Grocery Challenge - February 2012

tigerfeet2006

Appr0ved Foods order arrived and put away. Mainly stuff for lunch box's, treats and breakfast stuff. Got tons of stuff which will last for months. So that's another £35 to add to my total.

CompBunny

meg72 wrote: »

Lovely post and I think sums up the spirit of this thread to a tee. Lovely warm caring people who dont judge or critisise,just share their thoughts in a supportive manner andgo all out to advisewhenthey can. It means a great deal to me,now I am alone ,to come on here and talk.Sometimes if I dont go out I dont see another human being for days.

Awwww I love this site We really are all in this together :A

Ninno820

meg72 wrote: »

Lovely post and I think sums up the spirit of this thread to a tee. Lovely warm caring people who dont judge or critisise,just share their thoughts in a supportive manner andgo all out to advisewhenthey can. It means a great deal to me,now I am alone ,to come on here and talk.Sometimes if I dont go out I dont see another human being for days.

Hear hear:beer:
Have just popped Twinks hob nobs into the oven - half term is REALLY bad for the hips!

tigerfeet2006

Some brilliant posts ladies, you are all fantastic :T

cleggie

Oh guys, you are making my eyes water a bit

Thanks so much for the support. am going to sit down with a glass of wine this evening and some paper and a pen, and write down all the fab tips at the start of the thread.

sistercas

LittleMissHappy wrote: »

Mr T sell haloumi I love it too

ooh thankyou i will look out for it

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

When you put the roll on the holder give it a squash so that it does not roll smoothly on the holder so it is not so easy to to pull off reams.

thankyou , i used to do that but somehow ive forgotten and stopped doing it :doh:

spent more than i wanted to in c0stc0 , but did buy a mothers day present for my mum though , but the girls were pestering for some pineapple and i caved
also picked up some wash powder and fabric conditioner from JTF - will update my sig as soon as i can find the receipts

raphanius

Spiggle wrote: »

This is a really hard thing to say cleggie but shopping really really isn't a leisure activity!

i have overspent too and am trying to figure out my pitfalls. i think you hit the nail on the head here spiggle. i was nattering to my neighbour on the doorstep yesterday and she said 'not going to town today?' i usually go to town on a monday. i shook my head, sighed and said i might go for a 'wander' round Mr T later and then she offered me a lift so it was a done deal. all i really needed was bread and i came back with loads of stuff i bought with moc's off here. all bargains but another spend all the same.

i have also just looked at my meal plan for the month and out of 20 recipes i have ticked off 4 and that includes today and tomorrow's chilli! i dont even remember what we ate instead.

rising_from_the_ashes

coldcazzie wrote: »

I also suffer from feeling compelled to overstock, although I admit not to the extreme. Having spent a long time having an incredibly small food budget and having to walk around with a calculator each week to make sure I didn't over spend, I now find it difficult to not buy extra just to make sure we don't run out.
I always make sure I've got a new packet of things in stock - flour, sugar, pasta, teabags.
I find it very difficult to run what we have right down to nothingness, it makes me feel supremely uncomfortable to open the freezer for example and see it empty (eta: my perception of empty = not full to bursting), even if I know in my head that there's at least a week's worth of meals in there.

cleggie wrote: »

2-Someone else earlier in the thread mentioned about the fact that for a while, they couldnt spend money on luxuries such as clothes, so they would overspend (unintentionally) on the food bill, since everyone HAS to buy food. I think this is the case for me, the fact that i have easily given up overspending on clothes/make up etc so think i can make up for it by spending on food.

I think both the above apply to me .... I grew up in the middle of nowhere (literally) and we were frequently cut off for weeks in the winter and ended up eating the same staples over and over (but at least we did eat).

Then I got really into debt and the SM replaced the clothes, make up (and handbags .... lots and lots of handbags:o) as it was the only shop I could justify visiting.

I've noticed that since I've moved back to the country I've become quite bad at overstocking again, so I don't know if that goes back to the childhood memories of the same meal again & again!

However, I do think cost also plays a part in this - if I have to buy the cats food locally, it works out at £8.50 / cat / month but, buying online, I've reduced this to £3.50 / cat / month ... a substantial difference - so I always make sure I've loads in case we're cut off again like last year.

It's something I do need to work on but there is a threat of redundancy atm so I'd rather have large stocks to fall back on in case the worst does happen (one less thing to worry about for a few weeks).

Touch wood it doesn't and I'll be working on my overstocking problems then!:)

Trying to just get "bits" as I need them - I got a £7 off £50 spend for Mr T which is valid until the 26th. That's quite a lot for me to spend in one go so trying to hold off on as many things as poss until nearer then.

JIL

sistercas wrote: »

i am also going to pick up some haloumi , its my favourite cheese and i dont know anywhere else that does it

They sell halloumi in LIdl or at least they did last week.
I buy this as its cheaper (£1.58) and just the same, Morrisoons does a chilli one.
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/asda-compare-prices/cheese/levanto_mediterranean_style_grilling_cheese_200g.html

DundeeDoll

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

I'm rubbish at this - went over budget by £100 last month although partly this was because of bulk deals and two birthdays (so baking stuff required). Hoping this month will be better, especially as we're away for part of it.

I always feel as if I'm not buying enough food and it's easy to blow the budget just buying a few bits of meat. OH, whilst realises that we should cut costs, is very fussy about brands so won't go down to the value brands, and also complains about scrimping e.g. I always take grapes and strawberries to work - no I won't just take a banana. At least this week he brought the cheaper juice and said if he liked the taste he'd buy that instead of the really expensive one

Oy stop putting yourself down:) think of it as the first rung of a ladder. Mistakes are only mistakes if we dont learn from them. Perhaps your aim was too low? Cut down a bit at a time was advice i read here and very good advice too. :grouphug: