June 2012 Grocery Challenge

hattifattener

sb88 wrote: »

Thankyou for the encouragement!

I think that is what I will do, a reward for resisting untill I can afford them! It sounds daft even considering buying them knowing I have an OD to pay off.

I was hoping to buy them as an incentive to keep running! Although I enjoy going out, I find it SO hard to get motivated! nothing like spending money and having to get the wear out of them to get you out heh

Good plan!

I find when I'm getting bored of running I go on some free running websites and get some inspiration. The About running website has plans for beginners to experts for training for all kinds of distances, or I try starting a new set of stretches post run. Another good website is fetch everyone where you can track your runs. Nothing motivates me like planning out my runs for the next few weeks.:j And I'm very much on the 5k for beginners end of the scale for all this, but no matter!:rotfl:

Another NSD! Lunch was LO HM burger and scrag ends of HM bread. Tea at a friend's house, which was lovely. I took the cakes - coffee and walnut for us and banana and raisin cupcakes for the babies. Packed lunch all done for work tomorrow - using up some crackers and the last of my curried carrot dip. Hurrah! :T

helen_jelly

craigywv and MrsCD - thank you very much for the recipes - I can't do the microwave one as our microwave is on top of the fridge/freezer and I daren't put anything in it!! So I'll give craigywv's recipe a go - its the same as I was doing but I left the pan to put the kettle on and it burnt so I was doing it almost right [need to stir more] and I think I left it a bit too long when boiling it - it all had to go into the bin - the sugar had gone to toffee and some of the strawbs had caught on the bottom of the pan - DH was not impressed lol

Helen x

jasmin10

Hi all, I've been a serial lerker for yonks and have finally read through all the posts to catch up with you all.

I always do my 'banking' of spends for grocery shopping and need to rein it in. Jan, Feb and March it was over £400, March I decided to cut back and meal plan etc and managed to get it down to £215 for the month, then April gave me heart attack when it came in at over £550.

In our household there is 4 of us, myself, DH, DD(6) and our new(ish) DD who was born Boxing Day.

I began reading all the posts for the Fiscal Fasting thread which has inspired me so much. I already do quite a lot of cooking from scratch, but this thread and spurred me on no end. I try to budget £65 per week, although whenever we go to the supermarket (Mr T) it normally goes way over in the region of £120.

As I am an avid MSE'er there is no more ways of us cutting back apart from food shopping. I'm a SAHM so we just have one wage, it's so hard, very hard now - with how expensive things are. Ive have decided to try and managed on £250 (seeing as I did £215 back in April it must be do'able) We dont go out, with having young children we would rather spend time at home together. Dont really drink, use cotton nappies (unless hubbies doing a change lol, he cant cope with changing the cotton ones). We/I walk the school runs when I can to save petrol (I have mobility probablems with pain when walking so cant always do it). Our lives are really pretty boring as we don't have any spare cash to do much.

So I am budgeting £40 a week for the food only, I have a seperate thing for petrol and I put aside the childrens Childs Benefit Money in a seperate purse so that pays for school things, swimming/ice skating club and any birthday party presents needed.

I have already done an inventory as I started last week doing the Fiscal Fast and turned off my outside freezer as it was then empty. Went and dip our weekly shop yesterday and needed to put it back up as the milk and bread is in there. So far so good although we have spent the budget this week now and £7 worth of next weeks, now realised forgot the flippin coffee, I am going to try and avoid it and just have tea and leave the coffee for DH.

Just one question, whenever I go to one of the big 4 I never get good deals on reduced stuff (ys,whoopsies etc) is there a certain time to go? When we went and tried Aldi yesterday tbh I didnt think theres was much difference in price from the other except for squasg at 95p as opposed to £1.50.

I'm waiting for DD(5mths) to start sitting up so that I can use the baby seat on my bike so I can nip to Mr M's whenever and without using petrol.

I am cutting back on most spends although I have today bought an additional controller for the wii (not essential) as DD(6) said she sad because she hasnt got anyone to play with on it, oh and I got a cheap game for her to add to Xmas. (it's going to be an expensive one this yeat with having another person to buy presents for plus having my new DD's first birthday on Boxing Day, although I already put £30 by each month towards it.

So sorry for rambling but wanted to introduce myself and to finally 'feel' apart of it all.

Can I please be added to the list for a budget of £200 for the month

Will work out how to do a sig in a bit too.

Forget to mention that my months run for 28th to 27th of each month, and that we really need to try and save as much as we can for next year as DH has decided that he needs to get a car for his shifts as the past winter he was biking it so that I could have the car to take DD to school while being so heavily pg as we were worried about me slipping over on the school run and I can appeciate that biking to work after a 12hr manual shift leaves a lot to be desired. We dont have any debt apart from the mortgage and have previously always tried to overpay it to get it down quicker. Problem now tho is that as things are so tight we havent done this since. At the mo just the thought of DH getting a loan for a car next year fills me with dread as we havent had one for over 18 years, hence trying to save what I can so I can talk him out of it and just being patient.

p

craigywv

helen_jelly wrote: »

craigywv and MrsCD - thank you very much for the recipes - I can't do the microwave one as our microwave is on top of the fridge/freezer and I daren't put anything in it!! So I'll give craigywv's recipe a go - its the same as I was doing but I left the pan to put the kettle on and it burnt so I was doing it almost right [need to stir more] and I think I left it a bit too long when boiling it - it all had to go into the bin - the sugar had gone to toffee and some of the strawbs had caught on the bottom of the pan - DH was not impressed lol

Helen x

:)the first time i made it i had a bandage on for a month, i lost a good pot, and i melted a plastic jug so not to worry.:)

craigywv

jasmin10 wrote: »

Hi all, I've been a serial lerker for yonks and have finally read through all the posts to catch up with you all.

I always do my 'banking' of spends for grocery shopping and need to rein it in. Jan, Feb and March it was over £400, March I decided to cut back and meal plan etc and managed to get it down to £215 for the month, then April gave me heart attack when it came in at over £550.

In our household there is 4 of us, myself, DH, DD(6) and our new(ish) DD who was born Boxing Day.

I began reading all the posts for the Fiscal Fasting thread which has inspired me so much. I already do quite a lot of cooking from scratch, but this thread and spurred me on no end. I try to budget £65 per week, although whenever we go to the supermarket (Mr T) it normally goes way over in the region of £120.

As I am an avid MSE'er there is no more ways of us cutting back apart from food shopping. I'm a SAHM so we just have one wage, it's so hard, very hard now - with how expensive things are. Ive have decided to try and managed on £250 (seeing as I did £215 back in April it must be do'able) We dont go out, with having young children we would rather spend time at home together. Dont really drink, use cotton nappies (unless hubbies doing a change lol, he cant cope with changing the cotton ones). We/I walk the school runs when I can to save petrol (I have mobility probablems with pain when walking so cant always do it). Our lives are really pretty boring as we don't have any spare cash to do much.

So I am budgeting £40 a week for the food only, I have a seperate thing for petrol and I put aside the childrens Childs Benefit Money in a seperate purse so that pays for school things, swimming/ice skating club and any birthday party presents needed.

I have already done an inventory as I started last week doing the Fiscal Fast and turned off my outside freezer as it was then empty. Went and dip our weekly shop yesterday and needed to put it back up as the milk and bread is in there. So far so good although we have spent the budget this week now and £7 worth of next weeks, now realised forgot the flippin coffee, I am going to try and avoid it and just have tea and leave the coffee for DH.

Just one question, whenever I go to one of the big 4 I never get good deals on reduced stuff (ys,whoopsies etc) is there a certain time to go? When we went and tried Aldi yesterday tbh I didnt think theres was much difference in price from the other except for squasg at 95p as opposed to £1.50.

I'm waiting for DD(5mths) to start sitting up so that I can use the baby seat on my bike so I can nip to Mr M's whenever and without using petrol.

I am cutting back on most spends although I have today bought an additional controller for the wii (not essential) as DD(6) said she sad because she hasnt got anyone to play with on it, oh and I got a cheap game for her to add to Xmas. (it's going to be an expensive one this yeat with having another person to buy presents for plus having my new DD's first birthday on Boxing Day, although I already put £30 by each month towards it.

So sorry for rambling but wanted to introduce myself and to finally 'feel' apart of it all.

Can I please be added to the list for a budget of £200 for the month

Will work out how to do a sig in a bit too.

Forget to mention that my months run for 28th to 27th of each month.

:)hi jasmine nice to see new peeps i myself am a newbie i find this thread ab fab esp FLO and JUMBLEJACK their recipes are GREAT try JJ herby bread !!! AND flo HER PASTIES ARE TO DIE FOR . you are already very ms i can only tell you to keep popping on here to stay motivated. best time for whoopsies in my local teeeeeesco is 6-6.30 in the evening i dont tend to go to ASDDDDDDA so cant help you there, perhaps growing your own veg will cut down a bit more before we moved to this house we in now we only had a small yard and i was still able to grow lettuce, beetroot,beans,peas, brocolli,onions garlic r/berries s/berries all in a few grow bags a every size of pot/container/bucket i could find, even took them out of skips. all herbs i grow myself, and to be honest all the above came out of 2 packets of 6 different seeds from £land. also i picked up a nearly new bread makerfor 10 quid in a boot sale and its worth its weight in gold, slow cooker too cant be without mine cook soups stews sauces everything in it saves on electric. i tend to ebay ALL our clothes esp my sons kids clothes sell so quick and for a good price, also do odd boot sale. my sister has a farm so we get any amount of eggs which is great,i totally decluttered our house so nothing is getting ruined or damaged i tended to keep loads of STUFF so we have ebayed so much unwanted stuff we now have cupboard space and you would prob be able to do the same eg, kids toys, old clothing, coats shoes etc people buy everything. well i have rambled on enough oh yes and meal plan is essential i think. hope this helps.:)

cattysmum

Evening all a lovely nsd for me freezers full cupboards full and a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Im having a girlie night in on Friday there are 8 of us and a tarot card reader so I will ne doing Pizza for supper along with JJs cheesy herby bread but iv not made it before so will do a practice run midweek. Picked up a herb seed cup at ts the other day with coriander seeds so im gonna get them growing and then carrot and coriander soup for me. Im at eye hospital tomorrow for a vheck up so hopefully a nsd tomorrow as well!!

chelseabun_3

bestestmum wrote: »

I'm pretty new on here but I'm really interested in trying the challenge, especially as I've recently been unemployed and have five kids and a husband to feed. I've always considered myself very good at budget food shopping but I know I could do better. I currently spend between £60 - £80 per week on food. I do the majority of it on line so i dont get distracted by stuff I dont need. I will try to keep the budget to £70 aweek to start with. I will also be reading peoples tips on what they do to save money on groceries. Thank you x

Midnight_Shopper wrote: »

Hi All,



Mostly I just lurk, and read all your words of wisdom... sometimes I read the posts in the wrong order...


I did that today, and look what I read... Lol! x



#659
On a better note, has anyone else tried MrA's SPrice shampoo for 20p? I've been using it this week, and I can't stop telling people about it! My hair is so soft, it feels like I've used some expensive conditioner, but it's just the shampoo


#658
Kitchenbunny - I have - it was OK but I would add a few drops of vanilla extract and some pureed fruit to make it less custardy - strawberries are good ...

I'm still giggling now x

Daisypop wrote: »

Hi all

Pretty new on here but i have today made my first batch of flapjacks and hobnobs and am very impressed! Think my hobnobs need to be a bit smaller and thinner but they taste good anyway! Been a right domestic goddess today, also made red pepper, tomato and onion soup and that smells delicious too.

I cant wait to try some of the other recipes and it definately saves money rather than trying to find cheaper versions that taste good!

Thanks all!

Welcome all! This is a great, friendly forum - hope you like it!

I've just found my receipts for shopping since coming home from hols - £35.02 in Mr W and £6.62 in Mr M. NSDs Friday and yesterday, so pretty pleased with the month so far. I still need to declare for May's GC - haven't worked it out yet!:o

Off to update my sig - night all! CBx

mummyyof5

Another NSD today..taking LOs out for the day tomorrow but OH has chipped in with some money to pay for play area so no cost to me there...P***land there and need sugar....will keep spends as low as possible xx

Need to decide on something for a quick tea as out all day...off to look for some inspiration xx

Florenceem

NSD here.
We had roast potatoes, roast parsnips, chicken, gravy, HM Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower, onion and swede for dinner.
May have to buy milk tomorrow.

MrsCD

Hello to all newbies :wave:

Some of us are still quite new at this as well and you're in the right place to ask questions. If you haven't already, have a look at the first pages to see how things work, then I've found that if you read every day, it helps to keep motivated. Have fun!