June 2013 Grocery Challenge

Florenceem

MiddyMum wrote: »

Is anyone here a single parent with one child? I am going to be a student in September, my daughter is only 3 but want to stick to a food budget...was wondering if 40 pound a week on food is still a lot for just two of us and if people do it for less?

Not a single parent although Mr F seems like a child sometimes. :rotfl:
Cook from scratch as much as possible and you can spend much less than £40 per week.

Florenceem

XSpender wrote: »

We did our weekly shop at Mr T yesterday. It would have been £101.54 but after all my coupons came to £82.60. This is more than I estimated as a couple of extras fell in the trolley as usual and we bought dog food on offer that will last the month and a case of beer to stop trips to the shop.

We have a lot going out this month and really need to watch our spending. I should get away with one more weekly shop this month and have agreed with DH to limit our spends, including booze to a max of £50:eek: I have a Mr T voucher for £5 and the £50 cash.

We do have everything in we need so I am planning to list the cupboards and freezers while DH is at work in the morning. I will do a meal plan for the week after next too.

I got a 5 tier spice rack that goes on the back of the larder door this week and will be nagging DH to put it up tomorrow. Is it sad to be excited about sorting out your herbs and spices on to your new spice rack:rotfl:

No.
I have been buying some little jars - 4 in a pack at Poundwo... Can't wait to get them all washed/dried/filled and looking good in new baskets in the food cupboard.

Florenceem

Nelly11 wrote: »

Im not so sure that my teenagers are on board with the money saving food cupboards, woke this morning to no milk and a pizza left on the worktop with just one slice gone from it, its rock hard now!:mad:
popped out for more milk and some bits and the total for me is now £78.02
Today will be pancakes for breakfast
Soup and croutons for lunch with Lemon drizzle cake out of the freezer then chicken sweetcorn and pasta for dinner
I have run out of cordial so may need a Mr T trip later today, might run to a litre of icecream too!:rotfl::rotfl:

Put pizza on a baking tray and drip a little water on it - warm in oven - will soften up fine.

Florenceem

Nelly11 wrote: »

Im not so sure that my teenagers are on board with the money saving food cupboards, woke this morning to no milk and a pizza left on the worktop with just one slice gone from it, its rock hard now!:mad:
popped out for more milk and some bits and the total for me is now £78.02
Today will be pancakes for breakfast
Soup and croutons for lunch with Lemon drizzle cake out of the freezer then chicken sweetcorn and pasta for dinner
I have run out of cordial so may need a Mr T trip later today, might run to a litre of icecream too!:rotfl::rotfl:

Do you have a jug of diluted cordial/squash available for teenagers or do they make their own drinks? Squash lasts longer if you dilute it.

Florenceem

mrsd1984 wrote: »

Hi guys. I'm new to posting here but have been reading for a few days and decided to unofficially give things a go this month.

I am pregnant and due in 6 weeks so money will be tight once I'm on maternity.

At the beginning of the month I took £150 out of the bank for food. The plan was a big shop at the beginning of the month (can bulk buy and use money off vouchers, etc.) and then just to top up when needed on fresh things. Spent £80 on the big shop (Tesco and Aldi), but somehow managed a £20 Tesco spend the other day :eek: Not even sure what I got!!!

I'm off today to do the topup shop - fruit, veg and salad and also to get a couple of things for a bbq this evening. I'm hoping to get all this for £10. Let's see!!!

Are there just the two of you?

K9sandFelines

Nicky_Noo_Na wrote: »

P.S. I looked in 3 different co-ops for this brilliant offer on toilet rolls but it wasn't to be. Ended up with Mr Ts springforce instead, 9 for £2 - hoping they are better than value!

Hmm you're in the North West too so wonder why your stores aren't running the offer. I wonder if it is store specific!?

My Dad is taking me shopping tomorrow so i am going to try and get some bits from Aldi, like FR eggs and f&v and tuna (as it is cheaper there), also passata (as i like the quality of theirs better). He will also be going in Mr A too, so i am going to have to really have some self control tomorrow. I would otherwise not go, but it means we get to have a change of scenery, and i might get chance to stock up on smaller leggings in George; as i have dropped two dress sizes, and i am still in my old ones which are looking like Nora Batty's stockings :rotfl:

I've also done a £40 shop at Mr T's to come in the evening. So lots of spends tomorrow but i am aiming to come under £90 all in tomorrow. This should bring me to a smidge over the £200 mark, with just under £100 to play with in the following weeks, and a £5 off Mr T voucher next week.

Tales17

Loving the fact that the new shopping centre has opened near me now and has a greengrocers in it, lovely fresh fruit and veg and some is even cheaper than Mr T! Will be supporting it every week now!

Also still loving our breadmaker, only time I bought bread from the supermarket was for my daughter's birthday party as there were 20 toddlers and 30 adults to take care of!

Bartelmy

Hello all.:)

Since my last post (339), I've been to Sainsburies, Aldi, and Farmfoods. I'm very lucky with my location.:) A ten minute walk one way, I have Tesco and Farmfoods. Fifteen minute walk the other way, I have Sainsburies, Aldi, another Farmfoods, Wilko, and an Iceland.

I don't often pay for things at Sainsburies. I have the toolbar, for 100 points per month, and I use NectarAdpoints to theoretically get another 250 points per week, though in practice, it's usually around 100.

So; I bought 400g beef mince (£1.33), vegetable stock cubes (15p - impulse purchase!), 15 cheese slices (81p, which I was very pleased about; best price I could find on MySupermarket was £1 for ten), and basics Mayo (40p). I plan on making BigMac copies next week (still working from The Takeaway Secret!), and I mostly got the mayo from here rather than Tesco because it's the same price, and I needed to bump my spending over £2.50 to use the points. It came to £2.69, so I got all of that for 19p.:D I still have over 1400 points. From Aldi, I got 4 English muffins for 45p, and from Farmfoods I got more squirty cream for 69p. So, my running total for June so far is £10.14.

Squirty cream is DEVINE. Until last week, I hadn't eaten any in about five years.



I ate squirty cream on pancakes for breakfast two days running (1 recipe from TAS).:D Also on a homemade frappuccino (google frappuccino Chocolate Covered Katie). I deveganised it, for cost.



That one has cocoa powder on it, but I put toffee sauce on all the others. I figured out that it costs about 20p per drink, which is at least ten times cheaper than starbucks. Bit of a hassle to make it all the time, but very nice as a treat.

I finished off the rest of my lasagne, and ate half of one of those 75p pizzas for lunch today. The other half will be lunch tomorrow. I made a copy of Dominos Garlic & Herb dip to go with it, which is super easy.:) Mayo, about two tablespoons, plus about a teaspoon of mustard (filched from housemate; it's okay, he clogged the drain with cigarette butts and I had to clean it, he can spare a bit of mustard), parsley, and garlic powder. Yummy.:D

I had a go at making an Egg McMuffin, purely so I can tick that off in my cookbook. I like doing that. With physical cookbooks, I tick items off on the contents page, and make notes when I make them on the page. With kindle books, I use the notes feature, and I also made a note on the contents page which listed all the recipes, and which I update with dates. It's a little like Julie & Julia, only not as obsessive.

I've never been a fan of egg mcmuffins, but it came out pretty well. I formed the beef into hamburger patties on the same evening, and fried one up into a plain cheeseburger on a muffin rather than a bun. McDs style hamburger buns are a bit sweet for me anyway. Also yummy.:D

I've got a fairly big (for me) shop coming up. I felt like I could splurge because my meal plans/spending plans for the weeks around it are quite a bit lower. It was around £14 from Tesco, but I've realised that I've got some £2 off a £20 spend vouchers, so I moved non-perishables from later in the month to then, and added in some stuff that I don't need right now, but which is non-perishable and that I use all the time, ie, tinned tomatoes. I do have some £4 off £20 spend for Sainsburies, but a lot of the stuff I wanted to get worked out more expensive from there anyway, so it wasn't really a saving.:(

Shortie

Evening all! So got in thd bits we need for this week at Mr T (plus a pack of cheap tea bags from Mr S) and was amazed that I managed to get it all for £19.45 -£18 vouchers and £1.45 cash. Dead chuffed.
However, no meat needed this week and while I hope we can squeeze similar next week, we will be severely depleated next month and will need to stock back up again..

So we now have £25 vouchers and a bit over £6 cash for the week after next...

joanne109

picked up a few bits and bobs at Tesco express tonight, to get us through the weekend - bill was £25 but with vouchers etc I got it down to £18. I forgot to use my points card tho:mad::mad:

Off out on a bike ride and bbq picnic with children tomorrow, we've bought everything so just need to pack and go after church.
I need to pick up some bread, cheese and ham for school sandwiches but have enough milk and staples to keep us going on other fronts

Nanight xxxxxx

Joanne