October 2011 Grocery Challenge

Islandmaid

Hi all,
£400 for me please - September budget went belly-up due to family visit, will come back later and update :eek::o

Enjoy this fab weather all xx:D

recovering_spendaholic

Woke up today to find that I had caught DD1's virus - sore throat, cough, runny nose... yuck!

I really need to go to Tesco today if I am to make use of my £11 worth of vouchers, so I have dosed myself up and may go after tea. I have made a list and intend to stick to it as my finances are dire again this month.

Gave DD2 two leftover sausages from last night with some beans for lunch and DD1 will eat lunch at work. I have had two cream crackers with marmite as I don't have much of an appetite. Tonight I have defrosted some chicken thighs but because I don't feel that great I can't think what to do with them. Might do chickeny rice - both kids like that so....

I was looking at the Tesco online groceries and found that the tinned tomatoes are all now really expensive but the Tesco pasata is still only 29p (not value either) so I am thinking I will get that and use instead of tinned tomatoes. The value pasta sauce (which is really nice) has gone down again from 24p to 19p so I will get some of that too.

Barney- so sorry to hear about your cat - you must have been out of your mind with worry about her - glad they can sort her out - even if it has cost alot.

Spiggle

mandco wrote: »

... budget took a serious hammering due to bump deciding to finally put in an appearance totally perfect ...

Congratulations mandco for the arrival of your perfect bump! :dance: Lovely news.

Sorry to hear about your cat, barneydee, painful cost but the love you show is priceless.

Welcome to cheapncheery, Kimsmum, ChasingButterflies, elfyh2000 and any other newbie I've missed. :wave: Great tip SallyHat for keeping costs to a minimum when shopping. :cool:

We have got to get an online order together sometime [STRIKE]today[/STRIKE] this weekend. I have about as much impetus to do it as a snail on our very dry patio! This weather is really weird but as a sun lover I'm not complaining.

OH is off to the local shop soon to get some bits for this evening as we've just had a call and friends are coming round for the last Dr Who and then a few games of cards. Simple things can give great pleasure!

BTW, in early September I managed to finally kick the Sk* habit and now have a really nice H*m*x pvr so I can still record two channels, pause live tv etc and don't pay the murdoch dynasty any money at all any more! :money: And the picture is definitely better quality. :j

Right I think I'm going to go and enjoy the sun for a couple of hours.

Have great day everyone, good luck for October, keep your lists stuck to you and your purses shut unless you need to spend!

All the best,
Spigs

PaddyPaws

Just had my Mr A order delivered - big monthly shop. With offers and free delivery I've spent £62.19 which leaves me with £187.81 for the rest of the month.

Feeling resonably confident as I managed to come in £5 under budget last month even though I'd done a mega stock-up at c0stc0 (£150), don't want to reduce my budget though as anything left at the end of the month will be saved into our emergency fund or future stockup fund (and also off-set against the mortgage)

Trying the cheese and lentil loaf recipe for tea tonight (aiming to try at least a couple of new recipes from this thread each month - and not just the cakes and biscuits!!!)

Off to update my sig now
PP

ms_night_ryder

I have spent £16.6 today so will add that to my total.

Did get some charmin 24 pack for 6.99 in lidl, 75p on a noodle soup mix, 2.90 on fruit and veg at the stall, 1 litre non bio, soup, 2 1 litre ribenas and some marigolds cost me 5.96 after some coupons and discounts making my total for the month 19.76/50

I need to try and use what i have in the freezer, so shouldnt need loads, i dont need toiletries as i have at least 3 months worth, so thats a few less things to worry about, i have a fair bit of meat in my freezer, joints steaks chicken etc and loads of soups and pastas, have taken out a chicken pie i pre made from the freezer for dinner.

CompBunny

rosieben wrote: »

CompBunny, you might find some ideas on these threads

Packed Lunch for Work

Pixie's Packed Lunch Challenge

and might also be worth a look at some of the links listed under

Lunch in post #6 of the Complete Cooking Collection

hth

Thankyou very much for posting those threads! I'll have a good search through them

Don't forget GCers, today and tomorrow you can get a family (2 adults, 2 kids but can be just 2 adults) ticket for a day out at National Trust places "free" with the Radio Times (£1.20). Participating places: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-support/w-competitions_offers-2/w-competitions_radio_times_offer

We bought 3 pineapple lollies for 75p from Tesco to take with us, so a nice cheap afternoon out! Add in the magazine and some cereal bars for the car and I can add a £2.95 spend for October. First spend is yet another naughty spend, but I think a day out for £2.95 including snacks for another day out too isn't too bad

quintwins

£8.35 in te$co on a bag of chips (not very os but still mse compared to a chippy) 3 blocks of cheese a packet of bacon, 2 loaves of bread and 5 snickers, still need a bag of spuds but i'll get them on monday, had yummy cheesy beans and chips for lunch

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Been busy for the past week with my Dad and step-mum staying with us, was a lovely time, but I spent a fortune!!!!!! They havn,t been over for what I thought was 5 years, but was actually 7 ( live in Canada). !So as a result I am !ignoring my September budget and will be starting afresh, with no excuses in October.

So far, out of October,s budget I have spent:-

£70.96 at Bookers on 1kg of mince, 30 chicken breasts, 2kg good sausages, 2.5kg of sausage meat, 1kg sliced ham, 2 pork hocks, 5ltrs of lime squash, 5 ltrs of bleach, a HUGE washing powder which will last months, 4x coconut milk, large sqeezy jar of sweet chilli sauce.

Mr L,s - £39.40 - £11.00 on booze, lots of veggies and salad, £6.99 on loo roll, loads of cupboard food etc

Approved Foods order - £38.35 which included £10 worth of cat food, loads of goodies for Xmas (stored in loft so kids can,t get at them!) enough Indian goodies to last a lifetime, and one 2950 k tin of Thai Curry paste, which cost a quid, but I read as 50g....... Me thinks we may have to freeze some LOL:eek:

I did buy myself a prezzie last week too - I have been considering buying a wheelie trolley for my shopping, but although they are funky and lush, I did wonder how often I would ACTUALLY use it - doing a little online window shopping, I came upon a 'Trolley-dolly' its a fab little bag, just stuffed with good quality shopping bags and veg nets, I have been taking it everywere as my everyday bag, I hope I,m not going to get into trouble by mentioning it but I was so impressed, I,ve been boring everyone I know about it......:D

Havn,t had a chance to read up on all the goss, but hope everyone,s well and not melting in this gorgous weather xx

cattysmum

Hi I would like to be put down for a budget of £350 again for October please. I came in just under budget for September so am quite pleased with myself, I have done a shop already with Mr Ts using the £10 money off xoucher from Morrisons, so got a few bottles of wine. extra, I am really going to try to stay away fro mthe shops this month as I have freezer and cupboards full of stuff. I haven't done meal plan yet, but on nights tonight so will get menu planning, tomorrow going to use up barbque stuff from freezer and use up charcoal whilst the sun shines!!! May even open my last bottle of Pimms!!

I am going to try for 9 NSDs this month.

Grandchild number 6 eight days overdue!!!!

Winged_one

Hi all, it's been a few weeks as work blocked MSE (boo, hiss!!), and too busy to get online at home, but I've been keeping track in the meantime. I never went to do the large shop after all, but I am just working away quietly in the meantime. I spent a lot today, but I am working on the basis that as OH is away for the next 2 weeks (again), and I still have a lot on, I am not going to do a supermarket shop for the next 2-3 weeks. Just go to the local F&V shop and the small shop for bread and milk. I still have a reasonable amount for the final quarter of the year - slightly less than I'd like but not too bad.

My plan for this week is:
Sat: Pork steak with roast potatoes and purple sprouting brocolli
Sun: Pasta with courgettes (but a big fry for brunch before OH heads to the airport)
Mon: Lasagne, or spag bol
Tues: Salmon and mash
Wed: Chicken kievs
Thurs: Bangers and mash
Fri: Something that I don't even have to think about!!

Oh, and I need to use the damsons I got at MILs last weekend - the sloes are already sitting in gin and the blackberries are coulis'd in the freezer for winter use.