January 2012 Grocery Challenge

bupster

Another fair-sized spend - £19.39 in Sainsbugs. Had a £2 off voucher but bought a necklace in their sale for £2 so that cancelled it out

Got a beef brisket, two packs of mince, a pizza, a load of cereal bars (I'm away at the weekend and if I don't have healthy snacks I'll end up mainlining biscuits and pastries) and (very naughty) four fresh cream eclairs for 90p! Also some apples and some tagliatelle, which I'd run out of. So all in all I've probably got at least 18 meals out of that, a necklace and loads of snacks (can you hear the guilty self-justification dripping? :rotfl:)

Oh well, I'm still well in budget, and I won't get any chance to spend money again until next week. If I can limit myself to eggs, milk and yoghurt one evening then I will come in at under £80 for the month (though this isn't entirely accurate as Christmas skewed it and I wasn't counting my milk/eggs/bread purchases for the last week of December). Still, as I did one big bulk rabbit food shop, I think that a budget of £100 for next month on food is not out of reach.

Two things I have to watch for is these big shops for things I don't really need (and the little ones!) and, secondly, other expenditure that I wouldn't have blinked at before. It only takes a few cheques being paid out to completely derail my budget plans, and because I have a bit of a cash cushion after Christmas and I'm not in debt crisis it's sometimes hard to remember that I am in fact skint. Maybe I should get it tattooed on my forehead, backwards so that I can read it in the mirror. Then people wouldn't keep wanting me to go out for a drink because I'd look too deranged :rotfl:.

lemmings1986

majjak wrote: »

Hi lemmings,

It's on the first page of the living frugally 2012 challenge ..... hang on I'll go grab you the link x I'm sure she won't mind

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3612005

Under 'My Free Spreadsheet' in the links section

There you go

thanks majjak i'll go have a look now :D

needtosavE_2

Well i am soooo annoyed with myself!! Went to asda and B&M last night and spent £18.62. then into lidl tonight for the 24 rolls of cushelle for £6.99, bread and milk. another £8.83!!! When i was in though i noticed a big bg of brussels for 19p!!! wish i had a use for them!

So now at £121.46, only ££28.54 left till pay day on the 27th. oooops!

piggeh

no spend day today and had a fish around in the car for car park tickets to claim back off work and found £7's worth!

kersplatt

Another NSD here - rice krispies for breakfast, tuna sandwich for lunch and eggs with peppers and naan bread. One of my 5 a day!! Oops! Might push the boat out and have a satsuma this evening lol

Greying_Pilgrim

Hi Everyone :hello:

Sorry I've not been posting much, but I have been trying to keep up with all the posts on here and the Frugal Living Challenge, and by the time I've achieved that, I've no time left to post. however, really good to learn of everyone's progress, recipes, hints, tips and good ideas.

Had a 'spendy' day today - started off with paying for a haircut - comes out of the GC budget. And then picked up some celery and a swede from Ald* from the super 6. Then called in at L*dl's and found that they had reduced their swedes down to 39p (from 59p) and they were much bigger :mad: ... ah well. Picked up a whoopsied cauli and some satsumas in Mr M's and that has taken me over the £100 spent to date.

Still, I have about £15 left of actual 'food' money - which with stocks/freezer food should see us through to the 31st. The other 'non-food' expenditure will trickle out over the next couple of weeks and will be accounted for in my siggie.

Whilst I'm used to budgeting and being frugal, I have already benefitted from being a part of this challenge by just 'thinking' more about spends etc. The fact that I'm keeping a record of my spends (I'm another user of Cheryl's spreadsheet off the Frugal Living challenge and would wholeheartedly endorse it) is making me much more aware of what I'm spending and why.

I'm recording NSD's too for the first time and I think that helps to stop 'frittering' - even of just pennies - they all add up! I've also implemented a 'buying from stores' jar and this is working well and has made 'stocking up' easier - I have money in the kitty, but also was able to bulk buy spices last week when I made a trip to an asian supermarket. Previously I would 'rob Peter to pay Paul' to fund 'stock ups'. Now I know how much money I have and use it to stock up sensibly on what I will need. Hopefully this fund will grow as 'Mothership's second purse system' suggests.

Anyway, enough wittering from me. Keep up the good work folks!

Greying

123budget

[QUOTE=lemmings1986;50119821 soup-have about 30 tins i got for free :D so need to start using them up.
my mams makes a lovely pastabake and uses a tin of chicken soup as the sauce i have mushroom,chicken and tomato a few of each so would save me buying, making a sauce.
sounds daft but has any1 got any other ideas what i can use them for????
thanks in advance hope evry1 has a good, am off to bed will be back later to see how every getting on :):):)[/QUOTE]

I always use mushroom soup as the sauce for fish pie:-
poach fish(usually use white and smoked) - flake fish and put in oven dish.
Pour over soup and add a few bits of veg and top with thinly sliced or mashed pot, top with grated cheese and bake in oven for 20-25 mins - my sons favourite!!:j

rosieben

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

The mince I got out of the freezer last night has not defrosted in the fridge (meant to take out of the fridge and put on the side and forgot this morning.) So the choice is bacon and brocolli pasta bake or cauli and broc cheese.....hmmm! desicions, desicions!

Any votes either way? What would you cook?

too late now but I would have voted for the bacon one :j

Gorgeestwo

Think my budget is going to go out the window I'd got some slightly cheaper food to try our cats on, but it isn't agreeing with one of them, so its back to the very expensive special diet DH had to go and get an emergency small bag today so a spend of £13, but I'll need to order a bigger bag fairly quickly. By the end of the month the cats will be eating better than us :eek:

Islandmaid

NSD today and with luck I will avoid the supermarket till early next week, been trying to push it one day on each week