December 2013 Grocery Challenge

joedenise

Forgot to put on my small top up shop yesterday - it was for £8.76 and £5.50 of that was for a huge box of teabags - as you can see we get through a lot of teabags so works out cheaper to buy the huge boxes.

Total for month (which finishes Friday) is £244.47 and the only thing I need to get tomorrow is some mince to make pasties for us to eat on Friday on our journey so will be well within budget for the month, yay! I'm not sure whether I'm going to join in the challenge for January as we're away for a couple of weeks now so there will only be a couple of weeks of Jan when we get back.

Denise

BlueMoo

NSD Mon and Tues. Probably today as well.

Going to SM on Thursday so will know final budget then.
Month finishes on Friday for me, so looking like I will squeak under budget.

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Is it just me that's actually looking forward to the leftovers as much as the
'main dinner' over Christmas

Ha! I love the leftovers. You can't beat the crunchy crumbs of roast potatoes popped into a yorkie pud with a bit of meat and pour some LO gravy on top. Like a mini canape!

*****

Can't believe it is so soon to Christmas - really seems to have flown by.

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Did anyone read in the DM :embarasse: about the boy who spent 4p for £600 worth of food and donated it? What an amazing achievement!
Might have to really get going on this coupon malarkey.

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Hope everyone is doing well

sefilby

friday shopping came in at £31.08 not bad really considering I aim for a weekly average of £40

poppycracker

Last shop of the month tomorrow as DH has just informed me he is getting paid on Monday instead of Thursday(yay!) so we will start our January budget from then.

lushlifesaver

£8.55 spent in morrisons as I had to get some bits to make myself a little picnic to take to late night training with bf tonight. I got enough for each of us to eat tonight and lunch tomorrow plus a couple of things for the Christmas bag to take with us Christmas day.


£1.50 200g tub of Hula Hoop snack mix (Christmas bag)
£1.50 tub of cheese footballs (Christmas bag)
£1 whole pineapple (why pay 50p for a pineapple finger/5 for £2 when the whole fruit only costs £1?!)
£2.50 4 fresh Lincolnshire sausage rolls (could have bought cheaper ones/got different ones from a bakery but I like these ones hot or cold)
£0.45 3cartons of orange juice
£1.60 5 laughing cow cheese dipper snack pot thingies (a treat to go with my sausage roll tonight)


New budget will start on Saturday and will include a little extra to enable me to restock the freezer so I don't need to do any shopping whilst bf is away in January as he is away 20days in January!

Soworried

A small spend of £6.77 today on eggs £2.10, a Sun newspaper for the Aldi voucher 40p and 20 chocolate digestive bars £1.20 and sugar 89p and a bag of toffees to share as a treat. They are only 49p and much nicer than the Tesco basic ones. Also 69p on YS mushrooms, we go through loads of them and a tube of pringles.

I have updated my signature. I have taken the cash out of the bank and I am going to keep it in my purse to make me more aware of spending it before I shop on Monday.

About the leftovers, they are what makes boxing day great, the lovely meals and buffet you can make from them.

storytime

Shopped at the weekend with spends at the pet shop for the dog and Aldi with voucher. Then went to Mr T yesterday to use all my vouchers. Sig updated. I think I will go over this month but will need hardly anything in January. Tomorrow's Daily Mirror has a £5 voucher off £40 spend at Lidl.
Sig updated.

meg72

Shortie wrote: »

Ooohhh... actually, a change to my budget for Dec/Jan - Mr Shortie's Mum kindly gave us £30 towards the Christmas food as they are staying with us for a few days. We said there was no need, but she gave us some money anyway - plus she's bringing some snacky bits over with them.

So, budget for Dec-Jan is now £230 :D


.... Is it just me that's actually looking forward to the leftovers as much as the 'main dinner' over Christmas? I'm already dreaming of a handfull the pork hand leftovers shredded and cooked off with some sweet chilli sauce and some fried left over roasted spuds, all in a wrap ready to be rewarmed when I'm back in work on the Friday? No? Oklay, maybe just me being random in that case

No you are not being random Hun, I love using up the xmas leaftovers, and usually enjoy my boxing day dinner more than the xmas day one, cold meat and bubble an squeak with lashings of brown sauce, bliss :rotfl:

2childmum

Hi. I haven't been on here for several days so have read through all the posts.

Two spends to report - £23.29 last week in Mr M and £20.24 in Mr S this week - was actually £55.74 but got it down using vouchers and nectar points!

Taking DH to Mr T tomorrow to help choose a couple of bottles of wine so suspect we may end up with more in my trolley than anticipated! I have a £30 off if I spend £60 voucher, so plan on buying as much Christmas stuff as I can as long as the dates are ok. Then I will just have a few veg and bits to get on Christmas Eve.

Had a busy day kitchen wise yesterday. Defrosted 2 packs of YS pastry and made 2 quiche (one for Christmas Day) with a pack of bacon I had in the fridge and the tail end of a pack of cherry toms, so they are in the freezer. Also defrosted the end of a chicken and the end of a gammon and made a pie with some mixed frozen veg for dinner. Had enough filling to make 6 mini pies - ate one for lunch and 5 are now frozen. Also used a YS loaf of white bread to make bread sauce and had enough bread, full fat milk and cream (both lactose free) to make a bread and butter pudding. The lactose free stuff is expensive, and I've started experimenting with value long life soya milk for most cooking ( I don't like it to drink or in tea/coffee). i works fine in custard and white sauce, and is also very nice in a banana smoothie!

Today I defrosted all the bits of YS white and smoked fish I have collected over the past few weeks, along with the tail end of a bag of prawns, and make enough filling for two fish pies. I've made up one for dinner and frozen just the filling part as i think I might make a crumble topping for it.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

shiningfaery

I need some help please. I have about half of a huge bag of potatoes that need using up. what can I do with them to freeze them or make with them to use them up, really don't want to throw them out