November 2013 Grocery Challenge

poppycracker

little spend today; £4.38. Forgot to get onions so will have to go back tomorrow...... bah.

My meal plan for this week goes a little like this:

Today - scrambled egg and beans on toast (got eggs that need used asap)
Friday - pasta bake with smoked sausage
Saturday - garlic and herb breaded chicken with tatties or rice and veg
Sunday - honey and soy sauce pork chops with mash, broccoli and cauliflower (got a friend coming over for his dinner after we all go to give blood)
Monday - HM shepherd's pie
Tuesday - probably mince and tatties with the left over mince from yesterday
Wednesday - chicken fajitas

cocoloco

poppycracker wrote: »

I make turkey mince sheperds pie and spag bol for my Dad when he is up on holiday as he cannot eat red meat. It's not as 'meaty' as beef mince, but its quite hard to tell the difference, especially if you use a beef stock or beef gravy with it.

Florenceem wrote: »

The taste of turkey mince is different to beef mince - fine to use as is. If you like a beef taste to your food - do half and half with beef plus you could add a beef stock cube.

:)Thanks for the help with the turkey mince- we like beef flavour but I think I will mix it half/half with the beef mince and plenty of gravy / beef stock to sneak it into meals- will let you know how it worked. I plan to have a lasagna making weekend and hopefully the mince be OK this way.

beth2242

Had a very silly moment yesterday of thinking 'oh stuff it' and went into Mr A's 'for a few bits' and came out £77.82 down!!
:mad:
So the result is that I have well and truly bust the grocery budget....BUT I must admit about £40 of the budget was takeaways - which I am going to allow a different budget for food/takeaway treats next month. AND I have be known to spend 400/500 per month on groceries for three of us so I think I've still done pretty well! Just another 13 days til pay day so must get to then without buying another huge shop and only buying essentials such as bread milk etc. The shopping yesterday consisted of stir fry beef, gammon joint, cold cooked meats, lots of bread/rolls, tuna (15 tins of (we eat loads of tuna!) as they were on offer 3 tins for £2!), also bought lots of fruit and veg and some meat for the freezer so there is plenty of food in for us to live off and it may help cut down our spend for next month! Although I've blown the budget I will continue to post to keep myself on track and think twice about spending until next month!!

[Deleted User]

meg72 wrote: »

I love a soup and pudding dinner, I have a tin of tomato soup that's out of date so think I will use that tonight and tinned rice pud with peaches Might push the boat out and have a cheese toastie to dip in my soup, as theres only me and I only use half a can it will be luch tomorrow as well.

Cheese toastie to dip in the soup sounds like a great plan. May have to copy that idea from you:D.

cocoloco

beth2242 wrote: »

Had a very silly moment yesterday of thinking 'oh stuff it' and went into Mr A's 'for a few bits' and came out £77.82 down!!
:mad:

shiningfaery wrote: »

I am so mad with myself. I went to asda earlier to get baby milk and nappies, came out £77 lighter. I now have a freezer full to bursting of meals and food and my hubby still has the cheek to say he is going back on Saturday for garlic bread. Unfortunately for him I saw red......how do I get better control of my senses when out?
I know this is my first month and is setting the bar for me but I knew I didn't need anything other than baby stuff really.

Don't be mad at yourselves, it can happen to anybody.
I used to do something simular - I think it was a knee-jerk reaction / 'rebell' against the restriction we put on ourselves with our budget.
It will pass with time and nowdays I 'like' to live with the budget and look at it as a challenge rather than a restriction.

joedenise

beth2242 wrote: »

Had a very silly moment yesterday of thinking 'oh stuff it' and went into Mr A's 'for a few bits' and came out £77.82 down!!
:mad:
So the result is that I have well and truly bust the grocery budget....BUT I must admit about £40 of the budget was takeaways - which I am going to allow a different budget for food/takeaway treats next month. AND I have be known to spend 400/500 per month on groceries for three of us so I think I've still done pretty well! Just another 13 days til pay day so must get to then without buying another huge shop and only buying essentials such as bread milk etc. The shopping yesterday consisted of stir fry beef, gammon joint, cold cooked meats, lots of bread/rolls, tuna (15 tins of (we eat loads of tuna!) as they were on offer 3 tins for £2!), also bought lots of fruit and veg and some meat for the freezer so there is plenty of food in for us to live off and it may help cut down our spend for next month! Although I've blown the budget I will continue to post to keep myself on track and think twice about spending until next month!!

Don't beat yourself up about it, as you say it's your first month and you have cut down to what you were previously spending - perhaps what you budgeted was too much of a reduction for the first month. It's better to reduce it a little each month until you get to a comfortable level.

You've also got the makings of loads of meals in your shopping which means you shouldn't need to spend too much more - just the basics like bread, milk, fresh fruit/veg.

Tuna - where did you get it for that price please? I'm going to be needing to buy some tuna next week as only have one tin left in the cupboard and was about to start looking for offers but haven't seen anything that low for a long time.

Someone (can't remember who) was asking about chocolate oranges - Morrisons had them at 99p a couple of weeks ago, don't know if they've still got them though as I bought mine then.

Did my main shop today and spent £26.83 in Mr Ts and £5.99 in Mr Ms so a total of £32.82 bringing my total to £146.69/£250 so far this month and only have another 10 days left this month so looking good to come in under budget.

Denise

beth2242

joedenise wrote: »

Don't beat yourself up about it, as you say it's your first month and you have cut down to what you were previously spending - perhaps what you budgeted was too much of a reduction for the first month. It's better to reduce it a little each month until you get to a comfortable level.

Tuna - where did you get it for that price please? I'm going to be needing to buy some tuna next week as only have one tin left in the cupboard and was about to start looking for offers but haven't seen anything that low for a long time.

Denise

Thanks for the support - I think it did maybe expect too much of myself with it being the first month - I am doing this cos im quite addicted to food shopping for some silly reason so I haven't done so bad considering!

Tuna is from ASDA - 3 tins for £2! It was on one of the aisle ends with big offer on it you couldn't really miss it! Worth stocking up while its cheap!!

CountingPennies

2 little shops today. Home B's for small bottles of pop and 5 bars of chocolate for tonight. We off to Lumiere in Durham tonight with 4 kids. Its gonna be a late one so not getting stung on drinks and snacks for the kids. Also picked up a swap force advent calendar for my son. He asked for one in Mr T's the other day but they were £2. Managed to get one in Home B's for 49p!

Also popped in Mr T's for 2 packs of ibuprofen, 2 packs of hotdog buns and a milk.

Both shops come to a total of £6.61

Quick and simple meal before we headout tonight of hotdogs and chips.

CP xx

want2Bfrugal

At this point I am slightly over budget but I have changed my shopping habits so I can lose weight.

I walk to the shops and the whole trip takes about 2hrs. Also because I carry the shopping home I buy less. However, I now shop at Mr M&S and my bill is never below £20.

I don't buy ready-made stuff as I will cook from scratch. I buy fruit, veg and if there are any YS on fish or meat but my bill still is £20+ every time.

It's very frustrating as I will go over budget this month if it continues.

Sequeena

NSD here had a tesco delivery last night. My second week of November is done. Small overspend but next week will be less.

Dinner tonight is thai crusted basa fillet (thanks young's), homemade herb and garlic wedges, mixed veg and tartare sauce.