September 2012 Grocery Challenge

PennyGrabber

Coxy, just want to add hugs from me. Little or no consolation right now, but we're never given more than we can deal with...

Nsd today, and yesterday too. Had a delish hm pie for dinner today. I treated myself to a very lovely (expensive) pie thing from land of the lake, and made my first one today. It's a metal thing with four loose-bottomed bits, and a cutter so your pastry top and bottom are the right size! I had lo roast beef from Monday, so put that in with some chopped onions and some thick gravy. It were right nice!! Cheap too...

Tom will be a nsd too as working and have the children, and hoping I can stretch to nsd Fri too. Don't need anything but I won't have the ch this weekend so very tempting to shop.

I'm doing fish pie for dinner tom, will prep it tonight while I'm in the kitchen doing lunch boxes and tidying, so then I'll just have to shove it in the oven when I get home from work. Pudding will be melon, as we're working our way through a giant one at the moment!

Night all,

PG x

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hi!

Defrosted a ys pack of mince (20p) today. Made a bolognaise sauce and stretched it with courgette, onion and carrot. Ds and dd had spag bolognaise, we had shepherds pie with celeriac and potato mash and there is enough s pie for tomorrow too and managed to freeze another two meals worth of bolognaise that 20p went a long way. I had some courgette left over so I sliced it into rounds and put in s pie (bolognaise layer, then courgette, then mash). It was really nice and managed to get in an extra portion of veg!. Served with good old baked beans.

Have added up spends and somehow they are at £411. Budget is £350 so not good! I will look at receipts and try to work out why. This is what happens when you take your eye off of things

Hugs to coxy xx

she_who_can_not_cook

flubberyzing wrote: »

However many times I read the "second purse" thread, I still don't really get it! LOL

me neither i try but then give up

CupOfChai

Me neither! The amount of times it's been explained, but I still just don't see it.

Anyhoo, never mind my lack of second purse skills, I'm still declaring September at £160.61 out of a budget of £170. Yay!

meanmarie

Declaring at €184.33.....€9.33 over budget....am so mad with myself, some of the things I bought to-day could have waited until Monday...stupid, stupid woman!!

liz-paul

Just realised my meal planner is a dinner short for the rest of the month....

meg72

meanmarie wrote: »

Declaring at €184.33.....€9.33 over budget....am so mad with myself, some of the things I bought to-day could have waited until Monday...stupid, stupid woman!!

Hey dont be so hard on yourself, if you dont actually need the things until Monday, take them off this budget and add them to the next, your just ahead of yourself then.

flubberyzing

(((Sorry to hear you are having a hard time Coxy)))

A small spend on milk for me today. I had enough to see me through until Monday, but then a friend invited herself to stay over tomorrow night. I haven't got to feed her, but she'll want teas and coffees.

Regarding the "second purse" idea, I've come up with sort of my own alternative.
If I come in under budget at the end of the month, any spare cash goes into a (spreadsheet!) pot. This money is then used intermittently to build the store cupboard. Or if, for example, you see a good deal in-store that your regular monthly budget won't cover, then you can dip into your "under-spend reserves".
Of course, this relies on being a fairly regular under-spender. But it seems to be working for me.

Lulabelle06

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time Coxy.

Pretty much all I have to say today. NSD I hope and I am just dreading the last shop of the month...need lots of things like toilet rolls so going to be expensive I think. But going to see Starlight Express on Sat and then Jersey Boys on Tuesday...very musical heavy week but soooo excited. and different budget for the meals out etc so at least it cuts a few days meals from the month!

Hope everyone is well, it's finally stopped raining where I am and I have even spotted some blue in the sky!!

liz-paul

Well made my first bolognaise padded out with red lentils: Tastes ok, looks a bit pale. Real test will be what OH and boys make of it. I also added a load of tesco value frozen mixed veg and onions so one packet of mince has easily made dinners worth. Have about a tenner left until Sunday which is plenty but I'm disapointed I won't have much leftover for savings.... While I've allowed £450 a month I was hoping I'll only spend £400 most months to help build up savings. Not too bad though as until a few months ago I was generally spending £550-600 a month....