July 2012 Grocery Challenge

NickJW

Thanks for the reassurance

Totally thrown my meal plans out of the window now though - need to figure out how to use things best without throwing anything away!

Bluegreen143

Great luck, NickJW!! Don't feel guilty lol, I totally wish that would happen to me :rotfl:

No spend day today so declaring at £239.13 for July! So chuffed but could not have done it without all the help and encouragement of all you old stylers, so thank you everyone! Really looking forward to reducing the budget again in August

PennyGrabber

Wow, lucky haul NickJW!! That never happens to me...

I am declaring at a guesstimate of £180. This is using the olb, as my receipts have vanished! I know some of this was clothes and other stuff though, so it's an over-estimate. Still, as my aim is to reduce my spending next year, I don't mind! And, it's till £40 more than an average month.

Oh well, onwards and upwards! Maybe I should do more recipes form the £7 thread! Some of them sound delish.

We had bacon carbonara for dinner tonight (using a packet mix, as they keep whereas cream doesn't!) 15 mins from start to finish, so happy with that, especially as we didn't get home until six o'clock! I have one portion left over for lunch/dinner tomorrow, and then I will be back to using up freezer/pantry stocks. I had a shuffle round of stuff on one shelf of the freezer yest (ok, it was because I removed one item and the rest fell out !), and found some bits that will be fairly easy to use up without having to cook huge dinners, so that is my aim for the next few days/weeks.

Picnic ideas
- cheese/bacon puffs as a change from sandwiches
- cheese straws as a change from crisps
- jelly set in little (airtight) pots, with fruit in
- hm biscuits made from freezer dough (means you can have diff flavours made up in the freezer, and the ch can choose which one they want)
- fruit salad with yog poured over
- cold cooked pasta with olive oil/lemon/pepper, or with a pasta sauce, or with tuna, mayo and corn
-cous cous with the above (don't forget the cutlery!)
- hm sausage rolls (make a pastry, and then use deskinned sausages mixed with stuffing to pad out)
- value digestives covered in melted choc (not if it's too hot!!)/icing, with cake decs put on.
- hm flapjacks/cakes that could be iced and personalised
- take a bottle of water/ready made squash and cups instead of cartons which are really expensive. My son is a drinks monster, so I always take a 2l bottle out and about.
- slices of hm quiche/pizza
- hm pasties, using lo beef stew/baked beans, bacon and cheese/veggies and philli/chicken and cond. soup/chicken bacon and stuffing/ etc etc etc
- cuc and carrot sticks with a dip of mayo mixed with a hint of garlic

All of these things are fairly cheap to buy/make, and if you vary your food from picnic to picnic, won't get boring either!! The main thing to remember is that you don't need LOADS of food; think about how much you usually eat, then add just a tiny bit more/allow for a lolly. I used to make the mistake of packing tons of food, and then ended up chucking loads away, worried about if it had spoiled while in the coolbag for the entire day. Not any more!!

ETA: ooh, hm scotch eggs!

Make-it-3

No grocery spends for last two days and barring some emergency now (unlikely as dinner is in the pan cooking as I type) I am declaring at £208.74/£200. So slightly over.

On the plus side it was a 5 week month and I had OH's birthday meal to buy for.

On the downside, I feel I started off well, highly motivated and all that and then GC become quite a chore.

But I'm going to continue on, so hopping over to Aug thread now.

bossymoo

I'm done also here with a couple of nsd's to round off the month. MIL has brought a load of chicken portions but I'm paying her tomorrow, so will add that to Aug, to get the ball rolling. Not even sure how much...

See you on the other thread...

NickJW

Well declaring £212.66/£130 this month!

WAY over budget but hopefully I'll have a few NSD's next month judging by the haul I've got.

Great picnic ideas PennyGrabber - especially as a lot can translate into quick lunch ideas (always find what to do for lunch a struggle!)

Anyway - see you over in August...:D

jumblejack

NickJW wrote: »

Feel a bit bad

Mr W accidently came to deliver my food yesterday because they got my day wrong. They called me at work to say that they were outside my house, but neither I nor my housemate were in. They took it back to the store and came to deliver it today because my housemate is off.

Anyway - my housemate called me to ask me why I had ordered so much (I hadn't). Turns out that they doubled up all the meat and dairy products. The veg and storecupboard items were okay but they delivered:

4 packs of chicken thighs instead of 2
4 packs of bacon lardons instead of 2
2 pork joints instead of 1
2 packs of stewing beef instead of 1
2 packs of frying steak instead of 1
2 packs of diced turkey instead of 1
4 packs of kings prawns instead of 2
4 packs of pro-biotic yoghurts instead of 2
2 4 pints of milk instead of 1
2 moussakas instead of 1
6 ready meals (for lunches) instead of 3

Called up customer services to find out how much I was charged and it's the right amount. Explained to them what happened and they apologized for the inconvenice - asked them if they wanted to collect and they said that it's okay, I can keep it.

Do feel guilty though - they must have taken a big loss on this mistake! But oh well - I'll be sorted though August at least!!!

What a decent bloke!:T. Well done for doing the right thing and informing them. You can enjoy the unexpected mistake with a clean conscience!:T

money_saving_hedgehog

My month is over and I am declaring £221.18 / £250 so slightly under budget. The first half of the month was definitely better, so I must make more of an effort to stick to this strictly in August. Still very pleased with my effort considering I had to host Pre Prom Canapes and drinks for my daughter, her friends and their mums and my sons 11th Birthday Party. Not sure August is going to be quite as good, now Tesco Price Promise has made so many changes, they have made it so difficult.

mrs-moneypenny

declaring £397.16 for july

and setting another £400 for august

july was not a good month for personal reasons so have hardly posted recently

Welsh_Poppy

Declaring £300.74p just 74p over budget I can live with that:-)