October 2012 Grocery Challenge

bossymoo

Been to market and bought a huge gammon and some braising steak. Nearly £15 :eek: I told you it was huge...

sneakyspender

Well £62.14 in Mr M. So over budget by £24. Knew it was going to be a tall order this month. I try to make sure we have some think quick and easy in. So rarely seccum to takeaways. Having said that we are having fish and chips tommorow,but that is planned

flubberyzing

How do you lovely people fight the dreaded takeaway cravings?

With difficulty!
Dominos used to by my downfall, but since moving house a year ago, I've been very unimpressed with my new branch. I've ordered from them just once, it took nearly an hour to arrive and was barely warm. I've not bothered since. The branch I had down in Newbury was loads better! Super quick and always piping hot.

The only other takeaway I like is fish and chips, but its a car journey away and they don't deliver. That puts me off going 9 times out of 10. The last time I had one was for the Olympic opening ceremony actually!

[Deleted User]

Re: the takeaway dilemma - there are three ways around it I find.
Firstly - my mum doesn't touch pizza, chinese, mexican. wont even venture into mcdonalds. she will only really eat burger king as far as any fast food goes although I have been able to drag her into nandos. so the moral of the story - find someone who is particular about their food.
Two - wait for a deal on the websites. BK at the moment have vouchers on their websites, buy 1 get 1 free, 2 dine for £7, family bundle meal deal, king of the day for £3.99, etc. I dont know about other restos but pizza hut normally have kids eat free. maybe do your research for your particular food loves and see what is available to you? maybe you could try using vouchercloud/gourmet kitchen/tastecard?
Three - if the above two ideas fail - hit the supermarket. I have seen in my local T's and A's that the indian meal deals/pizzas are a d&mn sight less expensive than ordering in - if you go at the right time and you're lucky, perhaps there might even be something on the reduced section??

--

back to my own shopping now - spent £34.90 in T's today and then 75p in the bakery. Total spends £35.65 but I did use 4 coupons and had about 5 items at reduced price as well as taking advantage of 3 special offers.

will update sig shortly.

fedupandskint

I added up my receipts to see how much of the budget was left for the final week to discover I hadn't counted a couple - so now stand at £100.09 - budget is £100 - already over! Oh dear just when I thought it was going so well and congratulating myself.

Before this I knew next week would be a tight one to make it in on budget - still aiming for this regardless and at the worst it'll be £120 at the absolute most. Then its onto November to see if I can hit that magic £100 under budget.

Tonight I made a pasta and broccoli bake using up a tin of condensed soup well OOD and had in there for a very long time indeed, the left over soft cheese and broccoli head and stalks - tasted pretty good too, looked great!

liz-paul

Re: takeaways - I love takeaways (They are easy & tasty & I am lazy!) but we have cut right down over this year from having one most weekends to hardly having any as they are V unhealthy & I am always on a diet & for myself, OH & 2 small boys they cost £20-25 a pop. Now I buy convenience food in the supermarket to substitute my takeaways. Things I buy are usually frozen pizzas, fish portions & oven chips, sausages, burgers etc. This way I still get my easy cooking nights and it costs a fraction of the price. I just try to keep some convenient food in the house for the nights I'm kackered. Fresh filled pasta & a jar of cheap pasta sauce is another good standby that takes no effort at all.

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone, not been on here lately as i have been doing a 7 day fiscal fast, and im feeling realy smug that i did not spend any money whatsoever for a week, apart from an advance train ticket for the weekend, which was half price. The reason i did it was so that i could get the grocery budget back on track. Hopefully, i will be able to do this, but as i am visiting my very broke (stingy) daughter at uni and her food budget is not stretching to include all the partying she is doing, Im thinking as its a one off, i might not add the food i buy her to my budget, as its not food for me. If i don't help, im fearful she may turn into a chicken nugget !!!

rupe34

There is no way on earth I will hit the target this month:o I have been ridiculously busy and have let the OH do the shopping. I am SO appreciative that he has done it each week (I am not a fan of food shopping at the best of times) but he doesn't stick to a list. Hmm - I'll see how near to the target we can get though.

Billie-jo

No spends since Saturday to report.:j Have been very good using food up that was in, today we had the last of the eggs for lunch made into omelettes, the last couple of spoonfuls of cream went in some home made onion sauce for tea. Sunday we had beef stew and dumplings and Monday was left over stew with wedges.
Fridge is having a good cleanout tomorrow to make sure no other forgotten food is lurking before shopping on Thursday. Hope not to spend too much or else will not make the budget as really only just half way through the month but 3/4 way through the money
Next month will be a 5 week month for us and will also be getting a few extras for Dec so may increase the budget a little.
Must remember to do a meal plan tomorrow as well.

becksfaz

I'm a newbie to this and not sure whether it's relevant to put this here but made a lovely (cheap) tea tonight and want to share it with everyone:
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
3 baking pots
3 carrots
2 parsnips
cup of peas
cup of sweetcorn
lentils
tin chick peas
2 tbsp curry paste
750ml veg stock
Raisins (optional)
= THE nicest and tastiest spicey veg casserole ever!
Both my kids cleared their plates and we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow and some for the freezer!