July 2011 Grocery Challenge

sprozza

Really pleased with this weeks shopping bill, I decided to go through the freezer and cuboards and was suprised at the amount of food we already had. I made a meal plan for the week and have only brought what I need. I didn't do my usual Te$co shop, I went to Ald* and H*me Bargins. Still cant beleive what I got for my money.

cutiepieabf

Hello all, sorry i've been MIA lately. hope everyone is doing well, and hugs to all.

Well, i have already done my big shop for this month which came to £145, but some of this was household stuff which i dont include in my grocery budget, so i will update sig accordingly once ive worked out the actual total. Please can i have a budget of £150 for july.

there was an offer in mr t for a free milk jug when you bought a bag of milk. i thought - well i could do with that because DS is very independent but has trouble pouring milk from a big bottle. well when the delivery arrived the milk had been reduced to 40p - bargain i thought considering the jug is free with it. but then when i put the milk in the jug and poured, the milk leaked severely from every crook and cranny between the jug and lid before it even made the spout! what a waste of milk!

i was just wondering if anyone else had encountered this problem?

there were also a couple of other things that they substituted for me, but they actually gave me better/bigger items which i paid my order price for so that was good.

i have decided to focus on NSD this month. i realised that by trying to save money i was hunting around all the time for bargains which obv led to increased spending, so instead, i am looking to reduce the amount of spend days i have, which will hopefully mean less spends.... we are also going for a low carb diet - OH wants to lose weight for wedding and i am being a supportive fiance and going along for the ride. lol. only problem is he wont eat salad, but i will find a way around this.

if anyone has any tips on low carb diets or recipes i would be very grateful! i will have a look on the recipes too, but i thought someone might have a really successful recipe that they could share?

ok, i am going to do some work now. hope everyone had a lovely weekend enjoying the sun!!xx

Elisheba

cutiepieabf wrote: »

there was an offer in mr t for a free milk jug when you bought a bag of milk. i thought - well i could do with that because DS is very independent but has trouble pouring milk from a big bottle. well when the delivery arrived the milk had been reduced to 40p - bargain i thought considering the jug is free with it. but then when i put the milk in the jug and poured, the milk leaked severely from every crook and cranny between the jug and lid before it even made the spout! what a waste of milk!

i was just wondering if anyone else had encountered this problem?


I think the problem is that they are actually Jugit jugs. Designed to work with special bags of milk. They are not actually made for milk on its own.

HalfaSixpence_2

Hi, I know it sounds a lot but I want to go for £600 in July - that includes our family holiday and eating out is a big part of that for me. If I can do it on less, which I hope I might be able to, I am thinking of putting the extra towards a chest freezer as Im using our present one a lot at the moment but even if I clear out a lot of stuff it doesn't really have room to keep stock of things for a month. I'd rather go for a bigger budget and know Ive really got to stick to it. At this stage, just keeping up with keeping tabs on everything is the biggest challenge for me.

Still haven't worked out June's final figure but tomorrow is my day off so I'll be able to sit down and see what I forgot to write down.

helen_jelly

Spent £19 at MrT and DH is popping in there today - he has instructions to buy 1 item only - umm I wonder if thats possible lol

Hello to all the new people

See you all soon

Helen x

PS - Hippiechiq and Spiggle - let us know you are ok even if you don't want to post, missing you

cutiepieabf

Elisheba wrote: »

cutiepieabf wrote: »

there was an offer in mr t for a free milk jug when you bought a bag of milk. i thought - well i could do with that because DS is very independent but has trouble pouring milk from a big bottle. well when the delivery arrived the milk had been reduced to 40p - bargain i thought considering the jug is free with it. but then when i put the milk in the jug and poured, the milk leaked severely from every crook and cranny between the jug and lid before it even made the spout! what a waste of milk!

i was just wondering if anyone else had encountered this problem?


I think the problem is that they are actually Jugit jugs. Designed to work with special bags of milk. They are not actually made for milk on its own.

ohhhh i feel a bit stupid now! that would make sense!

HalfaSixpence_2

cutiepieabf wrote: »

Hello all, sorry i've been MIA lately. hope everyone is doing well, and hugs to all.

Well, i have already done my big shop for this month which came to £145, but some of this was household stuff which i dont include in my grocery budget, so i will update sig accordingly once ive worked out the actual total. Please can i have a budget of £150 for july.

there was an offer in mr t for a free milk jug when you bought a bag of milk. i thought - well i could do with that because DS is very independent but has trouble pouring milk from a big bottle. well when the delivery arrived the milk had been reduced to 40p - bargain i thought considering the jug is free with it. but then when i put the milk in the jug and poured, the milk leaked severely from every crook and cranny between the jug and lid before it even made the spout! what a waste of milk!

i was just wondering if anyone else had encountered this problem?

if anyone has any tips on low carb diets or recipes i would be very grateful! i will have a look on the recipes too, but i thought someone might have a really successful recipe that they could share?

ok, i am going to do some work now. hope everyone had a lovely weekend enjoying the sun!!xx

Like someone else said, the jugit only works if you buy the milk in a bag to start with.

DH and I have been low carb for about 10 years now - I started on it to support him and not only lost my extra stone that was gradually becoming almost 2 stone but also got rid of some other nagging health probs, so its definitely been good for us. He still eats too much and is overweight, but it's much more under control than it was. It does cut out most of the ultra-cheap ways of saving food money thoiugh! Lots of veggies help - bulking up stews and on the plate to replace the 'potato gap'. My secret weapon is that DH likes tinned veggies, and will happily eat them which means I'm never out of veg or stuck for time to cook them. I use a pressure cooker and a slow cooker and cook huge vats of stew to freeze in portions to help me use cheap cuts rather than more expensive meat that I would otherwise fall into when I need something quickly. I tend to forget about things like canned fish so I try and plan that in at least once a week on my meal plan. We have 4 chickens, so the eggs they produce are 'free' in the sense that I'm feeding the chickens anyway and that encourages us to have eggs for breakfast and lunch/dinner quite often.

There was recently a fabulous microwave bread recipe on the low carb support thread - much nicer than anything I have ever bought and although the ingredients are on the pricey side you make it slice by slice as you want it, so there is no waste and one bag of the flax and nut flour is lasting me ages. I got it on 3 for 2 at Holland and Barrett.

The main tips are to plan meals including lunch and breakfast so you don't get caught out and to stick to real food and not get pulled into buying 'low carb bars' etc etc. The only exception I make is to buy bulk protein shake powder which I have for an emergency lunch when I'm busy and would otherwise reach for a sandwich. I get a really nice tasting one from the internet.

But as you can see from my target this month, I've got a long way to go on the moneysaving grocdery front! I'm really determined to get a handle on this, so any suggestions you have would be gratefully received here.

sistercas

jackie O well done on your shopping that was an incredible bargain :T

a NSD today well im counting it as that , i have bought some hairspray with my points from boots but it wont spray so i need to take it back

having beef, courgette and potato bake for tea ( recipe is from sainsbugs family meals )

hoping there will be some left over for my lunch tomorrow

ragz_2

£35 spent on Saturday (Tesco twice! and co-op) mostly booze and food for DH's birthday treat and BBQ food for BBQ yesterday.
£80 spent Sunday on big food shop at Tesco, should be well stocked up now. Resisted bulk buying though did get cheap meat even though we don't need any for the next 2 weeks! Freezer groaning!

Takeaway tonight as it's DH's birthday, don't count that in my GC


I WILL do it this month.

medsdemon

Just back from sainzers having spent £12.87 and only really needing tampons:o. But since it's to be our last sunny day for a while by the look of things, I thought i'd move my meal plan about and buy things for a greek salad & falafels with yoghurt sauce, which was meant for after my big shop, but I want to sit in my garden with a chilled glass of wine and something light and summery to eat:D.