August 2011 Grocery Challenge

quintwins

calleyw wrote: »

?

From now until christmas I am going to stock up and then it will allow me to concentrate on over paying my mortgage next year.


Calley

in theory it makes more sense to start overpaying your mortgage now and you'll save more in interest the sooner your start (thats my understanding for reading mfw) but i don't think i could empty my bank account as much as i could every month without knowing i had plenty of food and some emergency money either

thanks for posting about the 3for2 fruit i'm gonna stock up tonight before we go away or else i'll miss the offer

i use cooking bacon aswell if you get some odd sized chucks i put mine in the oven to cook then usually let them go cold and make egg and bacon sandwichs other than that we use it in pasta and bacon butties i find i usually get streaky smoked which i'm happy with for the price but do prefer rashers

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Must be the week for it because I have just bought a 3kg pack of bacon off cuts for £2.99' all now split and put in the freezer, there were some bits like gammon steaks, so have put them separate for a quick dinner. I also got a 3kg hand of pork for £3.75' so thats dinner sorted for tomorrow with plenty of leftovers - not quite sure what to do with cold pork, so any idea,s welcomed.

Off to make brownies, twinks and some type of cake/biscuit to use up some lemon curd (quick bit of research first).

Have a fab day all x

Spiggle

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Cooooeeee everyone :wave:

Not been around for a couple of months - real life demanded I take a break.
... Good Luck everyone

Great to see you Hippeechiq! :T I know exactly what you mean about real life being demanding as I had a break for a little while too. Hope you and family are well and I look forward to your posts as always.

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

... I am feeling quite pleased with myself as I needed ham, bread & milk & some fruit really and I did consider going to a biggish Mr T with a £5 off £40 voucher from the newspaper but for the first time ever, I thought to myself "Well the things that I need don't come to anywere near that amount so why go & spend that amount unnecessarily?" So I went to the local Mr T Express & spent £8.54 which included 3 milks for £3, some whoopsied flowers for 75p, 2 lots of ham for £3, 2 bananas, a punnet of nectarines for £1 and a bag of whoopsied gala apples for 28p. Oh a loaf of bread for 15p. I then went onto the Co Op where I got 2 Hovis loaves for 19p each, 6 floury baps for 11p, 4 big baps for 11p, 10 white finger rolls for 15p, 6 mini doughnuts for 38p, 2 avocados for 75p, half a cucumber for 25p and a chocolate fridge dessert for 20p, totalling £2.33 so all in all a pretty good shop!

...

Attagirl LTS! :T:A:beer: Those flaming till spits and £X off for spending £megaX that you don't need to spend are one of my biggest bug bears :mad: (as you already know! ). I read your later post but the fact that you did it once means you can do it again and repeatedly - you will beat the nasty sm who want to take your money! :cool:

helen_jelly wrote: »

... I made proper Jam last night for the first time - I'm pleased with the results - hopefully it will taste good when its opened. Foraged the Blackberries and the sugar worked out at about 60p and I made 3 jars of it. The recipe was very easy to follow so I'll be doing more of that.
...

Hi Helen, thanks for letting me know the blackberries are out and ready again. :T We still have one or two containers in the freezer from last years crop but this year I definitely want OH to make some jam with them as well as freezing for crumbles, tarts, etc through the year.

Which means that we must defrost the freezer this week ready for crops - our runner beans, mange tout, carrots and beetroot are delish from the garden even if I say so myself! Lots of sets of tomatoes but none ripe yet. And I have my first (unripe so far) raspberries, yay!!! :j We only have two apples left on one of the new trees in the garden but I was advised to take the ones off the cooker tree as its quite young and the weight of the fruit could have damaged it.

I haven't been on for at least a week as we've been trying to get our bathroom finished. :mad: How can redecorating, flooring and lighting such a small room end up costing circa £900 to do? :eek: Sometimes using a spreadsheet is a painful thing!

Coupled with that which I had a budget for (thanks be) our wooden gate at the front of our house fell off this week as the wood had rotted through. A new set in galved steel will set us back another £340 which certainly isn't budgetted for. But we'll never buy another set so its an investment of sorts. If people would keep their flaming dogs on leads and not allow them to run willy nilly into my front garden to do their business :mad: I would wait to save up for them but no. Means my mortgage overpayments will be hit for a couple of months but at least I'm well on target there.

All of this I suppose is some attempt at explaining why I can't update my sig today. I have the receipts for our spending but haven't put them in the spreadsheet and I have so much paper on my desk that I need to ferret around for them. With the final little touch ups needed in the bathroom before the vinyl goes down on Monday, this would be too time consuming today. So I will try and get it done on Monday, I promise.

At least I should be able to have a shower later today :dance: which will be a true 'experience' after two weeks of washing in cramped conditions bent up double to wash hair and the like!

I've just realised that I haven't welcomed the many newbies joining this fantastic challenge so welcome all newbies and returners. :hello: Also I wanted to wish everyone good luck with the August challenge.

Right back to the bathroom (I'm so sick of it now and want it over) and I'll see you probably on Monday now. Take care, keep your lists firmly gripped in your hands and remember the sm are not your friends - they just want your money! :think:

All the very best,
Spigs

boultdj

Got another £37 to add.

cattysmum

:beer:Mr Ts yesterday to take advantage of their wine offer, Im not adding the wine to my grocery challenge, but whilst I was there I spent £7.98 on a few bits including 5p baby lotion (good for leg shaving!) x4 and some 35p baby wipes and treat myself to a strawberry jam milkshake scrummy and some beer for OH Im sure I have lost track somewhere so I am going to go through receipts tonight and update sig. later on, still on target (I think) got to go Tesco delivery man at door with Oh my goodness I didn't order all that wine DID I?????? Ah well Iv stocked up while its cheap!!

76rosie

yesterday went to Mr A. Spent 12.30. Used mocs and bought 3 bottles of wine. In Mr T spent 1.12, used 0.02 price chck voucher and flora coupon bought 250g low fat flora and coffee whitener.

Today. spotted the glitch on mse forum so had to get 6 bottles of white grenache and 3 packs of value toilet blocks. Had 4 pound of 30 spit. So with money back should work out at 7.16.


so 30.92/60.00 Won't drink all the wine at once though. The bacadi's were quite nice too. Got the cola ones. :beer:

freakyogre

£2.50 spent in Coop.

Got some cherry tomatoes (reduced to 50p), a ciabatta loaf (reduced to 35p), a packet of wraps and a garlic bread. I was killing time waiting for a train, but need the garlic bread for tonight. Oh, and a bottle of water as I was really thirsty while out!

While i'm on that topic, just a little moan about public transport if I may. I decided to visit the 'next town' today as despite living here for over 2 and half years, i've never been there. I thought i'd use public transport and give my car a break (and also thought by the time i'd parked and used petrol it would be cheaper)...I was wrong!

Off I went, hopped on the bus and asked for a return ticket and was asked for £4.50! I repeated where I was going as really thought he'd misheard. It's just over 3 miles away!! I was gobsmacked (and didn't have enough money on me as never expected it to be that much) so told him i'd changed my mind as didn't think it would so much. Anyway, went to the train station and got a ticket for a more reasonable £2.50 but had to wait for ages in both directions.

And 'they' wonder why people don't use public transport! I'll stick to my car thanks

quintwins

spent about £11 in tesco on a floor brush and dustpan and loads of tins of fruit have updated my sig

TizerCat

Have just updated the siggie to include the past weeks shoppng. Total for the month is £78.79 so far.

Baking_Mad

I've just updated mine as well. Now stand at £187.30, but that includes fuel spend and extra money for days out while DD is on holiday. Still pleased overall. Back to school next week, so I'll have to start including the extra money for school lunches into my grocery spend.