February 2007 Grocery Challenge

spiddy100

I'm going to add a little to my budget as my mum is coming to stay for 9 days :eek: (not really, very pleased she is coming ). Not sure if my dad is coming too.

We are so stocked up on meat and fish, this is going to be an expensive month but hopefully help us to keep things cheap next month.

EagerLearner

Doing pretty well - we made Velentine's dinner at home and had already got £38 worth of shopping of which £20 was Waitrose vouchers.

2 x big and juicy Aberdeen Angus steaks and garlic mash with butter asparagus and lemon tart with cherries for dessert. Plus a naughty bottle of Chateau Neuf Du Pape... but so delicious we had to treat ourselves to this meal!

Plus, at £18 it was a bargain compared to what the restaurants would have charged for that (and the £18 included some normal shopping).

Next shop will be Saturday morning when I will as usual get stuff from the local market... hoping to spend just £10 like I did weekend before last (£5 on meat and the rest on veg and bread, eggs etc again) - we will see.

Highly recommend you get a cheap bag of carrots, make a soup out of it with a tin of chick peas and one sweet potato - delicious and not expensive, lasted us ages...

mikeD

Have just had the fortnightly delivery from Tesco delivered and then youngest son, who still lives with us, informed me "I'm off to Chicargo for four weeks". Well thank you very much was my thought :mad:, though he did give me next months rent & board in advance. :A

kiwi88_2

mikeD wrote:

Have just had the fortnightly delivery from Tesco delivered and then youngest son, who still lives with us, informed me "I'm off to Chicargo for four weeks". Well thank you very much was my thought :mad:, though he did give me next months rent & board in advance. :A

Hi MikeD

Kids huh!! Mine are only 9 & 6 thankfully!!

Just an idea but if you cook your meals as normal including his portion you can freeze the extra one. So for next months meals you will already have his therefore saving on next months bill :rotfl:

I have just made a huge batch of butternut squash soup so dh and I have eaten some for lunch and I still have 2 large & 2 smaller portions cooling for the freezer Am also going to do a big batch of leek & potatoe soup at the weekend so more for the freezer Mmmm better look at my meal plan and make sure I'll be making enough freezer room, if not I'll just juggle the plan around until I do

pigpen

I am a silent participant here..

Back in November I was spending £600+ a month on food and sustainance toiletries and cleaning stuff. ... For 10 of us 2 adults 8 children..

I am now spending..

*drum roll!!!!*

£300 a MONTH!!!!

I have literally halved what I was spending.

My cupboards look very posh, everything matches (tesco value lol) Very co-ordinated!
I don't buy biscuits or sweets or 'junk' and more, most of our meals are made from scratch with enough to freeze for my lunches during the week.
I make my own bread .. so instead of 65p a loaf (cheapest I can get it here) I am paying 23p or thereabouts! We go through 2-3 loaves a day so that is a BIG saving!
We eat so much more healthily, have very little waste and my purse is happy!

There is hope for everyone if I can do this!

thanks to everyone for their help and input.

andistar74

im doing really well this week....
I have only spent £1.10 and it shouldn't have been that much really. Gave my son 1x50p and 3x20p as all I had in change for milk he spent the change on a sweet for him and his brother!! told him I only asked for milk
.:A trying to be

knithappens

I Am joining late, but for these last 2 weeks my goal is £50 a week for myself, son and daughter. I am hoping to spend a lot less than this.

mum2many

pigpen wrote:

I am a silent participant here..

Back in November I was spending £600+ a month on food and sustainance toiletries and cleaning stuff. ... For 10 of us 2 adults 8 children..

I am now spending..

*drum roll!!!!*

£300 a MONTH!!!!

I have literally halved what I was spending.

My cupboards look very posh, everything matches (tesco value lol) Very co-ordinated!
I don't buy biscuits or sweets or 'junk' and more, most of our meals are made from scratch with enough to freeze for my lunches during the week.
I make my own bread .. so instead of 65p a loaf (cheapest I can get it here) I am paying 23p or thereabouts! We go through 2-3 loaves a day so that is a BIG saving!
We eat so much more healthily, have very little waste and my purse is happy!

There is hope for everyone if I can do this!

thanks to everyone for their help and input.

WOW thats amazing
I'm aiming for that for 2 adults and 4 children
What are you eating?

pigpen

Just loads of fresh fruit and veg.. because there are so many we can buy in bulk and not waste anything!! I buy the huge packs of fresh meat repack it into smaller boxes and freeze until needed. Though somethings I do freeze. Usually I cook and freeze to save cooking time later.. parsnips & swede particularly.. I mash them anyway so it doesn't matter if they lose some 'body'

I've stopped buying sausage rolls and cheese straws for lunch and I have something I cooked earlier and DD5 has sandwiches or HM cheese straws.. I can make a weeks worth for what I spent in 1 day before!!

I have just planted loads of fruit canes/bushes/shrubs/plants etc so I can make my own jam.. I'm quite excited about this!

I feed 2 cats and 2 rabbits in that budget too!! shops own premium brand for cats and pets at home own brand for the hoppies.. I go blag fresh stuff from the greengrocers for them too.. the discarded leaves from cabbages, stray sprouts etc.. they love that.

southern_chick

managed to get away with spending just £14.35 in Tesco today so really pleased, hope everyone else is doing ok