October 2013 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143

Put my total on the blog last night as £168.04 but remember today that I've also bought YS bread (75p) and Oh has bought 'loo bloo' type things at £1, so I'm currently at £169.79 / £170. Talk about squeaking in under target :rotfl:.

Shouldn't need anything else until payday on Friday so we should be good to go. Especially pleased as I thought we'd go over since I paid the £15 for 3 monsth delivery subscription to Mr As and I just counted it all in this month.

Was going to buy gram/besan flour to make pakora but we're having the pakora at the weekend now (conveniently after payday ) now just to decide on next month's budget! Think it might be a five week month unfortunately...

chocoholic_chick

Well yesterday and today were NSD. I really can't see me needing to buy anything else before Friday and DH avoids supermarkets at all costs so he's definitely not going to venture into one :rotfl:

Therefore I'm declaring my total spends for October at £203.90 :T Really happy that on my first month of the challenge I've managed to come in £16.10 under target

Looking forward to starting my next month from Friday. It will be a 5 week month next time around but we've got a well stocked freezer and we're both away with work a few times so hoping to be able to stick to a similar budget as this month, even though there is an extra weekly shop in there. Will go through what we have in over the next couple of days and come up with a budget for Friday

Look forward to seeing how everyone else has done over the next week or so :j

laura_hoggle

Had a busy weekend at the in laws, spent a fair amount in restaurants but not including that in the GC budget.

DH went shopping for razorblades and stuff for him yesterday and got fruit and milk - he paid with his account but I wanted to add it to the GC, but when asking how much the food was the response was 'about £5' so will just have to add that amount!

Did a 'big shop' in Sainsbobs today, spent £49.54 but this included a fair amount of meat which should see us through the next week or two, adding to the stuff that's already in the freezer.

I'm going to try to use the breadmaker more, so bought some bread flour and hoping to cut down on bread costs. I'm also making soups for our lunches, have made a very yummy tomato and chorizo one today, can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow!

Will update sig now, we are a little under budget but don't know if there will be any more spends before next Tuesday, we shall have to see!

she_who_can_not_cook

laura_hoggle wrote: »

Had a busy weekend at the in laws, spent a fair amount in restaurants but not including that in the GC budget.

DH went shopping for razorblades and stuff for him yesterday and got fruit and milk - he paid with his account but I wanted to add it to the GC, but when asking how much the food was the response was 'about £5' so will just have to add that amount!

Did a 'big shop' in Sainsbobs today, spent £49.54 but this included a fair amount of meat which should see us through the next week or two, adding to the stuff that's already in the freezer.

I'm going to try to use the breadmaker more, so bought some bread flour and hoping to cut down on bread costs. I'm also making soups for our lunches, have made a very yummy tomato and chorizo one today, can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow!

Will update sig now, we are a little under budget but don't know if there will be any more spends before next Tuesday, we shall have to see!

Recipe for the soup please

Soworried

My first nsd in months :j, it feels very good
I'm hoping for another nsd tomorrow.
Laura Hoggle, I use my bread maker more for making dough. I then turn the dough in to the more expensive things like dough balls and pizza bases. I tend to get bread ys much cheaper than I can make it.

laura_hoggle

she_who_can_not_cook wrote: »

Recipe for the soup please

Well I used a A Girl Called Jack recipe from here: http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/09/20/ultimate-feisty-soup/

then adapted it slightly, by adding (estimating, I just chucked stuff in!)
200ml water
tablespoon tomato puree with chilli
handful of red lentils

I let it simmer for about 10-15 mins, took it off the heat then let it cool for a bit and used a stick blender to blend it. I chopped up about 150g of chorizo into small chunks, added that, and simmered again for about 10mins.

It already has the thumbs up from DH, will definitely be making it again but will pay attention to what and how much I use next time!

Soworried, thanks for the advice about that, I've yet to use mine for dough, have mostly used packet mixes, which is quite naughty! I tend to do my shopping during the day due to my shifts at work, and don't tend to find much YS stuff! I also find that certain breads upset my tummy, especially the 'cheaper' ones (Aldi own brand wholemeal is a no-no for me but Kingsmill is fine - weird!) so am trying myself on different things in the hope I find something cheaper!

Sequeena

Small spend of £3.50 in asda on soft drinks and ibuprofen for my son. The operation went well, putting him to sleep didn't. They put anaesthetic cream on his hand so they could insert the cannula without him feeling it. He did feel it though his screams were horrific. They gave him general anaesthetic soon after and he went limp in my arms within seconds. The operation lasted 2 hours instead of 3 as they didn't need to do as much as they thought. He's in a cast for 4 weeks now. We also came away with a new diagnosis of hypermobility syndrome. It's never ending.

Pandora_2

Another £2.71 spent on bread flour, milk powder, YS cucumber and YS ginger biscuits. The pack of flour is big enough to do 3 big loaves and I'm using the milk powder instead of fresh milk as I didn't think it was worth going all the way to the supermarket and getting totally soaked just for some milk! (My local shop doesn't sell skimmed milk and I can't stand the taste of semi, let alone whole milk!!) Didn't really need cucumber or biscuits, but they were so cheap it would have been rude not to get them!!
Working a double shift tomorrow so will be a NSD as I won't have time to go shopping, not that I need anything anyway! Luckily we have a fridge and microwave at work so I'll be taking the last of the leek and potato soup from the freezer and some of the bread I made today Will have a few snacks with me as well so I'm not tempted to pop to the shop on my break
Hope everyone has a lovely cheap day

trulymadlyhannah

Reporting a total of £204.36/£190 which is an overspend of £14.36
Not sure if my budget is achievable because we spend around £30pcm on Forumla Milk and another £17 on Nappies/Wipes which is a huge £47pcm! And that's before all the other toiletry's/over the counter medications and household cleaning products! We have eaten a lot of the frozen meat out of the freezer this month and still overspent I will up my November budget to £210
We have been doing the "10 day shop" I read about on here a few months back and its working really well (despite the overspend) I haven't spent anything on other days apart from on a cheeky mcd treat for me and the hubby after a wedding party, and 2 coffees at play dates for the children.
My month ends tomorrow and there is no chance i am going to the shop We ran out of coffee a few days ago and its been interesting, tea just doesnt have the same effect... My mil gave us some coffee today and i could of kissed her!
My DH isn't impressed with the lack of junk food in the cupboards so i am going to buy some baking ingredients for us and bake some biscuits/deserts to snack on, the children will enjoy helping.
We went foraging and found a huge amount of pears, planning on stewing the fruit and freezing for deserts over winter.
Its thanks to you guys and blogging Im staying strong, looking forward to being debt free in 7 months!.... really need to update my signature!

lynnejk

chocoholic_chick wrote: »

Therefore I'm declaring my total spends for October at £203.90 :T Really happy that on my first month of the challenge I've managed to come in £16.10 under target :j

WELL DONE THAT'S FANTASTIC. Bet you feel great and so you should. :beer:

Sequeena wrote: »

. The operation went well, lasted 2 hours instead of 3 as they didn't need to do as much as they thought. He's in a cast for 4 weeks now. We also came away with a new diagnosis of hypermobility syndrome. It's never ending.

Glad operation went well apart from the screaming, but sorry now have another problem. Thoughts are with you and your sprog. Hope you have a good week.

trulymadlyhannah wrote: »

Reporting a total of £204.36/£190 which is an overspend of £14.36
Its thanks to you guys and blogging Im staying strong, looking forward to being debt free in 7 months!.... really need to update my signature!

DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP - I think you doing really well on the budget you have set yourself !! At least you putting in the effort and it's surprising how quickly the months go past. Keep pedalling !! or is it paddling ?:rotfl:

Another NSD for me - just didn't go out in the rain

Made 'ends from the freezer soup' today, enough for 4 portions.

1x portion chilli bean soup
+ 1x portion oxtail soup
+ 1x portion left-over beef stew (mostly gravy)
+ 1x portion HM tomato soup.

DH said it was good and could I make it again :rotfl:I will freeze what's left and he can have it again in a fortnight ! but shhh.

All the best
L.