October 2011 Grocery Challenge

ixia

Morning everyone

went to Mr T's yesterday and used a £7 off coupon so total spends were £64.25 on groceries. I did spend a bit more but that was for xmas so different budget.

that leaves me £191.45 for the month good luck to everyone else.

njk1012

£7.66 spent yesterday on 3 loaves of bread 8 pints of milk some cooked meat and 3 ltrs of wine.

The wine was a little treat as were doing really well so far on the challenge. I do have some home brew at various stages maturing nicely under the stairs and am trying to keep that going to reduce the alcohol bill next year. Cider I made smells a bit dodgy but am assured it will sort it self out with time, got 4 bottles of red wine made from foraged sloes which tastes really nice just needs a little bit more time to clear and started some bread champagne yesterday and that is happily sat in a bucket in the airing cupboard.

The recipe if anyone interested for the bread champagne is below and is possibly the easiest i have followed (taken roughly from a pre-war book my grandma used to use.)

Pour 1 gallon of cold water into a clean bucket, stir in 800g of sugar add to this 1 large sliced brown loaf's worth of brown bread which has been toasted (lightly toasted not dark or burnt). Push the bread under the water and sugar mix, cover the bucket with a tea towel and leave for 21 days.

After 21 days strain through muslin (i use two tea towels) and bottle with corks just lightly pushed in.

Need2bthrifty

njk1012 wrote: »

£7.66 spent yesterday on 3 loaves of bread 8 pints of milk some cooked meat and 3 ltrs of wine.

I'm interested in where you get the 3 ltrs of wine from, my favourite tipple which I bought from Sainers (Chilean Sav Blanc) came in a 3ltr box but noticed last week it is now a 225cl box = 3 bottles, but still the same price as the 3ltr box :mad:

njk1012

The wine (using the term loosely, think it is Perry) I got from Asda they have it on roll back at the moment just under a fiver for the box. It.s 7.5 % so not strong but drinkable.

rej-c

Well, we're back from the seaside - spent more than planned on eating out there, and less than expected on 'bits and pieces', but that all came out of the 'holiday' budget, so I'm counting them as two NSDs for GC purposes.

Incidentally, while we were away, Him Indoors realised that the next few years' anniversaries will fall on/around weekends when B&B rates are more expensive, so as soon as we got back we started a new piggy bank to fund our anniversary breaks. That's the most proactive he's been about any of this OS lark so far; I was thrilled that he was paying such attention :rotfl:

We had a small Mr S order delivered when we got back, so that's £17.32 added to the total [would've been more, but they were OOS of some things I really wanted but didn't want subs of; so I'll do without for a while, and take the saving]. I'm not planning on any spending today, but will probably waddle over to Mr T tomorrow before closing to see if there are any veg bargains to be had, and any of the £1 Linda M veggie sausages left - they usually sell out quick when they're that price, and don't bother restocking until the deal's finished :mad:.

In the meantime, I've got tons of apples to use... I predict crumbles, pies and turnovers [just need to remember to defrost some of the pastry that's taking up freezer space, and call mum and get her to tell me how she stews apples... so I can do it a bit less, erm, terminally ]

Sorry for rambling. Have a good day, everyone. Enjoy the sunshine if you've got it.

CompBunny

Blah...adding a £21.26 spend. My mum had a voucher for £10 off £50 spend so went halves on it...stocked up on things like loo roll, tins, quorn etc. But hating having to add another £20 odd onto my total. I'm so glad I've started to keep track of what we spend, but its so depressing!!! We can only afford to spend on groceries and fuel until payday and I hate watching the total spend increasing because it means theres less in my account

meg72

Spent £22 today, but that included two chickens and 1pack of bacon inthe 3 for£10 in Asda.also 3tins Tuna steaks in oil £2.20 and 2 packs bacon bits 75p each.So plenty of meals there.

Went to Iceland for my eggs 12 for £1 and milk £1, I noticed Crosse&Blackwell beans are 4 for £1. but still have loads stashed away so resisted these.

Got reduced bread in Wilkis 20p.

I have £10 left now and 10days to go, but really cant think of anything I will be needing so am hopeful of coming in under budget again.

recovering_spendaholic

FINALLY got my fee cheque yesterday!! so I went to Sainsbobs last night and stocked up on puppy food which is on offer with 33% off, plus puppy pads and poopy bags so shouldn't need anymore for a while. While I was there I succumbed and bought a swiss roll, plussome reduced pork mince and some Toblerone cookies (why? what for? am I not fat enough?) I swear that supermarkets should do you a deal on weight loss surgery with your loyalty points because they sell so much tempting fattening cr*p. Anyway, spent £30 and then today went to Tesc*'s and bought the on offer Kelloggs cornflakes, plus two lottery tickets (don't normally but you never know.... not very MSE though) and a box of the new Lindor Baileys flavour - as you can see I have absolutely NO willpower but have eaten three of them and now feel sick.... Upshot is that I have added a total of £47 to my total spend and really I haven't bought much in the way of meal-makers. Still hoping to come in about £50 under budget though so not that bad.

I made a meatloaf with the reduced pork mince today (800g pack)- just mixed it with a couple tbs of sage and onion stuffing mix, an egg, 4 sausages, skinned, a blitzed onion and some blitzed celery and a bit of thyme, salt and pepper. It is in the oven now so will have to see how it turns out. I reckon it has only cost me £2 tops to make and it is HUGE - easily enough to feed 8 or maybe more. I am hoping that it will do for sandwiches next week.

I also bought some reduced meatballs in Tescos and have made spaghetti and meatballs for DD1 (using a tarted up jar of value pasta sauce which is really nice) because she won't eat meatloaf. There is enough meatball and sauce mix to freeze a couple of portions so that's good.

jpscloud

Afternoon all, I spent £40 in our spanking new Family Bargains shop last night but as that money came out of a different budget I'm not counting it in my grocery challenge. I feel a bit cheaty about that but it really is separate money. In other news, my hormones have been having a party and forcing me to eat junk food for a week, but I've kept it mostly to MSE stuff - one thing the grocery challenge has taught me is that I have always spent too much on treats, and weaning myself off that is going to take longer than I anticipated!

nannygladys

Hi there just reporting in. Made it under budget JUST on Friday so really happy about that and I hope to have another good this week.

I have realised I think its called LBM that I have been burying my head in the sand regards my finances, I have been lurking on other forums and went to fill in my SOE and realised that the debt I have been counting has only been the credit card and overdraft, not the kitchen or car loan!!! and I didnt count my mortgage either what a daftie I am, so I now having to come to terms with owing loads of money!!!