January 2014 Grocery Challenge

meg72

LESLAMP wrote: »

Well I am hanging my head in shame the budget is blown big time .

I was doing so well up until 10th Feb and then it went down hill from there. We booked a weeks holiday to celebrate my 50th and also to decorate the kitchen. So a stripped out kitchen led to lunches out or takeaways for dinner plus Mum and Dad springing a surprise visit resulting in my budget going out of the window.

Current spend for January is £267.74/£250 with 10 days to go :eek:.

Will try and keep the spend to a minimum just need to stop my boys (19, 23 and 47) from eating everything in sight.

So you had lunches out, takeaways and a surprise visit
and you are 17.74 over, I wouldn't be hanging my head in shame, I would be thinking Christ I did well there.

Florenceem

meg72 wrote: »

Another vote for a trolly, wouldn't be without mine, its a four wheeler push one though as cant manage pull a long due to arthy
hands.

Its great I just pop a basket on top and trundle along.

I love my trolley - white with big black flowers.

Florenceem

Yet another NSD - really enjoying being frugal in 2014.
I made my dog a really comfy bed today for 50p.
We had roast potatoes + chicken + stuffing + gravy + roasted yellow pepper/red onions/beetroot for dinner.

MrsCautious

Suzexxx wrote: »

Hi all


Another spend of £0.90 today on washing up liquid and casserole mix in the local CO-OP. Got me thinking i need to learn how to cook from scratch better. I walked around the CO-OP for a while looking for chicken casserole mix as the shelves were empty and it got me thinking i have no idea how to make the casserole sauce even if i did have all the ingredients in at home already.

We had a weekend away too this weekend and spent a scary amount of money on eating out. Luckily this didnt come out of GC budget, but also made me think next time we go away i'm going to search out vouchers to use for eating out e.g 241 etc.

Off to catch up with the thread now and add up spends for sig.

Suze

Good luck with your cooking from scratch, I have got myself out of the habit of using packet sauces as much as I can, I think I asked my mother in law what to have in a store cupboard to help me make my own. Where chicken casserole is concerned, I bung in far too much garlic, some black pepper and um chicken stock. I hope you enjoy cooking more from scratch, I know I do but sometimes there just isn't enough time.

I've added £1.58 from a sm shop as how much I went over the ms fee! This was towards apples, milk, onions, carrots and washing powder, I've added £8.42 from buying bread and a load of sugary snacks we didn't need, in nearest Sains to a difficult appointment I had today, totally emotional eating -- something I'm determined to address x

I'm not going to beat myself up if we go over £100, even though I'm trying, hope that makes sense, I'm having a blimmin good go, that's the main thing -- £100 for Jan would be great, but so would £120 and I have loads of things stocked up, that vouchers and nectr points have been spent on.

I'm going to work out how much I want to spend a year on groceries and be kinder to myself about it, my current state of mind is to beat myself up about what I spend -- and that's stupid x

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

MrsCautious - hope you're feeling brighter today. Sending (((hugs)))

Small spend in C**p yesterday on 2 x 2litres of milk - £2.20.

Dinner last night was lo roast pork in sweet and sour sauce from A!di. I made egg fried rice for the first time - soooooo goooooood. I have cooked rice left in the fridge - is it safe to use if I make another fresh batch of fried rice today?

Dinner tonight is spag bol. I am 'loosely' doing SW for the next few weeks as we are off on hols at half term. Doing mainly green days (for those in the know) so will have more pasta than meat tonight

Welcome eecjwd - do you want to be added here or on the February thread? Perhaps you could PM me please

Off to the local garden centre today. MIL bought me £100 of gift vouchers for my birthday in Sept but I lost them :mad: Luckily they are paper vouchers and the garden centre are replacing them for me :jHappy days.

Coxy

just_the_two_of_us

Morning all and welcopme to eecjwd.

Small spend of £1.20 in local Sbobs on basics hard butter last night as make cheese and potato mash pie with streaky bacon on top and my butter substitute cannot be used for baking!!! It was absolutely delicious. Off to get some A*di norpack today to try that - and if we don't like that going back to my usual - blow the expense!!
Sig updated. Also going to check what's left and spend last few squid stocking up to get throught to next Friday.

Everyone is doing so well - but how many are now like me - finding they have run the cupboards down so far it costs a lot to stock up? Not sure what to do about that - perhaps an annual budget like someone suggested above?
Keep up the good work!

mrs-moneypenny

morning all
yesterdays 'possible banana shop' turned inot a £4.49 spend on bananas, apples, milk and 2 packs of hot cross buns.

will do hm veggie shepherds pie for tea tonight. hoping to get back in time to do toasted cheese sarnis at lunch but it will be cheese on toast if i get held up.

XSpender

£32.78 spent in Aldee last night which should last the week. I am out of chicken stock cubes so will need to go to Mr S at the weekend as I need GF ones. DH fancies making thai green curry from scratch too so that will need some ingredients. We have 2 sauces in the cupboard but DH is trying a new recipe every Saturday.

LESLAMP

Just a little spend for me but needed some soya milk as my asthma is playing up and I find dairy makes it worse. Spent £3.02 on soya milk, bananas and lemons. Not too bad considering I hadn't had any breakfast so-

#49 £270.76

mouche

It was £9.33 at the weekend (lost the receipt so had to wait for the CC record to come through), which is really low for us and is a result of choosing to have a meat-free week this week. We have eggs if we feel the need for animal protein but so far so good. Might have to pop to the shops to get something for my work lunches for tomorrow and Friday - or maybe I can persuade OH to make some quick pasta while I put LO to bed.

9 days to go in the month but I am cautiously hopeful of coming in quite a bit under. Am thinking of putting some of the excess into an annual fund for when we overspend due to stocking up.