July 2011 Grocery Challenge

69chick

Had to go to MrT's today in the end for tea as I had forgotten to get chicken out of the freezer as planned ended up picking up some bits towards next weeks meals (will update sig when I have my receipt to hand) going to Aldi tomorrow to hopefully get all the fresh stuff I need for the week (fingers crossed its a cheapy shop!!)

Hope you all had a nice Friday evening and thanks for the recipes for cakes, am going to try to do a choc cake tomorrow...

Night all x

emmad5689

Well got my Mr A delivery lasy night so another £54.62, have now spent half the budget and still need to go and get a couple of little bits that were forgotton today. Anyone know what Ald*s supersix is going to be next week, if its something we use will pop in and get some tomorrow but don't want to go just for the sake of it and spend on stuff we don't need.

becky170

I'm not doing very well this month I've spent £92.24 out of my £130 budget, but thinking about it it's not that bad as £37.76 should last me for the next two and a half weeks. I'm on a diet so I'm trying to eat lots of fruit and veg, but I have some tinned and frozen stuff in as well so I won't have to pick up too much this weekend. Well that's the plan anyway

rej-c

NSD on Thursday and £5.20 spent in Mr S on the way home last night - not bad considering that included fresh fruit, whoopsied fresh beef quarter pounders for Him Indoors to go in the freezer [a couple of four-packs reduced to 80p each, will last him a while], a couple of very reduced-to-clear packs of meaty gravy granules [with BB dates well into next year, and it'll probably take him that long to get through them], mustard and a couple of other bits.

Anyway, this takes us to £47.84/£250 so far.

A few more fresh bits to get over the weekend [I'm basically out of veg that isn't sweet potatoes or 'the eternal butternut squash'], but intend to keep spends under a tenner if I end up in Mr T's [the most likely sm I'll end up at, as it's walkable and I'm sometimes lucky with whoopsies there at the weekend].

I did an inventory of most of my food stash last weekend, and appalled myself [22kg of pasta of various kinds stashed in the bedroom - there are only 2 of us!]; I'm going to try to come up with a list of everything we have in the kitchen cupboards and freezer this weekend, just to give myself a full picture and, no doubt, inspire me to many more NSDs.

I think I'll adapt the splendid JackieO's strategy and, as an incentive, divert unspent pennies to a jar for fun spends, ice creams or, if I save enough, even a posh meal out at the seaside whenever we get there - probably October for our anniversary, at this rate, but we will get there

Keep up the great work, everyone :T

allym464

I spent a big chunk this week at 41.18 but this includes a giant bottle of fabric softener so wont have to buy that for months to come to I suppose it all swings in roundabouts. I am new to this so I did my grocery shopping last night and really tried to keep it down and still came out spending a lot. So today I went around all my local shops on a mission to really see what they sell and their prices... what I want to know is can I return all my shopping from last night and start again?! I did say a lot 'I paid double for that last night'. As someone said on here you do become addicted to how much things cost and I was getting excited when something was £1 pound cheaper etc. I cant wait to go grocery shopping now at the end of the week to see how much I spend! I am amazed though at how much I just accepted and never really thought about. This site has definitely taken off the shutters so to speak. A great big giant THANK YOU to everyone! :T:T ok will stop rambling now.

emmad5689

Oh dear, went to coop for two things and came out having spent another £20.95, my four year old didn't help as she managed to convince me to buy ice cream and ice cream cones plus got rail roaded into sweets for her, other than that wasn't crap i bought, just more meat so hoepfully we wont have to buy any more meat for at least a fortnight if not more. Only fresh stuff needed for the foreseeable future so hopefully some NSDs coming up!!

Pink.

Hi everyone,

I think that the targets on the front page are up to date now. If I've missed anyone or made any mistakes, please send me a pm to let me know. I have internet access all weekend but once Monday comes I'm relying on the kids being prepared to lend me their netbooks. Hopefully this will teach me a lesson in keeping my temper in check.

Thanks again for your understanding. x

Pink

Tracey.32

:AThank you Pink! You all do a fab job!:A

rosieben

ditto what Tracey said :T

Thanks Pink, you're a star

JIL

I couldn't sleep last night and found myself watching the marriage ref on ITV2 in the small hours, anyway it was about a husband who wanted his wife to stop buying reduced food from the supermarket. She knew exactly the time to go into all the shops to get the reduced items, she admitted she spent more on the cats food than she spent on their food. The panel who are made up of famous ish personalities then have to side with the person who they felt was right.
The husband said he had developed the nickname at work of sticker man as all his pack ups had stickers on them, or his packups were in reused bags that had previously contained a bargain as his wife was too stingy to buy food bags.
He complained his wife's bargain hunting was costing him his relationships as his wife had to go to the shops at either 6 o'clock on weekdays or 3pm on Sundays and she goes everyday. she said she always buys something that she could make a meal out of, but her beetroot curry was not too successful. He said he dreamed of the day that as a couple they could just do a weeks shopping together and pay normal prices, they both worked so money was not the problem just his wife loved the thrill of bargains.
She even told of her tussles in the shops with other bargain hunters. She said she had managed to save a fortune over the years, saying she did not go by sell dates using her nose to tell if something was off although i dont think she did any favours here by saying if she was not sure if something was on the turn she got her husband to eat it first!!
The panel were concerned at this ladies frugalness, saying that she was putting their health at risk and voted for the husband. He was going to celebrate by buying the most expensive pizza he could find. He couldnt wait to do a weekly shop and pay proper prices for it.
Do people really get pleasure by spending all their hard earned cash on really expensive food in shops? I could see this lady was being really extreme but surely there was some middle ground and all the money she had saved over the years must have been a big positive.