November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

elfyh2000

Hi, can I be put down for £60 for November please?

ms_night_ryder

another set of spends today £6.27

60p in tescos on some juice-was feeling sick and needed something
3.69 in tesco express whoopsied cheese, ham and pickle sandwich, whoopsied chicken and hoisin sauce noodle salad, spring onions whoopsied (anyone know if i can freeze spring onions? and mr k angel slices.

Crazy thing in my t express, they were reducing items that were not due to go off until 3rd nov, if a woman filling her basket never pointed it out i would have been non the wiser.

sainsbugs 1.98 x 2 bottlegreen using mocs 59p each, these will be to take for crimbo round my families house, a french baton and a litre of lemonade for my bad tummy.

Need to be caeful now as i only have £11 odd left for the rest of the week.

I batch cook on weekends to make enough for during the week, as there is only me.

almostalwayssmiling

Hello,

Please put me down for £100 for November.

This is my first month on the thread so fingers crossed I stay on budget!

[Deleted User]

Aril wrote: »

A frugalish recipe a friend gave me on Friday which I've just put up on the frugal living thread but thought it may be of interest here aswell.
I'm not veggie but thought it sounded tasty
Baked Bean Pasties
Makes 8 pasties. Can be frozen for a month
2 tbsp olive oil, 1 small onion finely chopped, 1tbsp mild curry paste, 100g red lentils, 450ml veg stock , 200g baked beans, 100g frozen peas, 1 tbsp mango chutney, 450g puff pastrym 1tsp caraway seeds, seasoning [including sea salt]
Preheat oven 200C. Heat oil and fry onion 5 mins. Stir in curry paste, lentils and stock. Simmer 15-20 mins until thickened. Stir in beans , peas and chutney. Season.
Roll our half pastry on floured board to 30cm square. Cut into 4 triangles. Repeat with other jals. Spoon 1/8th of mixture onto one half of one triangle. Brush edges with water, fold other half over and press edges together. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling. Brush with water and sprinkle caraway seeds and sea salt . Bake on a baking sheet for 15-20 mins until golden.
Arilx

This sounds fab Aril:T, will defo be giving it a go:). Glad it is now included on the index.

I have made much less posh ones in the past just using pastry and a tin of beans with sausages - very similar to what a local baker was selling and much cheaper homemade. OH loves them.
Allie x

dreamingofmoney

£300 again for this month please, didn't fair too well in Nov, but am double determined this month (need, rather than want). Off to catch up with the thread a big thanks to all who work hard on it..

Dreamer.

Flat_Eric

I'm trying to work out what I eat in a typical week/month so that I can shop and cost accordingly. Its making my head hurt. :huh:

Think I need to meal plan and then shop.

I am intending on staying out of the supermarket until Saturday when I plan to have a home delivery shop. Must meal plan first though!

mandco

well 1st spends of the month already and technically it hasnt even started yet. popped into MrT today for some bits for halloween and decided that while I was there as I had already spent the £18 remaining from oct budget i might aswell top up & use the £5 off £40 spend voucher I had rather than go back in wed when i ran out and spend another full £40.
so possibly cheating but as the extra brought isnt needed till after tommorrow gonna declare the extra as nov spend so
£19.26 for nov so far

anyone know how long to cook soup in the slow cooker? if i put it on on the morning will it be ready by lunchtime or does it need longer?

happy halloween

Spiggle

Hi Everyone,

Welcome and good luck to our newbies! And good luck to everyone of course!

I'm not sure if the following will help any of you but here goes anyway ...

I hope my fellow regulars won't mind me posting this again but it may be of some help to all the enthusiastic and excited people joining us. I believe it has helped others in the past. So here goes:

We all have different budgets that suit our households. The most important thing to remember is that you set yours according to your needs and finances. It can take time to get to where you want to be too so don't knock yourself out if you go over in the first few months. We are here to support each other and it is not a competition.

I thought it might help to outline where we've come from and the top tips I've learned.

When we started in March 2010 we had spent in excess of £600 in the previous month. :eek: This had to stop, (there's only me and him and our two beautiful black cats) something which thankfully my OH completely agreed with so I have been lucky that he has been on board from the start. He gave me his debit card voluntarily and I still keep hold of it until he needs to get something for the home. At the same time we set up a system of pocket money (pm) at £15 each per week which doesn't count towards the GC and which we can each spend as we wish with no comebacks or complaints. OH predominantly uses his pm on his beer and I ferret mine away mostly. :rotfl:

The next step was to set up my own spreadsheet which is absolutely simple onto which I put all spends so that I have a continuous running total for the month and for the year. We initially set our budget at £280 per month and brought it down to £240 where it resides for most of the year it is occasionally increased to allow for extras e.g. Christmas to £260.

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the supermarkets (sm) try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted, ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the big four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. MrM is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br*nds 4 Less too.

Invest in a breadmaker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use on them and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for fruit and veg (f&v) than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at the same or lower price. Obvioulsy if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better healthwise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations or freeze it for another day.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

So, there you go as a starting point. Others on here will offer tremendous advice on meal planning. And don't forget, the only silly question is the one you didn't ask!

Ok, I'm off to put my feet up and veg in front of the box. Oh, sig is updated and my November starts tomorrow.

Take care,
Spigs

Flat_Eric

THANK YOU Spigs for such a helpful post. :j I'm going to print it off and keep it with my meal planners on my clipboard. I'm busy filling that in now.... I have a house full of food yet I still can't decide what to eat !!

JIL

Spiggle that post is very thought provoking, sensible and very very helpful, maybe there could be a link in the index for it?