March 2012 Grocery Challenge

nicknack

Morning all

Made Aloo Gobhi for tea last night and as the oven was on I thought what else could I put in there, so made the weetabix brownies - yum yum, will be making those again!

Weekly shop day today, so will report back later how much I spend.

lilyjune

Hello :wave:

I just wanted to come out of my lurking position and say hello, totally in awe of all you people who work so hard at your menu planners and grocery budgeting. I need to give myself a kick up the proverbial bac*side so will keep watching for the rest of this month and then give myself a challenge for April.

Currently, not really got a handle on how much we spend, suspect it's quite a lot with nothing to show for it so until the end of the month, I'm going through my receipts to work out how much we spend on average per month and will use that amount for April. Will sign in again on the April thread but in the meantime, good luck everyone!! :j

sistercas

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Thought I better check the loo roll stash .... haven't bought any since September and - I'm down to around 70:eek:

:rotfl::rotfl:

nipped into the local c00p on the way to taking DD1 to school, picked up 2 big chickens , whoopsied to half price (£3.15) and some sausages for a £1 instead of £3 the chooks were on my shopping list for sainsbugs 2 for £10 so a great saving there :j
going shopping later , got my list ready for @ldi , sainsbugs and t3sco . I have meal planned for the week

sistercas

can i ask , those of you using @pproved foods and rossp@ can you have a time slot for delivery or is it a case of not knowing when its coming ?
just thinking it would be awkward if they delivered when i was at work

raphanius

Barbeduk wrote: »

Could I just say how lovely it is now that the cupboards are getting emptier? I can see what's in them for the first time in ages! And tins don't keep falling out!

great isnt it, i have a tidy work surface for the first time in ages because its not crammed with jars and packets that wouldnt fit in my overflowing cupboards.

i'm doing better this month so have treated us to a large veg box this week that will see us through to the end of the month.

tjak

Today I have sat down and menu planned with what I have in for the while of next week, including weekend lunches. I had to go and get a couple of things, but managed to spend just £10 (£4.30 on rhubarb to make a special mothers day dessert).

I have just made two tray bake Spiced Marmalade cakes, which has used up the end of a jar of hm marmalade from the back of the fridge. I also made some red pepper hummus (jar of grilled peppers from holiday in france last year, chickpeas from freezer, last spoonful of tahini in the jar) which I am having for lunch and have enough for a few lunches next week.

so meal plan as follows:
Fri eve: grilled mackeral, ys kale, potatoes
Sat am: pancakes with bacon and maple syrup
Sat lunch: Courgette pilau
Sat eve: Fennel risotto
Sun am: Mushrooms on toast
Sun lunch: HM Fish pie, savoy cabbage; Rhubarb clafouti with ice cream
Sun eve: Cheese on toast
Mon: Baked potatoes and beans
Tues: Veg chilli from freezer and wraps
Making cornish veg pasties
Weds: Butterbean and chorizo SC stew
Thurs: Potato cakes and halloumi
Fri: Hm pizza with tuna, chilli and onion
Sat: Duck broth from freezer with noodles
Sun: Spaghetti Putanesca

Hope that helps with ideas too...
Have a good weekend all, I'll report how I get on

sonastin

Couldn't keep up with the Feb GC and March started off even busier so didn't even get round to joining this month even though I'm still trying to keep to my £200 spend.

Lordy this month is going slowly. Can't believe that there's still 2 full weeks to go! Can't blame it on Feb being a short month because it wasn't that much shorter this year. Groceries are kinda on track at £126.44 / £200 but its all the other budgets that seem to be maxing out early this month. OK so I've managed to keep petrol down to only 1 tank so far so might get away with one tank less than usual this month but tax and MOT are due by the end of the month. Eating out and holiday budgets were hammered by a weekend in London at the beginning of March so that pot has been bare for a fortnight with another 2 weeks to go.

I reckon I've got enough food in to get through to the end of next week and maybe some of the week after but I'm in such a CBA mood at the moment when it comes to cooking. Might have to rob some grocery spend for a cheeky takeaway but I daren't in case there isn't enough to get to the end of the month after all. I managed to keep Jan and Feb under budget by pennies and I'd hate to spoil March for a moment of weakness. But I'm so sick of cooking in my teeny wee kitchen!

MunniMuncha

sistercas wrote: »

can i ask , those of you using @pproved foods and rossp@ can you have a time slot for delivery or is it a case of not knowing when its coming ?
just thinking it would be awkward if they delivered when i was at work

Hi Sistercas - I have only ordered from AF once and they let you know when the delivery has been dispatched (usually the day before delivery). In the morning I got a text stating what time it would be delivered within an hour slot - ie, 3.35pm - 4.35pm. If this is not convenient you text them back with another day (3 days forward to choose from), but you can also give them an alternative of where to leave your package (round the back, with a neighbour etc). I was quite impressed by the delivery service and couldn't make the first date and time they gave me, so arranged for it to be delivered the next day - simples!:D HTH

DundeeDoll

raphanius wrote: »

great isnt it, i have a tidy work surface for the first time in ages because its not crammed with jars and packets that wouldnt fit in my overflowing cupboards. .

After 2.5 months i am slowly starting to see hints of organisedness and yes it's great. I' also noticing food seems to last longer, not sure why. I suspect down to menu planning, cos it's certainly not due to buying more. Mind you, have been doing a wee bit of cake making using up things lurking in cupboards so that's eeked out the munch. Also hid 2/3 of 24 cans of irn bru. Will put out a few more saturday. DS has no ide and of course eating my way through paninis left over vrom wednesday's seminar at work (they were going to be thrown away. Now in my feezer, take one out per morning and into panini press at lunch time :T)

mi_jardin

I spent £2.98 today on 2 bottles of tonic, one bottle of YS lemonade, pears and lambs kidneys. That leaves me with £19.36 for the last week of my month (payday on Friday). Its a bit less than I would like, but definately ok.
Have a thrifty weekend peeps!