January 2014 Grocery Challenge

CH27

A NSD for me

kayester

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my meal last night, Jamie Olivers mothership roast chicken and all the sides. (lot of gravy but I LOVE it!!)

Sligo

Hi All. A little late but back and full of good intentions for 2014!!

Please put me down for €750 for January. A 5 week month for me! I am not putting myself under any stress to reduce the budget this month and I will see if I think I can squeeze it any lower after january!

Sligo x

Eyebright

kayester wrote: »

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my meal last night, Jamie Olivers mothership roast chicken and all the sides. (lot of gravy but I LOVE it!!)

I see you figured out how to upload pics then! Looks delish

I've just found a receipt I had somehow forgotten about from NYE (part of Jan's budget for me) for £99 :eek: which means I will be way over budget this month, oopsy! Hope to do better in Feb

mouche

NSD for me yesterday and today though am very hungry today due to not having any breakfast. Normall keep muesli at work and eat here with office-provided milk but left the box open over the holidays and I suspect the mice got into it. ERK! Have some big porridge sachets but they are the plain ones so need to remember to bring in some dried fruit from home tomorrow. Am also thinking of buying some YS pastries next time I see them and freezing them to bring to work for breakfast. But need to finish the porridge first!

Lunch is an NCG soup (£1 on offer) and dinner should be mince curry with cabbage or cauliflower, depending on what OH cooks tonight.

meg72

BlueMoo wrote: »

How lovely Meg! Rome is so beautiful - did DD and DGD love it.

*******

They absolutely loved it, although DGD had a nasty sickness bug the 2nd day and couldn't even keep a sip of water down so we stayed in the apartment that day, but bless her she struggled on though very weak and whoosy and we managed to visit most of the sights we had planned.

meg72

physicsgirl wrote: »

I also thought I'd share my money saving lunch with 2 of my girlfriends: we were meeting up on Sunday and usually we'd go to Wagamamas or similar and I'd spend ~£10. BUT instead I suggested they should come round to my flat for lunch. We had pizza (with toppings added) and garlic bread:
2 garlic baguettes - 65p (Ald!)
3 margarita pizzas - £2.69 (Ald!)
4 mushrooms - 4p (~1/3 of reduced 10p pack of mushrooms)
Peppers - 60p (I need to find cheaper peppers)
Ham - ~20p (part of £1.75 ham trimmings pack from Ald!)

So grand total of £4.18 on food, plus maybe 30p on teabags and squash, and my friend reckoned the pizza was as good as any you'd get in a restaurant plus there was enough food left over for lunch for me and my OH the next day!

I bet this was as good as we paid 15 euros each for in Rome, and no garlic bread.

Re peppers if you an get these reduced or on a market, I got 7 on Wolverhampton market for £1. they can be sliced or chopped and freeze really well.

Jacksmummy

Been to Mr T's, picked up yogurts, milk, crumpets, cereal, lentils, loo roll and a few other bits, spent £21.86.

spent £56.28 of my £150 budget so far.

sausageandonion

Hi there,

I'm really up for the shopping challenge this year as I am really stuck in a rut with both my meal planning and shopping habits. I have had a family of 4 to feed for years but now things are changing! My son has recently moved out ( how did one person eat so much?!) and my daughter has a job and a very hectic social life. I'm cooking too much just for me and my other half and that probably means I'm buying too much as well.
I would really like to know what is a realistic budget to set each week for 2 and a fleeting picky eater who flys in grabs something and flys out!
And is it really cheaper to shop at lidl/butchers/locally than to do an online shop with a list?
Looking forward to hearing how you all manage, even though my son ate us out of house and home he did contribute so the food budget has taken a knock and I seem to be spending the same amount!

BlueMoo

I would really like to know what is a realistic budget to set each week for 2 and a fleeting picky eater who flys in grabs something and flys
out

This is really only something that you yourself could say.

I could tell you what I spend - £100 per month for 2 (1 who is a big meat eater/eater in general) but it really depends on you.


I would recommend keep your receipts for a month - every single one be it a pint of milk or a big one. If this is 300, then for the first month reduce to 250 and so on.


Key things are Drop a level (so if you buy premium, buy branded, if you buy branded, buy SM own, if you buy SM own, buy Value) and keeping records/receipts of what you buy and what you throw away.


I would not try and do too much at first - see how you get on, and then as you get more experienced, you can try different things. Also, keep posting on here for lots of encouragement, tips and all round good people!