June 2012 Grocery Challenge

happy_chick_3

Fantastic - it's great that your kids have incorporated cooking from scratch into their schedules. I read the challenge notes before starting and reading the posts it seems those who have been most successful at cutting down have made the GC fit with their lifestyles and thats something that is different for everyone. For me it means moving slowly towards cooking more rather than a drastic shift. I'm hoping for permanent changes

fairy3

Well am on the eve of the challenge as my day starts tomorrow so have been busy with inventories of freezer and cupboards. I work 50 hours a week too happychick and know the feeling by Thursday that the last thing I want to do is cook from scratch, but I console myself with the fact that even Delia cheats! My teens can make 3 'signature' dishes each so am sure they won't starve.
I noticed that I still have my 'spot a bargain' head on when shopping so freezer is bulging with yellow stickers, now just need to get them in an orderly fashion so they become meals.
Have done a meal plan for the week and started with a spag bol using my own sauce and some reduced steak mince and 3 for 2 pasta. I even used 2 cheap baguettes bought for pennies to make into garlic bread, teens were impressed. I told them about the challenge and they could not believe it was a challenge at £50 per week for us all, bless, I told them to do me a menu and we could discuss later.
I made too much pasta so have 'dug out' a tub of pesto from freezer which originally cost £2.39p (tesco finest), yellow sticker says 23p which is much more acceptable. I will add half to the pasta for two lunches tomorrow but not sure what to do with the other half? Any suggestions?
Have a feeling this is going to be an interesting month.....

rising_from_the_ashes

happy_chick wrote: »

Fantastic - it's great that your kids have incorporated cooking from scratch into their schedules. I read the challenge notes before starting and reading the posts it seems those who have been most successful at cutting down have made the GC fit with their lifestyles and thats something that is different for everyone. For me it means moving slowly towards cooking more rather than a drastic shift. I'm hoping for permanent changes

The first month of adding up is the worst (and often a shock!) - I used to spend over £200 as well (just me too) but have managed to cut it down a fair bit.

I'm never going to get it to the "mega-low" spend that some manage as I have various dietary requirements which are more expensive (eg milk is £1.31 / litre, compared with being able to buy 2 x 2 litre bottles for £2- that's a HUGE difference).

I work full time and also live with a chronic medical condition that often means by the time I get in from work I am literally exhausted (those who have similar conditions will appreciate the difference from being tired to the absolute debilitating exhaustion that can be common with some conditions).

I never cook a meal from scratch during the week - just not possible for me but I do batch cook at the weekends when I can do a huge pot of say Chilli, another of Spag Bol sauce at the same time.

These are then portioned up and frozen in portion sizes - they go straight from the freezer to pan (run under hot water to get them out the tub!) and you get a lovely HM cooked meal every night for very little effort (and in no time at all).

TBH if you think the last month was an "average" one, cutting £50 off may be too much in one go and I'd probably start with taking off £25 and seeing how it goes - it doesn't matter if it takes several months to get it down .... every £ saved is a bonus! HTH

Teatime

happy_chick wrote: »

Fantastic - it's great that your kids have incorporated cooking from scratch into their schedules. I read the challenge notes before starting and reading the posts it seems those who have been most successful at cutting down have made the GC fit with their lifestyles and thats something that is different for everyone. For me it means moving slowly towards cooking more rather than a drastic shift. I'm hoping for permanent changes

I tried to reduce my grocery spending too much for my first month last month but I realised half way through and made my target more realistic. I think it is better to do it slowly and gradually rather than make yourself disheartened from the start!


Anyway, I spent £12 more than my target of £250 last month so am challenging myself to get it WITHIN the £250 this month.

It's quite exciting.

Kitchenbunny

Sorry to be a pain, but could I join? I always have problems with the Grocery Challenge - both as I tend to spend too much time in supermarkets and don't like to post when I get too close to budget as I feel really down about it. I do mealplan and try to stick to shopping lists..

So, to that end, I'm putting myself down for £200 for June and I'm determined to stick to it.

KB

Eyebright

My first shop of the month has been done today, clocked in at £55.44, have updated my signature. Was a bit more than I wanted to spend, typically it was OH who was the spanner in the works!Decided he needed new razor blades which clocked in at a tenner almost just for them :eek: I nearly keeled over when I saw the price!
Still next weeks shop shouldn't need to be so big so hopefully we can make up the money there....

This is my first month doing the challenge and I so want to do well

Living_proof

I happened past the local coop today on my way to the chemist and did it again! I just cannot pass up the YS (actually they are orange!) and bought a large Elmwood chicken, two packs of haddock and a portion of salmon teriyaki for £8.95. I have cooked the chicken in the SC and portioned up the fish and have enough for 14 meals for one person, so around 65p per serving. I must stop buying as the freezer is almost full and I will be moving in a few months. I've made some yogurt and the chicken stock is now simmering away in the SC so feel fairly virtuous. I must just limit my buying to essential fresh food this month but it will be awfully hard to pass up a bargain.

savesummore

Florenceem- that watch strap is very impressive i would love to be that creative- i can be creative in my head but the real thing usually ends up a diaster . I obviously have no hand/eye or thought/hand co-ordination IYSWIM

Ive spent £17 on a meal out tonight :eek: Ienjoyed the evening the company etc but the food was rubbish :eek: feel abit cheated

Will update my signature

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Evening all,
Just reading through all the posts.
Needed some fruit yesterday came to £3.17. My sister works at mrM and tomorrow has 15% off tomorrow, need some salad bits and will take advantage of their tea bag offer. These will be from the second purse which I will start tomorrow so not sure how I will work it just yet.
Have my mum staying with mt at the moment she's here for two weeks. This also means I'll be feeding my sister and her two kids for some meals. Tonight I made spag bol for the six of us, OH has a portion for lunch tomorrow with another two portions left. Have costed it at 38p each so not bad although this didn't count the salad which was basic lettuce , toms, cue and radish.
Tomorrow have a quiche in the fridge, jacket pots and salad. Might do some beans for the potatoes as the quiches is small. It needs eating and my sister and kids will be coming for tea again so will try and get things used up

I'll update my siggy after tomorrows shop.
Night all

MrsCD

jumblejack wrote: »

Can anyone spot the secret ingredient in this soup.....?



I have removed the centre vein from the leaves though in case they were fibrous.

It was delicious. I had it with my herby flowers cheese bread!!




Edit:
As a clue, if I hadnt have weeded so well over the last couple of days, there would be a lot more of this kinda thing on the menu. It truly was delicious. The kids ate it all first. I asked them if they liked it (which they did). Then I told them the secret ingredient :rotfl:

I thought I saw parsley in there! The soup looks lovely JJ. My next door neighbour used to come and pick my dandelions to make dandelion wine.:)

Florenceem wrote: »

My dog needs a new collar - if I buy one - what money pot do I take the cash from? I have a pot for trips/clothes & hair/Christmas & Birthday presents/cookware/rail pass/shopping savings - no dog one! :eek:
When Mr F needed a new watch strap - I had the same problem. I solved it by making him one - using a pair of jeans given to me for fabric. I will have a go at making the dog - a matching collar. :rotfl:
Here is the watch strap - still going strong - cost nothing - I used the hardware off the broken strap.

Florenceem, the watch strap is brilliant - well done :T My friend has problems with joint pain, and makes her watch strap from 1/2 inch wide elastic, so it 'gives' when her wrists are bad.

happy_chick wrote: »

Fantastic - it's great that your kids have incorporated cooking from scratch into their schedules. I read the challenge notes before starting and reading the posts it seems those who have been most successful at cutting down have made the GC fit with their lifestyles and thats something that is different for everyone. For me it means moving slowly towards cooking more rather than a drastic shift. I'm hoping for permanent changes

Hi happychick. Just go with the flow and do what works for you. :cool: Have you got a slow cooker that could do the cooking for you while you're out at work? I'm all for a bit of cheating too :rotfl:Quorn mince with tinned toms and a few frozen mixed veggies - you could use it as a base for lots of recipes, and it only takes minutes to cook.

I've done my shopping today and I'm totally over my budget already :eek: I've spent about £80, but I'd ran out of a few things, trying to use up lots of bitty things, like cereals and washer liquid. Will do better next week