January 2012 Grocery Challenge

recovering_spendaholic

Happy New Year and hope all your hangovers are starting to feel better by now. I stayed in by myself last night and was quite happy, however at Midnight I got up to answer the phone and the puppies had wee'd on the laminate and I went flying up the hall and have done my leg in - my knee is like a football and all black and blue - no-one will believe that I hadn't even had a sip of a drink all night!!!!

Hobbled into Sainsburys before to get loo rolls and ended up spending £30 but got a good haul - TTD smoked salmon for £1, a big turkey for £6 ,Cif half price (I love cif kitchen cleaner but never buy it unless it's on offer as it's too dear), Clover and bakery bagels half price (got loads and froze) and milk and loo rolls. I also treated myself to BOGOF Appletiser as I love it and almost never have it.

I have made a lovely chicken pie for tea with l/o chicken but both kids are refusing to eat it and want burgers and chips. I will have some but am not sure what to do with the leftovers as the filling will be reheated once in the pie and I don't know if I can do it again. There 4 good servings of it.....

Will put the bm on later but I am getting fed up with all the crumbs that cutting the bread causes - I am a bit of a kitchen neat freak and it is really getting me down!! The bread is lovely but the mess not so much....

Off to do an inventory and make a meal plan for the coming month.

Herbyme

Happy new year all! Feeling full of resolutions... the main one being to drink less, which will save money too .

Out at a party last night so we got fed, very well too, and a NSD today, dinner was a chicken pie with the remains of some whoopsied chicken, despite disappointing pickings at my local sm's yesterday. Even saved the unused bits of puff pastry for another pie next week.

Good luck to everyone for Jan!

LondonDreamer

Happy new year all! I have been missing from the challenge for months, but trying to get back on the wagon for 2012. :j

Budget is now for 3 adults and not sure how much we're spending at the moment as shopping is split between us (but mostly me) so I'm going to take a complete guess and say £250 for the month and see how I do.

£6.10 spent this morning for milk, bread and sandwich fillers. Will need to do another small shop tomorrow for fruit but otherwise I think we should have enough in the cupboards to get through this week.

PennyGrabber

Question time...

I was just cleaning my kitchen, and I came across my pressure cooker, which is a permanent fixture on top of my stove. However, I never use it! (I have used it once since buying!!!)

I want to start experimenting with it, but have no idea what to cook! I want something easy, cheap, not too bad for you, tasty, quick to prepare, pref one pot!! I know that's a lot to ask, but if you don't ask, you don't get! PLEASE, give me some inspiration!

PG x

sistercas

spiggle nice one :T I couldnt cope with an annual budget i would starve for 4 months of the year :rotfl:i do a monthly budget and break that down to a weekly budget as i shop weekly

trying to eat up all the festive leftovers , having cold meats and pickles for tea

had some double cream that went out of date yesterday and made it into butter :j 1st time ive ever done it and its yummy ( ive frozen the buttermilk , i hope its ok to do that) for when i make scones

mummyyof5

Good start today...Used leftovers for lunch and tea is Shepherds pie with cabbage and peas...so no spends today...will have to hit the supermarket tomorrow as need some tinned stuff and bits for pack up, oh and eggs...kids back to school Wed but have visitors on Tuesday (another no shop day )
Will update sig then as no idea how much this lot will cost xxx

Juliann

Hi everybody, finally got registered after lurking for a while, (that's one new year resolution done, so off to a good start:)), could I put down £200 in January please.

nannygladys

Had a very small spend today at Mr S, stirfry veg 30p. salad veg 30p and 2xaubergines 30p sucess :j

Updated sig already and now show monthly and annual amounts, so hoping to stick within those amounts. Have to very careful this year if I want to pay off CC and OD. Lots of meal ideas planned and making a monthly planner as we speak, had salmon stirfry tonight for dinner and it tasted all the better for being so cheap:)

Happy new year to everyone, I was in work for 6am this morning and saw quite a few revellers going home in drunken staggers and one lad walking up the hill in the middle of the road:( its a good job the roads are well lit around here
Jxx

bupster

Two litres of cauliflower cheese soup made and cooling. What's the best container for freezing soup in? I'm never going to manage 6 servings in the next few days!

rising_from_the_ashes

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Midnight I got up to answer the phone and the puppies had wee'd on the laminate and I went flying up the hall and have done my leg in - my knee is like a football and all black and blue - no-one will believe that I hadn't even had a sip of a drink all night!!

Ouch!:( :(Hope it's better soon xx

I can't believe there were supermarkets open today (none here) ..... :eek:

PennyGrabber wrote: »

You make a very good point Spiggle. I am one of those who has switched to an annual budget this year. I have taken my monthly budget (£140), and multiplied that by 12 (£1680). I then decided what of that will be my month's budget. So, for example, this month, I don't need to do any stocking up, and I don't need loo rolls, washing powder, etc, so I have a £90 budget for this month. That means that I effectively have £50 to allocate to another month when the stores are low or I need to buy expensive things. In addition, if I now see a bargain when I am shopping, on something that I will need soon, I know I have that leeway. I'm thinking about the big things, like washing powder and loo roll. If they are on a ridiculous offer, I can buy now, knowing that it can be absorbed easily into the annual budget IYSWIM.

I'm kind of taking the best of both worlds - annual and monthly!!

As usual, great advice Spigs:D (and with a hangover!!) and I would certainly agree an annual budget wouldn't be the best place to start if you're new to budgeting.

Penny wow! I could've written that! I'm running my annual budget a very similar way.... any underspend will be put into a budgeting pot to help with stocking up months.

I've been doing the challenge a few months now and I've been really struggling to get things under control as if I overspend in a stocking up month, I reset the budget the next month .... so I'm still overspending:(.

I switched my pets budgets to annual ones mid way through last year (I put a set amount into a budgeting pot each month and then take the money out as needed) and it's honestly the best thing I've done - I've bulk bought when offers were on and have mananged to reduce their costs significantly.

Really hoping I can translate this into bring "me" costs down too!:)