September 2013 Grocery Challenge

Florenceem

CountingPennies wrote: »

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)

Reuse bottles and fill with squash for drinks. Home made roll/wraps/pittas make a change from sandwiches. HM cakes/flapjacks/biscuits cane be included in lunch boxes. Selection of veg sticks - celery/carrot/cucumber etc + hummus dip.

davsidipp

spent 10.19 in sainsburys this morning,3quid was spent on wine glasses though,not food,but il count it in budget.:D

CountingPennies

Florenceem wrote: »

Reuse bottles and fill with squash for drinks. Home made roll/wraps/pittas make a change from sandwiches. HM cakes/flapjacks/biscuits cane be included in lunch boxes. Selection of veg sticks - celery/carrot/cucumber etc + hummus dip.

Thanks for that. They have water bottles with their packed lunches, so they will be getting squash. Buying drinks everyday is expensive. Never thought about pittas. Will get some for next week. Gonna do some baking tonight so i can just put buns/flapjacks in rather than buy expensive cakes. Cucumber and carrot already bought along with fruit as they just LOVE fruit!

I'm also on the lookout for some cheap-ish flasks. At their school they are allowed to take flasks in so when I do a big pan of broth/soup I plan to send them to school with a flask of that, a break roll and a HM desert. Seems so much easier than messing round making sandwiches.

Gonna look at the first few post to see what pasta dishes you have too. My kids love pasta (hot or cold) so will be able to do pasta for a change from time to time.

Thanks for the link on the mince and pea pie too! I have just made one, but altered the recipe a bit. Found a couple of packets of puff pastry mix which had to be used this month (god knows how long that had been in the cupboard) so used that, did the mince and added a bit gravy. Also had some leftover mash from lunch today so rather than throw it out I added that to thicken it up. Put it in the dish and added the mushy peas to the top. Actually made quite a big pie (not planned) so didn't have enough mushy peas, so added a tin of mushy peas i had in the cupboard (again, been there a long time!) and voila! A big pie ready for the hubby and 3 kids tea. If i can work out how to post a pick of it i will. The top cracked a little and has mushy peas coming out the top. Looks rather odd :rotfl:

CountingPennies

Just tried.... I have no idea how to upload a pic from my phone! :rotfl:

mrs-moneypenny

declared for august and come over to join the new thread
im in for £400 for september please.

freezer is absolutely rammed so hoping that it will be a lower than budget spend this month.

flubberyzing

I'd like to re-join please! I've not done this for a few months, but with the start of a new academic year, and so back to work for me tomorrow, I'd like to get back on the wagon!

£55 a month for me.

Florenceem

CountingPennies wrote: »

Just tried.... I have no idea how to upload a pic from my phone! :rotfl:

Can't help with photos from a phone - I use my digital camera. Doesn't matter if the pie looks different from the recipe photo - my baking looks rustic.

meg72

Having discovered my local shop, One Stop, does great reductions, sometimes as much as 75% I am popping in most days to see what they have, its only a couple of mins walk.

Today was first spend on the month and I got 10 packs sliced chicken @ 25p instead of 1.00. will share these with DD and DIL.

Wholemeal loaf 50p instead of 1.59 and a punnet of strawberrys 50p instead of 2.00.

So spent 3.50 and saved 10.00.

Have made up 5 chicken sandwich for the freezer, they have cost me 10p each. and will be handy for a quick lunch.

xxlouisexx56

£17 spent today. Including a YS meal for the kids to have tomorrow, 2 YS meals for the freezer for me. 30 lunch box cartons ( will hopefully last for 6 weeks if no one else drinks them) milk, Pepsi, frosties.

Dinner tomorrow will be the kids having the YS meal. DP and I having some YS meatballs and rice.

The freezer is so full, I really need to empty it a bit! But I keep finding good whoopsies!

Josie73

First spends - £54.60 Aldi £20 Tesco. I forced myself to put the left over chicken carcass on for stock, so it will be soup for lunch tomorrow & the day after.