December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

mummybearx

Just spent another £20 in MrA.....

Got pork chops reduced by 50p, spinach reduced to 89p, got some eggs for making banana loaf tonight. Got chicken breasts to do a chicken and chickpea curry tonight.

Hopefully I won't need anything else this week, should be able to make things last :-)

CompBunny

Hi everyone,

Just checking in, I haven't been active in this months thread at all or reading it but have managed to keep track of spending: £80ish so far this month, so still on track but then I haven't really been eating much so fail in terms of spending more than usual on OH's food!
Hoping to be feeling better soon (CFS super-bad at the moment, and been having lots of panick attacks...feeling horrible to be honest) and more able to participate with you all.
Hope everyone is well and that your preparations for Christmas are going well...I'm sure you lovely ladies have it sorted !! (and those that still have lots left to do...you will pull it off wonderfully! )
xx

xxlouisexx56

Spent 57.48 in Tesco on saturday. Some of that was xmas bits we dont normally buy like cans of coke and j2o's

DP gave me 20 pounds towards it so i will only add 37.48

spendaholic

My last weekly shop of the December challenge came to £37, which is under my £40 budget again. Am very happy with that as it gives me a December declaration of £156 with a £160 budget. :j

I may reduce my weekly amount to £35 in the new year, but I'll join in the January challenge for that.

Happy Christmas to everyone that celebrates it. :beer:

his_missus

hello all!

I'm sorry, I have appeared to be rather inactive recently on here but I have been keeping tabs on my spending and doing rather well this month. Probably because I spent way too much than expected last month:o

We've been eating out the freezer recently and it was beginning to look a little empty. Went to Mr M's this weeknd and spent £54 on mostly food. Had a manic cooking session on Saturday aft and managed to make plenty of meals for the freezer, enough really to see us into the New Year . Plan to do one more supermarket shop this week to stock up on festive treats and cat supplies so am hoping to achieve my goal of £240 or less this month :T

elantan

quintwins wrote: »

when i didn't include takeaways my groceries budget was fine but my takeaway one went mental so i need to include it toe reign myself in, if you have an entertainment/days out budget it could come from that you don't have to include it here

i love my slowcooker but i did find when i first started using it everything tasted the same, until i socked it with fabric conditioner (found this tip online) i had cooked something in it and the taste had stayed in teh bowl, even now i give it a good clean before i use it even if it's already clean, mine has a hairline crack so needs to go in the bin

crisps can be quite expensive we buy value ones or in buying branded refuse to pay over 10p a bag, could you swap hubbys coke for squash? and maybe bake a few buns to add to his lunch, i have kids so fairy cakes are common here using value eggs and value marge we get about 10 for 30p and it entertains the kids

shop around for your fruit i try to only pay 10p-15p per portion of fruit at the mo i have apples at 11p and clemintimes at 10p each, bananas average out at 10p each in supermarkets, we only use frozen veg or reduced unless it's a fab offer


if you struggle with meal plans do cards with 30 meals on them and buy the stuff to make them and freeze it all then you can pick and choose from the cards the night before so it's not too strict, there is very few thinsg you can't freeze

buying a ham/gammon cooking and slicing on a slicer can be alot cheaper than shop bought if you have a slicer, or homemade sandwich fillers can be cheap, i love egg mayo or egg, cheese and mayo

like rosieben said baby steps if you try do everything at once your more likely to give up but these are all things to think about

we have a treats budget of £40 a month ... but that is to cover things like cinema, swimming, theatre and gigs etc

ok i may sound really stupid here ... but what do you mean by fabric conditioner? did you soak your slow cooker in it? if so why? i just find with mine that the food is really tasteless ... i do try to use it but find more often than not we have to chuck the food out as it is yuck

with the crisps we tried the own brand ones 18 packs for £2.50 but hubby really didnt like them so we switched back to wa**ers 18 for £3.50 it was an extra £1 for 18 packs ... and he much prefers it, i think it is worth it ... the cola he buys is 6 pack for £1.40 he takes one pack a day ... this is much better than he used to be he used to be a bottle of coke a day which was over a pound ... usually nearer 2 ... he does try to take water etc in sometimes ( when he gets fed up with cola) but he does get fed up with it sometimes

i deff need to get onto sourcing fruit, i do try but have to admit that it is a weakness we just land up buying two tubs for £3 as we enjoy different flavours ( apple, pineapple, kiwi, grapes etc)... i need to get this down though so any advice on this is very welcome

will have a look at the 30 card idea ( will need to learn whhat that is first )

we dont have a slicer and hubby is a bit of a fussy eater, we tend to buy cold meat that lasts the week for £3

PolkaDotsAndLace

Good luck Elantan, think everyone else is right in suggesting starting with baby steps, doing everything at once can be a bit overwhelming.

Just been cleaning the flat and found an A*da receipt from last month I never pricechecked - £1.93 voucher! Might be in luck for this month after all!

quintwins

i just fill it up with hot soapy water and a few drops of fabric conditioner and leave it over night, you can also just float a tumble dryer sheet in it then you rinse it out, i also give mine a good wipe out before i use it so far my dinner has never tasted of comfort

gammon is so much nicer than ham imo (i do have a weakness for corned beef slices but ever really get them cause only me likes them) it's not an awful lot cheaper this way tbh but you know your foods not processed

shop around for crisps, this week in 2 seperate shops we got 20 bags of tayto (i don't think you guess have tayto over there) for £2

my hubby is a nightmare with coke if it's here he will drink it til it's gone so i only buy it of offer and rarely buy tins unless were planning on a big drize or going on a picnic, if i'm feeling nice i'll buy the big bottles from iceland

we eat a good varitey if fruit, it just never lasts very long with 3 kids, we only buy strawberrys/raspberrys in summer, we buy value grapes at £1-£1.25 per punnet, tinned pineapple as only the kids like it. kiwi is only really bought of offer or reduced, i always stick to my 10-15p per portion with the exception of strawberrys, 2 of the £3 tubs wouldn't last very long in this house i spend about £10 a week because i'm always topping it up, i like my kids to have 3 portions of fruit aday atleast thats over 60 portions a week and thats before me and hubby has any so it soon adds up



the school sent back my £4 from this morning so todays acually a nsd

elantan

thanks polka dots ... we have been doing this for a wee while now tbh and have made alot of changes already ( our food bill before was really horrendous lol ) we are struggling to meet the £200 a month deadline just now and i would like to get it down to £175 if i could ( obvioulsy maybe £5 a month reduction) i know for some people that is alot to spend on food in a month for two people, but i just cant seem to get it to reach this limit never mind beat it

i make home made bread, i grow my own veggies, dont have uneccessary spends..i try and do all the things i need but i am fully aware i have alot more to do.. ( which is why i thought i would ask the professionals )

where i fall down is

meal planning,

batch cooking

slow cooking

portion size ( i am very very big and the hubby is a wee bit over weight ... need to get on top of this)

thanks again everyone for the help and support will go away now and work on things as i dont want to take over the thread ( i fear i may be guilty of that already)

i look forward to being able to help others in the way that i am being helped

thanks

el

PolkaDotsAndLace

We're struggling with the £200 target this month - I'm blaming Christmas!

My problem is that I'll have everything planned out, mealplans etc, and OH just comes in and eats everything, I don't know how he doesn't put weight on! Keep trying to steer him towards things that need used up at least, but no luck! He's also a nightmare for ignoring my shopping list and putting extra bits in the trolley, but I need him to help carry the shopping so can't leave him at home.