September 2013 Grocery Challenge

davsidipp

hi can i join this month,spending has got silly,food thrown away,and budget has gone out the window.reality check has set in and i need help:).im starting with a budget of 300 quid,for three adults,and one 4 year old who starts school next week.his mum will be paying the eight pounds for his school lunches.im including a small buffet for a wake,so if i go over that will be it.:)i spent 23 quid in iceland,and 8.50 in the co op today.

Pandora_2

Oh dear!! Went shopping yesterday for a couple of essential items and ended up buying tons of reduced price stuff in Mr T and in Mr S!! :eek:
It was pretty much all essential stuff so I don't feel too bad, but it seems a bit like cheating if I stock up before the challenge starts, so when I use it (have frozen everything!) I'm going to count it as buying it that day and will add it to my spends.
Couldn't resist buying all 4 packs of rhubarb that were there as they were reduced from £2 each to 20p each!!! Woohooooooooo!!!!!! :T

CountingPennies

Manged to get to shop yesterday for milk as mentioned, however some pepsi, midget gems and smarties also fell into the basket!

£3.27p to add.

On the plus side, NSD managed today. Thats my since starting this months challenge. Gonna set myself a 2nd mini challenge of 3 NSDs a week (Thursday to Thursday i think) so 2/3 so far

Taranaman

Checking in on my first day with £54.45. Not great as I raided the budget for two half-marathon entries for me and DH, but as I'm trying to stick to a budget it has to be accounted for somewhere!

katiegirl

Spends so far for me
approx £22 in Aldi (can't find the receipt! It was £21 something)
63p in M&S (cannellini beans)
£2.50 on chimchurri sauce from the farmer's market

So thats £25.13/£120 so far.

Meal plan
Sunday - macaroni and butternut squash cheese (from freezer)
Monday - chicken cacciatore with leftovers for freezer
Tuesday - sweet potato gratin
Wednesday - paneer and peas, sweet potato daal and chapattis
Thursday - spaghetti in tomato sauce after work (dd tea at CM)
Friday - sausage pasta bake
Saturday - tea at mum's
Sunday - working ?leftover chicken cacciatore or something else from freezer
Monday - dahl and chapatti
Tuesday - Cajun salmon

I have the ingredients for all of these meals but will probably need some fresh fruit and yoghurts for lunches. I will also make up some extra sauces and maybe some soup with any left sweet potato/peppers/onions from super 6 this week. Looking quite good for the first week I think.

NickJW

Hello all!

Can't believe it's September, but strangely I'm looking forward to it because I enjoy wintery food more than summery

Came in well under budget last month which was needed after a few overspends in previous months. This month will be more because everything (toiletries, store cupboard items like chopped tomatoes, tuna, pasta etc), plus more expensive things like toothbrush heads are needed all at the same time.

However, my running total is currently at £927.72/£1040 for this year, so I've got room to move.

Have started to add all my required items in a Mr T delivery for Tuesday delivery. Will update the total once I know the total.

Good luck everyone and thanks to everyone who helps contribute to the threads.

MrsCautious

Kicking off September with a spend of £18.60 in Sains.

I know it can be the most expensive depending on what you buy but a mixture of YS, offers and Basics range works for me, plus nectar points off. My daughter came with me and spent £8 on make up so the points add up.

YS I got two packs of cubed casserole beef for £3.69 and a decent quality chicken for £3. On offer I got 4 Taste the Difference meringue nests for £2.

Two loaves of Basics bread for £1 for the 2.

My receipt said my shopping was £2.60 something cheaper than other supermarkets.

Hope this waffle is useful to someone, reasoning like this has brought me back from Aldi x

CherryPie

Thought I'd start September off with at lease 1 NSD, but alas, my nephew tells me he is suffering from the dreaded man flu! He requested home made soup with a kick. So a wee spend of £1.70 for carrots & a tub of curry powder. Made curried lentil soup at half 6 this morning and delivered for lunchtime. By this time he had miraculously recovered and had gone fishing! Men eh!!

Flat_Eric

MummyBobble wrote: »

Well the stock take is done but I won't post the full contents because it would take too long... Says it all really I guess, I could open a small corner shop with it all.

It proves to me though that my shopping habit is really bad. Why, when I already have 6 cartons of pasatta in the cupboard (at least smart price so not too expensive), do I stick another one or two in the trolley every week? Then there's the pasta, rice, couscous, lentils, endless tins of various beans/pulses (I don't eat meat thought the children do), packets of flavoured couscous, pasta in sauce, instant noodles, smart price bolognaise/chilli/curry sauce (14jars :eek: though I have been stocking up on them while they were 16p a jar). As for the condiments and sauces, well if it's not in my cupboards it's not been invented yet!

Fridge and freezer both bursting at the seams so I think we may be in for some interesting combinations over the next couple of weeks. I did use some manky leeks and potatoes to make soup yesterday which was supper last night and will be lunch today. Hopefully very little to be spent this month while I use it all up

I do my main food shops online and typically shop according to whats in my favourites so if something I buy regularly is on offer, I see it my duty to buy lots despite having numerous tins of ? already stockpiled. This puts money in the supermarket's coffers and empties my bank account yet I repeat and could earn a gold medal for my efforts. :rotfl:

I itemised my cupboards yesterday and whilst there were not too many surprises, (I had a sort out the other week) I was reminded how many jars of relish/chutney that I have! and then I went into my junk room where excess food gets stored and found several tins of beans....

I've had a food shop today and as per usual I've got carried away and spent more than I intended.

If I stopped having tea in my milk and stopped being fussy then I could probably get away with buying nowt for the rest of the month. I doubt this will happen though.

Flat_Eric

MrsCautious wrote: »

Kicking off September with a spend of £18.60 in Sains.

I know it can be the most expensive depending on what you buy but a mixture of YS, offers and Basics range works for me, plus nectar points off. My daughter came with me and spent £8 on make up so the points add up.

YS I got two packs of cubed casserole beef for £3.69 and a decent quality chicken for £3. On offer I got 4 Taste the Difference meringue nests for £2.

sorry - what does YS stand for?