March 2013 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

XSpender wrote: »

My budget has been blown:o

I have spent £416.93 out of a £380 budget and have a week and a half left:eek: I am struggling to do SW on my current budget, my meal planning has gone out the window, I did last weeks shop at Mr S and M&S and I dropped my budget this month without thinking it through.

am going to have a really good think about how I continue to eat SW and reduce my budget as its DH who needs to lose weight but I am loving the food. Some of it is getting back to doing the basics that I am getting out of the habit of doing such as listing my freezers, meal planning and keeping out of the shops!

DH and I have, after discussing it on and off for the last 2 years, bit the bullet and have arranged to get a cleaner. One of the upsides is that I can spend a bit more time on cooking and planning on a weekend to keep the spends under control.

Glad i am not the only one :rotfl:, well not spent up yet but not far off! I'm also following SW, so if you want to swop any recipe ideas then feel free to PM me. I have mine planned right up to half term. Then will revert back to the months meal plan. I also need to look at the SW thread on here.

If you look on AF website they have alpro soya and other SW friendly bits on offer. I'm finding it's the fruit ( not so much the veg as more can be bought frozen) that costs the most and bumps up the spends!

Can anybody point me in the direction of the current SC thread please?
Also, a thread or site useful to know what fruit and veg is seasonal at the mo?

Thanks

Billie-jo

I sympathise with who ever it was who posted that their other half was not on board with trying to make savings as my other half was exactly the same - still is to some point although not as bad as at first. We have gotten around it by -somethings he doesnt know some things we will not comprise on no matter how cheap alternatives are such as tea bags (they have to be Yorkshire) decent meat we buy from a catering butcher, could get it cheaper at sm but doesnt taste as good. Bread he will eat home made but if we are buying it it has to be a good one. None of this cheapo white claggy pappy mush that resembles soggy putty more than it does 'our daily bread' and we all dislike frozen bread so no saving made there for us with ys. What DH does now like though is the thought that this month for the first time EVER we have not had to go into our overdraft facility not even by 1p :j Every other month we have been well into our £750 overdraft before the pay went in. We are extremely fortunate that apart from the overdraft we have no debt although at times things have been really tough. I really feel for people with young families, a mortgage and debt as well who are struggling so much in these tough times. Our daughter and s-i-l are in this boat so YES I do know how hard it is and how stressful it gets.
On to spends now - £6.38 in Morri$ons at the weekend all spent on fruit & veg.
Good luck to everyone for the remainder of the month, I hope you are all on track and if not can get the budget to sort itself out before the end of the month. Suffering with this dreadful flu bug that is going round, had it once and its now come back twice as bad so am going to make a hot drink and lie down for an hour or so.

liz-paul

Well my electric slicer arrived yesterday so I am currently attempting to cook sandwich ham......! Had my 2nd bout of flu in 5 weeks at the weekend and am still suffering This means I haven't spent much in last few days but also means we've eaten quite a lot of convenient foods in the last week as kids have been sick also. My spring cleaning plans have gone out the window too!

Going away thurs to sat & oh away fri-sun so hopefully minimal spends until sun, mon or tues when I'll get a proper shop. Will give my mum money 'cos she's looking after the kids but that's a different budget

tessie_bear

hi...been out shopping to coop hb and aldi...seemed to get quite a lot which will hopefully last us the week and a little bit of next.....aldi has in a leaflet with their meat offers over easter which could be useful for planning

i am making a stew and a curry at the moment which we will eat our way through over the next couple of days....will do a bit of meal planning later in the week and have a think about what we are going to need for the holiday

take care in the snow tessa

elizabunny

Hi everyone! Losing the plot a bit at the moment, so I need to grit my teeth and get back on track, but eveything is just so expensive!

I have just had 3 NSDs and hope not to do a proper shop for the next 7/8 days and use up things I have lurking in cupboards.

We're having Boiled Bacon for tea tonight with some veggies. Probably HM sponge pud and custard after.

I still need to update my signature for the last week or so and will do that asap. Keep going challengers!

lizalloareds

spends today
42p Mr T
sig updated

xxlouisexx56

Spent £16 in mr m and after getting petrol I have 60p in my bank account until Thursday!!! :O

But for that I got 1 kg steak mince, salad, potatoes, stir fry veg, milk and 24 toilet rolls

MrsCautious

There have been some real firsts for me since thinking about this more, tonight's tea included defrosting YS meat, a previously cooked portion of hm savoury rice and being less generous than usual with portions, I'm very overweight and in the past have given my children too much, so I am giving myself a pat on the back for cutting back without anyone noticing due to more fresh veg. I'm hoping not to spend more money on groceries until the weekend. But I suspect I have gone too far with things, I felt bad about spending as much as I did yesterday (£39) when really I should be more relaxed about it. As with dieting I'm well aware of a cycle of overdoing it then cutting back, so I really don't want to do that, need to feel like I'm on an even keel

When there was 4 of us I'd regularly spend more than £100 a week at the supermarket through not planning etc and not checking out offers/cheaper versions so I have learned a lot.I can't remember the last time I threw any food away, which is very new for me.

JellyBox

Have lost track a little over the last week, so will stick £30 on the spend (I think it's closer to £20, but I'd rather overestimate!) and then start again properly when I do the weekly shop later!

Kitchenbunny

Evening! I know, I know, today was supposed to be an NSD, but then I had some great ideas about changing the mealplan around to make it more exciting, and getting some stuff in early to do a batch cook with, and then Mr M had half price chickens... I got sidetracked waaaaay to easily!

Anyway, spent £13.93 today, taking my total for March so far to £75.76, and my annual total so far to £411.37. Lots of meals should ensue from that though.

Tonight's tea has been changed to some Kitchenbunny Fried Chicken (well, sealed to colour in a frying pan and then baked). I wanted to see if I could do something similar to KFC without the high level of calories. It'll be served with baked potato chips and mayo and bbq sauce. Here's hoping it resembles it somehow!

I'm off to update my sig now, and hope against hope that I don't spend tomorrow

KB Xx