May 2007 Grocery Challenge

teedy23

(see post 176) This morning I,ve had to throw out about 3/4lb of bacon pieces, this should have made pea and ham soup, pasta bacon & mushroom dish. WASTE!

Lizzieanne

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

From where I'm sitting (see my signature below ) you're doing astonishingly well!! Don't be so hard on yourself. And there's still a fair chance you're going to come in within budget I'd say...

Thank you!

I hope I will stick to my budget, there's a first time for everything...I'm a 'comfort eater' in times of stress and I've only just realised that I'm a 'comfort shopper' as well. To me, there's something comforting in having the freezer, fridge and cupboards stuffed with food - but, of course, that's only good if you don't end up throwing half of it away because of bad planning. Then the cycle continues.

I've been so inspired by some posters on this forum who seem to have it all it all cracked, but instead of thinking, "I wish that were me..." I'm going to think, "That is going to be me" !

Herbaholic

Lizzieanne wrote: »

I've been so inspired by some posters on this forum who seem to have it all it all cracked, but instead of thinking, "I wish that were me..." I'm going to think, "That is going to be me" !

That's a superb attitude Lizzie :T I never thought I'd be able to do it and as mentioned in a previous post my DH doesn't think I can either! But I was determined at the beginning of the month and I still am, I used to read the grocery challenge thread and wonder how on earth other people did it and never joined in because I thought I couldn't do it, makes me really mad :mad: knowing if I'd just had the same attitude as you and I now have sooner, I'd have been reaping the rewards a lot sooner to!

I started the grocery challenge for the first time this month and as you can see from my signature I'm doing well. So well in fact that if I manage to spend just £30 in the next 11 days (do'able because of the meal plan and stocks in the freezer/cupboards), I'll have £70 to put in my dream holiday fund and be able to pay our annual National Trust membership. DH and I agreed at the end of last month that unless we could find a way to fund the NT then it would have to go However we both like being able to visit places and have cheap days out and would really miss it, so as DH doesn't know how well I've done yet this month, I'll present him with the good news and hand over the cash at the end of the month and we can renew for another year :j

I'm planning loads of other incentives aside from next years holiday, I figure I'll be more likely to stick to the plan if I'm doing more than just saving money, things like cinema evenings out, we rarely go these days as we can't afford it, so I aim to save enough to treat us to a 2 4 1 meal out and a film at the flicks once a month with what I save from the shopping money. When I think do I want ready made, pre packed stodge or an evening out with DH or some other treat it's making it easier to stick to because I know if I don't do it, then the treats won't appear. Keep up thinking the way you are and you'll soon be basking in your budgeting glory

rosieben

teedy23 wrote: »

(see post 176) This morning I,ve had to throw out about 3/4lb of bacon pieces, this should have made pea and ham soup, pasta bacon & mushroom dish. WASTE!

You've started me thinking of the waste in this house and its scary :eek:

Going to keep a tally from now on, and I'll try to put a price on it for each week and note this on my budget sheet. Aim is for zero waste!

Most of the time its just bad planning on my part - take stuff out of freezer and then dont have time to do all the planned cooking; or else just buying too much and dont remember to freeze the spare stuff ....

rosieben

teedy23 wrote: »

Do you incluude moc,s in your budget? I,m getting good at these and have managed £43 give or take penny since February, I,m keeping a tally

sorry if I'm being thick here, but what is a moc???

bet its something really obvious, but I've been racking my brains for ages on this one - anyone want a racked brain? :rotfl:

Herbaholic

rosieben wrote: »

sorry if I'm being thick here, but what is a moc???

bet its something really obvious, but I've been racking my brains for ages on this one - anyone want a racked brain? :rotfl:

Not being thick Rosie, took me a while to figure it out to, if I'm right moc is money off coupons?! Some of the abbreviations on here stump me sometimes, like I use DH and assume it means dear hubby and when others type DD they mean dear daughter? I'm going to look bleeping silly if it means something else altogether lol!

rosieben

Thanks H, money off coupon makes sense in the original posting so I'm sure you're right :beer:

rosieben

I've just done my 3rd week shop (wednesday this week as I am away for a couple of days) and only did a very small one; will do another shop for milk and fruit/veg when I get home but shouldnt need anything else this week. I must use up some of the stuff in the freezer, cant get a slice of bread in there never mind a loaf! :rotfl:

rosieben

Sorry, didn't mean to take over the whole thread

belfastgirl23

Good idea to watch out for what you throw out as well. Meal planning is helping me with this - I'm not very regimented about this kind of thing but I now routinely look in the fridge a couple of times a week to see what's in danger of going off and then try to figure out what to do with it. Meal planning also helps me to realise if something needs to go in the freezer. Now that I am also trying to lose weight it's useful not to have too many leftovers lying around

I'm currently trying to figure out what to do with some feta I impulsively bought for DH. But it's very strong feta (think goat's cheese flavour) so he doesn't like it. Any ideas? It can probably last another few days or so...