June 2012 Grocery Challenge

fozziebeartoo

katiegirl wrote: »

I've set our budget for my first month of the grocery challenge as £150! It starts tomorrow which is pay day and is to include all food, including meals out, and any other household stuff like cling film, bin bags, cleaning products etc. I'm hoping this is quite realistic as we have quite a bit of food in the cupboards/freezer still; I'm also hoping to sell some stuff on ebay to make £30 for an approved food order.

I'm also setting a petrol budget of £150, which started today (because I wasn't quite sure I'd make it home from my friend's otherwise!) £47.03/£150.

We're moving house next month, as well as saving for a big trip next year so money is going to be pretty tight for the rest of the year really.

Quick question, do people think this look good value?
Freezer Pack
1,5lb Chicken Fillet
1lb Best Mince
1lb Pork Chops
1lb Frying Steak
1lb Diced Steak
1lb Premium Sausage
400g Back Bacon
Only..£20.00


I got a flyer through the door from a butcher near me. How many chicken breasts would = 1.5lb? And would 1lb sausages be about 6/8? And 400g bacon 8 slices? Can't decide if it would be worth us getting this, we don't really eat many meals based on red meat, and I can't even remember the last time I ate a pork chop (as a child definitely!), so it would probably last a while!

Good luck for July everyone, and well done to those who have succeeded with their June challenge!

I am not good with prices (too forgetful) but a pound (lb) is about 450g.......which is approx a normal pack size for mince or stewing steak (a small one is more likely to be 200 to 250g).

And I usually allow £3 to £4 for a pack of meat, maybe £2 or £2.50 for good sausages (my family prefer cheap ones :eek:) and £2 for a smallish pack of bacon (6 slices).

All at FULL price of course, but I try and only buy YS's of
course :rotfl:

In my mind that make your butchers deal perfectly acceptable pricewise, and GOOD if he is a good butcher and you are getting good quality stuff.

If think you could def get it for the same price or less in a SM, esp if you go for basics ranges......but that doesnt mean it is better to do so.

I would go and have a look in the shop (and a sniff) and take it from there!

Personally, I am happy to pay extra for better quality with some products, meat being one of them.

happy_chick_3

meg72 wrote: »

Have you had a look at Rosspa? I found that even with delivery, 5.50 I got much better value, quantity and quality than a friend who had a veg box. Has the advantage too that you only get what you want so no waste or the feeling you haave wasted something because you really dont like it. and again plus for the 5.50 you can add other stuff you may be interested in, up to 25 kg.

Thanks meg I'll check it out. I'm trialling Riverford organics this week - just need to work out if there's a safe place to leave it round the back of my building.

Been away for a few days so just catching up on old posts. I've got the rest of the week off work so planning a trip to Ikea, some batch cooking and picking up my passport with visa to India where I'm spending the whole summer!

Today I'm waiting in for a delivery - have finally upgraded to a digital tv after being without one since switchover 3 months ago! Decided to try and be MSE by saving for a few months, watching dvds and waiting until I found something at a price I was happy with - 22" for £100 from tescos! Only downside is it could come anytime between 7am and 7pm so I had to interrupt my lie in!

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

fozziebeartoo wrote: »

I am very close to my GC budget this month, but I have had a lot of unexpected taxis to pay for with the various family issues going on.....I suppose I should have a seperate travel budget, but right now I want to include every penny I have to hand over to anyone else......so that needs to include bus and taxi drivers!

I have DGS staying till Thursday morning this week, so just been out to little Co*p, T*sco Exp and Lidl - signature updated.

Now have enough milk, cheese, fruit, fromage frais etc to last the little fella till he goes home with hopefully a bit lasting till next week.

Yesterday I warmed up some rather tough YS pork that I had cooked on Sunday, did it in SC with gravy and it was much easier to chew after that :rotfl: also had LO roasties that tasted just as good when reheated.

Today I am making HM bolognaise pasta bake and may add a YS flat bread doodah-thingy I picked up in the C*op. I have a friend to feed as well as DGS but there may be some LO, in which case I will have it tomorrow or freeze it.

Still no news on DD's biopsy (hoping desperately that is a good sign) and her suspect mole was removed yesterday and the results will take 3 to 4 weeks :eek:

Welcome to all the new people joining the challenge!! :T

Best of luck with your daughter's results - the waiting must be a nightmare *hugs*.

Sue14 wrote: »

Went to the doctor's last Wednesday about my sciatica, and she signed me off work for a week, and gave me co-codamol and diclofenac, which has been great for easing the pain but has made me feel dizzy, sick and tired most of the time (not to mention giving me the runs, lol!), so we have had a few takeaways in the past week or so, as OH can't cook, but I don't include these in my GC budget.

Went to Mr T's on the way home from the docs, (well OH did, I sat in the car) and spent £4.85, then managed to hobble round a1di on Saturday with OH to spend another £16.47. Looks like we'll come in way under budget this month, so 1 plus to not being well, lol!

ETA: Not doing quite as well as I thought, as I've just found another receipt from a1di that I hadn't added for £13.32, but still under budget so far.

I hope you feel better soon.

KatyReed+5 wrote: »

Ok here we go, my first full month of GC.

I have bought myself a book to write everything down in, i have 2 pages for July - Food, 2 for July - Household, and one for July bills, so everything i spent will get written down.

I have bought myself 2 clear plastic zip bags ( cost £4.18 but in my eyes worth it to help me long term ) today that fit in my bag, one for food money and one for household money. as we have been paid i have put £400 in for food, which will include anything we eat ( but not including the kids hot dinners which i pay for termly ), takes away etc, and £100 in for household which will include anything else including nappies, wipes etc.

I am still pretty stocked up from last month really, 9 dinners in the freezer, quite well stocked cupboards. I do need some packed lunch things, bread, milk etc though so will get them tomorrow as i will be going past sainsburys.

I need some advice, where should i shop, i live in quite a large village and we have a co-op but that's it, they have good reduced things though. it is 7 miles to tescos, sainsburys and waitrose, 20 to aldi or lidl, is the driving to the cheaper places economical and money saving in the long run?

Today has been 2 spends so far, £1.90 in wilcos as i didn't take the kids juices out with me, whoops, and it's very hot so had to get them really and £4.58 in superdrug on baby wipes. They were buy one get 2 free which is an offer i couldn't give up so bought 6, will be back for some more tomorrow.

On another note me and my other half split up this morning so that's going to save me some money right there

Katy, X

Sorry to hear about you and your OH. Just make sure you take care of yourself too. You're doing brilliantly with the challenge. In terms of where to shop - you could check the prices online of the main ones on www.mysupermarket.co.uk and go to the cheapest or get it delivered. If A1di and Lid1 are 20 miles away then you'd have to work out if the petrol costs are worth it but if you are near them while you are out anyway they are worth a visit.

fozziebeartoo

No plans to go out today so hopefully today will be a NSD, at least that is the plan.

I have LO HM bolognaise pasta bake to finish up today, DGS and visiting friend had seconds yesterday so pleased to have any
LO's :rotfl:, have to say it was delish. Freezer chocca so better to eat it today, rather than try and squeeze it in for another day.

Made HM short crust pastry yesterday, been resting in the fridge overnight, will use it to make a gammon quiche later. Gammon is LO from last week and was baked with honey and mustard, it was a wee bit saltier than I like, but thinking if I just add pepper to my eggs, cream, cheese mixture, it should balance out ok. Hope
so

Bought a bag of mini frozen pastries in L*dl yesterday - 24 for £2.99 and they are croissants, pain au chocolat and pain au raisin......you bake them from frozen and they are delicous!! A few years ago I won a hoiday at Disneyland Paris, and they taste exactly like the ones we stuffed our faces with there!! 12p each (although they are just mini ones) seems a good price considering how tasty they are, so if anyone is looking for an indulgent (high calorie) brekkie, I would def recommend
them :T

happy_chick_3

Finished for the month and I'm declaring £202.28/£175. This is a reducation of £33.74. I was aiming for a £25 reduction thinking I had spent about £200 in May but more receipts kept coming out of carrier bags and I had actually spent £236.02!

Happy with the reduction and aiming for £175 again in July. Will head on over to the July thread to post there now. Good luck to everyone still finishing off June.

TheThriftyScrumpers

KatyReed+5 wrote: »

Kids don't know yet, i'm hoping he's going to tell them today if he comes to see them, don't really want to see him, but the kids do.

Thank you everyone, you're all so kind.

Katy, X

Sending Hugs Katy xx

[Deleted User]

Morning All. I have been spectacularly CR*P this month. I have overspent and, the scary bit is, I have no idea by how much:eek::eek:. Must do better next month! I struggle to keep up with the thread as it moves so fast (and I am a bit of a slow-coach) but will, once again, try to get back on track next month.

Please put me down for £180 in July. Thanks again to all those who organise the thread and post regularly. When I do get a chance to catch up the thread is always very inspiring.

xxlouisexx56

£18 spent yesterday. Bread, rolls, ham cheese, eggs, fruit

I should have enough now to get us through to the weekend

jedi82

Hi everyone,

Just popping in to declare £420.21 for June. Gone over but will be better next month.....

Hugs Katy

Jedi xx

debbiedeejay

Afternoon All

Had a couple of extra spends over past couple of days- have come down with another bug -feel awful and of course there is no medicine suitable in the house and the kids unable to cope with mum being ill and not able to cook so want easy food - and at the moment I want an easy life while I get better.

So need to add £15.67 from Mr m's and£7.36 from little shop this morning.

Note to self - restock medicine cabinet with all generic meds once better -how expensive are some branded stuff over SM own brands is ridiculous especially on checking that they virtually carry same ingredients.I walked out of a local pharmacy yesterday as I refused to buy a cold/flu remedy branded at £4.08,bought similar one for £1.59 in Mr M's.

off to update sig and sniffle into a big hankie