June 2013 Grocery Challenge

MrsCautious

Spent £5 in Sainsbury last night after making urgent dash to pharmacy for pain relief -- nothing serious and cost not included in GC!

Bought YS bread - 2 loaves at 19p each, plus a YS Pizza Express pizza, some onions, sausage rolls, something else I can't remember (sorry - not very helpful there!)

Tonight cooked YS shish kebabs in wraps with salad, Approved Foods salsa (use by 2016 so that was good for AF I think ) and hm wedges which I dusted in Indian spices, plus mushrooms and onions.

Somehow after deciding I was aiming for £45 a week, I've spent £80 in the first days of June, but touch wood we are stocked up with what I'd consider for us an unusually eclectic mix of tasty things to keep me from doing much more damage. I do tend to stock up a bit in the first week, honest

Also I've listed my first ever items on eBay, am doing a car boot for the first time on Sunday and got £80 cashback yesterday through Top Cashback after switching my daughters' phones to a deal that was already half the cost of the old one.

I'm going to try to really focus and come in at under £180, I know we can do it, and I've told my girls there's no eating out or new clothes this month, we all have to continue to learn about budgeting.

NSD today, get in.

she_who_can_not_cook

smokies wrote: »

really annoyed with ones self, forgot to sort out my lunch for today last night, woke up late this morning so ended up buying lunch at work.

On a good note I did cycle to work again, thus not using the car and saving petrol.

Hope everyone is have a great day xxx

On my day off i do a different soup and freeze it. With the weekend meals i freeze some leftovers in plastic containers. I get out my frozen lunch out in the morning i was late the other day my alarm was silenced opps but i grabbed a plastic container and ran out of the house

NickJW

sheeppappar wrote: »

NickJW - you always have such exciting tea!

Thank you sheepappar My meals are usually simpler because I have a budget per meal, but my housemate cooks what he wants (and pays for it). I have to try harder to keep up doing nice meals on a budget

So my meals for Thursday and Friday will be Pasta with aubergine, roasted tomatoes, tuna and basil and HM Chicken Chow Mein (first time trying to cook this) - not sure yet which way around.

I've decided on both recipes because that's what needs using up, and I get a bit panicky when there are too many things in the fridge. I'm definitely not a hoarder - I hate waste! Lol :rotfl:

meanmarie

First spend of the month today....€12.73 between Aldi and Polish shop, its the only place I can get fresh yeast, which I prefer for bread.

Marie

Cekaelta

So our first big shop of the month has been done. I sent the other half to do it on his day off, always a bit risky as he is definitely less controlled with spending than me, but how else is he going to learn! And he did have a list based on a meal plan I sorted and he mostly stuck to it so he's spent just over £60 at Mr T, more than I would have but very good for him so I'm impressed! Hoping we can push this shop to last about 2 weeks with a just a small top up for packed lunches and fresh veg, fingers crossed. To think a few months ago we were managing to spend about £80 a week=I love the grocery challenge!

Bluegreen143

Small spend of 97p on the 2 lite Mead*w P*rk milk in Mr M's.

Have copied the below over from the blog as I think it's such good moneysaving you guys might be interested :money:. I'm feeling very smug which is sad :rotfl: but I love how much I saved with this:

I needed pickled ginger so I had to go to Mr S. Standing there, I really looked at the price for the first time and realised that a) it’s a total rip-off and b) that there must be a way to make it myself, so I put the packet down. It was 110g, and cost £2.75 :eek:.

You can buy a 190g jar in Mr A for £1.63 (I found out online). However, the Mr S ginger is all-natural and organic, while the Asda version has two E-numbers instead of vinegar and three in place of the sugar :eek: :eek:

The recipe below makes costs only 32p :money:, which is under 1/8th of the price of the packet, as it's roughly the same amount - so good too! One trick is apparently that it’s best to use young, fresh ginger, which is less fibrous and also goes an attractive pale pink when pickled. If it stays yellow (like mine), it’ll still be good but your ginger wasn’t as young.

Pickled ginger (makes the equivalent of one of those packets Mr S sell) 32p

• Around 50g fresh root ginger, as fresh as possible, peeled 11p (Mr A)
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar 17p (98p / 250ml, Mr A)
• 2 tbsp sugar 4p (£1.74 / 2kg, Mr A)

Slice the ginger into the finest possible slices. By far the easiest way to do this is by using a mandoline (as featured in Monday’s post on my favourite kitchen tools), but failing that, you can use a good, sharp vegetable peeler. If you need to, use your sharpest knife, but you won’t get the slices as thin. (If you really like pickled ginger and want to make it a lot, buy a mandoline, they are cheap and very useful).

Arrange the slices on a large plate or board and sprinkle salt all over them. Leave them for about an hour.

When you come back to them, they will be quite wet, as the salt draws the moisture out. Using kitchen roll (preferably) or a very clean non-fluffy tea towel, dry the slices and pack them into a small, sterilised jar.

Heat the vinegar and sugar in a small pan until the mixture is hot and the sugar has dissolved. Pour over the salted ginger slices and put the lid on the jar. Leave to cool and store in the fridge for a few days before using.

tinycrush

Can I ask some advice?
I put on my SOA that I planned to budget £40 a week (£160 a month) on groceries for 3 of us, myself, OH and 18yr old daughter, and was told that this was unlikely to be realistic or true.
But, that is the budget I want to aim for... am I being unrealistic?
I intend to make from scratch, eat a lot of soups, use my storecupboard and freezer, and grow own salad and some veggies.

MrsCautious

tinycrush wrote: »

Can I ask some advice?
I put on my SOA that I planned to budget £40 a week (£160 a month) on groceries for 3 of us, myself, OH and 18yr old daughter, and was told that this was unlikely to be realistic or true.
But, that is the budget I want to aim for... am I being unrealistic?
I intend to make from scratch, eat a lot of soups, use my storecupboard and freezer, and grow own salad and some veggies.

This is my 3rd attempt at responding, fingers crossed. Yes I think it's eminently doable but bucket loads of planning and determination needed, sounds like you have that, good luck xxx

Personally I'd need to incorporate a fair amount of what I'd consider treats to avoid me thinking I was depriving myself and ending up in a cycle of that followed by splurging, I think.

In case this is of use I can tell you I personally have found £200 a month for 3 people plus dog (two 14 and me) relatively easy, I haven't managed to come in under £180 yet but this has been due to things I can't control. Everyone has different things happening in their lives to influence spending but I would be confident of spending just £40 a week if this was borne out of real necessity and I'd start by cutting down even further than I have with certain items, including some cleaning products and toiletries being avoided all together.

Other things I'd consider about how realistic it is would be how much of a difference it is to what you're currently spending and what you can do to reduce any negative impact of the change being met with antipathy in your family, plus how long you are planning to do it for, a short term what many would consider a drastically low spend could be a lot easier to palate with a goal everyone can see is needed in sight so if it was me, I'd sit my family down to get their understanding and cooperation.


Making the most of YS food has made the biggest difference to me.
Good luck, just my thoughts, hope something I've said may be helpful.

hattifattener

Thankyou blue green - I might try that. I don't use pickled ginger much, but little jars might be nice for foodie friends and family nearer Christmas (I have some tiny jars that are no use to man nor beast hanging around!)

[Deleted User]

Day 6 of NSD today Tonights dinner will be a chicken breast from the freezer plus sliced green beans from freezer and a small jacket spud.Pudding will be apples and custard I had half a dozen a bit wrinkly apples in the fruit bowl yesterday which I peeled sliced and cooked in dark brown sugar and a squirt of lemon juice.I put them into a pyrex dish and covered with thick custard,using up a small tin of evaporated milk to make the custard with Enough for at least 3-4 nights pud just for me.I have half a litre of carrot and coriander soup left which I will have for lunch with some rice crackers from the cupboard so nothing is needed from the shops .At the moment there is very little needed indoors as I have enough in the cupboards to save me shopping until at least the weekend.