June 2012 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143

NSD here today. Sadly we're running out of milk and it's only Wednesday! How?! I try and only do one shop a week on Sundays, and I bought the same amount of milk as usual, but will have to buy more tomorrow or OH will strop at no coffee, and I'll strop at no weetabix! :rotfl:

Veggie stir fry with egg and cashews for dinner, with a delicious home made chilli/honey sauce

sb88_2

Haven't spent a thing since Saturday! Thankgod, because I've already reached budget, don't know how I will manage next week! (Of course I have money spare, but i wanted to stick to budget)

Going to try and only buy things for OH lunch at work, ham, bread, etc and see how much I have left in the freezer/fridge

Sat enjoying a salad picked from the garden! Home grown and completely organic! (My method of gardening is sprinkle some seeds and see how they grow!)

My OH bought me a dress which I should recieve tomorrow! it was £15 in the bhs sales, I can't wait to try it on! Had a job interview yesterday, and another tomorrow

Fingers crossed!

happy_chick_3

elsiepac wrote: »

Ooo, I'm excited, the veg box contents list has come out! Mine doesn't get here until Thursday, but here is what I'll get:

• UK 500gm CORNISH NEW POTATOES
• UK POINTED CABBAGE
• UK BUNCHED CARROTS
• UK ONIONS
• BRAZIL PACK OF 4 BANANAS
• UK CUCUMBER
• RSA SMALL SATSUMAS
• RSA GOLDEN DELICIOUS APPLES
• UK CUP MUSHROOMS 250gms
• UK VINE OF TOMATOES
• UK SALAD CRESS
• UK BAKING POTATOES

Not bad as this one is half price - £4.97! Normally £9.95

LC

elsiepac who do you get your vegbox from? I've been looking at riverford and abel & cole and they are both a lot more than that. Would love to know who you use.

happy_chick_3

just caught up on a few pages.
meg so sorry to hear about your mum - hope you are ok?
jj - good news on your eyes

I've spent £171.45 so far this month and was aiming for £175. My downfall was a trip to wholefoods which cost nearly £45 - i love their food! Still I'm staying away for most of next week so won't need to feed myself and might just make it under budget. Well, unlikely but given last month I spend £236, anything under £190 would be a great reduction.

From next month I will be including everything I spend on eating out too, including those yummy things from Pret!

katiegirl

Thankyou for the tips little_miss_moneyspender!

I've had a NSD (get me picking up the grocery challenge lingo already!) today. Helped obviously by the fact that I was at work for 12 hours.

I'm going to enjoy this thread because I love food and talking about it!

I'm also thinking that the grocery challenge might decrease my waistline as it increases my bank balance....although I will be doing more baking, and I have just eaten 2 of the leftover peanut butter and white chocolate cookies I made for dd to take on her Brownie picnic yesterday, so maybe not!

Today we've eaten
DD- cornflakes for breakfast, ham sandwich, grapes, yoghurt and a cookie for lunch (doesn't usually have this much but had breakfast at 6am so thought she'd be pretty hungry by lunchtime!), tea at the childminders.
Me- banana when I got to work, porridge mid morning, a wrap with philly, ham, a little bit of grated cheese and salad and some yummy strawberries for lunch, piece of homemade by someone else flapjack mid afternoon, 2 cookies and waiting for 2 cheese and spring onion crispbakes (freezer food) to cook for tea!

I've got quite a bit of food in the freezer (its a little freezer though) that I'm wanting to work our way through before we (hopefully) move next month, so most of my meals will be planned around this.

I was having a look at the approved food website the other day, I've got a few things to sell on ebay so I'm hoping I can make £30 and use this to order from there (will then qualify for free delivery) to stock up on pasta/rice/couscous etc. It will be like free food that way!

I'm returning my dd's leggings tomorrow as they're way too big (I find the sizing of Brownie uniforms ridiculous, far too wide! She could fit two of her in her t-shirt width ways but it couldn't get away with being any shorter. And she's not a skinny kid, slimmer side of normal maybe but definitely not skinny!), this means I'll be back up to £29.46 to last me till I start the grocery challenge properly on pay day next Wednesday!

Dipndo

NSD again today,still have money in my purse since Saturday,unheard of before I joined the GC. Had a good day today,sorted out the freezer and made a list to help meal plan for July.Had a whole 2l of milk with todays date left in the fridge,would normally have binned it but made two mac cheeses and froze them.On a roll lol had some sauce left so made dauphinoise potatoes to go with hm pork and apple meat balls (made with ys pork mince) for dinner tonight.I love this challenge

elsiepac

happy_chick wrote: »

elsiepac who do you get your vegbox from? I've been looking at riverford and abel & cole and they are both a lot more than that. Would love to know who you use.

happy chick , the veg box company I use are one that are not organic, hence the price difference, in fact they actually focus on value. Having said that, I have found the produce in the past to be of very good quality, and any niggles they will sort straight away. They also do their best to source locally, then UK, then abroad. As you saw from my list, the majority of my box is UK.

The company is called 5 A Day Box.
www.5adaybox.co.uk

You can put in your post code and see if they deliver to you - they'll also deliver to work addresses if you like.

LC

EDIT - I've just had another look on their site and realised they are basically South West only - they are based in Wiltshire, however my old box was delivered to Thornbury, which is South Gloucestershire (BS35) and I now live in Bradley Stoke, which is Bristol (BS32). So I guess you'd have to be in the vicinity...

ANOTHER EDIT - I've googled cheap veg box schemes in London (and found Hello Fresh, what a rip!!) anyway, this one came up - £15 a box: http://www.fruit4london.co.uk/homes/fruit-and-veg-boxes.php which I clicked the essentials choice and chose 1-2 people, then it gives you the contents on the left.
Also this one does a fruit and veg bag (choose This Week and go to the bottom) - it's £12 for 2-4 people, still not as good as mine, but getting there: http://www.farmaround.co.uk/thisweek.php

HTH!!! LC

jumblejack

Hello guys
So nice to hear from newbies joining the challenge
Welcome :wave:

Thanks for everyone's good wishes
Eye is even better today. Had a lot of the day outdoors due to a field trip with the kids so was a little sensitive but had drops in and shades on :cool:

Small victories today:

1) I used my nasturtium leaves :j in the kids egg mayo baps in the packed lunches for the first time. They are SCRUMPTIOUS!
We had cake leftover from a guest over the weekend for afters :T

2) Filled up with cheapest petrol for ages £1.24 from sainsburys.

3) Whilst at the field trip, I bought a potted lemon balm plant from them (they had their own fabtastic herb garden!!!). It was only £1.60 and is quite a decent sized plant too!! That will go lovely in my herb planter :T

4). Got some ACE whoopsies. Might post piccie in a mo to inspire the newbies!!!!

Have a great evening folks.

Edit:

Topside beef joint over £11 for £2 odd, turkey joint was fiver, now just over a quid, etc :j

By the way, Tesco value mushy peas are still only 6p a tin. There is a great slimming world recipe for a curry that some have tried. I've not done if but folks have raved about it before. Not worth soaking the peas for this price!!!

hattifattener

Hi all!

£0.95 spend today from me and a little spend I haven't logged yet from hubby. Been spend happy at work so tomorrow might be our only NSD this week. Ate YS rolls from the freezer for lunch, sausage casserole for tea and YS scotch pancakes from the freezer for supper/pudding. Will update my total on Friday after weekly shop.

Suffolk_lass

happy chick - Before you sign up for veg boxes have you got a local market? it is well worth talking to the stall holders to see if they would make you up a mixed box of premium and leftovers for a set price. You don't have to repeat it if you're unhappy but my experience of London district markets (30 years or so) has almost always been good and if they let you down you can give the feedback and ask for a replacement. The good ones will want the repeat custom

Also a bit of food for thought (no pun intended!) There's an organic veg box company operating out of the farm buildings up the road and the pantechnica (sp?) arrives from Netherlands twice a week on the Roll-on Roll-off ferry at the terminal not a million miles away. In food miles it's local but not local by my definition

All the best
SL