March 2012 Grocery Challenge

sprozza

Hi just popping in to set my budget of £200 for march. We went over budget by £9.23 for feb but I have been more organised and done a meal plan for this month so quite confident we can stay within our budget.

angelavdavis

Tonights dinner was HM chicken and veg pie with rough puff pastry topping, veg bake (creamed leeks, brocolli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts) from leftover veggies from Sunday roast and saut!ed leftover roast potatoes/parsnips. Very tasty and nothing left!

No shopping needed today. Am not expecting to need to shop tomorrow either as dinner will be out of the freezer.

nicknack

Hi all,

Spent £3.96 in Aldi tonight, including a pack of their 49p seasonal salad which is an absolute bargain - thank you to whoever it was mentioned it on here. Just had some of it for tea with HM lasagne and was very impressed with it.

Before I started lurking on this thread I was beginning to dread going into Tesc0 as I'd pop in for a loaf of bread and come out £20 lighter, but thanks to all of you I am now going to Ald! and Lid! and only buying what I need in Tesc0 and my purse is seeing the benefit!

Have a good evening everyone.:)

meg72

cattysmum wrote: »

Hi there, Im thinking of changing my spending strategy, what I normally do is when I shop I put everything on my debit card but this month I have decided to take an amount each week out of the bank so yesterday I took out £50 for a shop at Tescos which after multibuys,coupon use and Mocs got my shop down from £68 down to £23, I will be buying OH fish and chips on Thursday which will take my spend up to £27.80 leaving me with £22.20 which I will spin out until next Monday and if I have any left am going to start a second purse, which Iv been wanting to do for a while. What does everyone else do and which works best Cash or debit card grocery shopping??

Deffintely cash for me,when I used my card I would often forget how much I had spent,lose receipts and get in a muddle. Now the cash goes into a separate purse,so I know to the penny what I have spent.I also findit makes me think twice when I see it going down too quick.

rising_from_the_ashes

JIL wrote: »

My dh does not like fruit with his veg, and fruit and salad should not be on the same plate.

Ohhhhhh totally agree - sensible DH you've got there!:D

urrrrrr all those wee salad tubs with *stuff* in ....:rotfl:

XSpender

Now up to £246.24 after a cheeky chippy tea tonight. That leaves me £113.76 for 15 days.:cool:

Now the thing is I only need to get squash, fruit, beer/wine, milk, a small amount of lunch stuff and some salad stuff and maybe something to make a pudding with for DM & DSD visit on Saturday at the weekend. We have tons of food in and I have the ingredients for a pasta bake and GB for the visitors.

What are the chances of me sticking to this list? Whadda you mean not very? You know me so well:rotfl:

I am really determined to stick to our family budget in all areas this year and the GC is one area I always overspend in. Maybe this is the month I finally crack it!:D

NickJW

Hi All

Another spend this evening in Mr T. I went on Mysupermarket before though, made my list and printed it off. I noticed when shopping that a lot of offers were out of stock, but I managed to find cheaper own brand labels hidden on the bottom or top shelves as replacements so I guess it was 1-0 to me in the end!

So all bar one item from my list except some were different variations.

They didn't have any green lentils. I asked an assistant and he said someone else asked him about that a few days ago but he thinks they don't sell them anymore. I said it was on-line, and he said the other customer said the same thing. If they have had complaints before why don't they stock them? This is one of their large Extra stores so no excuse!!!

However, I feel that I got a lot for my money this time - chicken thighs, king prawns x 2, bacon, sausages, mouthwash x2, shower gel x 2, toothpaste, deodorant, ibuprofen, cheddar cheese, basmati rice, olives, chilli beans, watercress, carrots, stir fry veg, Special K (well Mr T own brand) and.....Carte D'Or on offer!

Total spend was £33.02. I had a £6 off £30 spend so £27.02 in total to add.

I'm happy with that, but the stock control as others have mentioned is appalling. In addition it took me longer ensuring that I stuck to my total because it felt like Mr T was trying every trick in the book to screw me over. I 'won', but gosh - supermarket shopping shouldn't have to feel like a fight! :mad:

I hope everybody is doing well today

JIL

elsiepac wrote: »

After I've made the Cheap Family Recipes Onion and Potato Soup for lunch for the next 4 days tomorrow, I will still have 1/3 pack frozen bacon so actually this recipe could be a good one. I will have a search too, thank you once again! Found my inspiration! :T




LC

I think I have found it, but this is savoy cabbage,

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10929/galette-au-chou

http://www.justbestrecipes.com/hot-drink/cabbage-galette.html

Theres a few variations as well if you google Cabbage galette. I just remembered lots of people trying it and saying how nice it was.

Kylieminoag

cattysmum wrote: »

What does everyone else do and which works best Cash or debit card grocery shopping??

I used to do debit card but kept losing track so do cash now -

I take the months allowance and keep it in my purse... seeing it makes me realise how little I have..... and stops me from blowing it in one go.:o

HTH

angelatgraceland

zepsgal wrote: »

Damn it, forgot to get those receipts for the weekend......

Well, last night I realised I 'couldn't' make a dinner without tinned tomatoes. Took the dog a walk to the local shop, got three tins of toms (49p each), tube of tom puree for 99p and a pack of veg stock cubes for 89p, total spend £3.35. Resisted the urge to buy a scratchcard, crisps and chocolate :j

I need to come up with more recipes that don't include tinned tomatoes, surely I can do that??

Well tinned toms is something I tend to bulk buy. I often buy 6 or 8 tins of them as they are just so useful! Your puree was a bit pricey tho-I buy a couple of tubes at approx 40p each so stock up on them when you see them. DD makes her own spicy salsa with tinned toms so that was another tin today! NSD for me but I will do a topup tomorrow.
Someone mentioned knitting socks earlier-that is exactly what I am starting now. I plan to knit a pair a month until September-then Ive got my winter socks! I am b eing brave though and creating my own pattern!(or mad)as I want to knit them on 2 ordinary needles(not double ended) and cant find a pattern I've done about a third of one sock tonght so very pleased so far.
Ive got a pair of hand made ones to copy so I will figure it out and I am writing it down as I go. If its sucessfaul and anyone else wants to try my pattern do pm me but I will finish the first pair before I pass it on!