January 2012 Grocery Challenge

tigerfeet2006

PolkaDotsAndLace wrote: »

Hoping for an NSD today since I'll have to shop tomorrow for milk top up and cheese (which is cheaper in Scotmid) - I plan on going armed with my Asda list which is all priced and seeing if there's anything else I can get cheaper at the same time.

I'm wary of online shopping because of the substitutions and early useby dates I've heard people talk about, but feel it would be better for my budget since I'd have all the control and see how much it was coming to. Not sure whether to give it a go at some point.

My Tesco are absolutely brilliant when choosing stuff to go with my order. I also have a very good fridge which helps.

kerri_dfw

The only online shop I do is from ama*on for bulk buys and the christmas shop as I don't want to drag myself round in the madness, oh and my veggie boxes which are all beautiful organic yumminess. I'm trying to avoid the supermarket at the moment.
Just added 2 tubs of fat-free yoghurt to my veg-box order for £3.18 so I can start having museli and yoghurt for brekkie again.

[Deleted User]

I love online shopping, i find it gives me the control to buy at the best prices. You don't have to stand in the supermarket for ages working out which is better value. As far as substitutions are concerned, because i buy a lot of cheaper brands they are substituted for more expensive brands and then they price match, so you get it at the lower price, you have, as someone has mentioned, the option to play around with your order until the day before its to be delivered. The only disadvantage is that you don't get to see whoopsies, but i do go to specific supermarkets especially for that on occasion. The upside is you don't get sidetracked into buying loads of stuff you dont want.

Kerri-dfw - sounds a lovely breakfast, you could get 2 x tubs of greek fat free yoghurt in tesco for 84p if you wanted !!!

raphanius

£2 for milk....again. would be cheaper to buy a cow.

janiepopps

raphanius wrote: »

£2 for milk....again. would be cheaper to buy a cow.

May I recommend for those of you near a Lid1, to try their milk powder. Everyone we suggest it to throws their hands up in the air in disgust remembering that naff milk powder (5 pints was it called?) from years ago, but the Lid1 stuff is superb.

We have given it to visitors for maybe 3 years now, and no one tastes a difference in their drinks. We use it to make mash, on cereal, and it always does a great job. We now only buy fresh milk if OH's kids are down.

Even if you just get a tin in to stop you running out to the shop on milk runs it may help budgets x

LondonDreamer

dobs wrote: »

Hello all, have lost some of my receipts and hubby who does the shopping had bought extras (grr) but have put down 130.00 as our spends so far as that seems pretty near, does include a birthday cake in that as well. Need to start to meal plan and batch cook though, so unorganised lately! Wondering if internet shopping if worth trying, does anyone do that? Only thing is if you can get everything online that you can at the supermarkets? We are spoilt here we have a big Asda, two sainsburys, tescos, Morrisons, 2 lidls, tesco expresses and in the nearby town a waitrose! Need to get some milk today or tomorrow, the container split and i have put in into a gravy jug but worried it will go off and can't do without my cups of tea! I have seventy pounds now for the rest of the month, for five of us and two dogs (won't include the hamster, rabbit or guinea pig food!), am determined to try and do it!

I can get more at Mr T online, but that is because the stores close to me are small (Express and Metro) where the online orders come from a massive Extra that's nearby but awkward to get to without a car. But if I had the choice of local supermarkets you do and could get to them easily, I don't think I'd bother with online.

PolkaDotsAndLace wrote: »

I'm wary of online shopping because of the substitutions and early useby dates I've heard people talk about, but feel it would be better for my budget since I'd have all the control and see how much it was coming to. Not sure whether to give it a go at some point.

My Mr T orders have always been good, the only complaint I have is that when I order something by weight, they never pay attention to the note I add about max weight. Last time I got a 2.5kg joint of beef when I asked for between 1 and 1.5kg - thankfully it was on offer and I could afford the extra so kept it.

Oh and mine almost always arrives bang on the start of the delivery slot, often even a few minutes early. But I do order for delivery early in the day, might be a different story by the end!

Justamum

Just had to go and buy a bread mix for DS's cooking on Friday at school - they're making pizza. When I was at school we actually made bread from scratch. It's the same when they are making something with pastry, the ingredients will specify bought pastry, so if it's shortcrust I show them how to make it themselves and take that in. I'm not buying shortcrust pastry!

While I was in there I also bought some drinking chocolate as we won't have enough left to last until Friday's shopping, so all in all I'm 93p over this week

annem38

hi there, well another 11.61 for me, so well within budget and also had a revelation that i don't NEED to do a monthly shop at mr t, got into a habit of it for tins and cat food. but got lots of tin toms and beans, and at least 3 weeks worth of moggie nosh (as long as they don't suddenly change their minds again:mad:)

meals are all planned
breakfasts-various cereals, HM muesli, fruit
lunch- sarnies with cheese, chicken, tuna, ham and salami
dinner
tuesday -kebab style chicken, chilli sauce with salad, corn on the cob, wedges (courtesy of bbc beat the takeaway)
weds -carbonara
thurs -chilli con carne with rice, salad and HM garlic bread
fri- roast belly pork ( never done it before so wish me luck)
sat- HM burgers with wedges and salad

all looks good to me, and the best bit is the only thing i need to get is eggs for the carbonara!!

gawd i love this challenge!

anne

SpagBol

DH just spent £5.03 in Mr S on cake ingredients :mad::mad: But this is for my Birthday cake so I'm trying not to be mad even though he bought butter when we have two tubs of flora buttery (on offer) for this purpose...

SueP19

helen_jelly wrote: »

To All New People

Hi and Welcome

Please do NOT be put off by the size of the thread at the moment - in Jan it is always huge as we have lots of people joining us. It will settle down and become more managable. Don't be put off either by how well some people do - remember some posters have been doing the GC for a long time and have got their spending down to a fine art - wish that was me!!

The other thing I wanted to say was don't be surprised if you don't come in under or on your target - its the first time you are doing this - I think that for the first couple/few months its all a learning curve and things crop up and we need to be flexible

Good luck
Stick with it/us

Ask lots of questions

Helen x

Great point, I have been a member of several threads over the years and they do start with a flurry then settle down

Sometimes if I am busy I will read the last page and "thanks" it then go back further when I have more time