September 2011 Grocery Challenge

ButterflyBee

All I have been doing is small shopping trips and It seems to be saving me quite a bit of money. Today I bought only what I needed. Wraps,Pot Noodle,Slimfast,Milk,Bread. £ 8.90 today.

FoxFace

Just confirming my NSD for today... going fine and looking good for hitting target :heartsmil

Am going to have a nosy through the recipes list, as I still have a freezer full of meat and fancy some new ideas for next week

I might also keep back a chicken and a gammon joint for X*as... we aren't having a big meal this year, that should be well enough meat for us over the festive period :snow_grin

Need2bthrifty

I can’t believe where the time has gone it’s been well over a week since I went through my receipts and updated my spending. Week 4 of my challenge started off badly having gone to L*dl in the hopes of getting some of their weekend special meats but nothing was left so opted for a week of trying out Veggie recipes and using up freezer supplies. Over the course of the week ended up spending £12.00 on onions, cabbage, celery, pk 4 garlic, 10 eggs, marg, butter & lard for making pastry, yoghurt & UHT milk, green lentils, crisps x6 and ground mace – meals consisting of HM Cheese & Onion quiche, HM Shepherdless Pie, HM Veggie pizza, HM Veggie curry, Chicken Kiev, Pork Casserole, Chicken curry.

I made my first ever batch of HM Yoghurt which I had for breakfast with stewed rhubarb, from the freezer, or a sprinkling of rolled oats & honey. Lunches were soup from the freezer/egg sandwiches/toasted muffins with cheese & toms.

Thankfully this week I was a bit more successful in my search for meat – got 2 x 500g Sainsbugs basic mince which was reduced so along with some pork mince I made a meatloaf (2lb loaf size which I have portioned up and frozen which for me makes 4 main meals and 6 sandwich fillings) a huge pot of chilli (bulked out with porridge oats, celery & grated carrots) making 8 main meal portions . So along with some store cupboard staples, I’ve spent £4.61 leaving a grand total of 0.62p to last until Saturday :eek:.

Living_proof

I have been broadbandless for several days now but now have a new router and back online. Def. withdrawal symptoms!

A mixed blessing at the weekend - I was given a very generous present by an old friend and had to treat him to a slap-up meal. I will struggle to make the monthly target now, although I have so much in the freezer in larder it's only milk and veg. I will need.

I will do my best and hope to have time to back-track on all your posts for the last week or so!

recovering_spendaholic

Spent £18 over the last two days - £10 to DD2 for lunchtime drinks and morning breaks - they all buy hot chocolate at morning break and it costs £1.10!!, £6 in Sainsburys on ladies things and got a couple of WW curry pots reduced to 59p from £2.50. Then today I had to get toilet rolls so that was another £1.15.

I have hardly any money left at all and don't get paid until next Monday, so I will have to be extra frugal and will probably stay withing budget!

DD2 has decided that she is a vegetarian (again;)) so tonight I made Beanfest chilli (found sachet in the back of the cupboard BB Nov 10!) and we had it with pittas and some leftover rice from yesterday. I tarted the chilli up a bit with tomato ketchup and some cumin and herbs and added a tin of kidney beans but it was surprisingly nice! DD1 wouldn't touch it and got in a strop and decided that she didn't want any tea - but now she has gone round to her friend's and will probably get chips or a subway while she is out (as long as I'm not paying that's okay). Don't know what to give DD1 for lunch tomorrow though - she will have to have cheese and tomato barm which she probably will moan about as she doesn't like uncooked cheese! I am still steadfastly refusing to buy multi-packs of crisps and only having home made biscuits etc in - kids are still moaning but it's getting less!

Oh yes - is there a glitch on the Perle de Lait at Mr T?

meanmarie

Spent €5.99 on 20kg potatoes to-day, bringing total spend to €126.82, leaving €5.81 per day for rest of month. Have had 14 NSDs so far this month.

Marie

sproggi

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Oh yes - is there a glitch on the Perle de Lait at Mr T?

The only thing that I can find is the £1 off voucher for Perle de Lait printed on the Frubes boxes, Mr T had the Frubes in a B1G1F.

Ended up spending £42.82 in Mr T tonight, that included £7.38 stocking up on half price shampoo and conditioner, so not too bad.
Should get away without shopping again until the weekend if family do not decide to guzzle all the milk!

Sproggi

sonastin

We've had some terrible news recently with a small silver lining. Completely undermined my first attempt at the grocery challenge but equally left us in the position where budgets aren't so tight any more. A dear old friend of my OH sadly passed away last week which meant we had to travel halfway across the country to deal with all the paperwork and all meal planning and food budgets went out the window. Spent the best part of £220 now with some more bits and pieces still to buy this month. Silver lining is that she very kindly left everything to OH which has completely taken the pressure off our finances. He'd much rather have his friend back to b*tch and moan at though.

At this point I'm going to retire from the challenge while we deal with probate and rethink the budgets but I wish you all luck with your challenges...

freakyogre

£1.74 spent in Lidl on eggs and leeks.

I did also get 2 cartons of juice for my dad, but they won't be included in my total.

sproggi

sonastin - I am sorry to hear about your OH's friend. Please remember to take care of yourselves during this stressful time.

HUGS

Sproggi