April 2013 Grocery Challenge

meanmarie

Spent €62.90 over last couple of days, bringing month's spend to €141.92, hoping to be able to keep to budget....have €2.34 per day to end of month and lots of food in.

Marie

MrsCautious

AimingForBetter wrote: »

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

I've read other people saying the same as this on the other boards here and for the same reasons. I'm the opposite now, I prefer to have what we need in for the (sometimes very) short term and beyond that think 'who cares?' -- I can soon nip and get things or order online in an emergency. I don't have any chopped tomatoes at the moment, after having what seemed like loads for a couple of years or something, I have four tins of beans and about 4 toilet rolls left, -- would have stocked up more if not doing this challenge I reckon. I'm not planning on buying loads unless there is an irresistible offer. I'm trying to save as much money as I can by using up stores and just buying what's needed for the short term. I have 3 tins of kidney beans, which I will use in chillis and 2 of chickpeas which I have bought some tahini for to make hummus. I want to see my cupboards as empty as possible. Hope I don't sound barking. Good luck AfB, sounds like you are doing fantastic with your spending so your stores are a bonus x

NickJW

Hi All

Haven't posted for a while - busy with work and life etc (I've actually for once had a bit of a social life in the week catching up with old friends - usually I save that for the weekend and not a school night! :rotfl:).

Anyway - good news - Sainsburys investigated my claim and gave me 2000 Nectar points back (£10), so all is forgiven with them now. It sounds like they looked into it properly which I appreciate more, because it will prevent something like this happening again hopefully.

Now, onto my spends......

£1.05 in Mr S on 8h
£3.44 in Mr T on 11th April
£3 in Mr S on 12th April
£3 in Mr S on 13th April
£1.20 in Mr S on 13th April
£4.05 in Mr S on 15th April
£3 in Mr T on 16th April
£1.05 in Mr S on 17th April
99p in the corner on 17th April
£10 on dinner out on 17th April
£1.55 in Mr S today (used 500 points/£2.50 towards total)
£10 on dinner out today

That's £42.33!!!! :eek: That makes me NEARLY over. Wouldn't normally include 'meals out', but I generally have one meal out a week on a weekend (socializing budget), and this week has been a bit more extravagant. Doesn't happen all the time though (I need my 'chill time' after work), so I'm not going to beat myself up about it...

Hope everyone is well - will go and catch up with the rest of the thread now.

K9sandFelines

NickJW wrote: »

Hi All

Haven't posted for a while - busy with work and life etc (I've actually for once had a bit of a social life in the week catching up with old friends - usually I save that for the weekend and not a school night! :rotfl:).

Anyway - good news - Sainsburys investigated my claim and gave me 2000 Nectar points back (£10), so all is forgiven with them now. It sounds like they looked into it properly which I appreciate more, because it will prevent something like this happening again hopefully.

Now, onto my spends......

£1.05 in Mr S on 8h
£3.44 in Mr T on 11th April
£3 in Mr S on 12th April
£3 in Mr S on 13th April
£1.20 in Mr S on 13th April
£4.05 in Mr S on 15th April
£3 in Mr T on 16th April
£1.05 in Mr S on 17th April
99p in the corner on 17th April
£10 on dinner out on 17th April
£1.55 in Mr S today (used 500 points/£2.50 towards total)
£10 on dinner out today

That's £42.33!!!! :eek: That makes me NEARLY over. Wouldn't normally include 'meals out', but I generally have one meal out a week on a weekend (socializing budget), and this week has been a bit more extravagant. Doesn't happen all the time though (I need my 'chill time' after work), so I'm not going to beat myself up about it...

Hope everyone is well - will go and catch up with the rest of the thread now.

Glad it got sorted Nick. I bet your meal out tasted all the better for your reimbursed necar points. I haven't actually found anything to spend mine on yet.

medusasmummy

Morning all
Its been a very low spend week (for me). I've been very strict and only spent on necessities.

$ainsburys £8.20 (2x value pepper bundles, deodorant, basics grated hard cheese, some OTC medicine)

I always like to buy the basics peppers and dice them up for the freezer. much better than the sliced ready frozen ones as the dont turn to mush, and i can soak them in cold water to defrost them for salads

Ald! £19.79 (on things for lunchboxes and to complete the meal plan)

HM pizza, HM wedges and HM coleslaw for tea tonight but have ran out of mayo so will have to nip to ald! on the way home from school run, and think ill pick up a tub of sour cream and chive dip for the wedges too.

Shouldn't wont be needing anything else til thursday, when the £5 Ald! voucher will hopefully be in the mirror

Coxy11

Happy Friday everyone!

Just settled up with 2nd purse. Have used a lot of meat from stores this week so a bit on the high side. Plus needed coffee and tea to refill the storage jars. Total of £44.40.

Have updated my sig. Not looking too bad for this point in the month. DH is away now until Sunday which means I can be more economical with portion size. DS2 has a party tomorrow so only need to cook for DS1, DD and me. Thinking of slow-roasting one of the pork hands I got from the farm shop for Sunday's dinner.

Have a good day all.
Coxy

Bluegreen143

Just wanted to pop on to say I spent 50p yesterday on value stirfry mix and £1 on 12 white rolls in Morrisons (one has been put in the freezer for next week).

I think it was Billie-Jo who asked about the korma, I did a wee reply on the blog but in case you didn't see it, I only add 1 tbsp sugar (original recipe calls for 3-4 tbsp :eek:) but if your DH is diabetic I'd just skip altogether, the vegetables mushed up in the sauce & creamed coconut add their own sweetness tbh.

Made a very cheap and tasty stirfry last night, tonight's dinner will be homemade burgers (usual pinto bean burger for me and meat one for my OH ).

PrincessLou

So today marks the end of April's challenge for me although i haven't added up my totals yet (will do this later though).

I've been reading the thread everyday though and everyone is doing so well. One thing that puzzles me though - am i the only person who just does one main shop a week and doesn't need to buy anything else then for the rest of the week?

I find that if i meal plan and know exactly what we've run out of and need to buy each week then i can get everything all in one go and not have to step foot in a supermarket for the rest of the week.

AimingForBetter

Thanks MrsCautious, there's nothing wrong with shopping when you need to, I know people who go out everyday to get that days needs I suppose it's just what people used to do.

While I can easily walk to the local TscoXprs it is expensive and limited so doesn't really work on a day to day basis for me so a bigger shop less frequently inSains is better for us.

I'm trying to keep a good size storecupboard without going over the top on amounts (still working on it!).

I like to 'be prepared' so we can always throw something reasonable together in case of illness or lack of funds and it reassures me that we could manage for a while without having to go and spend anything.

Should be a NSD today and weekend.

Keep up the good work everyone, this board is really helping me keep focussed and inspired.

AFB

Scarlet1982

PrincessLou wrote: »

So today marks the end of April's challenge for me although i haven't added up my totals yet (will do this later though).

I've been reading the thread everyday though and everyone is doing so well. One thing that puzzles me though - am i the only person who just does one main shop a week and doesn't need to buy anything else then for the rest of the week?

I find that if i meal plan and know exactly what we've run out of and need to buy each week then i can get everything all in one go and not have to step foot in a supermarket for the rest of the week.

Your not the only person that does a weekly shop. I use to go shopping most days but since starting this challenge i've done a weekly shop online. I try to work out a meal plan for the week using what i already have and make a list of what i need.

I buy the stay fresher for longer milk and freeze bread so i don't need to make any journey to the shops midweek. I use to spend between 200 and 300 a month on food just for myself. I've spent less than 100 this month (need to update my sig later not added online shop from Monday).

I found by doing my shop online i'm not adding things i don't really need. I know roughly how much it costs so no more shock horror at the till when i'm told the total cost.