Grocery Challenge - February 2012

Crowdpleaser

Had to add £2.50 on for milk at the corner shop last night. Grrr to DP who tells me we are nearly out on the last dribble (i dont monitor enough as I do soya LL). Oh well.

Dinner was a hit tonight. Had a ready rolled puff pastry in the freezer for ages so I dug that out, plonked tom puree, mushrroms, courgettes, ham and cheese on and threw it in the oven to make 'pizza', served with garlic bread and chips. Kids adored! I cant eat tomatoes, dairy or yeast so made myself a yeast free pizza base with olive oil, mushrooms and courgettes on, was nice enough when you crave stuff like pizza but can't have.

Anyway, have meal planned for next week, shopping comes Monday and then we are on to the final week of my month and will be eating the dregs out the freezer!

Oh DP made me laugh today. He said Tuesday was my last chance for 4 years. I said for what and he said to propose to me as ladies can only do on leap years. I told him to jog on. We've been together 8 years and I can't see us ever getting married. I didnt have the heart to tell him that I had totally forgotten about valentines day LOL!

xxx

prepareathome

Just popping in to say still here and still within my little budget for the month - not bought anything since Tuesday which was milk and should not need to buy anything else till at least next Tuesday again milk and if they have it some of the food my youngest dog has, I still have enough for another week, but they don't always have it in so I buy it when I see it. Freezer and cupboards are still pretty full so unless something dire happens we should comfortablely get through this month. I did a nice joint of beef in SC today and we had half tonight with mash, veg and gravy and will have the other half tomorrow, just now sure in what way - might do a nice roast dinner as will be easier to slice after being in fridge all night. We are eating well and apart from not to much fresh fruit ( but plenty in freezer and tins) we are doing well. To be honest I just didn't realise how much I had in, I wish I could do this all the time, but sadly as I use up my stock I will have to replace it and I will do so, at least I know now so long as I always ensure I have a good stock in we can get through bad months, so long as they don't happen one after the other. I certainly wouldn't like to have to feed even the two of us on only £35.00 so next month will have about £100 left after bills so should be able to do a bit of restocking as from April income will be down again.

Not bad I have had 9 NSD out of 11 days in the month, amazing what you can do if you must, bill money is staying in bank for bills. It is hard going into SM to pick up milk and turn a blind eye at everything else but needs must and I did it.

I am thinking of taking the plunge and selling so bits on ebay and Amazon. While I was smoking I thought I could not sell anything not fair to buyers, but now I have stopped at least things will not be sent out with aroma of tobacco smoke around them. I know there is a thread(s) on here about selling things so will go and explore to get some tips.

angelatgraceland

I did a big shop in Mr T on Thursday which has refilled my cupboards-didnt really need to visit Mr T but was lured in by the vouchers they sent me. However, my £68 shop was reduced to £59 or thereabouts with the vouchers si ?I did feel it was worth it. I treated us to some very nice reduced steaks which were half price at £3.59 per pack-rather extravagent for me! went to Asda then and got a couple of bits Mr T didnt have and a pair of jeans for hubby as his are all ragged as well as being to big for him now.
Not buying any clothes for myself until ~I lose some weight! (So I will be in rags for years EEK!)
Just need to update my totals now but I am still well on track. I need to adjust to buying less though due to DD moving out and DH not having a normal appetite-also DS not eating much at home. Unfortunately DS no longer has a job-so here we go again! DD2 dropped college course so 2 of them will be officialy joining the jobless next week! DD2 is 18 tomorrow so all my "kids" now adults(hahahahaha)rather dependant adults unfortunately.

tigerfeet2006

Welcome aboard the good ship GC, Loveatnight. There is a good bunch of folk on here and I am sure you will settle in fine. Don't be shy about posting on this thread even if you are not officially joining us until March.

tigerfeet2006

Just giving Spiggles excellent post a little bump!

Spiggle wrote: »

OOOh, lovely new thread! :T

Thanks Zippy, rosieben and helen jelly for their sterling work keeping us all on the right track. :A:T:A:T:A

I'm posting the following now so it is near the front of the thread for newbies joining this month. Helen, please would you change the post number in your list post to match this one please?

Welcome and good luck to our newbies! And good luck to everyone of course!

I'm not sure if the following will help any of you but here goes anyway ...

I hope my fellow regulars won't mind me posting this again but it may be of some help to all the enthusiastic and excited people joining us. I believe it has helped others in the past. So here goes:

We all have different budgets that suit our households. The most important thing to remember is that you set yours according to your needs and finances. It can take time to get to where you want to be too so don't knock yourself out if you go over in the first few months. We are here to support each other and it is not a competition.

I thought it might help to outline where we've come from and the top tips I've learned.

When we started in March 2010 we had spent in excess of £600 in the previous month. :eek: This had to stop, (there's only me and him and our two beautiful black cats) something which thankfully my OH completely agreed with so I have been lucky that he has been on board from the start. He gave me his debit card voluntarily and I still keep hold of it until he needs to get something for the home. At the same time we set up a system of pocket money (pm) at £15 each per week which doesn't count towards the GC and which we can each spend as we wish with no comebacks or complaints. OH predominantly uses his pm on his beer and I ferret mine away mostly. :rotfl:

The next step was to set up my own spreadsheet which is absolutely simple onto which I put all spends so that I have a continuous running total for the month and for the year. We initially set our budget at £280 per month and brought it down to £240 where it resides for most of the year it is occasionally increased to allow for extras e.g. Christmas to £260.

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the supermarkets (sm) try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted, ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the big four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. MrM is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br*nds 4 Less too.

Invest in a breadmaker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use on them and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for fruit and veg (f&v) than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at the same or lower price. Obvioulsy if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better healthwise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations or freeze it for another day.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

So, there you go as a starting point. Others on here will offer tremendous advice on meal planning. And don't forget, the only silly question is the one you didn't ask!

See you all later,
Spigs

gonna_get_there

Morning all another Newbie .......

Getting myself ready to join the March Challenge, always looking on here and getting some great ideas and tips 4 Adults to feed in my house, sometimes 6 when the daughter and grandaughter stay so far this month spent £161.94 done couple big shops Lidl Aldi and have lots in freeze and cupboard for at least another week, lets hope

Will set my target at £230 and see how I go and be ready for the March one.

Many thanks for all the great posts on her :T

jedi82

Morning all, it is cold here but not as cold as it seems to be in the rest of the UK. Spent £60 in L!dl yesterday. Not my most successful shop - really shouldn't have taken all three kids after soft play - very tired and naughty! But it is on the way home (16 miles away) so couldn't miss the oppotunity even if they were grumpy.

have spent 67% of budget but chest freezer is full and cupboards look good. Got 6 packs of meatballs from L!dls that were reduced to 74p each. I normally don't buy ready made meatballs as can do my own but thought this was a good bargain.

Going to try not to spend anymore money but we'll see. I have a £6off voucher from Mrt so may do one more online shop for the month and try really hard to stay within budget!

have a good sunday.

jx

hex2

Hello and good luck to the newbies

Someone mentioned looking for cheap Sheba Catfood, Amazon have 32 for £9.59 here

I cracked and bought an on offer half price leg of lamb in the co-op (£5.49 kg midlands) yesterday. Not had lamb for ages so really looking forward to it. Planning on doing the full works including yorkshires and making a lemon meringue pie too. Boys are on half term this week so I 'need' to make them a chocolate cake for daddy daycare snacks. Good job the hens are obliging at the moment.

DH bought some 29p seaweed sheets in H&B, and had a giggle making vaguely sushi yesterday. Cheap enough with value rice made sticky, and then we caried between cucumber, spring onion or RTC prawns.

Ninno820

Morning all - I need to add 55p for a pack of rolos yesterday at the theatre.

Today will be another NSD - church and then home in the warm. The white stuff is melting but the rain is coming down and it has that miserable overcast feeling. Think that I'll stick to walking the dogs and then hunker down.

Dinner tonight is whoopsied liver from the freezer - 29p for 400g. I know that liver is not everyone's taste but I like it fried off with mashed potato - yumm

Lovethenight

Thanks for all the welcomes and good advice!:beer:

Going to spend today cooking to stock up freezer for next month. DH can't eat ready meals or much processed food (tummy issues), so I tend to bulk cook and freezer for quick dinners on work nights.

Today I'm making my own individual lasagne portions in those foil containers you get from the supermarket. That way I can take one out in the morning before work, they defrost by the time I get home and I can chuck them in the oven when I get in to heat through. Also doing quorn bolognese and DH is doing bean chilli, so we should be well stocked!

Got a meal plan until payday when the new budget will kick in

Spent over £100 between Horrorsons and Aldee yesterday:eek:
Am determined not to waste any of it!

One good thing though - Horrorsons have Philly cheese 300g tubs at half price - 99p each. I downloaded the "£1 off a 200g tub" voucher from the philly website and the checkout lady accepted it! Free philly and and extra 1p off the bill ha ha!! :T

Right - time to cook. Have a great sunday all

Love The Night