December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

mooomin

Post-work-pre-Fat-Club trip to the supermarket for milk, bread, salad and fruit led to a £8.21 spend

For that, I got:

Milk (89p for 2 litres, so got 2!)
Reduced fresh pasta x 2
Bread x 2
Salad
Chewing gum
Fruit
Pineapple (to eat after weighing in at Fat Club!)
Reduced doughnuts
Reduced pasta sauce x 2

So, not a bad amount of food, but quite a lot not on the list

£137.29/£200 with only 9 days till payday

angelatgraceland

As a result of my bedding/airing cupboard turnout yesterday I thought I needed new pillows and a duvet but checked the loft and found spares up there so more space in the loft and no money spent. Bagged myself another pair of free curtains on Freecycle which I will collect Saturday after work so when we redecorate in the spring all I need is paint and carpet! I did also see some nice ones in the charity shop but didn't have measurements with me so I shall go back and see if they are still there-nice lined ones in great condition for £4.95 so hopefully they are still there tomorrow.
Had a shopping day today in Weston-Super-Mare which is about 15 miles for me. I paid petrol and my friend paid carpark so that helps. Treated ourselves to lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant we like who is family run, fantastic food and cheap(Mask of Venice)and it worked out at £7.50 each inc a drink each! Brilliant!
Went to Poundland and struggled back to the car with arms 3 inches longer:rotfl:then hit the shops again. Popped in Peacocks for a dressing gown for ds to stop him running abouti n the morning in his undies and had a general wander. I did take a list but haven't really go the things I need foodwise as I simply was not in the right places. Stopped by at Farmfoods on the way home where my friend was thinking she would buy "a couple of things" and share my trolley. I sent her out after 10 mins to get her own trolley as she had a great big pile of stuff and so did I.
We both stocked up on bacon loo rolls and kitchen towel as theirs is as good or better than any of the top brands.We both ended up spending approx £40 each and my little car was bursting with bags. Their bread(Hovis)800g is £2 for 3 loaves so if you have freezer space it is a great buy. Luckily Ive got a little bit of room now. DS finishes work late and asked for spag bol for tea-well luckily the bolognese was in a tub in the freezer so that was easy! He has his driving test tomorrow so fingers crossed that he passes as this would save us both a fortune! Oh-I bought my new spending diary in Poundland so I am all ready for the New Year! Now to add up the "damage".

recovering_spendaholic

Went into town today to go to the O2 shop to try and get her Blackberry fixed and while it was being tested I went into the shops and got a few bits for the kids' Christmas stockings - got a few good things in Primark but that is from another budget. On the way home popped into Tesco and got milk and saw that they had Magnums on special at 2 for £3 so I got some and when I got to the self service checkout they went through at 64p each and then it took £2.18 off my bill at the end (£2.59 x2 = £5.18 - £3.00) so they were in fact paying me 90p to take them away!! I went back and got another 4 boxes!

Dinner tonight was baked potato and hm pizza with meatball topping.

I love my bread maker - I have made three loaves now and so far my favourite has been the light ciabatta style - really light and crusty - lovely! AT 64p for a bag of bread flour and 82p for the yeast i reckon it is costing me about 36p per loaf which is a huge saving even on supermarket bread!

rej-c

Adding 2 NSDs [Monday and Tuesday] and combined spend of £9.77 for yesterday - on veg from a couple of places [one of which turned out to be so expensive I won't be buying veg there again in a hurry], and, as a bit of a cheeky treat, two new-to-me types of tofu 'burgers' to try.

Hope those of you north of the border escape the worst of this blowy weather that's coming in...

rosieben

prepareathome wrote: »

... 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 ...

not shopped there for a while as no car now but I was pleased with most things I tried from l1dl. I especially liked their bags of frozen atlantic pollock, small ham joints, potato salad made with yogurt, and their chocolate marzipan

we used to have a what do you recommend from lidl thread here somewhere but not sure if its up to date, will investigate and come back with a link

quintwins

morning all nsd today, still have soem reduced pittas left so i made an egg and cheese mayo, kids had some frozen value fruit salad and cheerio's for breakfast and the youngest had a yogurt when we got home, lunch is gonna be the last pitta for me and a cheese sandwichs for him, i havnet lifted anything out for dinner because i wanna avoid the rain i'm getting sick of mince and chicken tho (as thats what the freezers full of) so i think i'll lift out some pork chops but there frozen in 3's (from well over a year ago before ds3 started eating proper portions and the twins shared one so i think me and hubby will have the chops and the kids can have cocktail sausages hubby doesn't like them anyway, will serve with mash and mixed veg

i'm also aiming to only put my heat on at night, we've used 1/4 of our tank already and it hasn't even been that cold if we get a cold spell liek last year it will be on constant for a week or 2 and we expect a fill to last 11months- a year(since we don't use it in summer) as it usually does but i'm not impressed with how much we've used already, worked fine yesterday so i'll keep it up aslong as i can

KolaKube

Hello again!

Tesco online shop came yesterday and all in good dates / order, I was impressed (normally there's something missing, or damaged!). They took my £15 of £75 voucher, and the final total came to £61.26. The christmas cupboard and freezer is now stocked, and looking at it I think we do have enough meat in the freezer (hopefully!) to last until Jan. Will have to make out a December meal plan and see if thats the case..!

I have a grocery challenge dilema... I've discovered 75 euros knocking about the house which equates to about £60 (40 in OHs wallet from a recent trip over the border, and 35 in 1 and 2 euro coins in my euro piggybank which I had forgotten about..!). We leave near the northern / southern irish border so they can accumulate as change but I don't really think of them as cash because we dont go over that often - should I nip over the border and do a huge extra stock up shop for the long month of January (but count it in my budget or not..?!). Or should I just save the cash up. Hmm.

Other option is a poundland near the border that accepts euros and get some new christmas decorations... double hmmm!:rotfl:

mummyjane

I had to do a shop between Lidl, Asda and Morrisons yesterday (shopped around for best deals) as dh and ds are home poorly and unable to eat most things in the house. Stocked up on soups, milk, bread (you wouldn't believe how much toast they're going through), ice lollies, fruit juice and medicines. So expensive!

Have updated my signiture, totalled over £40. Thankfully, I have stocked up on everything else, the freezers are still fit to burst. Hopefully they'll be well very soon.

xxlouisexx56

3pounds spent in iceland yesterday. 2 bottles of pepsi max and a bottle of malteasers

5 pounds in sainsburys on milk, cheese and colslaw

We dont need anything today so hopefully a NSD!

meg72

Deffinitely a NSD today, weather is dire and I have to get my living room painted ready for carpet fitted on Saturday and new sofas on Wednesday.

Paintingnot goingtoo well as very thin paint not covering so well. Wish now I had bought a decent one. If I had known how much I would save on the carpet and sofas, halved original budget, I would have paid to have someone do it for me, still too late now,gonna put on another coat last one hopefully.,
Stew in SC so I can collapse with a big bowl full when I am finished.