January 2013 Grocery Challenge

she_who_can_not_cook

craigywv wrote: »

meant to say i called into mr t for milk ahem ahem ahem (cant stay away from the whoopsies) got ham on the bone like small version of the one in the deli section down from 7.50 to 50p the other night so got 4 its official freezers are full and i will stay away from sm..........well until new years eve anyway!!! its a disease i have i am convinced of it i like a magnet to the reduced section past caring who sees me (used to be embarassed) now dont care who sees me i in there shoulders back head down like a charging bull well enough of me i off to capture the recycling binmen as our bins full of paper/selection boxes have a good day.xxx

I think you are my long lost twin .... my NEW tesco has reduced items all in the same places and not started moving them the poor naive fools

she_who_can_not_cook

liz-paul wrote: »

£400 by Easter and maybe a bit more later in the year, baking more, buying an electric slicer to make my own sandwich meats & having a go at using my breadmaker.

that was me too but i mentioned in dec gc that i dont trust myself around sharp machinery it must be so much cheaper to do your own sandwich meats please let me know what you get

sillyinthepast

Our month starts today as we have just checked bank and have been paid.

I am hoping to get a few whoopsies on the shop tonight.

Thriftkitten

Hi can anyone help me with the spreadsheet, I am just setting it up and put all sub columns in IE groceries, insurance etc, but where do I enter my monthly budget, do I put it in the totals section and have to calculate my whole annual budget or can I put it in a monthly budget, am scared to play about incase I do something wrong and delete something to stop the spreadsheet working. thanks:eek:

she_who_can_not_cook

theshinyone wrote: »

Fabulous ... Thank you ... that might work out just right in terms of stocking up for batch cooking. I never knew about this so much appreciated you sharing :T

i do soups mainly and mince (cooked)

http://www.homesteadgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=760

try this it is nearly tens years old now but its great

http://www.homesteadgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=756

cw18

I treated myself to this electric slicer at the end of last of last year - partly to slice my own sandwich meat (you'd be surprised how many pre-cooked/sliced ones - especially chicken - contain milk which I need to avoid as much as possible), and partly to slice homemade bread (can never do it evenly with a knife).

I haven't used it as much as I'd planned due to not havig freezer space for bags of cooked meats (I keep stocking up on Whoopsies instead!) and not making as much of my own bread as I'd planned (keep finding nice ones Whoopised at A!di), but I do like it and find it pretty easy to use

It's going to take a while before I can say it's paid for itself, but my parents are pretty generous with my Christmas cheque and I didn't actually have to put much towards it myself. I tend to buy expensive 'toys' this way, as it means they've bought me something specific that I otherwise probably couldn't have justified.

(I'm looking at using part of this years for a waterproof MP3 player in the hope I'll find swimming a little less boring and stay in the water longer each session - I certainly walk a lot further when listening to music )

Thriftkitten

Was quite comical to see your user name...... I wonder... do they salivate according to the clinking of your pots and pans or have you trained them with a bell..... Now off to skinners box!!!! Psychology geek in the making!!!:D

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

It usually falls on the last Thursday of the month. The Mirror will print a voucher for a £5 off a £35 spend in Aldi. There is usually a page of % off selected items too. All of the vouchers can be used together in the same transaction too, which is a bonus.

On the discount codes and vouchers board there is a new thread daily where they list coupons and offers in newspapers, that is your best place to check if you don't see it advertised in the TV

cw18

Thriftkitten wrote: »

Hi can anyone help me with the spreadsheet, I am just setting it up and put all sub columns in IE groceries, insurance etc, but where do I enter my monthly budget, do I put it in the totals section and have to calculate my whole annual budget or can I put it in a monthly budget, am scared to play about incase I do something wrong and delete something to stop the spreadsheet working. thanks:eek:

If you're using my spreadsheet you put your annual budgets into the Budget column (column . You can either enter a single figure (eg 960) or a formula (eg =80x12) Both give the same result (and in the case of the examples would both show 960 in the cell)

It then self calculates your monthly budget as being 1/12th of the annual budget, so with show Budget to date as being 1/12th in January, 2/12ths in February etc. (so the above example would show 80 in January, 160 in Feb, 240 in March etc)

But you can override the Budget to date if you want to. I use a personal formula in the grocery one, as my monthly budget depends on number of days in month (me), number of weekdays in month (son) and number of Saturdays in month (OH). By the end of the year that cell has quite a long and complicated forumula in it !!!

[Deleted User]

I'm here to say thank you again! Having read through some of the recipes at the beginning of the thread I've been able to use bananas, lemons and double cream that would have otherwise gone in the bin. They were left over from Xmas and the fruit wasn't looking its best and the double cream had reached its date. Instead, I have a banana/lemon cake and banana ice cream about to go into the freezer.

Now I'm going to look for parsnip ideas and checking the date on the 6 bags of mixed fruit I have accumulated. Needless to say I haven't touched my weekly food budget yet :-)

Thriftkitten

I bought a joint of cooked ham on the bone yesterday from Mr T's, one of their finest range and have sliced it all up to go in sarnies.... does anyone know if this is freezable as it is already cooked, but I also bought another and dont want it to go to waste. If not I will mingle it in with dinners over the course of the week, thanks.