December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

meg72

tink1981 wrote: »

Had a spend of £7.17 at Mr A today. Had only popped in to get some bread flour but ended up getting some woopsie veggi sausages which should hopefully do us for 2 or 3 meals. Got some beans a bits for making stews so hopefully should be able to make the money go a bit further.

Can't beleive how expencive beans and pulses have got!! :mad: I'm vegi and it's one of my main sources of protein so usually get a fe tins a week. The cost of some tins have almost trippled in price in the las year :eek:

Thinking of starting with dried beans that you soak and then cook. Does anyone know if these are ok for freezing after they've been cooked? Was thinking could do them in batches and then freeze them so they'd be almost as convenient as tins

I cooked 500g Butter beans today to freeze and for fun decided to
see how many tins that would make. It was five, 98p for beans so much cheaper. I think theres more beans in mine as well.

tessie_bear

hi...got out of ikea with batteries and a lovely roasting tin....have had a great day using up leftovers.....the freezer is going down as well so i am nearer getting a turkey in there for christmas...need to do some meal planning for the rest of the week

take care tess

sistercas

going to try @sd@ tomorrow for my weekly shop as there is a new one just opened , there is a didl near by too so will go there first for fruit and veg and milk

someone at work has managed to get some white and rose wine for £2.50 a bottle so she is going to get me some for xmas , ive asked for 6 bottles so should be enough for xmas

freakyogre

£3.03 in Lidl today on potatoes, eggs, leeks and teabags.

sproggi

Another NSD for me today :j

Sproggi

PipneyJane

Hi Everyone. This is a bit of a catch-up post since all the activity happened on Monday.

As far as groceries were concerned, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and today have been no spend days. Monday on the otherhand....

Monday lunchtime, DH hit Mr S. He spotted some mushrooms that were marked down a little and decided they weren't cheap enough so went back after work. By then, the mushrooms were marked down to 20p a pack. He also stocked up on Sharwood's egg noodles (there was an offer) and bought himself a couple of bottles of flavoured milk (on 2 for 1). His total spend £4.45.

Monday evening, we ran out of squash so I popped into Mr T's on my way home from choir rehearsal. Wandered around the condemned food counters. Not a lot of whoopsies left in store at 10pm but I managed to get four lumps of different flavoured cheeses for pennies (Wensleydale and apricot x 2, cheddar and cider chutney, Wensleydale and ginger). With 2 bottles of value squash and a box of Lindor balls (£5) to stuff the advent calendar, I spent £8.35. (Our advent calendar is a string of little stockings.)

Including the £1.20 DH reclaimed from housekeeping for items purchased last month, we spent £14 on Monday. That brings our total spend for December to £28.10/£200. I'm also tracking Christmas specific spending and that's currently £12.80.

The budget's still on track. We haven't done our big shop for December but the kitchen's well stocked. (We're out of fresh milk but have plenty of long-life skimmed.) I spoke to the butcher this afternoon and will be collecting my turkey on Monday. He may be able to get me a goose as well, he'll let me know when I see him. If he can, then I'll leave the turkey in my freezer and cook it later in the year. I'll collect the goose on the Friday before Christmas.

ETA: Just as I hit "post", DH came in from work and dug some fresh ginger out of his bag, marked down to 25p from £1 in Mr T's. So our total spend is now £28.35/£200.

PennyGrabber

Hi all.

I don't know how much I have spent - it's ok though as I've got a separate purse. Still quite a bit in there. I spent a bit yest (£1.78!) and quite a lot on one of the weekend days, but nicely stocked.

Just found out today that a farm foods shop is being built next door to my local c00p! It's less than a 5 minute walk away, so i'm going to investigate that when it's finished. (Obviously just taking a little bit of cash!!!!)

Just done some purse maths, couldn't resist! and i've spent £47.22, so i have £102.78 left. I am 31.5% through my budget, with 22.5% of the month gone. That's ok, as i'm not shopping tom, spending about £6 on fri, and then not shopping til sun, which will be a get-through-the-last-week-of-school shop. If i can manage to only spent £10, i will be 38% through budget and 35% through month. That's a bit better! Of course, i haven't yet bought my turkey crown... Where is the best place to get one, do you reckon? A$da had them for £20 for a 3kg one - can't really remember how much i've paid before.

PG x

ms_night_ryder

Just a small spend of £2.24 on some whoopsies in mr t, it was opposite my mystery shop and next door to arg where i bought a monitor, couldnt resist, got a sandwich for 47p, a pack of clems for 45p a huge broccoli for 30p and 2 ham and gruyere or however you spell it tf puff pastry things freezablebad, sadly i cant avoid sm's as i do promo wrk mondays and thursdays, which entails visiting 3 mr t's on those days, so now just getting whoopsies, dont really need much, so will be spending carefully.

My next payday is actually early on 21st dec, gonna try to ignore it for as long as i can, no major rush as i am not having boxing day or crimbo dins at home, will be with my family, having my god daughter next week, so must remember cheapo chocie for slabs and things to decorate them with, plus silicone cases, hmmmm

Expecting loads of nds in the next 10 days, as i am off, then back to work for a week leading up to crimbo, then off for 10 days untill 3rd jan cant wait.

LavenderBees

Hmm, perhaps December isn't the best month to be tracking spendies...then again, maybe it is better to know what's actually going on....well, today, I needed fresh air and a break from my desk at lunchtime (VERY fresh, it was), and had a wander. Decided to do the vege shopping for the weekend so when the weather is grot tomorrow and Friday, I don't need to go out in it any more than I absolutely have to.

Spent £9.48 on veges, Xmas crackers (reduced in A$DA), a pizza for next week's dept Xmas buffet, and a couple of small boxes of choccies for Xmas week. This is more like my normal weekly spend, thank goodness, though not what I'd normally be buying.

Tomorrow I'm back to Waitrose to buy my Xmas lunch, and that should be all the shopping I do for a week or so I hope... then only fresh veges needed...and I'm determined to walk to A$DA from work, so I can only buy what I can carry back

Sweet dreams, all

prepareathome

Well another NSD today, did by electric and gas but that is not part of the budget ( we changed to prepay many years ago when hubby became a taxi driver and earned daily and didn't want big bills and although he now earns a weekly wage so used to prepay we haven't changed, I know could get it cheaper on quarterly meter but still prefer not having to worry about the bills) . I plan to go to Lidl on Monday, as there are some specials I want to buy and only ever been there about twice before for their specials and just go in buy them and out, never looked at the food, so want to ask can anyone tell me what is a good buy there, as I am going to try and not do any shopping till Monday, apart from Milk and do shopping in there. From what I have read people find fruit and veg good value there so will look at that, but anything else worth looking out for, as although I will have plenty of time, hubby off Monday so plan to be there when store opens as some of their specials usually go very quickly ( want two of the light alarms) but being first time really looked at everything I know I will not notice the prices of everything. Store is miles away that is why never been part of my shopping trips, but if it turns out good value would consider the petrol used and if works out as cheap overall will consider going there more often.

Thanks