October 2011 Grocery Challenge

TrixieB

£2 on chocolate in Thorntons. just... because!!

Boyfriend is getting us chippy tonight but now am a MSE even though it's his money not mine or out of my budget!! I have gone and thrown some sausages in the oven instead of buying them from chippy - and making him eat left over pie from last night with his - if he comes back from chippy with something though as I half expect him too !! I shall freeze the pie.

Need to do my big shop tomorrow, will be at Asda and will be heavily hm soup based for me at least as I am now trying to lose weight before I have an operation.

ixia

Hi and good luck to everyone for this month's challenge

I've been shopping today so went to mr T's and spent £72.16 after using a £10 off £70 coupon also went to M&S and spent £23.41 only £3.41 in cash though as I had £20 in vouchers.

Total spend so far £75.57.

suzybloo

Day one for me I spent £12.46 in the fish mongers for 5 slice of fish!!!! And also £6.21 in the bakers so £18.67 out of my budget so far. Have now ordered a 7lb box of white haddock and 7lb of smoked haddock to be picked up Friday which wil be £50 Out of the budget but will work out at £3.55 approx a pound instead of £5.30, so although a big outlay should save a bit over the next six weeks. Will just have to economise on something else!

will update my signature to show my spends so far.

Living_proof

I did a big shop (for me anyway) today buying some BOGOF Pataks pastes in Tescos and then on to Aldi's, Lidls for most of the fruit and veg, a chicken, and then on to Asda for a couple of items not found elsewhere. Also dropped in to Farmfoods for a few basics as I have vouchers I can use there.

I have spent a third or so of this month's budget but so many of the items were for the store cupboard I am not too worried. I found the new pricing and sizing of the products in Tesco a little difficult and I am just glad I had time to check mysupermarket last night to make informed decisions on the best value. I see tuna tins are now being sold by the 6, but I don't see any price advantage for the customer.

There was a huge difference in price for fresh produce like grapes, pineapple and salads and it really does pay to shop around. Only if you can check the prices online, otherwise you would be wasting too much time and energy going round all the aisles. We treated ourselves to a Dine in for £10 meal at M&S which heaven knows, we didn't really need, but it's an inexpensive treat I suppose.

I now have whole chicken upside down in the slow cooker without added liquid. It should feed two of us three meals at least and was reduced to £2.50 in Lidl. I have also tried one of the Wrights cake mixes in the bread maker - choc. fudge cake. It smells yummy but I think we will use it as a dessert with some ice cream. We need the extra calories like a hole in the head, but ho, hum!

I hope you all enjoy your shopping as much as I do. I strive to get a bargain whenever possible, and today was worth the effort.

slbhill

CompBunny wrote: »

Care to share your fave budget friendly lunches? He is a meat eater...not sure how I feel about using it for him...our shared meals are always veggie, but he always used to eat meat at bought work lunches. Hmmm...

We're mainly a sandwich household, I must admit. I have got much better at making the packed lunches every day since either doing them straight after dinner, or at 9pm - if I leave it until just before bed I'm always too tired & put it off, and never have time in the morning (snooze button addict!)

But potato salad (boiled, chopped new pots with some mayo & a bit of spring onion or chives is nice for lunch - especially with a bit of added ham or bacon if you decide to include meat. Similarly pasta salad - I throw in whatever salad or suitable veggies or meat I have in teh fridge, and add a good drizzle of any ready-made salad dressing although I probably should make my own. I would also say it's well worth investing in some decent plastic tubs with lids which don't leak if you're doing anything other than sandwiches. Maybe a reasonable flask as well if you're soup people?

Of course if he has access to a toaster &/or microwave at work then the options get much wider.

Long_tall_sally

I went to Mr T last night & was quite pleased that I managed to get a £66 shop down to £33 after vouchers & coupons. I also spent £17 today in the Co Op which included a large joint of beef for 36 odd & a huge joint of pork for £3.96. I did however spend a shocking £2.75 on a magazine for the coach journey DD who is at the Big Gig at Wembley Arena tonight with the Guides.

Recovering spendaholic - I had an awful lot of trouble with child tax credit last year. If you feel that the figures that they are quoting you are wrong, write to them within 28 days of receiving a letter and put the words "I wish to appeal" & ask for a break down of how they are arrived at the figure. I was originally told that I owed over £3000 & although I knew that I possibly owed some, I also knew that it was nowhere near this amount. Their quote of over £3000 was made up of two amounts altogether & apparently one amount was "due to their own error" & could not legally be claimed back. In the end I settled for £650! The people I dealt with the most incompetent lot of people (apart from those at The Child Support Agency!) that I have ever dealt with!

:wave: to Spiggle! Very useful to have a reminder of your useful words of wisdom!

Sue14

My first spend of the month today in Mr T's of £19.16. Mental note to self DON'T EVER GO THERE ON A SATURDAY MORNING AGAIN, it was mental! LOL!

The thing that really annoyed me was that I only went there because I had to get a couple of prescriptions, and thought I'd get my shopping while waiting for them to be done. I was told it would be 10-15 minutes, went back after 30 minutes when I only had frozen to get, and was told it would be another 5 minutes, so went to get the frozen bits and went back 10 minutes later, only to be told that they were out of stock of both of the items on my dad's prescription, and only had 1 pack of the medication on mine, so I have to go back for the other pack on Monday! :mad: Why it took them so long to tell me they were out of stock I don't know, especially as it was medication that is already boxed up and only needed to be taken off the shelf and put in a bag!

sproggi

First day for this month for me and it is a NSD
I am hoping to beat last month for NSD's, it will just be milk and
fresh veg/fruit that could scupper it.
I would buy more milk at a time and freeze it, but my freezer is
only about 7cubit foot and full.
I could really do with a bigger freezer for the 5 of us.

Sproggi

angelatgraceland

:Not sure if under or over budget for September but I think it was under-I only logged the last 2 weeks. Fully back on track now and only counting food/pet food. Ive taken out fuel and paper product/toiletries-they are now different budgets for me as it is solely the food I want to get a grip of!
First spend of the month on petrol of £15-tho not in this budget I keep a note of it in my spending diary along with ALL spends. Went to Co-op and topped up with fruit juice as I feel I need it-still got my cold. Saw some reduced potato/swede/carrot in a tray for 50p each and took a fancy to having one of those with grated cheese and gravy for tea-I didn't fancy anything heavy.
Treated DH to a tin of Quality Street(Urrrgh)pure sugar in foil I think but as he is on yet another course of chemo I get him whatever he fancies! Actual food spend was £10.36. we really don't need anything! Postponed Asda delivery for 2 weeks due to the shopping I did last week.Given a till spit for £5 off £50 which runs out on the 8th Oct so I MAY USE THAT NEXT WEEK.Gave in my notice at work yesterday so only two more weeks of getting paid. Too much running around for hubby to work without knackering myself so rainyday fund to the rescue for the next 2 years!:eek: However-thats what rainy day funds are for. So my budget is all about using what funds I have as carefully as I can. I had a delivery of 20 litres of laundry liquid yesterday which works out at £1.15 per litre after paying carriage so savings of 45p per litre for tescos own cheapest one-so minimum saving on the 20 litres of £9. Coupled with my soapnuts I think I have about a years supply!One thing less on the shopping list and another reason Im doing household items separatley.I am hoping to feed us for £2.50 per day each max and not counting eldest dd as she buys her own food and is probably leaving home soon. £2..50 doesnt sound a lot to many people but it is in fact easily acheivable I have found.;):j

CompBunny

slbhill wrote: »

We're mainly a sandwich household, I must admit. I have got much better at making the packed lunches every day since either doing them straight after dinner, or at 9pm - if I leave it until just before bed I'm always too tired & put it off, and never have time in the morning (snooze button addict!)

But potato salad (boiled, chopped new pots with some mayo & a bit of spring onion or chives is nice for lunch - especially with a bit of added ham or bacon if you decide to include meat. Similarly pasta salad - I throw in whatever salad or suitable veggies or meat I have in teh fridge, and add a good drizzle of any ready-made salad dressing although I probably should make my own. I would also say it's well worth investing in some decent plastic tubs with lids which don't leak if you're doing anything other than sandwiches. Maybe a reasonable flask as well if you're soup people?

Of course if he has access to a toaster &/or microwave at work then the options get much wider.

Thankyou for your helpful post! I'll have to try and follow your routine of a time to make lunch for the next day, maybe 9:30pm after the dogs have had their evening walk. We have a few bits of tupperware which will do for now until we have a bit more money, and some "tubbits" which will be ok for sandwich armour! We are certainly praying for a work microwave! Potato salad or pasta salad sound good too, after reading other threads I've started thinking in terms of pizza/pasties too and even quiche! If I buy a decent flask, I'll be forced to start making nice soup to go in it!:rotfl:

So far for next week we've thought tuna and sweetcorn would be good for two days - one as a sandwich, one as a pasta and I don't feel quite as awful about opening a can of tuna as I would a tin of corned beef (but couldn't eat it myself :embarasse).

I think this meat thing could be a real problem :eek: I want to support my partner, but don't want to abandon my personal morals. A good compromise would be free range/organic/hand reared pampered meat but we just can't afford it right now!