September 2013 Grocery Challenge

ditsykitchen

Spent £2.95 in little Sainb0 at the station yesterday on my way home. Got gluten free pasta, plum toms and chillies. Got big shop delivered from tesc0 today including 2 bags of dog food - £49.90. Will update signature now.

Florenceem

CH27 wrote: »

First day for me & i'm a bit worried about how i'll manage

I have to manage as this is life for the next 3 years but ............

Being savvy with your spending is not a hardship - jmho. I enjoy seeing how little I can spend.

meg72

CH27 wrote: »

First day for me & i'm a bit worried about how i'll manage

I have to manage as this is life for the next 3 years but ............

Try not to worry, or see this as a chore,make a game of it, it will soon become a fun thing to see just how little you can spend.

Find out when your usual sm do their reductions, you can save a fortune and its a real buzz to get a bargain.

Good luck, I see from previous post your Son is off
to Uni good luck to him too.

sachatith

chickadee wrote: »

We're also making an effort to use things up so yesterday I made two banana loaves with decomposing bananas. Just had a slice with a cup of tea. Delish!.

He he must have been the weekend for it - I made one lot of banana loaf and am making another one midweek as I am camping at the weekend and if I don't I fear OH might not eat at all...

Firstly due to my booboo last week with the delivery I am going to have to change my budget down to £220.00 (sorry!) which is a massive drop for us after spending £277.00 last month and my original target being £250.00, however unless I find that money tree I grew last year we just don't have the funds so will have to be!

We didn't go for takeaway on Saturday in the end, persuaded them to go for nibble food from Mr T's which although it cost £24.45, we still have loads left and it will do us for extras, as opposed to the takeaway which probably would have lasted a day.

Very pleased with OH who is getting into this challenge and has actually started checking dates of things in the fridge, so rather than have the cheese that was in there and has a date of October, he used the ham that finished this week. It's a start!

Froze the last of the hot pots so got one for me for lunch and OH has an 'emergency meal' to defrost at some point. Tonight I have lamb lasagne (WW as am also dieting so finding money saving and losing weight an even bigger challenge!) which will make 4 servings, then making prawn and chorizo paella later this week. Unfortunately OH is a fussy eater so normally end up making separate meals but its ok as I always bulk make.

Oh and tried black pudding and apple mash yesterday - a few scraggly potatoes, one apple and black pud which cost 70, and there's still some left for him today. Very nice!

So far this month had 3/6 NSD including today which I am pleased with, but only having £83 for the next three weeks may bring out my creativeness with food ;p on my to do list this week is a stocktake as found a handy little free app (out of Milk) to list what I have etc. Reality check coming up!

Love x

CH27

meg72 wrote: »

Try not to worry, or see this as a chore,make a game of it, it will soon become a fun thing to see just how little you can spend.

Find out when your usual sm do their reductions, you can save a fortune and its a real buzz to get a bargain.

Good luck, I see from previous post your Son is off
to Uni good luck to him too.

Thankyou
I know I can do it. I just need to get my head around it properly.

dramarama

Hi all!
Did some food shopping this morning, hopefully it will last well over a week!
Went to a few places and spent a total of £43.36. This used to be what I'd spend in a month so I need to start meal planning again!

CountingPennies

Popped to the shops this morning with the kids so they could waste the last of the summer pocket money, and picked up a couple of bit myself. Oopps!

£9.47 in Home B's on beans (had none in the other day), oil, pop, freezer bags, toothpaste and wipes. Actually all stuff I would have needed soon anyway so will save a trip to shops one day next week.

Iceland I spent £5 on milk, bread and eggs. Also 50p on card for christmas.

Oh, and £1.25p at the local shop this morning.

Should have enough milk and bread to last me a few days now. All meals will be coming from stuff already bought and planned for. Also gonna bake some cakes this afternoon i think.

Can i have any advice for packed lunches here please? My 2 youngest kids (6 and 10) are going on packed lunches. They have always had dinners, however because they have gone up to £11 a week each, i've decided to let them change as i'm sure i can do 2 packed lunches cheaper than £22 a week. Am i being realistic? My eldest (13) sometimes has packed lunch, and sometimes dinner (dependant on her timetable) but i've never really paid much attention to how much it was costing me. (On a dinner day, she would get a meal deal for £1.95, however this has gone up to £2.20).

So basically, am i being realistic thinking packed lunches will be cheaper? And does anyone have any good ideas about what to put in so they don't have the same day in/day out?

CP xx (Sorry for the rambling on)

lushlifesaver

Bf is going crazy this month it's going to be tight on the budget! grrrr

medsdemon

Had to spend £15.20 at Pets At H*me for the cats food for the next week or two:eek: trust him to have expensive tastes:rotfl: and £6.21 at MrS for milk, guacamole, Tortilla chips, GF cereal and red kidney beans.

downshifted

Just back from Aldi. Sugar x 2 (jam making) Flaked almonds and dark chocolate x 2 (cake making) veg oil, apple sauce, milk, stilton cheese, nuts, salmon fillets, cream x 2, figs x 2, peppers, tomatoes £23.38

Have sent DH to Sainsbury as it is close to Wickes where he is going for some DIY stuff. He is supposed to get a small loaf, basics cream cheese and Ryvita - we shall see! Will post total spend so far after he gets back. Shouldn't need much after today before Saturday though.

Well - he did it - 3 items, £2.97. So total spend so far is £43.75/250