January 2012 Grocery Challenge

Brassic_Park

Will be having an NSD today as not leaving the house!

This week's meal plan:
portabello mushrooms w.mozzarella & cheesy risotto
courgette lasagne w.peas
pasta in creme fraiche & sun-dried tomato sauce
gammon, egg, peas and chips
spaghetti w.leeks, peas & pesto
vegetable rice one-pot
fresh ravioli w.pesto
tuna pasta bake

Will also be attempting a rum and raisin cheesecake with bits and pieces left over from Christmas.

Weekend lunches will be HM pizza and HM minestrone soup.

Next big shop scheduled for a week on Sunday, hopefully only need my lunches at work till then. We have a funeral on Tues (fam member I mentioned earlier in thread) so will grab something quick on the way home from that, probs maccy d's

flippin36

Hello grocery challengers!

A quick question please. I know everyone is different but I wondered whether any of you guys with little ones count nappies as part of your grocery budget? The reason I ask is that I don't always buy them from the supermarket, sometimes its from Boots or Superdrug which makes my grocery budget a bit misleading. Maybe I should have a seperate pot of money for these (my son has disabilities which means it can vary how many he needs in a month - he has good weeks and not so good weeks so it makes my budgets a bit erratic.) Thoughts please.

Managed to get the bread I need for at least a week on yellow sticker so have bagged it all up into daily portions for the freezer.

:jMy vegetarian experiment is going well - OH who is a real carnivore, loved my very cheap veggie meals ("I'll have that again please") Wahoo! And it turns out I can make lovely pastry, who would have thought it! :A

Batch baked yesterday so I have plenty of buns for the freezer, I'm trying not to buy as many biscuits as they seem to get eaten so quickly! Starting to use up my stock pile now and just use a hand basket for any top up shops until the end of the month.

Sorry for gabbling on

stardrops42

Needed a few essentials from Mr T yesterday which came to £17.90. I was very restrained though and never bought anything that wasn't on my list:A:D

ETA : Oops just found an Asda receipt from the other day for £1.73 I forgot about! Very naughty!! Have added it to my total now.

tessie_bear

hi...got a stew cooking and the house smells great...also using the oven to heat up the kitchen whick is handy....sorted out 2 food cupboards and made a shopping list for a few bits...nearly run out of fresh fruit and veg so need to sort that out

going to do fajitas for tea and use some of the bits from the m and s meal deals i got yesterday....good value i thought as the chickens are bit a bit over £8 the ones i choose

have a nice day and a nice weekend

tess

DebtFree2012

Hi All

Just to say I am still well and truly doing the challenge although £60 was a bit hopeful! I do have full cupboards etc but it's milk/bread/fruit that's costing me so much as it seems to go no where this month!

Over budget now (new on starts on 25th) at £64.44 / 60.....will keep trying though.

xx

Spiggle

Hi All,

I haven't been posting as the thread is moving quickly enough without my essays! It is great though to read how everyone is committing themselves to improving their shopping habits and becoming more aware of how they spend which will lead to being more financially secure. Keep up the great work everyone! :T

I've updated my sig but in it there is now a discrepancy between the monthly total spent and the Annual total spent. The discrepancy should be even greater later today. This is because of the lovely person who posted about the C*sh*ll* loo roll being on offer at L*dl and the P*rs*l on offer at MrT.

I'm not a huge stock up person (bungalow already stuffed to the gills with 'stuff') but there are certain things that I use constantly and when there is an offer on as good as those above, I would be frankly stupid to not stock up. So yesterday I got three of the loo roll packs from the L*dl near work. As I already have some packs from another deal (nowhere near as good as this one :doh:) they have been stored in the attic and the spend allocated out on my spreadsheet at one per month. I'm going to the L*dl nearish to home today to get some more and I would like to get at least another three, maybe four or five. Then I wouldn't have to buy again until well into the year. Just checked and four will mean no need to physically buy until September, yay! :cool:

I also got four of the Aynsley H cup a soup which are two for £1.50 and OH does love these and some nanas that were an incredible price (though a little sticky!). I checked the butter price out in there and having compared around the stores this is the best price for Welsh butter at the moment and so will stock up on that today as well.

I also went to the MrT near work to see if I could stock up on the P*rs*l and just as in the horrible big one last week, they didn't have it in stock. :mad::mad::mad: I got a couple of bits in there like the 6pk B*byb*l for 79p (makes me laugh that they had the 12 pk on the same shelf at £2odd) for when GD comes and some very nice Welsh soft cheese on two for £3 and some milk. All of the spends there are added to January budget along with some bits that OH got on Wednesday at the Coop.

So, I have a load of washing in the machine almost ready for the line, need to get myself together, pick up OH and head back to L*dl and unfortunately the horrid huge MrT to see if they have the flaming P*rs*l again.

Just had a thought, we freeze ordinary cheese so could I shove a few nets of B*byb*l in the freezer do you think?

Right see you all later and keep up the excellent work. I can almost hear those freezers and cupboards sighing as they are released from being stretched to the limit!

Take care,
Spigs

janiepopps

Hi all :j

Did my weekly shop yesterday and pleased with the outcome. Tesc0 had lots of reduced veggies in great condition that were on my list which made me a happy janie
Spent £63.06 of my £100 budget which is a little worrying but am planning to eat from the house freezer all of next week (anyone fancy a mid month freezer challenge?) and have tonnes of meat in the farm freezer for the week after. Just fruit & veggies and bread (in theory but rarely in practice it seems!)

£18.47 left for each week in January.

I did have to pop into town last night to see a friend and visited M'sons at 8ish. Got a loaf for the freezer for 15p, two 1/2 size baguettes for 15p, 2 cheese twist (YUM) for 12p.

REALLY wanted a cake but they only had packs of 2 or more and I know myself well enough to know that I would have scoffed both on the drive home so resisted and picked up a Frys turkish delight at the check out instead.
Am i the only persons that feels virtuous eating a bar of chocolate I wonder...?!

mummygems

flippin36 wrote: »

Hello grocery challengers!

A quick question please. I know everyone is different but I wondered whether any of you guys with little ones count nappies as part of your grocery budget? The reason I ask is that I don't always buy them from the supermarket, sometimes its from Boots or Superdrug which makes my grocery budget a bit misleading. Maybe I should have a seperate pot of money for these (my son has disabilities which means it can vary how many he needs in a month - he has good weeks and not so good weeks so it makes my budgets a bit erratic.) Thoughts please.

I do include nappies (and wipes) regardless of where I buy them from otherwise I end up with a budget for this and a budget for that! I sometimes stock up when they are on offer but only ever take it from the month the money is spent (does that make sense lol).

Gorgeestwo

lemmings1986 wrote: »

also quick question if i made mash and roastys could i freeze them????

Yes I've frozen mash and roasties for DH's lunches before with no problem, I don't think the roasties are as crispy when they're reheated, but he's survived

[Deleted User]

2nd shop this month and spent £6.97 on fresh milk ,bread and fruit so 11 out of 13 were NSD:j:j:j I am so pleased and by shopping from the existing stores I am saving quite a bit towards my summer holidays which are booked and two thirds paid so far.
Had some odd meals from stuff in the freezer that I had forgotten about but it was put in there to eat and so thats what I am doing I am determined to eat it down as much as I can,
Tonight I have some fish cakes and broccoli and peas for dinner all from the freezer.:j