January 2012 Grocery Challenge

Catslovelycats

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Saved from spending .....:D

I rarely want chips - maybe 1/2 a dozen times a year but - when I do - that's it, nothing else will do and tonight is one of those nights!

Headed off to the freezer to get the bag (always there - just in case:D) and to my horror remembered that it was one of the casualties of the broken fridge/freezer when I had to try to cram what I could in the outside freezer and the least expensive things didn't survive.

Usually in such an emergency, a trip to the Co*op would've been on the cards but I had a cortizone injection in my foot this morning & can now hardly stand - let alone attempt to drive:eek:

Determined not to be defeated, I've taken some potatoes & chopped into "chips" - along with a swede (I'm drowning in swede after getting a net of 16 for £3.50:j at the market). Have par-boiled them & done in the oven like roast pots but have put some seasoning on and ...... yum!:D

I may never buy chips again!

I'm really sorry Rising. I can sense the nervous energy as you went through this but I couldn't help but laugh. Glad for the happy ending though!

Hope your foot recovers soon.

bupster

Managed an NSD today. Now to dig through the fridge and see what there is - had better clear out the small one as well, I tried to shove a pint of milk in yesterday and the jars wouldn't shift enough to make space. I should reiterate again, I live alone :eek: Bad enough that I have two fridges! :rotfl:

PolkaDotsAndLace

Bit of a fail here, we're both so sick with the cold today that we cracked and ordered Dominos pizza - had planned lasagne but it was just far too much effort (any cooking was!) so that will have to roll over to tomorrow. Around £20 spent, at least I've recorded it as £20 since I think OH just tipped with the change.

It'd been over a month since we had a takeaway, but it just feels shocking spending that much money now, when I think it equals half a week's shop for us or thereabouts! Still, there was no getting OH to go to the chippie which would have been cheaper.

rising_from_the_ashes

catslovelycats wrote: »

I'm really sorry Rising. I can sense the nervous energy as you went through this but I couldn't help but laugh. Glad for the happy ending though!

Hope your foot recovers soon.

You know how it is .... when you really want something & absolutely NOTHING else will do . Feeling a lot better now!

Hopefully the foot should settle in a few days - it's always odd having it done - it's really painful when they do it ... but then wonderful immediately afterwards as there's no pain but ..... once the local anaesetic wears off - oh boy!

Ches

Going from bad to worse here. Out of my £50 I have had to pay £10.50 for a meal with friends that I had forgotten about and have no other budget for. Then by the time I had been to the butchers (£15.15) and Mr S for the other bits and bobs we needed, I have £7.11 left to last me until next Friday. I will still need to get eggs, fruit and veg next week. The only upside is that OH won a tenner on the lottery and he will probably give me the ticket so I could use that for the meal rather than taking it from the food budget. OH has the entertainment budget so it should theoretically be him paying anyway but he tends not to bother if he isn't coming with me which boggers up my budgets. We muddle along.....:)

belfastgirl23

Hi everyone, just doing a weekly check in. Of my £200 budget I've spent £75.18 in a big tesco delivery shop with enough of the staples to do the month I hope. I was able to use an £8 off £80 spend voucher too which I was pleased about. Also a further £22.86 in M&S - this was deliberately topped up to be able to use the £5 off £25 voucher so I now have enough oatcakes to do the month, if not more (we eat a lot of oatcakes in our house and the M&S ones are amongst the nicest). So this is a total of £98.04 leaving just under £102 to go. I am estimating another £20ish spend in M&S over the weekend again made up to use the voucher - this will probably be fresh fruit and veg as well as DH's premium OJ and a few other of their staples we can't live without - no prepackaged meals though.

Hope everyone else is doing ok!

bupster

Well, clearing small fridge was interesting. I found 3 and a half bags of coffee, only one of which had been opened; a jar and a half of capers, and four jars of home made jam/chutney/marmalades. And two of pasta sauce. I threw out the horrible low-fat pesto (it's yuck) and two packs of elderly Flora (I seem to buy a pack every Christmas for my Dad, and then it sits in the fridge for a year). The rest is olives, mustard, creme fraiche, yoghurt, milk, lemons and limes, half a cucumber, some corned beef, and my absolute favourite, a jar of medlar jelly an ex made and gave me. Going to have that for breakfast tomorrow on whoopsied crumpets.

Lessons I have learned:
1. I am irredeemably middle class (who has a jar and a half of capers for God's sake?)
2. I have got to clear out that fridge more often
3. Sod the diet, the jam needs eating :rotfl:

LavenderBees

Evening, All

I LUV Friday evenings...2 whole days of freedom ahead :j

Well, managed to have 5 NSDs in a row as planned :money: and visited A$DA and L!dl this evening - stuck to my very small list for the first time in years and spent a total of £4.22 - fruit tbags, veges and bread flour.

Have updated my signature.

Long may this resolution continue. I feel much better being in control, didn't even look for anything else like whoopsies :T. Aiming for 6 NSDs tomorrow to Thursday and no shopping again until next Friday.

Sorry, but this thread moves so fast I just can't keep up now I'm back at work. Hope all are well.

xx

angelatgraceland

HomeMum wrote: »

I shall probably regret it, and overspend wayyyyyyy too much, but as we only have one car and DH has it during the day, I can only buy as much as I can carry .[/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE]

I think that explains why a lot of us overspend! Having a car means we exercise less and buy six times as much!

I did my shop tonight which I was going to do on Sunday so I used up my Coop voucher and spent £57.04 . Also went to Waitrose and spent £7.51
I had loads of whoopsies-going ot and themn up and edit this later on after putting every glorious spend into my spreadsheet-thanks to Cheryl for the spreadsheet(CW18) it saved me a lot of work! It will be interesting to see how much I save with whoopsies. I am going to add a voucher column just for interest as I printed off some vouchers today which I used tonight for Benecol yoghurts and 50/50 loaves/. I wouldnt normally buy those youghurts but they were on offer at 2 packs for £4 and I had 2 x £1 vouchers off of them so they were down to £1 pack of four yogs:p The bread would have been a little cheaper in Iceland but I wasnt parking again and getting in another queue for the difference of 30p. If I add up the cost of the vouchers I can then justify the price of the ink when I need to buy another cartridge! Well I am very well stocked now, including £20 worth of meat on the 3 for a tenner deal.

Lovebeingathomemum

Foraged deep into cupboards today and managed Nigella's s**t spaghetti for tea tonight - success with all family!

Got some essentials from sainos today but think can manage the weekend now.

Can someone please clarify - do we include eating/drinking out? Trying desperately to abstain from favourite coffee shop but succumbed to childrens whinging today and took them for babyccinos. Total - £2.85 which I reckon is a pretty low spend for coffee out.