May 2012 Grocery Challenge

tessie_bear

hi..not planning any spending today but they are famous last words here....planning to use up the last of the lamb today for tea and i think the kids will have some chicken as they arent that keen on lamb....not got much planned for the weekend so might do a roast dinner at some point as i will have the time to cook it

plan to tidy the cupboards and do a list of the food we have in to aid the planning of meals as i forget what i want to use....i have done this before and forget to cross things off as i use them so its not worth the bother ...noe to self need to be more organised

take care tess

abitofhelp

tjak wrote: »

Well, I was paid today so am ready to declare my month at £197/£200.
I am so proud of myself because the previous two months were way over (and that was against a higher budget).
We have meal planned really carefully and stuck to it, and have shopped at Lidl instead of Tesco. I did an online shop from Asda which arrived today so that goes into June's budget, and I am determined to stick with the programme for June too.

I have proved to myself it can be done, however impossible it feels. I don't have any access to YS or markets as we live so rurally, and I am always jealous when I see the amazing prices you can pick things up on YS.

Keep going, and thank you for keeping me motivated!

It really does give a feeling of satisfaction doesnt it. I overspent by £15 on my self imposed £100 limit, & i was pleased with that. It was a huge redection to what i had spent the previous month.
I live close by to a few supermarkets, mostly driving distance. It was the chasing the ys bargains making me go over budget.
And yes using Lidle, Aldi & the £ shop has really cut my spends down also.

jedi82

Morning, I have spent the past few days trying to catch up with the thread but can't so thought I would just pop in and say hi!

My monthly spend has gone up to £374.55 :eek:. It goes to show how adding in the beer etc at the weekend brings it up and how much money is spent there! I am going to try so hard to keep it as low a poss but we have my sister coming down next weekend...

TBH it got me a bit down earlier in the week as am being so good by cooking from scratch, using all leftovers etc but just got to remain positive.

On another note re: leftover cornflakes. I make HM chicken nuggets with chicken, covered in mayonnaise and then rolled in bashed up cornflakes and then cooked. Sounds a bit odd but is actually yummy (well, that's what my kiddies tell me!)

Have a nice day xxx

Aldahbra

I spent £1.49 on milk again and a whopping £7.50:eek: in the Greengrocers on packed lunch stuff.. And then I forgot to pack the gorgeous looking strawberries at £5 in their lunches. I can buy them school dinners for £4. I've got to keep out of the shops

Still they can have strawberries for tea.

jedi82

Just another quick question...I have a massive bag of onions and am going to make soup etc but i thought i read somewhere that I can cook them and freeze them? Do I simply fry them then bung them in the freezer? sorry for the silly question.

Jedi x

abitofhelp

jedi82 - if i freeze onions its done in a raw state, no need to cook. Slice or chop them but make sure they are well sealed before you freeze them.

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Hello all,
Just thoughts I'd pop in. Am loving all the pictures and great ideas.

No spending days all this week. Had my little shopping list all priced out on Wednesday for OH but he was "going to go out later" and never got there. so now the list can be greatly reduced as we're going away on Monday and we can manage without the few odd bits. We have no bread, little milk and one banana left so we do need to get a couple of fresh bits.

OH has been told the challenge starts when we're back! He's calm as he knows now I'm home most days I can really cook a lot from scratch and stretch things. But I haven't told him our budget haha!!
I'm thinking £80 for big monthly shop which will include all food, lunches for OH, drinks (little booze here as I'm pregnant and he doesn't like alcohol), toiletries, any household bits like kitchen rolls etc. am going to attempt to make gloop so will need the soap etc for that.
Then I'm thinking £15-20 weekly for bread, fruit, veg, milk and fresh things. I'm aiming for £15 but want a little leeway for the first month. Also if we see anything yummy we've a few pennies there for treats

Cat food won't come out of this budget as i buy the same stuff each month really.i might look at buying tins of cat food instead of sachets. I buy own brand ones so will look into cost difference. Does anyone use tins and those big tins they look like they would last 2 days?

For dinner tonight is salmon, veg and new pots (if OH gets some on the way home). Have loads of salmon in the freezer from when it's half price on fish counters. Have got some pasta sauce out the freezer too for tomorrow. Looking semi organised here.....for once!

NickJW

A few more small spends of £6.89 in Mr T and £1.05 in Mr S

Flatmate cooking today and Biryani planned for tomorrow.

Will need another online shop to do some bulky items soon and I'm planning to use Mr T by the 28th May so I can use a £5 off £50 spend (which is effectively free delivery)

[Deleted User]

jedi82 wrote: »

My monthly spend has gone up to £374.55 :eek:. It goes to show how adding in the beer etc at the weekend brings it up and how much money is spent there! I am going to try so hard to keep it as low a poss but we have my sister coming down next weekend...

TBH it got me a bit down earlier in the week as am being so good by cooking from scratch, using all leftovers etc but just got to remain positive.

When i first started doing the challenge, i would not include alcohol, but since including it, it makes me look at how much i am really spending. This month, as i set such a small budget, in the hope that i used up stores rather than spending, i have bought no alcohol, as i could not justify taking the money out of the food budget, not been easy for me as i like to have a glass or three at weekends. I did make some cider, which was really nice, so maybe that is the way to go for me. Oh, i have a friend coming round tomorrow, I am cooking and he is supplying the alcohol, maybe your sister can provide the odd bottle of wine if you are providng the food, i dont think its unreasonable - or am i being tight. When i had friends to stay at Easter, i increased the budget as a one off, as we were eating out.

Suffolk_lass

jedi82 wrote: »

Just another quick question...I have a massive bag of onions and am going to make soup etc but i thought i read somewhere that I can cook them and freeze them? Do I simply fry them then bung them in the freezer? sorry for the silly question.

Jedi x

I chop them, dab them over with a T-towel to remove the extra "juice" and then put them in a bag in the freezer - I do spread them out flat to freeze, otherwise I have been known to add a tennis-ball of onions to soups and stews as they weld together. Once frozen I use either from the bag or transfer to an old ice-cream box so that they are there when I'm in a hurry.

Plan B I make up the base of onion stock/soup and freeze that with the bits - also in used ice cream pots.

You don't realise how much ice cream you eat until you start using the plastic tubs for other things...

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

Cat food won't come out of this budget as i buy the same stuff each month really.i might look at buying tins of cat food instead of sachets. I buy own brand ones so will look into cost difference. Does anyone use tins and those big tins they look like they would last 2 days?

My you sound organised! - regarding cat food, big tins are fine if you can get hold of a plastic lid (petstores sell them) to stop the smell, and if your cats eat it all straight away. We are on our last tray of wet-food for ours. They are about to adopt a dry food diet for the summer until the flies have finished as they are grazers - a couple of mouthfulls and then off again and that is no good in the summer.

It was the time I found hatched maggots that changed our approach to summer cat food ...:eek:

I just bought two big bags for £10 from P-A-H. Tuna and chicken and they eat it OK.

HTH
SL