March 2012 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

Just got back from Waitflower with my week's shopping for under £40 for 3 of us (used to be IRO £100-140) and have meal planned for the week, shopping only for the ingredients I needed, plus fruit, milk, juice and some veg, and fresh pasta.
I also spoke to the two men with the sticker gun who were about to leave the meat and fish area and asked about some marinated prawns with a short date - one was reluctant but the other one said he'd check if his machine would do it and I got them for £2.19 for large fresh prawns - I'm happy (now in the freezer). I tried to plan the meals to provide leftovers for the days DS goes to college so he can take them for lunch. Starting tonight we will be having:

Chicken curry with curried butternut squash and rice
Chilli
Duck Legs, roast potatoes, sweet potato, peas and carrots
sausages (chipolatas) mash and broccoli and carrots
macaroni cheese
fresh pasta and tomato sauce
pot luck - maybe omelette, maybe a bargain
Out? Late birthday dinner/break up celebration

Suffolk_lass

:jNot strictly GC for most of us but anyone considering shoe buying; until close of business Sunday - Brant*no are giving a £10 of voucher if you take in an old pair to scrap - I took in two pairs and was going to buy two pairs but DS joined me and there were some £65 Sketchers Boots on Manager's special down to £30 so I got him them for £20 instead and just the very smelly ones I can't bear to wear again were replaced.

Next week they are starting a 20% off for anyone over 60, with a coffee morning to launch it on 25th.
HTH

LavenderBees

Living_proof wrote: »

Well done with your Wrights purchases. I am tempted but could really do without cake and have enough bread mixes for a while.

BUT bear in mind that if you save the pdf, you can print off vouchers as & when you want them, and they are valid til 31/12/2012...a whopping 8 months away :T

Eta - I woz robbed..the checkout lady only put through 13 vouchers for my 14 mixes yet I know I gave her 14(I've just checked the receipt), so my full price one is currently being kneaded in the BM. Still, mustn't be churlish, must I? Hmmmm.....will probably do another hit & run in a few weeks time on this one

angelatgraceland

LavenderBees wrote: »

BUT bear in mind that if you save the pdf, you can print off vouchers as & when you want them, and they are valid til 31/12/2012...a whopping 8 months away :T

Eta - I woz robbed..the checkout lady only put through 13 vouchers for my 14 mixes yet I know I gave her 14(I've just checked the receipt), so my full price one is currently being kneaded in the BM. Still, mustn't be churlish, must I? Hmmmm.....will probably do another hit & run in a few weeks time on this one

Now me wonders how you know it was the full price one?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Sure you aren't going to return one for a refund? Oh dear-I do get worse as the years roll by!:D

LavenderBees

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Now me wonders how you know it was the full price one?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Sure you aren't going to return one for a refund? Oh dear-I do get worse as the years roll by!:D

Aye, don't worry, I think we're all the same :rotfl:. I felt really p'd off when I realised what she'd done, but then got a grip of myself. I can afford 80p...:rotfl:. I've saved a fortune today though AND avoided the payday big shop. I'm learning...:T

Spiggle

Hello everyone, :hello:

I hang my head in shame at being MIA for so long. It's that ISA time of year again and I've been deep in the savings threads and on the MFW2012 thread when I have had time to get on the forum. Please may I be forgiven?

Hugs to everyone who wants or needs one. I really won't be able to go back and read through the thread now.

So, a week to the end of the month for us and we have just over £35 left in the budget. It should be doable. Again we haven't managed to get a good number of NSD but any is better than none!

The excitement is building here 'cos we're off on hols for a week in the sun (hopefully) in Spain a week on Sunday. :dance: OH has been counting down for ages but I refused to get with the game until we were well into March. Now I find I'm wishing my life away, which became patently obvious in work this week when I started talking about attending next week's appointments this week. I think my colleagues though I'd lost it a bit! :rotfl:

Been to the dentist this morning and now have a very achy jaw. And I have to go back again in three weeks, yuck. The car got serviced today and it's MOT is sorted too. We seem to have been heamorrhaging (sp?) money recently - holiday, holiday insurance :eek:, car tax, dentist fees, service, MOT and wiper blades at £50 for the set! :mad::eek::mad: I thank my lucky stars I discovered piggy banking. :think:

Oh, and of course since I've been away from the thread Wales won the six nations with a grand slam which was somewhat pleasing (did I underplay that too much?!?)! :rotfl:

I really hope you are all well and keeping strong in beating the sm at their games! Certainly it appears so from the last two pages, nice one on the bread mixes LavenderBees! :money:

Hmmm, I can smell my lovely cauli cheese supper and am starting to :drool:, not very attractive! And when I say 'my' cauli cheese I mean mine to eat 'cos as usual my lovely OH actually made it. :whistle:

Right I'm going to see how best to eat it, so do take care everyone, keep those purses shut and enjoy the downward slide to the end of the month. :cool:

All the best,
Spigs

lula_moneybaggins

A combination of my employer moving the date we get paid (without telling us I might add!) and a total loss of understanding over what I was spending when, has led to the following:

• A monthly grocery shop of £96.79 - which is actually quite good considering my budget was £120, right?
• An additional £87.70 spent on eating out. Oh. Darn it.

That has busted my budget so I've got some work to do in April! Setting my budget again at £120 and will update in sig. Also, I think my loss of focus is partly because I haven't be reading this forum quite so much (which was probably because I was eating out...!!).



Hope everyone is doing better than I am!

NickJW

An extra £4.70 spend at Mr S today.

I've decided that I'm going to get the online shop delivered next week. These constant 'top up' shops are getting ridiculous :mad:.

meg72

A spend of £17.57 yesterday mainly on whoopsies
when I checked my receipt I discovered that I had been charged
full price £2.43 for a reduced 75p weight watchers meal so had £1.72
returned and £2 gift card. So spenddown to £13.85.

WelshWoofer

Just back from the weekly shop, split between Mr S, Aldi and the local greengrocers. Managed to spend a total of £31.50.
Its taken me about a fiver over budget for the month but I had set a tough budget (for me) of £100 so not too bad really.

I'm starting a healthy eating campaign today in the hope of losing half a stone or so and hence the food shop was mainly fresh F&V and fridge stuff, stocking up on veggie stuff for the freezer and a few toiletries.
It will last me through to next week when the April budget starts.
Will have to have a think about how much that will be - it includes 2 weeks off work and Easter and visitors so will take a bit of working out,
Good luck to those still going with the March battle.