April 2013 Grocery Challenge

Welsh_Poppy

I have had 15 nSD

All i have bought is bread and nothing else we away on monday so hoping we stick to budget whilst away in a log cabin on IOW.
But so far so good:-)

MrsCautious

Spent £23.66 in Sainsbury, including around £7 on YS things. Got a Hovis loaf for 19p, 12 Warburtons baps for 39p, two garlic baguettes for 49p reduced from £2 and two packets of little cooked sausages for 34p instead of £1.30 each. My daughter had asked for Coco Pops and I haven't bought these before, I ended up putting the smallest pack I could find back as there was a cheaper bigger box RTC as the lid was ripped. Also bought some reduced Ready Brek and the top was a little crushed. Also got skimmed UHT milk and Basics orange squash reduced (54p for milk and 45p for 1.5l of squash) so was very pleased with this haul -- around £8 in savings overall.

We had YS reduced fat burgers in YS bread rolls with salad and hm wedges for tea, they went down very well.

I will need meat/fish for next month so would like to have a nose around various shops to see what the best time is locally for reductions -- I know it varies, but I may pick a time and check out my very local Co-Op to see what bargains are to be had.

I have meal planned until the end of the month and noted down what I will need to buy so as to keep spending to a minimum. :

Friday: Chicken pies, bought from local butcher, beautiful quality, 3 for £1, baked potatoes or mash, gravy and veg.

Saturday: At in-laws.

Sunday: Waitrose frying steak (was three packets of three for £10, bought with gift of vouchers) -- stir fry in hm garlic and chilli sauce, with S'bury Basics rice (41p for 1kg) veg from Aldi

Monday YS Pizza Express pizza (£1.14 down from £4.50) plus YS garlic bread, hm wedges and salad. Feeding one extra as daughters' friend for tea.

Tuesday Reduced fat bacon omelette/beans and bacon on toast

Wednesday YS plaice with baked potatoes, peas and parsley sauce

Thursday Chicken burgers (Birds Eye, bought on offer ages ago -- am emptying freezer) YS bread rolls, hm wedges and salad

Friday 26 - Daughters will be out at friend's for tea, so toast or something for me.

Sat 27 -- Something with sausages -- pasta bake or improvised toad in the hole with Aldi Yorkshires.

Sun 28 -- YS turkey fillet (£1.20) roast dinner.

Mon 29 -- tuna pasta bake

Tues 30 - Reduced fat YS burgers, hm wedges, YS rolls, salad.

Listing this here I can see I don't need much -- potatoes, veg and salad mainly. Lunches should also have a headstart with tins of tuna bought on offer a couple of weeks back plus loads of YS bread/rolls in the freezer.

I think I'm a bit heavy on potatoes but all meals are well balanced I think. Would like fewer carbs for me in an ideal world but I'm poorly and the thought of that is way off at the moment

I'd like to spend around £20 or less on groceries for the rest of April. Here's hoping I can manage that -- listing meals here should help me see it's possible. I also have puddings in the freezer.

I hope me banging on about YS stuff may help someone, I didn't know what YS meant at the start of March, thanks everyone for all support, ideas and inspiration x

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Got Ocado order at 4pm, so hope this comes in at the est. £20 ish

My order came bang on 4pm; unfortunately i cocked up my working out and the total less £17.46 of cat food equalled £36.80. I am not used to their format and they set out the total etc different to where i am used to!Very much over what i thought.I did save £25.52 in offers and £20 off, but i think i will stick with what i know in future. I am within budget still, but i am going to be cutting it very fine.

Sequeena

Hi, just wondering, is there a May grocery challenge? OH has his May pay tomorrow

cw18

Sequeena wrote: »

Hi, just wondering, is there a May grocery challenge? OH has his May pay tomorrow

There will be, but it doesn't normally go up until towards the end of a calendar month.

Sequeena

cw18 wrote: »

There will be, but it doesn't normally go up until towards the end of a calendar month.

not a problem, I will keep a look out for it

Billie-jo

Quite pleased that todays shopping only came to £23.15 today.
Have started to itemise the contents of the kitchen freezer and once its done and IF there is any room in it I want to put some of the food from the outside freezer into the inside one, so as it can have a good defrosting. Did start this last year but it never really got finished.

Tea was lamb, mashed potatoes and veg.

Sounds like a few people are managing to stay out of the shops a bit this month.

Florenceem

NSD here.
Still no dinner photos. This house renovation work is so tiring - and I am not doing it!
Moving stuff from rooms is hard work and everywhere is so dusty. I at least had one room untouched by the Plumbers - the kitchen - but they started in there today! :eek:
We have to squeeze in the gate way past the skip. Roll on Tuesday when the Plumbers are due to finish.
We had chicken kiev with HM wedges, mange tout, carrot and onion for dinner.
Will need to spend tomorrow. Running out of biscuits for the Plumbers + they drinks oodles of tea!

AimingForBetter

Hi folks

2nd proper shop of the month today.

Went first to a local regional store for white vinegar as they sell 5 litres for £3.62 and is the best price I have found around here, also got 3 packets of kitkats on offer at £1 for packet of 8 and packet of hobnobs for DH on offer at 89p so total of £8.59 in there.

Then £117.89 in Sains which was not too bad.

Total spend today of £126.48 bringing total so far this month to £257.89 which I am pleased with. Have good stock of most items so don't really need to get much more this month other than usual bread & milk.

Have an idea of meals for rest of this month (I will try hard to write down a proper mealplan!) with what we have but have started list for next 'big' shop and will monitor closely what we need, as really want to keep the budget under £300 per month - perfectly doable but I have to keep tight control of my spending habits.

I have a tendancy to panic when levels of certain things fall which I think was because we always ran out of lots of things when I was a child. My cupboards currently have 18 tins of baked beans, 15 cartons of chopped tomatoes, 42 toilet rolls and enough laundry liquid for the next 5 months - not sure what that says about me but I hate running out of anything and feel happier when I know there is enough to last a while so can just buy when there's a good offer on. It makes sense to me anyway!!

So fingers crossed should be a good bit under the target for this month.

Night all
AFB

liz-paul

OH had to make dinner for kids tonight as I had the gym straight after DS1s swimming lesson. Made it nice & easy for him - peeled the spuds and put them in water for boiling/mashing, sausages in freezer just needed to be grilled, frozen veg for steamer. He managed it all very well apart from not making any for me

So I had a bagel with scrambled egg.....