December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

mooomin

As I get paid a week Friday, I'm hoping I'm going to have £35-£40 leftover from this month's budget and am thinking of doing a good topup shop so the storecupboard is ready for the looooooong month of January (35 days between paydays, BAH!)

So far my list is:

Pasta (white and wholemeal)
Cannellini beans
Split peas
Red lentils

Tins:

Tomatoes (and passata)
Sweetcorn
Tuna
Fruit in juice
Beans

What else would be useful to have in the cupboards? Our freezer has a decent amount of meat in it at the moment, so we're not bad off as far as that goes. All ideas gratefully received

PolkaDotsAndLace

flying_fresian wrote: »

As I get paid a week Friday, I'm hoping I'm going to have £35-£40 leftover from this month's budget and am thinking of doing a good topup shop so the storecupboard is ready for the looooooong month of January (35 days between paydays, BAH!)

So far my list is:

Pasta (white and wholemeal)
Cannellini beans
Split peas
Red lentils

Tins:

Tomatoes (and passata)
Sweetcorn
Tuna
Fruit in juice
Beans

What else would be useful to have in the cupboards? Our freezer has a decent amount of meat in it at the moment, so we're not bad off as far as that goes. All ideas gratefully received

You seem to have most of my essentials already on there - what about things like tuna? Bread flour if you make your own? Cereal?

NSD today! - up to 3 this month already :j Will have to buy a few bits tomorrow, but plan to have a list of what we need and stick to it! We don't strictly speaking need anything tomorrow, but it's supposed to be horrendous weather on Thursday and I don't want to run out of milk then. Then hopefully Thurs should be another NSD.

dannie

Hi folks,

Another £1.72 spent afterall on sweeteners for hot drinks.

mooomin

PolkaDotsAndLace wrote: »

You seem to have most of my essentials already on there - what about things like tuna? Bread flour if you make your own? Cereal?

Tuna is already on there for Mr Fresian (I can't stand the stuff!) I don't make my own bread as I am doing Fat Club and it's easier to buy shop-bought and know how many points it's worth I don't eat a lot of bread anyway. We don't really eat cereal either. I am going to stock up on cheap biscuits and hide them in the cupboards as Mr F is like a hoover when it comes to cakes and biscuits :rotfl:

Thanks for the ideas

tessie_bear

ms fresian...top up shop ideas...herbs/spices u use/uht milk/juice/pop/squash/tinned tomatoes/tinned veg/custard/jam/what ever u like on sandwiches maybe cheese for the freezer/frozen veg...hth

we are off to ikea this morning to buy christmas batteries:eek: always costs a fortune but not the grocery budget...i am then off to sains bugs to add to my stockpile as there is a bit of snow threatened...so the gc budget will take a small hammering....have a nice day tess

HelenPie

Nearly had a drama last night when OH volunteered to roast the chicken I bought for the week. I went to bed early and left him to it. He came to bed having left the chicken (uncooked) in the warm oven :mad: Made him put the oven back on and set an alarm to get up in the night and take it out :rotfl::rotfl: crisis averted though, **phew**

I'm claiming yesterday as a NSD. Technically I spent £2.48 on postage, but that was for an eBay item I sold so comes out of profit (plus it would have been part of the day before's spend when I shipped a whole load, but the buyer paid late....) I also paid for lunch for my boss but that was because I owed her money from a team gift she bought that I'd accounted for last month. So there! a NSD (sort of.....! )

quintwins

i could never go to ikea and just buy batteries :rotfl:

my throat is killing me which is making my ears sore, i sent hubby to the shop at about 10 for a bottle of coke and some soothers, and he bought 4 bottles of coke (2 for £2 twin packs he likes diet i like normal so i can see his logic) a bottle of sholer £1 because he knows i like to drink it when i'm sick but not sore throat sick, a packet of kitkat chunckys £1 and my soothers, to be fair he did only buy offers or what i asked him to i have no idea how much it was but he put it on the card so i'll find out in a few days i'm guessing £6.70ish

i lifted out chicken casarole for tea but i now think it's pork stew either way thats what were having with mash and veg, lunch is last nights lo quiche and breakfast was pineapple, rasins and cheerio's.

I need bread but i'm just gonna make some to save a trip to the shops and keep doing that til sat, at which point hopefully i'll be able to fit 2 loaves in my freezer for next week aswell fingers crossed, so my mission is no shops til sat

KolaKube

Hello all!

OH and I have a carefully planned online order from MrT coming this evening. Have taken advantage of a £!5 off £75 voucher to do a big stock up for the rest of the month / pre-christmas shop, took the cheapest delivery slot and comes to £63.26 in total.

I'm *hoping* that combined with the contents of the freezer and storecupboard all we'll have to get now for the rest of the month is fresh veg / cream etc for christmas, and any milk / bread etc we need in between times. We have all the rest of our christmas stuff in (dinner for 12! including 13(!) bottles of wine bought on the clubcard voucher double up, turkey, ham, aunt bessies etc all safely tucked in the freezer!). Stocked up on plenty of household stuff to last us (loo rolls, washing up liquid etc).

Only have £24 left of the monthly budget so need to make good use of what we have from now on in..! Plus the shops are always a nightmare coming up to christmas so I don't plan to set foot from now until the new year - I'll send OH in a few days before with the list of fresh goods :rotfl:

PolkaDotsAndLace

I am a bit worried about how little budget there is left - OH is convinced we can't do it for £200, which has made me convinced we can. But now I'm going to have to work really hard to prove my point! We have about £75 left, so if I take off a fiver for any milk top ups then we have £70.

Shop this weekend - £20
Shop 17th - £20
After Christmas - £30

That's doable for two people with a reasonably well stocked freezer/cupboard isn't it? But he just eats so much!

quintwins

PolkaDotsAndLace wrote: »

I am a bit worried about how little budget there is left - OH is convinced we can't do it for £200, which has made me convinced we can. But now I'm going to have to work really hard to prove my point! We have about £75 left, so if I take off a fiver for any milk top ups then we have £70.

Shop this weekend - £20
Shop 17th - £20
After Christmas - £30

That's doable for two people with a reasonably well stocked freezer/cupboard isn't it? But he just eats so much!

might be worth making a list of what stuff you already have, you might be suprised, i could live for several months from mine if i could just resist a bargain and hubbys moaning for shop bought bread, and resigned myself to my kids not havings fresh fruit (i would never do this unless i acually had no money tho and it would be a last resort, there would be an uproar if there was no fruit lol), if your struggling for ideas post your list on here and we can all help