February 2013 Grocery Challenge

Princess_nola1

Hubby spent £6 at the spar last night on "treats". £6 added to spend on signature.

meg72

craigywv wrote: »

hi can i be put in for 40 quid pls cant get colours to work, eating out of freezers again have loads. FLO good to see u back again missed those dinners of yours xxx poundshop has all the grow your own seeds in again so i spent 5 quid on spuds,carrots/scallions/beans,cabbage worth a try at growing as i grew so much out of these packs last year it was great. granted a few things did not grow fantastic due to the weather but the rest did. got milk today i poundshop to freeze so total spend 11 quid think i shall be ok good luck all xxx

Have promised myself I will sort out last years seeds before i dash off and buy more.

For some reason I find the displays quite irresitable and buy far too many. Must have the seed pots though as did very well with them last year.

craigywv

meg72 wrote: »

Have promised myself I will sort out last years seeds before i dash off and buy more.

For some reason I find the displays quite irresitable and buy far too many. Must have the seed pots though as did very well with them last year.

i been gathering up all the petit filous/yogurt pots and cardboard egg boxes from about sept of last year so oh will be delighted he can have his shed bak as i have them stored in there.....i too tend to buy too many seeds but promised myself last year i was using up EVERYTHING i had and only bought what i posted earlier, i was fit to be tied leaving behind all the other delectable seed packages but i MUST use up what i have or its defeating the purpose. xxx

lushlifesaver

Continuing my preparations to leap in to the February budget in a few days.

Meal plans made, the same meals each week just in slightly different orders (one joy of a fussy bf is the ability to plan and stick to just a few dishes then switch some in/out the next month haha). Meals this month with be:
Mon - bolognaise with pasta tubes
Tues - Chicken, rice and veg sauce
Wed - chippy tea for bf (£2.30)/leftovers for me
Thurs - chicken topped with bacon and cheese, served with mash/chips
Fri - cottage pie
sat - 'free night' - basically depends what's in the cupboards or the budget
Sun - chicken dinner

Breakfasts are cereal/porridge/toast/waffles and we have plenty of those in for the month

Lunches are sandwiches (ham and/or cheese) or soup, fruit and a biscuit/choc bar/hm cake (bf - only bought on offer)

I know that in Feb we will be having one weekend where we will be away Fri-Sun. We have breakfasts to take (porridge pots), we take our lunch stuff with us (I feed almost the whole team for lunches and they contribute) and evening meals on Fri/Sat will be out so we need about £40 in the budget for those. And Valentines day where we are going to a local pub that does 2 for £10 (and £3 for drinks) That leaves £67.

From doing my inventory etc I can predict our weekly needs to be:
bread (12 rolls) £1
satsumas £1
bananas £1
ham £2
cheese £1.50 - actually £3 but lasts 2 weeks so halved
milk £1
crisps £0.50 - again last 2 weeks so halved from the £1 cost
choc for bf £1 (on offer - on pay day will buy four packs to last the month, may stock up on his favourites from another depending on cash flow)
Pink and whites £1 - 2 packs, a little treat for me whilst still on offer!
Frozen veg £1 - although I want to start making this last longer - so aiming for the current pack to last at least 2 weeks!
Eggs £1

Total average cost of £12 per week

On pay day I may do it a little differently and stock up on a months worth of pink and whites (£4)/crisps(£4)/chocolate(£4) and get two boxes of pizza base mix (@£0.77each), a pack of smash(£1) as its when I just pop in to pick up those bits that I end up 'just picking this/that up' or thinking 'ooh bf would love this' as they are the only things I get from a big SM, whilst the rest is from Iceland!

At some point this month we will also need
yorkshire puddings - £2
squash - £1.50

If my working out is right it our average spends should level out at less than £15 per week incl any takeaway/bf's chippy tea - a total of £45 based on what I buy when and with the stuff that will roll over for at least a 2nd month. e.g. squash lasts 2 months, same for yorkshire puddings.

Going to get strict and stick to this plan now. Have written up the meal plans, written 4 weeks worth of shopping lists (will cross off what we don't need before going) and I'm ready to beat this challenge!

rellaella

Well I was very pleased with myself yesterday, I did a whole load of batch cooking......
I had
1 x pack Iceland frozen chicken breasts (defrosted)
1 Chorizo ring (sainsburys 2 for £5)
2 Onions
3 peppers
4 tins tomatoes (everyday value)
plus herbs & spices already in the cupboard and this is what I made...
In my lovely double slow cooker I made Jambalaya (for Saturday)in one side and chicken curry (Sunday dinner) in the other plus a chorizo pasta sauce (for Monday dinner) - 2 of the chicken breasts were grilled for my Sons lunch & dinner yesterday x
I now need to plan for the rest of the week......we have some love2shop vouchers which I have been using in Iceland (so freezer full of fish and chicken) to help with grocery shopping but still need to get fresh fruit and GF stuff from Mr Ts.
It's paypay Tuesday, can't wait I really need to be good this month and claw back some of the overdraft (it's bad!!!!!) However, car tax is due and day trips planned for later in the year say 20% off if you book before end Jan so need to do that this week too.
Here's to a good week, good luck all xxxx:)

rellaella

lushlifesaver - you look like you're very focused - the trouble I have is that no matter how skint we are my DH does not want to compromise on certain foods - crisps have to be W*lk*rs and he's not one for sarnies everyday - he'll have soup (but it HAS to be He**z Tomato!) the only cheap sarnie filling I know he likes is Haslet so may have to get some more of that in! If I have leftovers from previous nights dinner he'll take that in for lunch but then will still have a proper big dinner in the eve! Should I be tougher on the family? He hates cheese and ham but does like tuna pasta (but Tuna seems to be soooo expensive these days!) DS is GF at the moment - only on a trial but the food (especially the bread is well expensive!) DD only likes certain drinks in her lunchbox for school but have had to resort to just water for her as she doesn't drink them sometimes and they get wasted! why do I have such a fussy family????

lushlifesaver

rellaella wrote: »

lushlifesaver - you look like you're very focused - the trouble I have is that no matter how skint we are my DH does not want to compromise on certain foods - crisps have to be W*lk*rs and he's not one for sarnies everyday - he'll have soup (but it HAS to be He**z Tomato!) the only cheap sarnie filling I know he likes is Haslet so may have to get some more of that in! If I have leftovers from previous nights dinner he'll take that in for lunch but then will still have a proper big dinner in the eve! Should I be tougher on the family? He hates cheese and ham but does like tuna pasta (but Tuna seems to be soooo expensive these days!) DS is GF at the moment - only on a trial but the food (especially the bread is well expensive!) DD only likes certain drinks in her lunchbox for school but have had to resort to just water for her as she doesn't drink them sometimes and they get wasted! why do I have such a fussy family????

I used to have such a varied diet when I lived out at uni and when back at my parents. BF is crazily fussy - likes very plain food so no curries, no chile, no fajitas, no pasta bakes etc etc etc it goes on and on! Before we got together he used to use his fryer every day and lived on pizza, chips, chicken nuggets etc! Now the fryer has gone and I do the cooking - his coach loves me for it but thinks he is too pampered now :P I get his crisps from Iceland or the market - not worried about short dates as they rarely last that long!

I would tell OH either he gets used to a series of lunches of sandwiches/leftovers or he goes hungry! haha I'm so mean! and DD would get water as there's no reason to waste more expensive drinks everyday!

My auntie is GF and uses stuff like crispbakes/rice cakes rather than bread, crisps and rice etc. Not the cheapest but once they know that once it's gone it's gone until the next shop they slow down on chowing it!

With tuna I buy cheaper tins from ASDA for about 60p and when used along with sweetcorn+other veggies it can be stretched to 2/3 lunches. I do have days where I have to tell bf no to a KFC/change in the plan because I'm very aware that we need to keep costs down whilst still having treats.

I must sound a like a right meanie :rotfl:

ButterflyBee

I am so proud of me! WOW! I have not spent a single penny on the weekend and we have had a rather good weekend.
DD1 is bringing a bag of goodies from her Tesco shopping for me and DD2 school lunches so I don't have to buy until next Sunday which is my Petrol and Mr.T weekly shop day.

Next week I plan to have a full week of NSD and attend Gym at least 3x this week. That's it a personal challenge and hope to set my very first personal best in the very first week of Feb13.

savingpennies

I'm going to try to limit grocery spend to £300 this month. I've put all the contents of the freezer on a spreadsheet and planned this week's meals so shouldn't need to spend anything this week. I've plenty of flour for the BM and we have milk delivered so there should be no need to go to the shops for anything this week.

rellaella

lushlifesaver you are so funny not mean just realistic and stick to your guns x i get to a certain point then it's "oh ok then what the heck" but no more - i will be strong and i will get us out of debt x :-)