January 2013 Grocery Challenge

hex2

I have done Lidl for the weekend offers - half price 'butchers' sausages - 6 packs, now frozen in singles and half price long life 10 packs of pain au chocolat - adored by my DS2.

Also (East Midlands) Co-op have the Elmwood whole chickens on half price this weekend so I have stocked up on those.

The freezer is still rather bare, having to fill the gaps with crumpled paper, a first for me.

StressedSteph - how lovely with the meat. I bet it tastes good as well.

shell2001

Well totted up last of receipts and I am £57 over budget:eek:, BUT the last T shop did include a £26 bottle of JD for OH) and another £12.50 on cheap bourbon for making rib sauce (which will last a while). Also as we went to friends for the evening I bought nibbles that I wouldnt have done otherwise plus £6 on ribs to take and it was still cheaper than a night out plus a family evening so kids had fun too. OK, I know I sound like I am clutching at straws now:o.

I have all the food for the rest of this month and my new challenge will start in Feb.

This month I have been making flapjacks for the girls morning snack at school, rather than the cereal bars they like and this has saved me a fair bit, even though I have been putting nuts and cranberries in.

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Good morning all:wave:

Well I think i`ve come to the end of this month as I don`t need anything else, as i`ve everything I need in.

So not too bad really and have decided to do the butchers bill seperate. I could go for a little less next month, but want to see how I go and then maybe bring it down a little lower.

So i`m declaring £351.94 for the end of January.

meg72

Declaring January at 50.00 spent off my card, so have put 50.00 in a separate pot to pay my savings back. Also means I have a few bob to spend elsewhere if an offer comes up.

lushlifesaver

Why is January such a long month - whilst under budget by plenty I feel as if we have dragged ourselves through the month.

We should have a tournament next month (if that one isn't 'postponed' too) but as we already have a lot of food in that we got for the cancelled on we will save money as the dates are long on the cereal bars, malt loaf and porridge pots.

Hoping for 3 NSDs this week to see the month out. BF has already drawn cash out for me for the first week but want to try and not touch most of it so he has a nice surprise when we are away mid month.

Meal plan for this week:
mon- bolognaise with pasta
tues - chicken topped with bacon and cheese with chips or mash
wed - leftovers for me, chippy tea for bf (late night for me at work though so make him fend for himself or send him off to his mates )
thurs - chicken rice and veg sauce
fri - cottage pies from the freezer maybe
sat - not sure yet
sun- chicken dinner (grilled chicken)

I seem to be using frozen veg at an alarming rate - 900g is only £1 in iceland but it's not even lasting a week max and it's only me eating it! Tempted to weigh it out in to 100g portions to stretch it a little.

Going to cost out some of our meals too so I know what's going where (and just out of pure curiosity)

Lovethenight

Morning folks - gosh this is turning into a real challenge!

Although I'm already over budget, I was really tempted to go to the shops yesterday to get bread, eggs, meat, squash, veg etc. but it was actually DH who stopped me and reminded me that we really need to try and stick to the new budget!

We have started our new 1 income household budget from January, even though my maternity leave starts in April. We figured that it would be good practice to switch to it while we still have a couple of months of my income left as a buffer in case of any accidents!

It's proving much harder than we thought and I'm so glad that we're trying it now when any mistakes won't have such a bad effect - very determined to stick to it though!

So - I redid a complete inventory of the cupboards and freezer (At the beginning of January it took up almost 2 pages and now takes up just half a page!:eek:

Using pretty much everything left in the freezer, this is the plan to get us to Feb without spending anything:

Sat =Sausage casserole and rice
Sun = Herby Chicken, veg and potato croquettes
Mon = Oriental Salmon, rice and green beans
Tues = Pasta (have 2 pork loin cops in the freezer, so wil chop these up and add them so DH doesn't feel too deprived of protein!)
Wed = Quorn and water chestnuts with blackbean sauce and rice
Thur = Cod, peas and oven chips
Fri = Beef Madras and rice

Spending the weekend with my family, so will get fed by them (thank you mum!) and then we are finally into Feb! Fingers crossed we can stick to it.

Good luck to all those who are still battling on until the bitter end!!:beer:

Lolkat

I spent £11.21 in S@insbury's yesterday evening. I was meant to get just bread and 2 other things, but DH came with me and it spiralled into lots of other stuff! £4 was on a birthday card and wrapping for a pressie so I'm knocking that off my spend as I've a separate pot for that.

Today we are out all day. Having a meal at lunchtime, and then the cinema, but DH pays for these, so a NSD for me. (Is that cheating? We don't pool our money. I pay all the household costs, DH pays for treats n holidays.)

I'm busy writing a shopping list for Monday and I'm planning on spending the voucher I have at T, so stocking the cupboards and freezer a bit, rather than just shopping for the week. My budget is £300 and I'll still have a little left even after a big shop.

I've set Feb's budget at £200, although that looks like £100 drop, it's only actually £10 a week reduction as Feb is such a short month.

I've analysed my spending and seem to do one stocking up shop every 6 weeks or so. Then 5 smaller shops. I'm interested to see how much I'll be spending in the 4 weeks in Feb.

savingpennies

savingpennies wrote: »

i've collected all my receipts together in a file and added them up this morning. My grand total so far comes to 376.99 and I haven't been shopping for this week's shopping list yet:eek: My month runs from the 28th as that is when I am paid so my total will go up again but not by much as I have a short shopping list.

On closer inspection it's high because we went to see the Lion King in Manchester at new year and went to Pizza Express afterwards (5 adults, two courses) so that came to £95 and we had a takeaway on Thursday as everyone was running late so no-one made the tea. So I am not too unhappy as without those two events I would have been well under budget. I am going to stay with the same target for next month of £350.

I called it at my mum's this morning and she was saying how much she had enjoyed the lion king and then reminded me that she had said she would pay for the meal out as i had paid for the tickets. She promptly gave me £95 which means I have come in under budget after all:j. My new month starts tomorrow so will hop over to February's challenge to start anew.

JIL

katholicos wrote: »

Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to make some slow cooker lemon curd.

Thank you for the link to the lemon curd, apart from on bread what else can lemon curd be used for? Its something I had as a child but have not had in years.

thank you for any suggestions.

Upsidedown_Bear

JIL wrote: »

Thank you for the link to the lemon curd, apart from on bread what else can lemon curd be used for? Its something I had as a child but have not had in years.

thank you for any suggestions.

Lemon curd tarts are yummy