June 2012 Grocery Challenge

savesummore

Im so glad I found this thread- I actually thought I didnt spend/waste money on food- pls refer to my signature to see how much we have spent in less than a week :eek:.
Its shocking :eek:

Oh well I guess the first month is always a learning curve!

Sorry to bore you lovely people but I want to tell you what I have spent in Asda today and what on as a wake up call to my self

I wanted Soap and lettuce i grow my own
(lettuce not soap :rotfl:) but only got a few salad leaves at the min so needed bulking out

I Spent £8.31

0.59 reduced fruit salad thing to have with lunch ( i already had plenty to eat) so Impluse purchase :mad:
0.87 Baby wipes -to go in a baby bag im making for my friends babies 1st birthday Ive been looking for bargains as I go along
2.00 Soap- what I went for!!
0.85 Sweets- Impluse purchase brought from by the TILL :eek:
1.00 Cherries- bargain but Impluse purchase :mad:
1.00 salad bag (iceberg was also a £1 so brought a bag)
1.00 Chewing gum (bad habit!)
1.00 Spec**l K cereal -Impluse purchase- big display front of store :mad:

Im a supermarkets dream

Karb

Can I join in again this month please? My challenge always runs from the first of the month to the last day of the month rather than pay day to pay day

I do need to get some bits tomorrow so not sure yet whether I will hit my May target of £175 or go just over. But with one day less in the month, I reckon I can get that down to £165 for June

CAT££

Florenceem wrote: »

NSD here.
We had roast potatoes, roast parsnips, barbecue chicken drumstick and roasted vegetables - cauliflower, mushroom, onion and orange pepper for dinner.

Your food always looks lovely. How do you make the chicken?

fairy3

Hi all,
Thanks for the tips on the pesto sauce, I have used it on two french bread pizza's tonight and a spoonful in some cold jersey royal salad for tomorrow. It's really close here so I just had a sandwich.
Meg I think you did really well today, I hate being hassled at my own front door!
have been reading the fiscal thread and am tempted but baby steps....as only on day 1.
Spent £5.65 in A*di on the way home but that should be it until Sunday as I wade through the 'interesting' things in the freezer.
I have a £5 off a £40 spend till split for Mr T's which is out on the 5th June so hoping to have a trawl on mysupermarket to maximise spend. I am such a supermarket sl*t I have no loyalty!
Am determined not to let the sight of diminishing stocks scare me.

happy_chick_3

Hi everyone

Thanks so much for the lovely welcome and fantastic advice. I’ve decided to cut down by a small amount because, as fozziebeartoo says I am the type of person who would blow the budget if I overspent! Put me down for £175 that’s a £25 reduction.

Fairy3 I forgot that delia cheats! Must try and get hold of that book from the library and thanks for the tip about the pesto – had no idea it could be frozen!

Rising from the ashes I don’t know about you but I tend to treat myself to ‘nice’ food all the time! I have to eat gluten free and feel restricted at times so will splurge on a good M&S ready meal, especially the YS ones, even when I know there are loads of options if I just planned better. Batch cooking is definitely going to be something I’ll need to do.

Teatime thank you – I’m heeding the advice and going for a £25 reduction this month.

MrsCD, quintwins Batch cooking is definitely going to be something I’ll need to do and that’s a great idea about the quorn and tinned toms. Dexter2012 we might both be doing this on Sunday night this week!

Bikelesschick Not sure how the sainsburys vouchers work but I do know you can use other peoples – just have a quick look when you go past the self scan till and collect any spares!

Meg72 hope you’re feeling better now? What an awful thing to happen.

So, I’m off with a meal planner to audit the cupboards! :j

debbiedeejay

Evening all - just popping my head round the corner to declare £61.43 up to today which includes £2 on chocolate - really had a sweet tooth this week and normally I don't bother with sweets. Had H/M spag bol from freezer tonight and my lunch was provided by a friend whom we went to tea last night and she gave all of us doggy bags to take away!Including a huge bowl of olives just for me! In fact I have just remembered them so am off to go and have a handful!

craigywv

jumblejack wrote: »

8am saturday

:)thanks jj:)

craigywv

hi, just popping on to say went to mr t tonight spent 45.72 that will do me as i going away to cyprus in 3 weeks and i not buying another thing except f and v and milk!!!!!!!! shant shant shant!!! got breads f and v cheese etc also includes stuff for taking away with us, bacon, sausages cheese all in freezer!!! cereal tuna good ham lol (treating ourselves as its hols) tea coffee, and loads more all hid!!! so deffo not buying any more, we doing really well eating out of freezers loads still left in both freezers, planning on moving all stuff to one freezer defrosting the other and vice versa then switching one off completly as i am sure i can squeeze it all into 1 freezer and save on the electric while we away. meant to say walked right past the ys stuff tonight it was crammed full of stuff but i AM trying to empty these freezers out so near had the shakes leaving the store its deffo an OCD of mine anyway starting to ramble on now off to update sig x

PennyGrabber

Mrs_Cookie wrote: »

It was the parsley that threw me, looked frilly round the edge like nettle! Nooo don't get rid of the dandelions! You can make soup, salad, a coffee substitute, eat the petals, make honey with them, syrup and even cookies!!! Your recipe for dandelion soup sounds a bit like one I make, very tasty. Make sure you use young leaves, old ones will taste VERY bitter, young ones are sweeter. Harvesting the roots to dry for coffee making? Then harvest in the autumn when they're full of natural sugars which will make the coffee have a sweeter aroma and taste less bitter! Will PM re wild garlic seeds

Ooh, please can you pm me?! When I moved into my house, I had some growing, but didn't know what it was, just thought it was weeds, so got rid of it!! Stupid, stupid girl!

happy_chick wrote: »

I've just about completed my first month of saving receipts and for one person my bill comes to £203.92. I was very disciplined about collecting receipts and checked my bank accounts last night for any I had forgotten so I know this is accurate and I'm a bit shocked! I know it was high but not that high!

Is it too ambitious to try and shave off a quarter this month making it £150? I work 50 hours a week as a teacher so time is limited and while I would love to make everything from scratch my lifestyle doesn't permit it. Is it better to cut down by a smaller amount over a few months?

Hi and welcome! I'm a teacher too, with two children on my own. The best things I've found are:
- batch cook and freeze in those chinese type tubs (write on them what it is, or you'll be playing freezer roulette!)
- have a list of meals you cook/like/whatever, and think about effort and time involved. When you're knackered, do a quick one! Poached egg on toast is still homemade, you know!
- Allow yourself one/two/three (set a number) easy meals a week. When my dd was dancing, Mondays were my easy day. We had omelette or soup or toasties, or something like that.
- use your slow cooker. Two mins of shoving stuff in it in the morning, and you come home to a lush smell!
- don't be hard on yourself
- use the weekends to make yourself nice things, like hm pizza, or roasts, or things that take longer - you need to be realistic about time on weekdays.

Have fun planning your meals!

tessie_bear wrote: »

hi....up early today so have plenty of time to do some baking and tidy up the freezer also need to go and get some salad to go with the fajitas we have for tea
i have some eggs i want to use up so will get a bit of bacon make a quiche....we can have this for tea tomorrow
have a great day tess

You need bacon?!?!!? I got 12 packs at lid! this weekend!!!

MrsCD

Florenceem wrote: »

I am going to stay with a friend - craft class on Friday and an all day workshop on Sunday.
Have to hope Mr F doesn't spend too much while I am away.
My friend has a shop where she lives - selling near to/out of date stuff - usually have a stock up - sweets/chocolate! :eek: It is my only vice!

Have a great time away Florenceem. What sort of craft class/workshop is it? Remember your MSE mantras!