmmm... dilemma!

Pinwheel

Hi all

Just updated signature, £28.42 spent in total between S**nsburys, C**p and L**l. Meal plan is done for this week and I've had a productive morning. I've got a huge batch of savoury mince in the slow cooker (just remembered I didn't add the £5.00 that I spent on the mince, I will update again when I've finished this), I've made pastry for tonights chicken pie and a quiche base for later in the week, peeled the potatoes for tonights mash and I've got fruit soaking in tea for a tea loaf to bake later. I've hung all my washing on the airer upstairs thinking that it is going to rain again but it looks perfect outside at the moment, the sun is out and it's nice and blowy, do I risk putting it out?!

Have a good day everyone.
PWx

ebayqueen_2

Good morning all.:wave:

Well I actually sat down and added up what I had spent so far this month. Lucky I kept the receipts. I knew I was within budget but it is annoying when you don't know exactly what you are doing.

This morning I went to town. Picked up YS contact lenses (direct debit).
Poundland
2 large lavender bleach
shampoo and conditioner for OD.
£4

Had printed a list from MYSUPERMARKET to take to tescos...did my usual thing, called at Lidl and bought what was better value and whoopsied items. Total spend there £42.90.

Onwards to Mr T's to finish ...
4 value tuna @ 55p
Heniz b beans 4 for £2
Value porridge oats 75p
Frozen peas 85p
Leeks 61p.....for soup I use with carrots skins, cauliflower leaves and potato ... makes a great soup:)
Bottled squash Robinsons £1 for big baby 15:rotfl:
Multi grain hoops 2 x 99p for same baby:)
Organic soya milk for me as I am intolerant to dairy 98p
Pasta sauce tesco with veg.. 80p

realised when I got home should have got some more yoghurts for DH

so grand total of
£11.58

So spend today is

£58.49

Am happy with this and hope to get a couple of NSD's this week ... its been so difficult this month.

Best wishes to all and isn't unbelievable we are half way through the year already:shocked:

sorry forgot to add
MENU for week
monday..........Home made pizza...feeding 5
Tuesday.........Mince carrots onions gravy, cauliflower and spuds....feeding 5
Wednesday.....Sausages Beans and spuds...feeding 6/7
Thursday........Spag Bol for 3, chilli for 2...all made from same sauce but then chilli added into sep pot, salad feeding 5
Friday............Salmon steaks in freezer, Salad and chips...feeding 5