May 2012 Grocery Challenge

fozziebeartoo

Carmilla wrote: »

My month starts tomorrow and I think I've really underestimated what I will need as I've got a completely empty fridge and freezer and a box of tins, pulses and herbs, as we have just moved out of a shared house. Do you think I should up my budget now or try to stick to it but accept I will be way over it by the end of the month? Going shopping today before the month starts feels like cheating, what do you think?

If you go over budget, will you feel like you "failed" and therefore go mad and just buy whatever you fancy????

Which is what I would do............:o

If so, I would up your budget - no getting away from the fact moving IS expensive!!

However, if going over budget THIS month, will spur you on to do better NEXT month, maybe just leave it as it is???

CRANKY40

After a total fail earlier in the year to report spends and recipes, due to not being able to keep up with the threads, could I please join again? I'd like to be put down for £200 for May please. I usually manage to shop to budget, but I want to add some savings to our holiday pot.

Thanks

slbhill

Flat_Eric wrote: »

Further to my earlier post about whiteboards, how does everyone meal plan? I started a meal planning - how do you do yours ???

I have a 4 week outline (as a snazzy spreadsheet but that's cos I'm strange & like playing with spreadsheets LOL). Each Wednesday I check what's in the fridge etc. & then fill in the detail for the next week before I go to the supermarket on Thursday. I print the outline & pin it to the noticeboard in the kithen & just scribble the details on it. Well that's the plan anyway, it's not 100% but it works more often than it doesn't!

The pattern goes like this:

• Monday is casserole (some kind of meat with some kind of sauce). Using meat from the Sunday roast if we had one.
• Tues & Wed are something easy (freezer meal or pasta & sauce) as we're both out & about at various times.
• Thursday alternates between mince & sausages - the 2 things hubby is happiest cooking as he cooks while I'm at the supermarket.
• Friday is oven chips (with fish, breaded chicken or similar) as it's dead easy & we used to be very prone to Friday takeaways.
• Saturday is a bit all over the place, the theory is I try a new recipe then but haven't done that much for a while.
• Sunday - weeks 1 & 3 are a roast dinner, 2 is a rice dish & 4 is pasta bake although I shuffle them about go get roast when we're home & pasta bake when we've been away for the weekend.

I could actually do with shuffling it round a bit as with a new baby in the house routines have changed slightly. Maybe next week I'll get round to it :rotfl:

slbhill

fozziebeartoo wrote: »

Has anyone had good experiences with frozen mushrooms? I would like to have them to hand at all times but find them a bit "smelly and slimey"......maybe some brands are better than others????

Any opinions please???

I currently always use fresh......but when I go out to buy 85p's worth of fresh mushrooms from Lidl, I come back with £10 or £20's worth of other stuff too :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

The best thing to be said for frozen mushrooms is they're better than tinned ones!! I do use them sometimes but only in casseroles and suchlike, when they're a bit camouflaged. I've used Tesco & Asda ones, they're the same as far as I can tell. Mind you, I think shrooms are best eaten raw so maybe I'm not the best judge

Suffolk_lass

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Money off Coupon

Most of them are a bit of a con IMHO - eg spend £40 and then get a £5 MOC off your next £40 shop so ..... you actually need to spend £80 to get £5 off.

So, they actually encourage you to go & spend money and, yes you may get £5 off but would you usually have spent £80?

(Obviously rewards ones like CCard ones are different as you've already spent money to get them IYSWIM)

Rising - I so agree with that sentiment regarding money off coupons - they make you pay the supermarket to store their stuff in your house! :eek:

I also wanted to add that yesterday I took DS shopping to try and reinforce the lessons in economy and looking out for things on offer to vary our mealplan (as Florence was saying - and Florence does know best BTW) and we picked up crystal new potatoes (£1 for 750g) in Osda- they are the same variety as Jersey Royals but grown on the mainland - then I noticed Jersey Royals, just round on the non-offer benches - 454g bags for 50p (so an extra 158g for the same price) - so my point is, that a bargain is not always a bargain and the SM try and trick you into spending more. I write my list now, then see what is expensive and check where best to go - yesterday we needed shower stuff and Osda were 10p cheaper than Waitflower for the same stuff but the horrific zombie-like shopping experience in Osda really only taught DS he is going to order all his staples on line once a month from Waitflower because delivery is free over £50! Oh well, I tried.

Carmilla wrote: »

My month starts tomorrow and I think I've really underestimated what I will need as I've got a completely empty fridge and freezer and a box of tins, pulses and herbs, as we have just moved out of a shared house. Do you think I should up my budget now or try to stick to it but accept I will be way over it by the end of the month? Going shopping today before the month starts feels like cheating, what do you think?

Carmilla - Having sounded so virtuous about shopping, this is where I confess that my 2nd purse store comes in (you can read about Mothership's 2nd purse if you click on the link near the bottom of post #6 on page 1 of this thread and there is now a whole thread that Linz started in Feb) - I kick started my stores by putting a lump in, rather than gradually building up.

Another way is to buy the best value-bigger than you need item each time you need something for a meal or recipe but that would frustrate me as I live too far from shops to keep popping out.

Or you could address an area when you first consider what to cook - eg baking a cake so buy plain and SR flour, baking powder, a spare pack of cooking fat (baking fat or unsalted butter), vanilla extract, cocoa powder and the actual things you need for the cake you are baking - this way you build up a store over time.

The main thing is can you afford it? Will you use it (before it expires)? Do you need it? :money: - I would add, Have you got room to store it? speaking as one who is prepared for the next Suffolk siege (the last one was in Saxon times), but I'm ready for the next one!!

HTH
SL

Ninno820

Morning all - hope that everyone is okay in this dreadful weather. I am holding on to my precious £1.53 until tomorrow (the start of my new week - £20 to spend). I was so tempted to nip out last night when the hunger pangs came but resisted the urge - would have spent it all on a sugar fest!

Lunch today is a roast chicken (2 for £6 from my local butcher several weeks ago), tea tonight and lunches for next week will be chicken soup amde with the stock , some lentils, split peas etc , potatoes and veg. Tomorrow will be another roast with some leftovers and the rest will go in the freeze for another day. Not bad for £3 eh?

Thanks to everyone for their support - reading your posts helps me to keep focussed.

jedi82

Good morning all, I do not intend to change out of my jimjams and leave the house today! May GC doesn't starts for me til tomorrow when DH gets paid so have NO money til then and unfortunately hardly any food in the house BUT we will get by. Was going to make cakes with the kids but no sugar, so am making jam tarts instead. Have run out of bread so have just stuck some to make in the breadmaker. I am feeling quite good actually because I usually have the good intentions, normally i would go out and buy sugar cos I wanted cakes and so am feeling very MSE .

Am going to our nearest A!di tomorrow (40 min away) for main shop and there is also a big A$da & Te$co for my value goods but am being very strict and going to try menu planning (for some reason I havve trouble with this but going to try).

have a good day
Jedi x

forever_saving

Could i please be put down for £300 for May. I will do my best to come under again. Will have to see how it goes.
FS

fozziebeartoo

slbhill wrote: »

The best thing to be said for frozen mushrooms is they're better than tinned ones!! I do use them sometimes but only in casseroles and suchlike, when they're a bit camouflaged. I've used Tesco & Asda ones, they're the same as far as I can tell. Mind you, I think shrooms are best eaten raw so maybe I'm not the best judge

Thank you - I am glad its not just me that finds them less than ideal

sonastin

I've got a real dilemma now. Ended up about £40 overspent for April. May's budget doesn't start till Tuesday but we ran out of teabags yesterday and I can't leave OH with emergency looseleaf tea while I'm out at work tomorrow - can't bear the sulking and whingeing I'll have to listen to if I try. So went to MrA to get tea bags, and bought the rest of the stuff on the shopping list while I was there. Rest of it could have waited till Tuesday so can't decide whether to put the ~£30 spend on May's budget or be honest and accept that it was more spending in April. Should help with bringing May in under budget so perhaps best to put it in April where it belongs, but reduce the budget for May.

What do you reckon? What would you guys do?