August 2011 Grocery Challenge

cutestkids

Yet more shopping needed today, Milk, Teabags, butter, cat food, more apples and just realised I am totally out of potatoes so will have to get some in morning.
So £8.88 spent today just over £30.00 to see us through the next 10 days to stay on target.

rej-c

I've got a few days off work after a really busy spell - haven't had a chance to post in here since the 9th, or thereabouts, so I'm really catching up with myself as well as all of you. It's been great to read all your updates. You continue to inspire me :T

Just been through my receipts, and updated my sig. I've managed a few NSDs [and a couple more almost-NSDs] in the past 12 days, but have also had to add a total of £75.54 to the spends.

It's a bit like putting on weight - you don't notice the little bits going on here and there, but when you look at the total after not paying close attention for a while, it comes as a :eek:

Part of the higher-than-hoped-for total comes down to the fact that I haven't been doing well at sticking to the meal plan and have been wasting too much uneaten fruit and veg as a result, so that's something I'm going to be working on improving.

Oh, and I've finally found a way to make a start on a '2nd purse'-type strategy [couldn't quite get my head around it for a while there]. I spotted that a local Mr S was clearing out a washing detergent I like for less than half price, so I nabbed... erm, let's just say enough to keep us going for years ...and paid for it out of my 'pocket money'. Every bottle I use from that stash, I'll buy 'from myself' with housekeeping money as and when [and put an equal £ amount into a yet-to-be-decided savings pot].

Other than that, now that I've caught up on the receipts, I'm going to spend at least a few hours of my down-time this week updating my inventory, organising the freezer and getting my stash in order. I also plan to take the time to make a decent meal every day, and enjoy both the cooking and eating of it without it being 'against the clock'!

Ooh - if I can make a little space in the freezer, I might even wizz up a few home-made ready meals/SC ingredient kits for when I'm back at work - that could really take the pressure off some days...

Hope everyone has a good day.

quintwins

morning all nsd today, fishfingers chips and beans for tea, this wasn't the plan to start with but i opened some beans yesterday for lunch planning to throw the rest in the leftove spag bol for chilli but hubby said he'd prefer sapg bol again instead of chilli, so now i have beans to use, and tomorrow were having spag bol on baked spuds

166million

69chick wrote: »

Hi all. am on holiday at the moment near Aberdeen at my brother and sister in laws..GC sort of on hold, I did spend yesterday whilst here so I might add that to the sig and see if I can keep up with it, however it will be different to my usual spending as I am not as 'tight' with my shopping whilst on holiday and spend more on treats etc. but the money has to come from somewhere I suppose..

We have been to a lovely beach today at a small fishing village, weather isn't great but the kids loved it and we got ice creams on the way home (quite impressed as they had an array of flavours and were only £1.10 each!!)

we are here till Thursday, when we will begin our long journey home back down South, making a couple of stops on the way....do any of you have any suggestions as to good places to stop with 3 young children? need a stop either south of Scotland or not long into England and then another in the middle of England....not GC related sorry but thought I would ask...

Hope everyone is doing well sticking to budgets,am off to catch up on some posts now xx

Carlisle or the Lake District is nice to stop if you're heading down that way.

medsdemon

69chick wrote: »

Hi all. am on holiday at the moment near Aberdeen at my brother and sister in laws..GC sort of on hold, I did spend yesterday whilst here so I might add that to the sig and see if I can keep up with it, however it will be different to my usual spending as I am not as 'tight' with my shopping whilst on holiday and spend more on treats etc. but the money has to come from somewhere I suppose..

We have been to a lovely beach today at a small fishing village, weather isn't great but the kids loved it and we got ice creams on the way home (quite impressed as they had an array of flavours and were only £1.10 each!!)

we are here till Thursday, when we will begin our long journey home back down South, making a couple of stops on the way....do any of you have any suggestions as to good places to stop with 3 young children? need a stop either south of Scotland or not long into England and then another in the middle of England....not GC related sorry but thought I would ask...

Hope everyone is doing well sticking to budgets,am off to catch up on some posts now xx

If you're driving down the east coast you could stop at Berwick- there's a nice chippy and you can get a walk down by the water. Or we like to stop on the coast near Lindisfarne..fabulous beaches just a 5 min drive from the A1 and it will give the kids a good run and paddle ( weather pending) Pick picnic stuff up from the Mo**isons just on the A1 at Berwick. If you go the A68 route there's a lovely playpark by a river, great for a picnic but can't remember exactly where, sorry it's ages since we travelled with a young one.

I second tebay services on the west coast route...make sure you have duck feeding bread and a picnic.

On GC front a NSD today. Making Greek salad with fried halloumi for a light quick dinner. Might do a bit of baking this afternoon

ThrivingOnThrift

I have not posted here before but have been following since mid August. I have got £20 to last till the end of the month, (but do have a well stocked fridge, freezer and pantry) so you can imagine that I was pleased to pick up a chickeny bargain in Mr C this morning! Free range chickens were £4 each, on 3 for £10...but also reduced to £3 each because sell by date was nearly up. For one happy moment they went through the till at £3 then took £2 off as well, but sadly it was a trainee cashier who queried it with their supervisor. I normally find that they let it go and give you both offers...but still, £9 for £12 worth of chicken is good.

I am planning roast chicken, chicken soup and chicken risotto as main courses then coronation chicken for sandwich from one bird, the other two are in the freezer.

I am really finding this thread is helping me keep track on my spending (essential as husband and I have both been made redundant). I dread to think how much we were spending before, as I had the habit of picking something up on the way home from work...often the station M&S! I am really enjoying this better way of planning and spending, and have had lots of inspiration from the posts here, so thank you!

Naomim

Afternoon all, well I went onto my Mr T credit card statement and updated my sig. I buy all food shopping on card and pay off at the end of the month. I'm chasing points If I am under budget, the balance gets paid against the other credit cards

So my 1st week total is £64.90. Next week I'm going to need nappies for both kids, although I usually buy Mr T's own brand for DD but my DS is still needing them at night and they are expensive

Naomi x

zebredy

I did join in back at the beginning of the year but I'm more a lurker and post for a month or two then don't post for ages.
_______

I have been trying to cut back on what we spend on grocery's each month (especially this month where we had to spend out on a new fridge/freezer, though we did have to refill the unit) anyway I think I'm slowly getting there, more so now then ever before.

Cutting back on what I spend has been made much easier recently because I FINALLY (woohoo!!) worked out roughly what time items get reduced in my local Tescoss and in one of the big sainsburgs near us, though I can't always guarantee discounted items will be there but its a start.

Anyway yesterday armed with my £5 voucher off a £40 spend at MR T plus some coupons I printed off the internet, I headed to the shops at my usual time, ready for my hubby to meet me there and then take me home after we finished.

Wow is all I can say. So the pizzas weren't the cheapest I have ever seen them (got 2 for 36p and 5 for 59p each all at the same time) but considering there normally around £3.59 each I thought 72p was not a bad price, especially as we were able to get 9 of them . When I tell myself those 9 cost less then the price of two at full price when not on offer I defiantly couldn't refuse.

I got a few half loafs of bread for 3-4pence each, got some rolls brown and white (6 in a pack) for 4pence each, got 4 packs of mushrooms for 16pence each (with a tesco money off voucher for 20p on pre packed mushrooms I got one of those free) plus got 2 peppers for 36p and 4 bags of celery on its SBD for 20p each.

We also got one packet of mince, a big beef joint thing (never cooked on of those but my hubby likes them and it should be simple enough) and some precooked chicken all discounted as well.

We did buy some items we normally get, not on offer but still some great finds.

The shopping before discounts and multi-buy savings were taken into account, came too £72.12. We paid £56 and got at least 8 bags of shopping. I'm so chuffed.

To add to all this, my mum buys the daily mail and got some of those £5 vouchers for the shops. She got a Mr T one sent to us (should be here within a week) so when my hubby runs out of bananas and ham for sarnies for work, we've got that covered too.

This week more then ever the savings we made yesterday really came in handy. With no meat in the house and not much in the cupboards we needed to stock up, and I was worried we might have to spend more then my hubby had budgeted for, in order to do this. Thankfully we didn't especially as my hubby is more of a fussy eater then me and is a big carnivore so pasta and red sauce would not have kept him going for very long..

quintwins

wow zebredy thats some amazing bargains my store never reduces this by that much, the best i get is 20p bread (i got value bread at 15p the other day will be fine for toast) and thats if i go right before closing, roasts are dear easy to cook you just wrap them in foil and seasoning and bung them in the oven or if you ahve a slowcooker don't bother with the foil, if it's a big one you might even be able to use leftovers for sandwichs and save buying me ham

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Back from the daily slog, I mean my very forfilling work

Another NSD for me, but non-food spends are creeping up school uniforms, and little darlings asking for 'spends' - roll on school -
I need to make a firm descision about school lunches - me half being lazy and half the kids being fussy, usually give them money for lunches, but at £100 pm it seems like I could spend alot less with packed lunches, but then I worry because most of what they take comes back uneaten - I especially worry about DD as she has eating issues anyway and no matter which way I choose I worry that
she,s not eating - time for a family chat I think .....

I need to be alot firmer with myself next month, as I could have spent alot less on food and non-food if i,d put my mind to it

Anyway enough of my ramblings.

Sausage and mash for dinner.

Have a great evening all x