May 2007 Grocery Challenge

southern_chick

had a much better spend this week, only £6.50 as i have still got quite a bit of food left in the freezer from last weeks awful spend!!
hope everyone else is getting on ok

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grannieannie_2

Thanks Poobear. Today I made 6 jars of rhubarb and ginger conserve with some rhubarb from our garden, and then made some stewed rhubarb, which I have also bottled, hopefully it will last too until I eat it!!!! Oh just remembered, today, I didn't stir the rhubarb that is fermenting!!!! I made some rhubarb and ginger jam in 2003, which didn't set well. Someone on the allotment site I belong to said if its too runny, it'll spoil. Anyway, over 3 years later, I still have 2 jars left, it smells fine, tastes fine and looks fine, and is lovely on a bit of icecream!!!

oldMcDonald

I have just been up to ASDA to do the weekly shop, and have managed to go over budget by around £5, so I'm going to have to be really careful next week and try to use up some storecupboard stuff to get back on track - we have loads of pasta and tinned toms, so I'm sure there are many meals to be had there!!

Reason I've gone over is because I was unwell and so am late with the weekly shop, so anything we ran out of has been bought at the corner shop. Loo rolls were £1.12 for 4 :eek: I usually buy the smart price 12 for £1.13, so that was a bit of a shock!

Anyway, shopping total for week 2 = £36.94

Solwaykid

Hi all, hope the May challenge is going well, sorry I haven't read the posts yet.
I'm doing ok so far. I see a pattern emerging after trying this since the start of the year.. One month is an eat the cupboards/freezer bare followed by an overspend month, repeat..
I did try meal planning for the week and although I ate really well I started gaining weight! Now I just have a rough list of what's in and if I'm hungry enough I'll make a full meal else I just have an 'indoor picnic' tea. I'm lucky (?) in that there's only me to feed so odd combinations and the same thing 3 meals in a row is no big deal.
The only bug bear shopping-wise is still cat food. I think I was spending £40 a month at the start of the year, a third of my monthly budget! I've managed to get Fatcat onto Tesco tins (2 a day) but Skinnycat is still on pricey Felix pouches. I suppose that's some progress.

Keep at it folks, I'll go read the posts now and see if I've missed any tips!

dm1465

Have got myself back on track this week. Thanks to everyone who has posted about Micro cloths, bought some in Wilkinsons yesterday with some stardrops and some disinfectant and they are magic! I can see me saving a fortune on cleaning products.

spendaholic

Okay, week 1 of my new regime and I'm off to Tesco in a bit armed with a list and 30 quid. Wish me luck ...

spendaholic

Just got in and I really didn't think I'd do it. I bought everything organic still, apart from the cat food and cat milk. The only reason I didn't get organic cat food is because I'm trying out 2-cat single-pouches instead of 1-cat single-pouches and they don't do the larger size in organic yet. The larger ones in any case were only about £1 dearer than the organic, yet I feed twice as many cats. And they don't do organic cat milk yet.

The other thing I changed was I didn't get any fizzy pop in a bottle as they don't do organic pop in a bottle, just tins. So I've decided to have cordial in future, which I already had in stock.

Anyway, bearing in mind I'd already spent much more than £100 on my shop last week, with a new budget of £30 I spent ... (drum roll please) ... £29.98. :T

How close is that?

And I spent real money and got real change. Now then, what can I put that 2p towards?

Doom_and_Gloom

OKay so 4 items on my list did not come in my Tesco online order when I recieved it on Wednesday and some of the prices went down as they are done by weight that you can't choose so that was nice as it was less than I thought it would be hehe. It came to just over £38 (including cleaning items and such like) and that will do me and my BF for a good long while (he even thinks he's got enough food for the month with what I got him with the meat and such like that is in the freezer so if it does that will be great)
Bearing this in mind food cost about £35. I also bought some organic baking potatoes that were reduced to 60p in Sainsburrys before the deleivery arrived (didn't have any in and have jaket potatoes as a mini meal/snack when hungry) which means I still have about £41.40 (lets call it £41 though shall we) left of my monthly food budget instead of £33.23 like I thought I would have :j .

Elfinwings

Bit late, but first update for me - I'm on £64.52 out of my budget of £80 so far this month. I'm still hoping to stay within budget, as that did include one meal out and quite a bit to stock up the cupboards. I'm starting on a healthy eating plan this week though, so I may need to buy some different bits and pieces. Hmm.

Grannieannie - your rhubarb ideas have really inspired me, I'm going to have a go at some stewed rhubarb to store too! Yum yum...

a66y31

Hi all...Ive been looking at this site for ages b4 I joined..cant beleive wat some of you spend on your monthly shops..u are all doing very well...here is me who spends about £100 a mth ..to feed 2 adults 2 kids n dog...and i dont have alot of money and was gonna try and get monthly shopping bill down abit...:rotfl: see wat happens eh...:rotfl:

and lil_me I know u...Im darryls lass..:p