February 2013 Grocery Challenge

dizzy_lizzie

elizabunny wrote: »

A few years ago I noticed tiny moving dots in some of my flour. It was during the warmer summer months and they were in a bag I had stored for a while. I often peer into a bag now just to check, and find that usually it is ok, but I do tend to use flour up quickly just in case.

I keep my flour and icing sugar in hermetically sealed jars. I'm sure I read somewhere eliza that it's the glue on the packages that attracts them?

lovelife79 wrote: »

oh dear. grocery budget gone to pot im afraid. went shopping whilst hungry, not even sure what i bought. all i know is that it was not good (hanging my head in shame)

Nevermind. It's over and done with and sometimes a little blip now and again makes us even more determined to succeed.
x

pinkypig

Hi everyone.

Just back from Ald* as I have done our weekly shop early to use my last £5 Daily Mirror voucher. I worked out a list before I went to make sure I spent £40 and got stocked up on lots of things we'll use this month.
Still can't believe you can get a trolley full of stuff for this. I never did at Mr M.
Got plenty of veg, pasta, rice, cereal, bread, coffee and milk plus 2 kg of essentials chicken breasts, 2 packs of essentials mince and two stuffed chickens (had 2 x 30% off vouchers so I had to put one through on a separate transaction). Also got some baking stuff and some lemons to have a go at SC lemon curd.

I did a meal plan up until pay day at the end of the month based on what we have in and what I had on my list and I should now only need fruit and fresh bits which should help me come in on if not under budget. All I need now is to be disciplined:)

Total spend £39.33. Will update sig.

Have a good rest of the week.

PP xx

tessie_bear

lovelife79 wrote: »

oh dear. grocery budget gone to pot im afraid. went shopping whilst hungry, not even sure what i bought. all i know is that it was not good (hanging my head in shame)

got a lot to do this afternoon, so will look at the reciept properly later and work out the true spend, bought bday/engagement presents so need to subtract all that.

silly silly me

no head hanging needed here...keep on keeping on

Josslette

Hi everyone, have started my Feb budget from today, went over by about £13 last month and have decided I need to do better this month! I'm setting a budget of £180 running from the 7th Feb til the 7th March. I need to keep track of my receipts this month, I'm pretty rubbish at that.

Spent £3.37 in Lidl today - Garlic Baguettes, 2 x Ham pizza, Chocolate weetabix

XSpender

Went to Mr S tonight as I had run out of dog food. I decided to do the bit of my weekly shop that I can't do in aldi so got 24 cans dog food on offer, own brand corn flakes (YS due to a slightly bashed box), crunchy nut cornflakes, 4 bottles of wine, batteries, value nappies and value bread. Total, less a brand match voucher, was £33.09. The YS
Cornflakes will be used to make crispy cakes with DS as I have 4 bars of value chocolate in the pantry.

Our meal plan has gone to pot this week but we have been eating what is in the freezer, the easy and quick stuff, so I have a lot of ingredients leftover which will need eating up next week like leeks, chorizo and some other veg.

My March GC starts on 11th Feb as I have been running it in line with my child benefit but it is getting a bit out of sync with my payday so I am going to try and run it until the 15th at least. I only need fruit, milk, ham and bacon. In fact I could manage without the ham as we enough other stuff to use for lunches.

loveasale

Oh dear me!
I'm really struggling !
Have really tried but there is more and more I need this month than I did in Jan.
Doing pants and I feel will never come in on budget! :mad:

Bluegreen143

Small spends yesterday - OH got dried rosemary (95p), 2 pints milk (89p) and garlic focaccia (£1.45) at Mr M on the way home from work. Problem is, I didn't know he'd got milk and also nipped in on my way home to buy FOUR pints of milk (£1.49), plus a jar of artichoke hearts (£1), sundried tomatoes (£1) and 12 YS rolls (38p).

We were celebrating last night as OH had an interview for a promotion and got it!! So excited as it's a decent pay rise and also moving in the direction he wants to.

We ended up going out for dinner last night as well, after OH dropped th tub containing the bolognaise sauce we were having for dinner all over the floor as he pulled it out of the micro! Normally I'd have rustled something else up but he decided to treat me to celebrate :-)

Made a cheesy broccoli & cauliflower bake tonight with a big salad, OH was not too impressed but I liked it lol:

Florenceem

We had suet sausage pie with roast potatoes/roast parsnip/cauliflower/carrot/onion/garlic and gravy. I made more coconut and cherry muffins - still got dessicated coconut that needs using up.

lbnblbnb

I have meal planned tonight and planned my shop for tomorrow. I have priced it all on My Supermarket for Sainsbobs and will go to Aldi first to buy anything I can get cheaper. At the moment it looks like I only need to spend about £21, pleased with that.
Meal plan:

Roast onion pizza (dough from the fridge bread dough)
Sliced Celeriac bake (like dauphinois) and caramelised onion tart (in freezer from Christmas).
Lentil and cabbage dal Rose Elliott recipe
Chilli and garlic polenta and tomato sauce River Cottage Veg recipe
Pasta, broccoli, feta
oven baked leek risotto Delia recipe

Also: carrot and beet root salad, scones, muffins.

Still using up cupboard stocks too.

Good luck to everyone.

lbnblbnb

Florenceem, I have lots of desiccated coconut too, bought for curries, so my muffins will be coconut, thanks for the idea!