August 2012 Grocery Challenge

XSpender

vanoonoo wrote: »

I've been having a think about our holiday in september and we'll be in a static caravan and I dont know if I should count that week in my grocery budget or not, we will take a few things from home and will shop when we get there too in the local ald! but I cant decide if I should wipe that week out or not. any thoughts about what others have done welcome! :question:

I am away 2 weeks in a static in September too:) I am using the cash I have in my purse and the freezer to feed us between now and when we go next Saturday and any money we spend when we are there in the SM or on meals out and cream teas is coming out of the holiday spending money I have budgeted for.

I will need to spend some money on fresh stuff for the 1 week of September's budget I will have left when I come back so I will set myself a small budget for that 1 week.

jumblejack

Glitch alert. Be quick.

Get yourself to a Tesco express pronto. It only works in Express stores.

Buy 2 lurpak slightly salted butters (blue packet) and the discount comes off in your favour. They should be 2 for £2 but work at 2 for 68p!!!!

It works. I've just tried it. :j

XSpender

Declaring a disapointing £492.17 against a target of £380. I was doing OK but last week we must have visited a SM nearly every day The freezers are full to overflowing.

I have reduced my spends each month since I rejoined the GC but I am still spending too much because I am buying too much. I am still getting to grips with my GF and we buy more meat now I am no longer vegetarian but that doesn't account for the big overspend. DH went tee total for 3 weeks which helped my budget but we did have a couple of meals out which were added to it for my birthday and my first non vegetarian Sunday lunch in a pub!

I am not doing a budget for september as we are away half of it but from October I am excluding any alcohol spends and eating out from my budget. They are going into my miscellaneous and entertainment budget. I will still be reading and posting though when I am not on my jollies.

Other tactics I am trying to avoid overspending again are to go to Ald1 on my own straight after work as DH always chucks extra stuff in the trolley. I am also going to be stricter about my meal plan and not be led into 'fancying' something different. I am also going to try and run both freezers right down ready for some HM batch meals and the C word.

I have also bought some mince!

Possession

£5 off £35 spend in Aldi, voucher in the Mirror tomorrow
(posted in Sept challenge too)

savesummore

Hi everyone

Had a NSD today hoorah :T and only spent £1.32 on tea bags for work yesterday

My August GC ends tomrrow so I wont declare until then as i dont want to temp fate :rotfl:

I did go out for a meal last night just to the pub but i treated myself to this from my 2nd purse profit so do not need to add to signature

Bluegreen143

Tiny spend of 85p on bin bags today. Had veggie shepherd's pie for dinner with peas which I made earlier in the week. Sticking to the meal plan so far, just having everything in a different order lol.

Billie-jo

Had the 3 grand children today and they wanted a BBQ so had to go get a few things for that. Total now stands at £151.27/£260

Thanks for the heads up POSSESION about the Ald!coupon in the paper. Not sure I will spend that amount tomorrow so think may give it a miss but it will no doubt be of use to someone.

Have just done a meal plan from Thurs - Thurs and hope to stick to it unlike this weeks which went totally out the window. It includes Thai style fishcakes, tomato tart(so simple & so nice) and stir fried pork with cucumber for me - this is this weeks new recipe -where as DH will be having prawns not the pork.

Shopping tomorrow and have made a list and will attempt to buy no more than three items that are not on it. (I usually forget to put something on the list)

I am going to try to make a inventory of one of my freezers between now and the beginning of next week if at all possible as I know there is loads of stuff in there but what I have no idea. Plan in time to do this with the other freezer and also the cupboards. May take some time as I have to my knowledge porridge oats in the wardrobe, tinned fruit and other stuff in a large chest on top of the stairs. May need a LARGE notebook :rotfl:

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

2 NSDs to report yay :j

My 'bi$tokid' BIL turned up with his two girls just a I was preparing tea last night. I was already cooking for us 5 plus my Dad, so had to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the cottage pie to 9 portions. Happy to report that by adding some oats, red lentils and some diced lo new pots to the mince it worked out just fine

Also made a banana cake to fill 'em up

Off to Co$tco tomorrow on an errand but will use my 2nd purse to stock up on some goodies

MrsCD

Bought eggs today, so will add to my total for this week, and hopefully that should be everything. Won't buy anything else until next Tuesday
I will be here until 2nd September, as I'm working on a weekly figure, and I don't want to have more days from August than September in the first week of the new month.

Caterina

Big stock up today, DH drove me to Asda for tomatoes (4 tins for £1) then to Lidl for general stock up of bits and pieces, finally to the Turkish shop where I realised I would not have needed to go to Asda as they do 4 tins for 99p! Stocked up on pasta as well as they do 3 x 400 g packs for £1, so the cupboard is full now, also got large tub of houmous and other stuff, in total I spent around £63, reflected in the signature. Very scary to think that I have only £30 to juggle with for the next weel or so.

However, the long Bank Holiday weekend is going to be a NSW/end for me and DH so it should be fun, like a couple of weeks ago. Not too worried, got lots of stock and lots of nice fresh veg in the allotment to see us throuh the next few days until 29th August.