February 2014 Grocery Challenge

sefilby

Can I be put down for £120 again this month please?

Aiming to use freezer stock rather than buy fresh in first.

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Budgets updated to here

Welcome to:
debtfreefuture and aimeemum

I'll be joining you all officially on 1st Feb, until then - good luck all.

Coxy

spendinglikemad

Will be joining you on 1st Feb please put me down for £300 please


SLM

Hollygym

Hi. Can I set a budget of £360 for this month. I know I came well under budget last month, but I've depleted lots of stores (apart from fruit in the freezer!), and need to restock. I have reduced my budget by 10% and remain hopeful!!

Sequeena

Please put me down for £70 per week

MissOrganised1972

Must just pop in to tel you all.....!

Wanted some Schwartz tikka spice. £2 in Tesco. Popped into Sainsburys. Was surprised to see it labelled up at 42p. Went through till as 20p!:j Hopefully this may help someone else?

Billie-jo

Thank you for all who run the thread and everyone who posts comments or photos. - it all helps.

Can I go for a budget of £190 for FEB please - a reduction of £10 on a 4 week month.
Month starts on the 1st for us and Jan is going well up to yet.


For those who feel embarrassed that their budget seems higher than others feeding similar amount of people - don't be. If it works for you and you can afford it carry on. We don't ALL have the same tastes, dietary needs, restrictions etc. Life is far too short to worry that X only spends £100 a month to feed a huge family where as Y spends £800 to feed 2 adults and a baby.
My OH would not entertain a vegetarian diet neither of us can stand pulses, soya, quorn etc (yes we have tried them 2-3 times) but am happy to have a vegetarian meal once a week. We will also have an almost meat free meal such as pasta & sauce with onions, mushrooms, broccoli and perhaps just 2 rashers of bacon or small amount of ham cut up in it. We are quite happy to eat home made wedges, beans and or egg occasionally. Breakfast I can happily miss but we do have some because DH is diabetic usually toast, porridge or just some fruit for me. Lunches are sandwiches, crackers & cheese, egg or beans on toast, soup or left overs and we have our main meal later in the day. I do enjoy cooking though and try to do something new at least once a fortnight more if possible.
Our sm never haver any decent reductions just the odd 20-30p knocked off. (maybe just maybe now I have stated this that there will be some great reductions but wont count on it)


Anyone know why I cant get the smilies to work - haven't been able to for a while?
GOOD LUCK to everyone for Feb and keep posting.

lonewhitewolf

Please put me down for 350 x

lushlifesaver

Decided to shop today rather than tomorrow for when bf comes home on Tuesday as I was in town anyway at my midwife appointment. £9.17 to add to my sig.

In lidl my total was £5.78 I bought;
4pints milk £1
Plain wraps £0.79
2 plain naan £0.49
Oven chips £0.67
4 yogurts (29p each) £1.16
1.5lt apple juice £0.68
Malt Wheaties £0.99

In Fulton's Foods I spent £3.39 and bought:
6 breaded turkey steaks £1.49 (short date, frozen now :-) )
2 packs of 6 sausage rolls £1 (mil had these on our caravan trip before Christmas and they were lush - 69p per pack or 2 for £1)
2 chocolate puddings £1

Also got a couple of other bits but one is from my 'pocket money' and the other from the budget for food for our trip next weekend :-)

Fright of my life once home; we don't have an oven just a combi microwave we use everyday currently so I put it on to preheat to cook some of the bake from frozen sausage rolls I bought today then when I opened it to pop them in the glass turntable when bang and shattered! Shocked and frustrated as its not ideal at any point but trust it to happen on pay day! The manufacturer want £31.99 plus p and p for a new one from them so I've ordered one of eBay and 'upgraded' to first class post. Hopefully they will post it tomorrow and it will be here on Tuesday when I'm off!! At least that way it should arrive before bf gets home from the airport on Tuesday! Luckily it only cost £16 including delivery which is coming from money I had left from last pay check (was down to my last £30 but now that's £14 haha) but as I say it was pay day today so its OK..

Forgot to add; Lenore is on offer in our local co-op (2 for £4 or £3+ each) which is better than the half price offer in lidl so going to pick that up tomorrow, also need toothpaste, smoked cheese and some crisps for bf's lunches. Think I will spend around another £12 and that should see us through the next two weeks. I've made a list of meals based on what we have in the freezer alongside of a list of any extras we will need from Tescos. I think the key for me will be buying it in one big shop and not stressing about buying any extras/ doing as few top ups as possible :-)

Once I get on mat leave I will try a similar tactic but space my fruit/veg/fresh purchases out over each week when I can utilise the market rather than just supermarkets!

meg72

Just wanted to let peeps know that the co-op are doing whole shoulder of lamb for £3.79 kg.