January 2012 Grocery Challenge

raphanius

£5.56 to declare for whoopsie bread, milk, sausage rolls for DS and full price onions. i will be a little over budget this month because i have 94p left for milk for five days but i wont be over by much.

Suffolk_lass

carolinerunner wrote: »

Thinking about whoopsies, I never seem to get such good ones as some people mention, and I wondered whether people might be willing to mention the time they shopped when they post about getting good whoopsies? It might help those of us who are unsure when to go, or whether we're going at the right time. I find if I'm too early, the discounts aren't very big, but if I'm too late, everything's gone, it would really help me to suss out when's best and get my timing right. Just a thought, don't know if others would think it useful?

carolinerunner I have the same problem as you but was reassured to read (somewhere in the 146 pages of this thread) that each store is different so the best thing is to get chatty with one of the staff and ask what the practice is in that store. For me, my only dramatic successes were a beautiful piece of fish on Sunday afternoon in Waitflower but I tried again a fortnight later, an hour before closing and the fresh fish counter was in the process of being washed down (all gone or too late) - my conclusion is that it's not a precise science this whoopsie catching. Oh yes, and a 38p (from £1.80) bag of salad down the back of the reductions crate (hidden, rather than dropped methinks...) in Mr Ts. HTH

NickJW

Another £8 to report on a spend in Mr S today.

helen_jelly

Morning all
As this month was such a disaster GC wise we decided to go to Aldi and use the £5 off offer, we got about 8 carrier bags worth of stuff and paid £33 after the £5 off. Well worth a look - we bought bulk of Milk, WU Liquid, Fabric conditioner and other bits. Decided to do it now before we get paid and then we can start Feb as a nice fresh new month.

Helen

mrs-moneypenny

morning all

spent £8.57 in mrT this morning needed golden syrup porrige oats and a leek but chocolate fell into my trolley

jacket pots for dinner and leek and quorn pie planned for tea
made a batch of twinks hobnobs yesterday

HelenPie

:idea: Oh dear. Just had a mini LBM and realised why I never have enough money (other than general overspending )...I have a spreadsheet for all of my expenses for a year, broken down monthly. Only thing is, (and this is going to sound so obvious :rotfl::o) I've been transferring money for petrol and groceries to a separate account, but also using it to buy cat food, flea treatments, clothing, etc. but had that in a separate part of my sheet with no pot of money allocated to it!! So at least £20-£30 per month not accounted for properly.

:doh::doh::doh:

rosieben

More recipes added to the list, thanks to

hex2 for the Love Potatoes website link :T
JARUS for Cheesy Bread and Butter Pudding and Monday Night Rice:T
Florenceem, for Chicken Stir Fry :T
ragz for Pork Koftas :T

cw18

HelenPie - when I first started logging everything in a spreadsheet in the latter part of 2008 I found it a real eye-opener as well.... but in my case it was just how far out I was in some of my estimates of what I spent on certain items/categories in a year !!

tracey12_2

claireosully wrote: »

Any tips on how to keep the food bill down would be much appreciated as i am new to all this . . . . !

Thanks all

Claire x

Hi Claire :wave:

Do a stock take of your fridge, freezer and cupboards and see what you already have in. Then you can try and start to meal plan with what you already have.

Use leftovers and make into another meal or have for lunch the next day. The don't throw food away challenge is a great thread and if you are stuck for ideas just ask.

There are some things that I am not willing to change brands for e.g coffee but any other item look and see what is the best value for money and as prices are always changing you need to do this regularly and try and downshift a brand.

I always batch cook and freeze extra portions of meals so that I have HM ready meals instead of having a takeaway.

Never shop when hungry otherwise you will buy extra food you don't really need.

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

chocolate fell into my trolley

A similar thing happened to me this morning but it was 2 vanilla creme pastries

Tracey

forgottendreams

hello, forgive me, i'm sure i've already asked this question before but my memory fails me....

Yesterday I took some sausages out the freezer - frozen from fresh.
Going to make up a sausage and chili bean cusine tonight (using a recipie one of you lovely people posted at the beginning of the thread) now... my question is. (and sorry if its obvious is it safe to re-freeze the portions?