October 2012 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

:wave:Welcome back, good to see you posting again :wave:
SL

XSpender wrote: »

Morning All

I will be reading and posting this month to keep me on track.

Suffolk_lass

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

It's just the two of us (and a cat) and we don't include alcohol, takeaways or eating out in our total - if you look at my sig you'll see that only a few months ago I was spending £300+ every month and I'm now down to £220 a month.

Hope to reduce a wee bit more, but what has really helped me is being organised and accepting that I have to spend time on being OS - e.g. I shop every week now instead of as and when, I bake bread and make soup for lunches every Sunday, I am merciless about using up leftovers. Also I used to be too snobby to buy value products but now I embrace them. Ketchup, mayonnaise, bran flakes, washing up liquid, tin foil, pasta, butter, chopped tomatoes - so much cheaper to buy value. But it is very hard when your OH is not on board, I could reduce further but he is frankly not that motivated too and wants to buy nice things with his money. Good luck!

This is top advice :T
SL

flubberyzing

she_who_can_not_cook wrote: »

quality save/homebargains 1.39 big fairy bottles

I got 2 for £2 from Tesco, so that's good.
Don't have a Quality Save here. Do have a Homebargains but it's nothing special really.

vanoonoo

grrr another £41 in tesco today but at least we got the £5.00 off spend which is valid into the start of nov

liz-paul

I'm gonna go over budget :mad: Not much I can do about it except cancel the Halloween party but I refuse to do that! Think I will be £10-20 over in the end...... Think maybe I need to meal plan for the whole month right at the start.....

xx_Jo_xx

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending wrote: »

My problem with doing this is that if it's in the house, I'll probably drink it ...... But if it's there, I'd have half a glass a day until it's all gone


I'm now in the final year of my degree and have loads of work to do..

I have been known to do the same... Likewise, Ill only have one glass, maybe two if its the weekend.. but will continue till there is none... Then Ill buy more to stock up! I try to store them in a cupboard in the hall, so that they arent cold and ready to drink... Sometimes it works... Sometimes it doesnt. :rotfl: Good luck with your last year...


Small spends for me today...

I had to take my library books in for renewal so I treated DS to a Mucky Ds (which we rarely ever ever have cos I think its vile...but he loves!). Hes had no real treats this month and hes been forbidden from putting almost ANYTHING in the trolley EVER!! :rotfl: ... So I thought Id get him a treat, as hes not getting any pocket money just now and has been sooooo good.... plus I had vouchers

So.... 77p for drinks from Home Barga!ns
And £3.98 for Food from Manky D...

Total monthly spend: £197.21

Suffolk_lass

Did a week's shopping at Azbo's for less than £50 and I'm still trying to work out what I forgot. This is unheard of for me to be at £214 spent at this stage of the month and it was time to play tetris with the remaining freezer space as I think I still over-bought for our needs. I am away tomorrow for work so only DH at home for Sunday and Monday dinners.

We are both trying to lose weight but I refuse to buy blueberries at £4 a carton so my low fat yogurt will be accompanied by a teaspoon of hm jumbleberry jam instead of fresh fruit this week.

We might eat out of the freezers for the rest of the month as I have loads of teeny weeny bramley apples that need harvesting and the damage to the skins means they won't store well so I need to prep and freeze them or make juice or cider - and there is absolutely no room in the freezers currently...

Have a good week everyone
SL

craigywv

Band M have the tins of Ye Old Oak ham also chicken for 1.49 which i thinks quite good , i have noticed the tins not as big though, also tins of pilchards in tom sauce for 25p lovely on toast or in a salad.

[Deleted User]

Another £6 spend today - KFC for dinner yum yum x

TheThriftyScrumpers

Morning,
I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I did a freezer inventory yesterday. I have done this before but it has only lasted a while before I forget to add or take off items. This time I did it differently. We have two freezers one inside and one outside. Normally I do one list for both and I think this is where I fall down as it becomes complicated knowing where everything is.

This time i have just listed food that is inside and I have organised the four shelves (meat/fish, easy teas, bread and puddings and veg,chilli,garlic and herbs). Once any shelf has any space I will grab some of the relevant food from the outside freezer to take its place. Also I have used one page per shelf so I have four mini lists.

Ha ha, I have just re-read the above! I sound just a tad over the top. Sad thing is I feel really please and organised now

We had fish stew last night and today I will defrost some lamb steaks (for which I know the precise location ) they will either become lamb hotspot or lamb tagine. No spends planned.