November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

Stourbridge_Saver

Hi Everyone

Can we be put down for £450 for November please?
It's the same as our budget for October which we exceeded by £46, but I'm not too down hearted about it.

However, have already spent £157, although this represents a lot of food and loads of cleaning products from Sainsbob's online (we use ecover and they're on special offer).

I've done a huge meal planner for this month, so hopefully that will help.



Good luck everyone, and many thanks for the guys who do all the magic to keep the thread moving so well.

XSpender

A total of 51p spent today on a cup of tea at work. I am on the road to recovery after my nasty cold so tonight I will be cooking sausages, roast pots and veg to use up the veg in the fridge that will get wasted otherwise.

I also have 2 individual jam sponges that need eating up too so may just have to take pity on them:p

recovering_spendaholic

Thank you all for your kind and supportive comments about my truculent DD1. I know that I have been guilty of being too lenient (father leaving compensation I suppose...) and know that I need to toughen up as she works and earns more than me and doesn't pay any keep - but that's for a different thread!!!

essentially NSD today which is good (just paid postage for some ebay stuff). Roasted a chicken earlier but as both DD's are out for tea I will leave it to cool and use it for sandwiches, curry and a soup. I just had "bits and bobs" for tea - I really like that!!

I was in Aldi the other day and they had 6.5l slow cookers for £17.99 - they had LOADS so I expect that they will reduce them, as that is what tends to happen in the store nearest me. I don't know whether or not to get one. I have been going on the http://www.crockpotgirls.com website and the have some really (albeit American) imaginitive ideas so I am torn.

I have loads of leeks and mushrooms which need to be used up - I have already got a freezer full of hm soup so was thinking of trying something else - any ideas? I have lots of cheese, potatoes, onions, eggs, pasta, rice, tuna, a huge butternut squash, the chicken I just cooked and a little ham which I could use with them but I just can't think of anything!

Thanks again for your kind comments!

rising_from_the_ashes

RS - you could make a lovely frittata with those ingredients. I think they're fab and use them a lot for leftovers ..... and they're always different!:D

Islandmaid

Hi all,

NSD:D its the only good thing about being at work ie it keeps me out of the shops:A. Ohh they do pay me too:o

Sausage casserole for dinner, was yummy:D

Going to switch brain off for a couple of hours now

Have a fab evening xx

Flat_Eric

My first proper supermarket visit of the new month and I spent £23.23

I stuck to my list and even left one item on the shelf when I saw that the price has jumped 30 pence? in just a couple of weeks (aubergine).

I mainly bought the N*ture V*lley bars that were on BOGOF. 14 boxes ! which is 3 months supply :j I'm tempted to buy more before the offer finishes on the 8th !!

Doom_and_Gloom

Pet store - £16.78. Bulk order of food (£8.70 :T a saving of 84p on all the bags or 14p per bag saved - a small saving yes but better than nothing :cool:), hay and hay cookies.
Mr A - £8.85 - included 3 reduced pizzas for my partner to put in the freezer
H&B - £8.40 - managed to get a pack of organic tofu reduced to 50p, although did then spend £2.29 on some organic smoked tofu and got cinnimon in the penny sale (last time I bought it was when the penny sale was on) .

Budget - £110
Spent - £34.03
Left - £75.97

Spiggle

Evening all,

Cat501 wrote: »

Bit angry today - thought I'd avoid going to Mr T because I really don't need to, and just get the swede and carrots I need for my soup at Imrie's the greengrocer. Only to find on checking my receipt that loose carrots are £1.30/kg as opposed to 56p/kg in Mr T!!!! Can't be right surely??? Still, they're bought now and I can't really take them back. Should have opened my eyes and looked at the SEL :mad:

That's a surprise Cat501 and I can understand why you're angry. I suppose greengrocers do vary around the place and there will be times when the sm can be cheaper when they have their loss leader offers on. Or really I should say, have squeezed the producer costs down to a minimum as wannabehermit says:

wannabehermit wrote: »

... I'm very much all for supporting the 'little man' and would rather shop at independents than at these huge supermarkets ... It was interesting watching The Peoples Supermarket a while back and the dairy farmers were saying that the likes of Mr T actually pay them less for their milk than what it costs to produce. So we probably pay them not far off what an independent would have to pay the farmer for milk so of course they just can't compete with the supermarkets. :mad:

I do have to say though that in my experience, and I may just be lucky, the greengrocer normally is much cheaper across the board than the sm. And a local market (not farmers markets which around here are much more expensive) will beat them all out of the water on price. Last year sometime the local sm had raspberries on 'offer' at the same price as the local greengrocer. It was only when you looked at the quantity that it became apparent that the sm raspberries were half the weight of the greengrocer. :mad:

Glad you're feeling better today recovering spendaholic.

No shopping today. Me and him went and had our flu jabs this afternoon so we'll probably have sore arms for a while! I can smell my supper now :drool: so I'm off to enjoy and relax in front of the box. See you all tomorrow.

Take care,
Spigs

Cat501

Spiggle wrote: »

Evening all,



That's a surprise Cat501 and I can understand why you're angry. I suppose greengrocers do vary around the place and there will be times when the sm can be cheaper when they have their loss leader offers on. Or really I should say, have squeezed the producer costs down to a minimum as wannabehermit says:



I do have to say though that in my experience, and I may just be lucky, the greengrocer normally is much cheaper across the board than the sm. And a local market (not farmers markets which around here are much more expensive) will beat them all out of the water on price. Last year sometime the local sm had raspberries on 'offer' at the same price as the local greengrocer. It was only when you looked at the quantity that it became apparent that the sm raspberries were half the weight of the greengrocer. :mad:



Take care,
Spigs

I know Spiggle, I was even more narked when my mum did a scoot round and discovered that they were also 56p in Sainsbury's and M&S! She went in and asked why they were so expensive and just got the reply "that's our price". I attempted to phone Head Office but no reply, then I found that one of the store founders had posted on the local shopping centre page on FB - cue a "just curious" question about their pricing - hopefully will get a response because nearly 2 and a half times the per kilo price of everywhere else is just ridiculous and can have no justification!

On the plus side the soup was nice:D

helen_jelly

Hi all

Budgets done to here

Welcome and hi to the new people and the returners

Please amke sure you check out the first 6 posts on the front page - lots of useful info and loads of recipes posted by Rosieben

Ask lots of questions as there are lots of really helpful people on here

Good luck

Helen x