March 2012 Grocery Challenge

ModestyB

Evening all. We were lucky enough to be in the village when the butcher started his Saturday sell off. He loads metal trays full with all sorts of meat and sells them at £12 a go. I got a whole chicken, gammon joint, mince, chicken breast and legs, pork chops, steak and I don't know what else. Glad my DD was picking us up in the car.
We'd just come from Mr S where we'd nipped in to use the loo and to buy a cheap jar of marmalade. Came out after spending a grand total of 30p. :rotfl:
Had been a bit naughty in HB though with a few cakes, jelly babies, vimto and dog treats. £6.65 and a pot of jam from b&m 59p.
Just realised I've added too much to my sig. Better go and alter it.
BTW, is it just me or is anyone else having trouble changing their avatar?

Hugs to all.

angelatgraceland

elsiepac wrote: »

That was me! It's the mince or the chicken style pieces.

I thought it would be a massively popular offer, but my L1d! had a whole freezer full! I wish I had more space on my freezer shelf so I could have stocked up, I don't usually buy it as I'm too stingy!!! :rotfl:

LC

Hi Thanks!
I did get a couple of packets-restricted myself though as I want to run the freezer down! Th freezer in lidl was fairly empty-maybe about 20-3- pack at the bottom! I do buy it even full price as I find it goes a long way up by mince as there is no drain off or waste.I got lots of fruit in Mr M pears apples and mandarins at 50p per pack and the mandarins are delicious seet and juicy. Also got some lovely seeded half baguetteres in Greggs a bag of 6 for about £1.18 so a lot cheaper than the filled version. I got some cold meat offcuts in Mr m-at 59p per 100g-not great qualitywise up by previous offcuts but I had 500g as its still cheap and cheerful. I resisted the chickens in Lidl which were great value-a large one for £3.99 or a medioum F/R one for £4.49. Ive got 2 or 3 chooks in the freezer so again I stopped myself! I did buy some of their coffee-200g for £1.45 called Blue eclipse. I also stocked up on the passata which they also have in 500ml tubs on offer for 29p so they worked out a penny cheaper than the big ones-got 8 of those-figured Ive now got a choice of sizes depending what I am cooking. I still have nofat teabread fruit soaking in my fridge and dry in gredients on my worktop as I didnt get time to do it. Too tired after work tonight to do it so its a must for tomorrow morning. Just getting a chook out of the freezer now for Sunday lunch!;)

sistercas

hoping for a NSD today in fact hoping for a better than NSD as we were taking DD1 to look at a university which was miles away , now as she has made her decision to which one she would like to go to she says she doesnt need to goand look at this one , so that has saved a fair bit in petrol and snacks

going to plant some seeds this morning and get them going on the windowsill , not sure what seeds ive got to be honest , i need to sort them out

will dig some sausages out of the freezer for lunch and do roast parsnips and veggies

tessie_bear

hi...the sun is shining here...might do a bit of gardening ....got a spag bol from yesterday for lunch and a bit of living salad...i have list of meals sorted for next week and a small shopping list for aldi tomorrow

did a bit of baking yesterday in the shape of a key lime pie...some stewed plums for a crumble and the spag bol...thats boiling not baking so we have a few things in as my granny used to say

take care tess

jeanniefaethecarse

I'm fairly new to budgeting, and am not the best with figures, so I've got myself in a bit of a fankle, and wondered if someone could give me some advice.
I have my weekly food budget set out and by and large manage to stick to it, with great thankfulness towards this thread and the site as a whole!
What throws me off though, is when there are offers on, or I buy things from approved foods, (in huge quantities-I shouldn't be let loose on that site) which are going to last for weeks... cous cous anyone
How do I aggregate that out over the weeks, as it were?
Do I just take, say x packets of tea bought on special offer on week 1 and take the money off weeks two three and four, while paying back the money spent into week one?
How do other people do it?

weeclick

Hi If its not too late I would love to join?

Up until this weekend I would spend an average of £70 in SM maybe an extra £15 throughout the week at a garage and £20 on takeaways because we felt there was nothing left by the end of the week

So spending around £105 a week for 2 people not good!

I want to reduce this initially to around £70 a week and work our way down from there.

Yesterday I went to a farmers market instead of a SM and spent a total of £45 on food for the week!! (I wrote a full indepth story about my experience in my DFD if you want to read - its titled 1 Year on)

LondonDreamer

jeanniefaethecarse wrote: »

I'm fairly new to budgeting, and am not the best with figures, so I've got myself in a bit of a fankle, and wondered if someone could give me some advice.
I have my weekly food budget set out and by and large manage to stick to it, with great thankfulness towards this thread and the site as a whole!
What throws me off though, is when there are offers on, or I buy things from approved foods, (in huge quantities-I shouldn't be let loose on that site) which are going to last for weeks... cous cous anyone
How do I aggregate that out over the weeks, as it were?
Do I just take, say x packets of tea bought on special offer on week 1 and take the money off weeks two three and four, while paying back the money spent into week one?
How do other people do it?

I don't bulk buy for more than a few weeks (or 6 weeks on household stuff - serious lack of storage here!) so I just include it in my regular budget. But a lot of people use the second purse system, which is basically having a separate budget for bulk buys which you pay back from your normal shopping budget as you use them.

There's a whole big thread about it over on the shopping board which explains it more.

elsiepac

Hi everyone

I've posted on the Super 6 thread on the Bargain Buys board as well, but just wondered if anyone has been to A1d! yet and seen what the Super 6 are?

Thanks in advance!

LC

bodmin789

Well, what a busy week, just been managing to keep up with the posts, still under budget, but can't check exactly what the spends are, as the spreadsheet is on the other pc which DH has hijacked, never been one for the internet, but has discovered ebay, and now wants to sell everything we own and has a watch list of 20+ things !:rotfl::rotfl:He even sent an email the other night, which is amazing.

Anyway, the food processor has been a big hit here, and we have used it a few times already, so glad we made the investment. We tried the recipe for the baked bean lasagne, and it was delicious, so good that we made it again yesterday! I've got the fruit soaking for the fat free tea bread, another hit in our house, so thanks to whoever provided those recipes.

I love to try new things, but as we're vegetarian, it can be a bit samey sometimes, I have some great recipes but am always looking for some new ones, so if any of you have any that you can recommend that would be great!

Well better get on and do something, have a lovely Sunday

elsiepac

bodmin789 wrote: »

I love to try new things, but as we're vegetarian, it can be a bit samey sometimes, I have some great recipes but am always looking for some new ones, so if any of you have any that you can recommend that would be great!

I must say I'm thinking of going veggie again, possibly considering vegan but I think I would struggle. It will be when I get back from South Africa though as I will struggle on some days!

However, I've been checking out new recipes and found this site. Absolutely brilliant collection of recipes from the look of it - I particularly like the look of the Cauliflower, Mushroom and Millet Bake, and the Leek, Lime and Coconut Soup. I haven't even made a dent in my searching so far, but have fun!

HTH, LC