September 2012 Grocery Challenge

postcode

Spent a little bit this week, signature updated accordingly. Been very lucky with the ys stuff so far, latest was a bag of stir fry vegetables for 15p, and a bag of 1.5Kg potatoes also 15p. Well happy with those.

vanoonoo

big shop at te5c0 today hopefully more than keep us going until the holiday shop (21 sep) apart from a few fresh bits. also got a few of the super 6 from a!di this week which always makes me happy

EverTheOptimist

Evening all, another £47.85 spent today, which leaves me about £20 for the month. :eek:

£9.90 of todays spends were bits and bobs to package up and send out to hubby, so might have to start budgeting seperately for those bits, especially as he wants a parcel weekly for the next 7 months. :eek: again.

I am making a curry tonight, cheating though and using a jar, will put in chicken breast, chick peas, mushrooms and peas, oooh and maybe some frozen mixed veg, which means i shall have a number of meals to freeze, also have homemade lasagnes in the freezer and am out for tea tomorrow night, so this week sorted. Sounds boring but i have no problem having the same meal 2, 3 or 4 nights in a row.

Suffolk_lass

Did a monster shop today all reflected in sig. Waitflower had that lovely fettuccine in boxes on offer so we bought 6 :eek: for the rapidly expanding store cupboard. Don't mind as we expect pasta to increase in price soon. I also restocked on all canned things (tomatoes, baked beans, chick peas, borlotti and pinto beans, condensed soups and tinned spagetti) and tomato puree to refill the larder drawers for winter.

Have a good week everyone - I have just one day in the office and the rest is out and about. Still haven't caught up since hols!

SL

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Big shop today - chose JS because I had a £7.50 off a £50 spend voucher. Total spent in JS was £45.32 but I couldn't get a few bits of popped into M&S for those £4.75.

Hoping to switch to having half freshly made dinners and half from the freezer around mid-month.

craigywv

just a quick note my local B&M store yesterday had all there gardening small things secateurs, metal trowels windchimes down to 10p each i got loads also potting trays so asked man in shop and he said ALL the B&M stores are doing it this week to free room for christmas stock maybe worth a look folks.

MoonJelly

she_who_can_not_cook wrote: »

i second but dont forget to take a bit out for expantion before you freeze

Do you have to? I froze some milk last week and yes, I found the carton "swollen" but after desfrosting it went back to normal. Mind you, they were cartons not plastic bottles.

Also I found the secret to staying within the budget is shopping online so I'm not tempted to overbuy... So it is £33.16 at Tesco online + £3.50 for delivery charges. It might seem a tad much but I haven't got a car.

katholicos

Have been chronically overspending of groceries for quite a while and really want to curb it before that behaviour becomes too ingrained, hence my return to the GC thread.

Haven't a figure in mind as yet, as i am contemplating doing a monthly shop or maybe even longer. For now i will just post grocery outgoings so i can hold myself accountable for them.

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

OK damage assessed - OH spent £5.70 on OJ, olives, bread and coke. Had a very long argument/discussion about things and I think he feels a bit 'controlled' by me doing all the meal planning/quizzing him about everything he buys. He used to do a lot of the cooking but he spends a lot more than me so I'd taken over, his argument is that I'm the one that wants to save money, not him (fair enough).

So I'm going to set aside a bit that he can spend on snacks and work hard on not nagging and also get him more involved in cooking/meal planning again. When we get back from hols he's going to do it for a whole week(!) but with my budget, to see if he manages, he can go over if he wants but pay for it himself, which we both think is fair as long as the initial budget is reasonable to start with. I set some ground rules, e.g. I don't want meat more than twice (he can have it as much as he wants) and it has to be free range if I'm eating it and he needs to make sure I have lunches provided and fresh fruit for snacks. Should be interesting!

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Thanks! I'm hoping it will be fun, but also might make OH appreciate how much work it takes to stick in budget (and eat healthily which is another rule!). He will be happy to go over and pay himself so I don't think he will keep in budget, just as long as I'm not paying extra that's fine. Will be nice to have a break from making bread, rigid meal planning, remembering to defrost things and box up leftovers and use up wrinkly veg, and just be spoiled by OH's lovely cooking! Though I hate waste and OH is awful for wasting things so I'm sure I'll have to bite my tongue about that all week lol.

My OH moans about the meal plans too! Every week I say "are you OK with this" and he's always busy or whatever, then he moans during the week. Think he just prefers to decide what he's having on the night tbh and feels meal plans are too restrictive!

Lol BlueGreen - I'm looking forward to hearing how this goes :rotfl:. Sounds like you'll be having a good rest that week though and then hopefully by the end of the week there will be more appreciation of what you do .

With my DH when I'm meal planning I ask him what he wants to do when he's cooking (3 nights a week) and then just tell him it's too expensive if necessary so he has to think of something else. Then when I'm cooking I just cook what I want and everyone just has to eat it :rotfl:. When we first got married, he used to want to cook unhealthy food but now he's pretty good (it's taken me years to train him lol).

Make-it-3

Its all going to pot this month Taking advantage of this brief Indian summer OH invited some friends over for a BBQ (so extra spends required) but they then cancelled at the last minute :mad:

I've put the burgers in the freezer along with the burger buns. I'm a complete novice about freezing stuff (mine usually only has peas in it!). How does the bread not get soggy, how long does it take to thaw and does it still taste as fresh???

I've way too much salad stuff for us to get through to, not sure what to do with it.

Anyway the weekly shop including BBQ stuff was £48.45 - including buying the briquettes at the expensive corner store as MrS had completely run out.

Total now running at £120.34/£200 just 9 days into the month :eek: