July 2013 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

Spend of £81.65 at Mr T on ice lollies, fruit and veg, a few cupboard staples, fridge bits and toiletries

Will update sig if I can, on DDs iPod

Have to calm down a bit now, though going through alot more food with DD1 back, especially fruit and veg.

Excuse the dodgy formatting! Can't correct it on here. *Edit* now corrected it!

Billie-jo

£0.69 spent today on rolls.

Made some fish cakes tonight with a piece of salmon that has been in freezer for a while. Also we got given a few sticks of rhubarb so stewed them down and mixed them into some rice pudding. Delicious and small amount left for tomorrow.

WantToBeSE

My boys are away at their dads house from Friday 5pm-Sunday midday, then my oldest is off to France on a school trip on the Sunday evening until next Friday.

So i am hoping that i will be able to just spend £30 on next weeks food shop!

Florenceem

Mr F has been told - no spending. He has plenty of food in to keep him alive while I am away.
He will buy milk ready for when I come home on Monday.
Dinner was -
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Smoosh

This week OH has spent £3.99 on a meal deal (hospital prices...) and £2.28 at McDonald's, so I'll be adding that on.

Also did the weekly shop today, I only really wanted to spend £20, but went over (as always!). And I forgot flour

But anyway, spent £26.58 and got:

Cat litter, 2 tins of beans, 2 tins of spaghetti, milk, 3 tins of soup, 2 lots of cloths, 2 litres of vanilla ice cream, 2 almond croissants, a birthday cake, 2 apricot pastries, cheese bread, 6 crumpets, a ready made pasta meal, a loaf of wholemeal bread, 15 chicken slices for sandwiches, 5 jam doughnuts, a ciabatta loaf, 10 bananas, a pack of 4 chocolate chip cookies, a ploughmans sandwich, a 6 pack of muller corner rice pots (3 apple, 3 maple syrup), 10 apples, 22 yogurts, 4 jacket potatoes, a pack of cheese triangles, 8 litres of cola, 6 litres of lemonade, 2 tins of custard, 2 punnets of strawberries, 2 punnets of raspberries, 4 tomatoes, a pack of stir fry vegetables, a tub of salad, 6 energy drinks, 2 bottles (750 mls each) of squash, half a cucumber.

So I think we did pretty well

New total is £78.11.

cheerfulness4

CountingPennies - I agree with Meg that I would be happy to give my kids sandwiches if they'd had cooked at school.
In this weather its hard to eat big meals we might have planned, too.

As regards the heavy spending, I know that I won't make my goal this month so I'm in the same boat but I know that if I stop counting the receipts up I'll really overspend so I shall just carry on being frugal and see how near I can come in.

Bluegreen143

Yesterday got some milk (£1) and four YS chicken breasts (£2.50) from Mr M yesterday. Chicken breasts bagged and in freezer for meals later.

No spends today, yay

CountingPennies

Florenceem wrote: »

The meds will kick in and make you feel more able to cope - I am on Anti - Ds too.

I've been on them in the past, so i know they work. I just need to help myself too, i realise that.

meg72 wrote: »

Personally,if kids have had a hot meal at school,then I would be happy to give sandwiches and yogurt, as long as you plan for it then it can work out a very cheap meal. and gives you a break from cooking. My kids used to love cheese and crisp sandwiches,also egg or Tuna.

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

CountingPennies - I agree with Meg that I would be happy to give my kids sandwiches if they'd had cooked at school.
In this weather its hard to eat big meals we might have planned, too.

As regards the heavy spending, I know that I won't make my goal this month so I'm in the same boat but I know that if I stop counting the receipts up I'll really overspend so I shall just carry on being frugal and see how near I can come in.

Well i checked the school menu for this week, and today they were having roast pork with veg, so i made the sandwiches. However, i HAVEN'T been to the shop, so successfully managed a NSD! Ended up with turkey salad sandwiches, yogurt, carrot sticks (chopped myself, no point wasting money on pre-chopped) and some sour cream and onion taco rolls (like crisps type stuff) which were left over from Sundays BBQ off my brother :cool:

Tomorrow is sports day, so i know the kids will be having packed lunch from the kitchen, so i've already sorted the tea which will be pasta bake. Quick and easy, but not because i can't be bothered, but because i will be at sports day so won't be home to prepare anything big. I only have 45 minutes in the house with the kids after school before going to work but they love pasta bake so they will be happy!

MrsCautious

Good luck with it all CountingPennies, you really shouldn't think you're failing at anything you know, sometimes life gets in the way and as much as we like to think we're planning, we end up spending more, I think we can put ourselves under too much pressure. You've bought stuff cos it was needed, including stuff (tights) that some (ok me for starters) wouldn't include in the GC budget.

I could 'massage' my spending figures this month and claim I was doing okay but do you know what I'm doing completely rubbish, but small steps are fine. We're battling years of spending (and eating in my case) habits and to expect a glitchless ride into angelic no spends is unrealistic, all any of us can do is try our best.

I've suffered from depression in the past and wish you lots of love and luck in getting better -- I hope you can find some time for you and be kind to yourself x

dylan2011

Yesterday spends - £4.50 - Weetabix and Coffee. 36 weetabix and jar of Nescafe. (coffee will last a few weeks as we don't drink loads of it)

Now I need to really concentrate, the head gasket blew on the car yesterday (Right outside the Dr's wen I took my LB for his first jabs) not impressed. It is the latest in a long line of probs, and was one of the reasons for doing this challenge, to save money to get a new car next year (by new, I mean about 7 years old and about £2000 in cost, but new to us) - we have spend around £300 on the car in last few months, not this is going to be £400+ and the car only worth £500 or less, so not sure what we doing now.
We need a car, we are in a tiny village with a tiny community led shop and no bus service, 8 miles from nearest town, with 2 little children and 4 miles from Docs surgery as well, so it is an essential for us.
Got to have a serious think today.

Hope you are all keeping well.
Re. The school dinners question, I would do sandwiches with fruit, pudding, salad or similar. Or beans on toast/cheesy beans on toast, jacket potato with beans or tuna, Or simple things that keep like pasta bake, which they can eat as little or as much as they want, then have the rest the next day as well.