October 2012 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Three small spends today - DM spent about £7 in the local Budgen$, and I spent £4 in Burger King (using a coupon) & 65p in the post office on a Twirl Bar

Total today £11.65

**ThEChAllEnGeR**

6 days and nights worth of (fairly) healthy meals for 2 people for £25 from morrisons.

Sat- pizza and salad
sun- toad in the hole with loads of veg
mon- bacon and onion with tomato pasta sauce and wholemeal pasta
tues- sausage casserole
wed- fish cakes, new potatoes and salad
thurs- fish fingers chips and beans.

Plus loads of fruit, juice, milk cereal (porridge oats and a box of cereal), big loaf of bread, ham (for sandwiches) beans (for beans on toast) and soup for lunches.

There you go, 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 6 dinners for 2 people for £25. Amazing how much you can save when you cut down on meat!

Gonna do this for the next few weeks and use the underspend (£15 under budget per week) for the extra costs associated with the Christmas period.

katholicos

Accountability for 2nd day of no-grocery-spending for a week....and it's a big fat fail for me. Received an email for 20% off a £35 spend at food bargains, and stocked up on items that we will most definately use and cannot afford at full price. Total spend today £35.54. The reduction on already reduced food, covered the cost of the p and p.

Not too angry at myself because some items we just can't get anywhere else, and we use a lot of, so a huge saving to us in the long term.

Still, my purse is sad in the short term!

P.s. the offer is for today only, least i think so, hence the spendies.

xx_Jo_xx

Hmmmm, Im contemplating doing an approved food order... but do I really need it??

There are some good offers on there, but my cupboards are fairly well stocked at the moment anyway....Im thinking Id just be buying for the sake of stocking up!

I am going to need bread though so I will have to go to buy some... Im thinking I will pop to Mr A or Mr M though as Mr T doesnt seem to do cheap herbs anymore... So think I will buy a few packs to keep me going.

Also need oxo cubes and fabric softner too....

MUST STICK TO LIST!! MUST STICK TO LIST!!!

Suffolk_lass

smashedsanny wrote: »

daft question on frrzing bananan do you freeze them in the skin or what :beer:

smashedsanny - You can do. I did, then when I did my freezer tidy-up I got them all out (about 8!) and as the just started to soften I peeled them all and chucked them in the food processor and whizzed them up and poured into an old ice-cream pot for instant banana ice-cream (Jumblejack's recipe from page 1) or for mixing with other fruit for an instant cold smoothie or my family's favourite is with a splodge of milk and a scoop of the cheapest vanilla ice cream for really thick and yummy banana milkshakes.

I also tried whizzing up the bananas before freezing but not nearly so good (except for cakes!).

Re YS shopping. I found if I went specially to look I bought loads of off-list stuff :eek:- now my list will say "3 x veg" rather than saying what veg so I can sub reduced veg if it's there. :T I might change the time I go to get the best chance of reductions but definately no special trips unless you really know your store routine (a friend who works there and gives you the inside info, eg)

tessie bear - thank you for your thoughts, much appreciated

SL

minicooper272

I know what you all mean about the stocking up problem! It's funny, but psychologically if my fridge or cupboards start to look a little sparse, I start to feel really hungry, so I have to keep buying food to stop that!

Ended up going food shopping yesterday in the end - spent £12.87 on some essentials like cheese and lemsip (sore throat), needed fruit for the week, but instead bought strawberries. I spent another £1.75 in the week on sweetcorn and lockets, so total so far is £40.17. Slightly worried that this is my spends only one week in! Must avoid going into Lid1 after the gym this week, it's right next door.

Taranaman

Sat down with a calculator and my receipts so far for the month to get a more accurate figure and although a lot of my total for the month has been spent, some of it was for a dinner for 10 last night (celebratory so a bit of a splash), I have a full fridge, freezer and food cupboard and some of my Christmas stash as well, so hope to keep the total down with just replenishing perishables between now and the 31st.

Even better news financially - we've been invited out for Christmas Day - which means, in theory, less need for a big Christmas stash!

Taranaman

Might revise budget down to £300 - £350 feels a bit easy after my stocktake of freezer and stores. I wasn't sure until I'd shopped for last night's dinner, but today it feels achievable.

Also up on wines as guests brought more than they consumed!

she_who_can_not_cook

katholicos wrote: »

Accountability for 2nd day of no-grocery-spending for a week....and it's a big fat fail for me. Received an email for 20% off a £35 spend at food bargains, and stocked up on items that we will most definately use and cannot afford at full price. Total spend today £35.54. The reduction on already reduced food, covered the cost of the p and p.

Not too angry at myself because some items we just can't get anywhere else, and we use a lot of, so a huge saving to us in the long term.

Still, my purse is sad in the short term!

P.s. the offer is for today only, least i think so, hence the spendies.

me too but i could not make it up to a full basket so left it

WantToBeSE

I split my monthly budget of £250 into 4x60 and 1x10. The 10 is for misc items.
I find this way works much better for me, as i cope better with planning weekly instead of monthly.
So, every Friday i take £60 out of the bank, and i know that i dont touch the bank until the following Friday.

That said...i am desperate for chocolate today! Only have 18p left, so i will see if we have any hot choc left to hot those cravings with.