June 2007 Grocery Challenge

mikeD

With the DS away I can get down to some serious dinners that I have not done before. Yesterday was poached haddock with an egg and rice and hollandaise sauce. My DW approved. Today I am mainly doing a gratin of potato with thyme. This requires onions and leeks. I've got onions but need to go to the local convenience store for the leeks. They did not have any loose leeks at all but had packets of 3 at £2.15 :mad:. So I will dispense with the onions and use up the remainder of the spring onions left over from Thursday's salad.

I think I mat well go over budget again this month. Have just had a couple glasses of wine, so "Am I bovvered" :beer:

redsquirrel80

Somehow managed to get to a fortnight before payday with next to no money again (I really need to look at my budgeting more carefully ) so gonna try to do a good shop with my £10 Tesco voucher tomorrow to hopefully last me till 23rd :eek: Lots of pasta and rice from the cupboard for me....

Solwaykid

Weekly update time for me.

I've been avoiding the shops this week but I went to iceland for some milk and spent £8. I did get useful stuff, salmon steaks for the freezer and cheese. Oh and the milk! I buy the 4 litre for a £1 and divide it up into cleaned 1l containers and freeze. Saves waste.

Edit. think it's pints not litres!

Re the being bored with the freezer when there's just yourself to feed. Sometimes I just put up with it, I've had the same 3 veg every day this week and bacon twice and chicken twice zzz. I think laziness is my problem and a small repetoir. I did find a post a while back, something like 'a different meal for every day of the month' which was useful. Its a little hard when catering for one though as to get the best value for money it pays to buy bulk. I think a longer term view of building up a stock cupboard/freezer is needed. Like I say, I have to overcome the laziness which leads to lazy spending which leads to debt.

Oh, I nearly forgot, someone (who shall remain nameless, she knows who she is!) started a Magnum ice cream pandemic on an other thread on a sunny day.. Add £3 to my total for the week! They were on offer though, so a very OS pandemic.

Have a successful week with your budgetting, all.

cat4772

Can I join the June challenge? Hubby, cats and I used to spend £400 a month on shopping:eek: , but after preparing our statement of affairs, decided that we'd try for £50 a week (but that has to include everything foodwise and household stuff). Managed ok the first week (£49.21:j ) but I think that was more of an accident than design. I'll keep you posted!

katzen_2

boo81 wrote: »

dishes could be the answer and they you might not get so bored.

Yeah, that's a smart conclusion which I also came to. Went to Mr T late on Friday, picked up some mince that was reduced, going to make a dead basic bolognaise and then can jazz up portions to turn it in to chili etc as required. Really like the stuffed mushrooms idea, and I'd forgotten about ratatoullie, I love that especially when put in to peppers & cooked like your mushrooms

I was definitely having a grumpy day, feeling much more positive now and ready to make some fab stuff for next week

Slowlyfading-I am also a student-how do you live on 3pounds worth of groceries?!? :eek: I like my food too much I think

mollybilly_2

i need to start this challenge today. was hoping to start at the beginning of june, but had to take kids shopping and an essentials spend of £30 ish turned into £68 !!! Might do shopping online from next week, did it couple of times when car was off the road, but ended up taking bus up to town couple of times for extras. Would you say asda or tesco is better online, and dont think im thick but where does everyone get the money off vouchers youre all raving about?? Help please!!!

Linda32

Hello all,

Previous spend £60.99

Aiming at £260.00 for this month, finish date 27th June,

Co-op £6.84
Tesco £8.52
Tesco £6.77
Co-op £2.17

Total £103.18

Includes £17.89 on wine, so far

lil_me

Solwaykid wrote: »

Oh, I nearly forgot, someone (who shall remain nameless, she knows who she is!) started a Magnum ice cream pandemic on an other thread on a sunny day.. Add £3 to my total for the week! They were on offer though, so a very OS pandemic.

:rolleyes: Who would do something so shocking as that I wonder? :rotfl:

Just got the last bits for hols inc bottled water, cordial, coffee etc so will add that to total now

*sneaks off to have another Magnum, blaming Solwaykid for mentioning them of course* :rotfl:

brummiebabe

mollybilly wrote: »

iWould you say asda or tesco is better online, and dont think im thick but where does everyone get the money off vouchers youre all raving about?? Help please!!!

Have never used Asda's but Tesco's is good. You can get loads of discount codes (to use when you checkout) at
http://tescovouchercodes.blogspot.com/

Hope that link works & is helpful for you!

lemanie

Hi Cat4772 and Mollybilly,

I'm new to the challenge to so we can muddle through together. Not doing brilliantly so far but the spending diary certainly makes you think after the fact.

Made meal plan and list before going shopping but took DH and all kids too! Bad idea, DH determined to have bbq but persuaded OS style. Also persuaded me to buy giant half price beef joint - will come in but not budgeted for. However, still spent much less than usual, so that's better.

It's all very well having a budget, it's the determination (for 5 people not just self) to stick to it that's the problem.