January 2012 Grocery Challenge

cleggie

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

welcome cleggie, you have whatever month suits you, it starts and finishes with whatever date you choose.

my problem is i usually have too much month left at the end of my money:o

we get paid monthly but i tend to shop weekly so divide my money into 4 but if you can meal plan for the month a monthly shop will be ideal with just fresh stuff each week

i try to save some each week so i can do a freezer fill at farmfoods at the end of each month

Thanks mrs moneypenny.
I forgot about freezer food. I think i'll spend £30 in farmfoods to fill my freezer, and then have £70 to last me the month instead.

i dont know why i struggle so much with grocery challenges!!:mad:

mrs-moneypenny

dont forget to try and get one of the farmfoods money off coupons we usually get them delievered with the free paper, the shop are great and even accept them past their date as long as you spend enough.

cleggie

I have a £2.50 off couponif i spend over £25, so i'll use that, thanks again mrs moneypenny for reminding me!

Need2bthrifty

quintwins wrote: »

i will empty my freezer.....i will empty my freezer....i will empty my freezer

I love and have adopted your mantra....will be re-organising mine as I keep losing track of what's in there, but there's always the joys of having something that's covered in so much ice that you cant recognise what it is :rotfl:

JackieO wrote: »

I went into M&S and bought a few bits in the food hall for us as a treat, and got my beloved King Edwards spuds.

I asked in Sainsbobs and was told we don't bother stocking them much as its cheaper to get 'vivaldi or other potatoes.Well I'm sorry but I find that strange to me the best potato although maybe a little dearer is a King Edward and I won't be co-erced into having what supermarkets tell me to buy.
I told the 'suit' in there as well and he probably thought I was a grumpy old woman, but who cares, he looked about 12 to me, and maybe I am, but I am also a customer without whom he wouldn't be able to walk around telling women old enough to be his Mum how to suck eggs
rant over back to sweet little old lady mode

The lady on the till in M&S agreed that she too preferred KE spuds so its not just me then
So in all I spent £7.84 in there and came home only having spent £14.93 from my purse and now have no shopping to buy for at the very least another week if not more.Onwards and upwards chums
JackieO xx

I may be turning into a grumpy old woman too but I think "King Edwards Rock" I much prefer a "nice dry tattie" that soaks up the gravy - they also make the best roasties too, IMO. I wonder which variety Aunt Be$$ie uses

NSD for me - wonder how long I can keep this up!!

hex2

A small spend in MrA this morning - I was killing time but we are out of lentils. Shelf label said roll back to £1.20 but it went through at 60p so I went back for four more

Asda TRS Brand red lentils, 1kg bag goes through at 60p (SEL says £1.20) in the ethnic foods section.

Cheapest I can find otherwise is the £1.99/2kg bags in MrT so this is a real bargain for me.

I am highlighting deals that are open to others in bold - perhaps those who so generously lead the thread could come up with a guideline to do this or something similar so they stand out like the targets being in red? I love reading about other peoples RTC bargains but I just don't go shopping at the right times to get them, but an offer that I might otherwise miss (like the MrS washing powder) I will only read about here and it does sometimes get lost in the sheer volume of posts? Just a thought from a minority of one

mummybearx

Well, Im hoping for a NSD today :j

Could get used to this not spending money malarkey lol x

Picklepud

Hello rejoining today !! off to Mr T's after work i will read pages and pages later and updates siggy please put me down for £350 for January please

LondonDreamer

cleggie wrote: »

Glad to say i still havent spent anything at all.
Monday is payday though, so i have been busy writing my shopping list.
in order to stick to my £200 budget, i am going to do 1 big shop for about £100, then i will have £100 to last me the month for bread, milk, eggs, fruit and veg. Is this how other people do it? I am determned to actually stick to this months grocery challenge budget!

Does it matter that my month isnt 1st Jan-1st Feb? It's actualy 9th Jan-9th Feb?

I tend to do one large online shop (no car, so need bulky things delivered) for storecupboard/household items monthly, shouldn't need this until the end of the month as I got plenty in before Christmas. I'll do a medium shop for freezeable fresh items such as meat two weeks after this, then small weekly shops for produce/milk.

I haven't formally split money between these, but it tends to be £100 on the large shop, £50-75 on the medium and £25 on the two smalls. That leaves about £25-50 in my budget for bargains and treats.

That's the theory anyway. :rotfl:

jollymummy

Me and DH have been busy clearing the cupboards today. We had got to the point when we opened the food cupboard and just chucked stuff in. Anyhoo we spent some time today sorting it out and getting rid of out of date and fossilized food - some of it from Jan 2009 !!

It is now clean and tidy, I've put a list on the door of what we have, along with a pen so we can amend the list and write on it things we need to replace.
We've also discovered we have 4 packets of spaghetti and 3 of lasagne sheets - looks like we'll be having a lot of pasta in next few weeks

It's nice to feel in control of the situation again and hopefully we won't over buy for the next few weeks.

nannygladys

Hi everyone

Gone a bit mad the last couple of days but only spent on food I will use the rest of the month, froze any veg I have bought and not using in the next couple of days, and have a large beefless and ale stew in the SC (I use quorn) which should last a couple of days with some for freezing.

Will go now and try to work out grocery spends from receipts, as I have also been buying other stuff from other pots and a bit of peace and quiet is needed to sort it out:) so I will update signature when I have managed it.

Jxx