January 2012 Grocery Challenge

hex2

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

they manage to sort out the biscuits they want from the cheaper ones and then sit and look at you pleadingly:o

Ha - at least they don't spit them off the opposite wall, swear gently and go and see what next door are having for dinner whomemenacethenicetabbynextdoorforhisgocat whilst maintaing an air of injured innocence. Mine have expensive biscuits but will only eat MrS cheap fish cuts in jelly for meat for which I am very grateful.

Amazon and pet food - I add the things mine will eat to my basket and save for later. Every time I log on it shows any reductions (or increases) so I buy when it drops.

tigerfeet2006

Old_Meanie wrote: »

I am afraid I spend about £400 a month for two people! After reading some of this thread I feel I am going badly wrong somewhere. Unfortunately I have a chronic illness and cooking is becoming more and more difficult even with my partner helping and I think I spend a lot on convenience. I am going to follow the advice at the start and just note down how much I am spending on what. I am going to have A SERIOUS try at this challenge so any advice on cutting down on convenience foods whilst keeping cooking to a minimum would be welcome. Thanks

Perhaps get yourself a slow cooker and do a batch cook of a couple of things and then box them up for the freezer for your own HM meals.

destroyerofdebt2011

First spend of the new year to declare £5.50 For some Carrots, clementines, mushrooms, hazelnuts(which i have just noticed havent gone thru for the whoopsied price but full price ... will make a trip out tomorrow with said item, they are actually in date till March but i suspect xmas stock), mushrooms , soy sauce, whoopsied milk (decanted into smaller bottles and froze already), and whoopsied stirfry oh and cheapo cornflakes as they are always out of stock when i actually run out of them :rotfl:. PS stirfry was very yummy that was lunch and dinner sorted once i added a bit of rice and some bacon.

Would never have noticed the error at the till or got the courage to take it to customer services if it wasnt for this site. :money:

D.O.D

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Had a NSD today, I was very good and came straight home after work, instead of calling at Mr S!!! Having quorn that someone at work gave me, pots, carrots, brussels and onion gravy and then fresh pineapple and yougurt for afters. The pineapple I got from Tescos for 60p a couple of days ago,
Jxx

recovering_spendaholic

Cranky - I smiled when I read about your Dad's curried mince because my Mum used to do that all the time!! Actually if I remember rightly I used to quite like it!!

Kids are both out for tea so spent this afternoon making a big curry for tomorrow night and I am having a freezer tea of a couple of onion rings I found lurking with a handful of oven chips a few peas and a piece of fish. It's in the oven now and smells nice!

Pixiefairydust - what kind of breadmaker did you get? I love my breadmaker and am getting more adventurous using it too - at the moment I have some naan bread dough in there which I will make into individual naans once it has risen. My BM came with a quite comprehensive cookbook but there are loads on Amazon with good recipies in for very reasonable prices.

Living_proof

Please put me down for £140 for January. This is a very busy month for me with lots of extra hours to work and quite stressful, so I was all prepared with loads of ready-cooked meals in the freezer.

However, the best-laid plans of mice and men - I have a large chunk of front tooth which has shattered so can't chew anything stronger than a red kidney bean and so am very limited to what I can eat from what I have stashed away. The dentist re-opens tomorrow but I have a horrid feeling that the problem won't easily be sorted. I may have to change tack a bit now, and have decided in 2012 my GC will include alcohol and toiletries which were in previous years in separate budgets.

The Student Prince (my son) has been back for a couple of days and thought he would do a little cooking. Enter a £16 leg of lamb from M & S and £20 worth of spices, and a very good meal for three was created - he just left three-quarters of the lamb for me, which is another eight portions of (something sloppy) dinner for us. The spices went with the boy, and I hope he gets good use of them. I went wrong somewhere along the line with my kids, they both have very expensive tastes!

PennyGrabber

Managed an NSD on grocery spend, but do have £6.15 to put into my spending diary for today. We met up with friends who are moving to Australia two weeks tomorrow, and spent the afternoon at a park, then when rained on, at my house. We bought hot chocolate, and the children had a toy from a coin thing each. This means I've spent nothing so far this year on groceries, and an average of £3.07.5 per day on stuff. I'm really pleased with how well I've started, and I mean to carry this on! My big positive for the day - nothing to do with groceries I'm afraid, but I just HAD to share it! I was telling my friend about the little book of positives, and she said that I'm the happiest person she knows!! That is such a compliment, as she has known me through some pretty bad times. Woop woop!!!

My menu plan has changed a little for the week - we're not having hedgehogs on Thursday now, we're having fish and chips with my Aus friends, as a kind of last supper. That's ok though, as it's £5.10 for a large chips, a jumbo sausage, a fishcake and a piece of cod. Tastes great too!

Off to portion up the rest of the soup to put into the freezer, and make the packups for tomorrow. Oh the joys... !!

PG x

ModestyB

Spent first lot out of my budget today. DH bought veg and cucumber for £1.50 from Mr M and I spent £17.27 on a 4bird roast a 4.8kg turkey and a bottle of vinegar from Ald!. The turkey was priced as 9.99 on the freezer but went thorough the till at 6.99. As it will give us at least 20 meals I think it's a fantastic bargain. The 4BR has been put up for Easter.
So total food spend today £18.77.

oliviarosejackson

First spends of the month today, £33 spent today and that is it for the week now. I really do need to rain in my spending though, as I still spent more that I was planning to and didn't get that much.

£167 left to spend. Shouldn't do too badly as I am stocked up on cleaning items and nappies. And we still have lots of chocolate and sweets to eat from xmas.

Anyone have any tips of how to curb the spending???

Juliann

Hi everybody.

Just had a rather bizarre experience, walked down to see a friend who lives about a 15 minute walk away and almost next door to a Tesco Express so popped in after leaving her for a couple of bottles of lemonade, the staff were busy doing the final reductions so after just over an hour stood chatting and laughing with the lady and young man walked out with £64 worth of meat, fresh veg and conveinience meals for £7, am now wondering if I can get there for around 4:30 again though not until next week at the earliest as I already had a load left over from Christmas and the freezer is now complaining it is stuffed.:)