August 2012 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

NickJW wrote: »

Totally forgot to say that I'm sorry to hear about your freezer situation PennyGrabber!

Hope everyone else is well and sorry if I've missed any condolences.

More spends to report from yesterday:

£1 on some wraps in Mr S
£14.16 in Mr W.

Bought a kilo of chicken breasts on offer - all individually wrapped which is brillant for me since I can get out what I need!. Had Zataar chicken with LO salad, mayo and wraps for dinner last night.
The rest of the chicken is in the freezer.
Also bought pak choi, a small carrot, spring onions, ginger for recipes.
Also got tempted by 2 packs of reduced sausages, reduced block of stilton, and reduced lemon merigues (2 indivdual servings would normally be £4.99 - reduced to £1.05). The lemon meringues were stunning but who would pay £4.99 for them!? :eek:

I DID resist 3 things yesterday though:

1. I saw that Charlie Bighams ready meals were reduced from £6 to £4.50 in Mr S. Nearly got them until I had a big think and realized that I could probably make a big batch of Macaroni cheese for a LOT cheaper than that myself? Bought wraps for the chicken instead.

2. In Mr W, Charlie Bighams had their chicken and mushroom pie reduced to £4.89. It didn't say if they could be frozen though and since they come with ramekins I wasn't sure if they would crack in the freezer - resisted!

3. Got an email from Mr T saying that they missed me, and I hadn't shopped with them for a while (I think it's only been 2 months), and here's a voucher for £7.50 off your next shop. Looked into it and I would need to spend £75 by the 1st September, and the delivery would be £3, so in essence that's £4.50 off. 6% off a £75 shop isn't going to sway me, since I have tons in the freezer and go on holiday on the 9th Sept anyway!

So not perfect, but baby steps and all that lark! :rotfl:

How sweet .
Mac cheese is really cheap to make, so you did well to avoid the temptation of that one, as well as all the others!

Caterina

Thank you Billie-Jo for the cauliflower cheese fritters idea, this is going to be our dinner tonight as I have all the ingredients!

I am going to say goodbye to the August thread a bit in advance, DH has just been paid, I have just paid the credit card bill in full with money we had left in the account (YIPPEE!!! No need to touch the savings this month) so today is a natural starter for my September GC.

I think that I would have made it to 29th Aug within budget or thereabout, as we have lots of food stocked up and a fair amount of veg in the allotment, so I don't feel I am cheating.

mrs-moneypenny

been away for a week so need to work out my spends and do my total
DH has been of this week so havent been on the puter much will update my sig in time to start again next month with a clean slate and a tighter belt

NickJW

pajama wrote: »

Well, I failed my GC. Not too bad though. An extra Aldi spend sent me over but that's it now for August. So, a grand total of £339.26 spent. Off to put myself down for the September challenge now

Not a failure at all! You get your good months and your bad months, but this is pretty good. On other months you may go slightly under or slightly over. The fact that you're monitoring your spends means that you're winning, because without it you would never know that you're over or under! :T

NickJW

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending wrote: »

How sweet .
Mac cheese is really cheap to make, so you did well to avoid the temptation of that one, as well as all the others!

I know - I was touched! :rotfl::D

I spoke to my mum and she said it was expensive and that I could make it cheaper from scratch. When I asked how she made Mac'n'Cheese she said she bought a Colmans cheese sauce packet, mixed it with milk, put it on the pasta and then put cheese on top! :eek: (rosieben - in case you're wondering, this does NOT need to go into the recipe list! )

Hmm - think I'll try a macaroni cheese from the front page when the time comes to try it it. Kezlous looks nice!

MrsCD

NSD for me today.
I made my first ever HM pizza with the recipe for pizza dough from the index last night and it was delicious :T
Very cheap - just a drained tin of tomatoes as I didn't have any puree, a sprinkle of grated cheese, and some chopped pepper on top, served with other veggies. I think I will cook on a higher temp next time - 220 instead of 200C as it was slightly chewy in the middle but I could just make it thinner!

Bluegreen143

No grocery spends today. Had the most awful evening and had to stay late at work, ended up getting a taxi home and a take away pizza :eek: but these come out of fun money budget not grocery. Bit sad to have to use my fun money on it though

Ordered Mr A shopping to be delivered on Sunday afternoon. Meal plan done for next week:

Sun - mackerel for me, HM burger for OH, along with HM chips and salad

Mon - veg chilli from freezer with rice

Tues - veg tagine with cous cous

Wed - spag bol from freezer with salad and/or garlic bread (depending on how much OH twists my arm lol)

Thurs - veg curry or similar

Fri - chicken drumsticks (from freezer) with potatoes and veg

Sat - veg lasagne with salad

Didn't need much at all for these but stocked up on flour, cat litter etc as had a decent amount of this week's budget left and September is a five weekend month for me. Guide price is £45 including delivery so should be well within target, allowing for some sneaky OH spends to materialise :rotfl:

jumblejack

Mychallenge this week is a bit mixed up. I did a great targeted shop today at Asda for an APG but I am unable to print it off (computer woes )

I normally take off the price of the APG. Will try n get my head round it....

Suffolk_lass

Up too early this morning as itchy - combination of discovering cats have fleas (both now double-treated with Stronghold and carpets and upholstery all done with rug patrol) - I have bites, and a mosi family that clearly thinks I'm dinner. I have bites in obscure places that itch like b***ery. Long and short is I was up before 5. Very domesticated at that time of day! Even logged onto bank account and DH has been paid a week earlier than expected :T

Dilemma - stay another week in August GC challenge as planned, or bank underspend and move to Sept early? I know we have a large CC bill for Sept and moving now makes it a five Friday month. Might split it and shop today in Aug and then move...

rosieben

NickJW wrote: »

... (rosieben - in case you're wondering, this does NOT need to go into the recipe list! ) ...

aww, you're no fun, Nick! :rotfl: