February 2014 Grocery Challenge

spendinglikemad

Another NSD yesterday but had to pop to Morrys this morning to get milk and bread and also oats and syrup to make flapjack - 50p for 4 hot cross buns too (£6.50)! Feeling proud that I stayed away from the £1 galaxy counters/maltesers!!

Updated my signature

HM lasagna was yummy last night with 2 portions left - kids can have early as its netball after school (dd), piano lessons (both kids) and extra swim training (DS) so its good if they eat early or we end up eating at 8.30 (plus those 2 LO lasagna portions are perfect for them) Not sure what hubs and I will eat though maybe sardines on toast or welsh rarebit - will see!!

Kids have been enjoying the HM buns this week but I seem to be having to make a lot - DS is eating like mad though at the moment I can't fill him up and he is very active at almost 13 with swim training/gym/walking to school/skateboarding/bmxing/golf so I think he needs the extra!

SLM

mouche

Another £7-odd on bread, milk and oranges. LO is eating a lot of fruit these days and I want to encourage it. This may be all we need till the weekend of the 15th - fingers crossed.

norabatty_2

tessie_bear wrote: »

quite proud of this so thought i would share....i got a fresh chicken in aldi reduced to £1.49 i find ours do this a bit with their meat offers...must order too many i cooked it in sc and ds has had 3 days worth of sarnies from it today i have stripped the meat off and made kids each a chicken pir for tea and dh and i a pasta chicken bake...will be making stock from the bones not bad for £1.48

Hi,

I have always been afraid to buy YS chicken. I have often bought well in date chicken which, when opened, stinks and felt perfectly within my rights to return it to the shop and get my money back. However, if I buy chicken that has a use-by date for today and is reduced price, can I still go back and demand my money back? I'm pretty sure I can't take it back to the shop the following day which would be more convenient because the chicken would then be past its use by date.

I guess the question is - How likely is it that when you buy reduced price chicken it smells? Because I'd love to buy a whole chicken for £1.48!

meg72

norabatty wrote: »

Hi,

I have always been afraid to buy YS chicken. I have often bought well in date chicken which, when opened, stinks and felt perfectly within my rights to return it to the shop and get my money back. However, if I buy chicken that has a use-by date for today and is reduced price, can I still go back and demand my money back? I'm pretty sure I can't take it back to the shop the following day which would be more convenient because the chicken would then be past its use by date.

I guess the question is - How likely is it that when you buy reduced price chicken it smells? Because I'd love to buy a whole chicken for £1.48!

I have only once bought reduced chicken that was off when I got home. I phoned the store and told them and as given a refund the next time I went in, This was some years ago and is the only occasion I have had this problem when buying reduced. It is usually possible, even when packaged to smell if its off, but if in doubt just make a small hole in the packaging.

tessie_bear

very interesting point about off chicken the only off chicken i have ever experienced was a pack of chicken wings that were well in date but stank on opening....i did like meg and phoned the store and got a refund...i would say with any reduction you are buying it in good faith that it is good to eat and if a chicken with that days date on was bad i would expect a refund

i suppose best bet with any reduction is to check it over at home on the day you buy it and either use it or freeze it if summat is wrong take action i wouldnt buy any meat/fish reduced and leave in fridge for a few days before cooking it/freezing it

trial and error i suppose im terrible though and can never resist a bargain
tes

Leah-Ray

Just waiting in the car to pick up my daughter so can't update sig yet but I spent £10.50 on food for my granny which will have to come out of my food budget as I don't have any other ways to find that. So after my shopping is delivered this afternoon I should be at about £110/150 for the month which is about on target. Our budget is normally £200 for the month but I'm planning a no spend week for the last week of feb to see if I can make it down to £150 for the four of us. I've been putting some extra milk in the freezer (that I've bought out of my £50 pw budget) and I've bulked out some recipes with extra veggies and lentils so there's a few items in the freezer. Next week I will get a chicken to freeze if I can manage within the £40 I have left and that can be used for all kinds of things during the last week. Excited to see if this works out cause £50 a month is a huge saving for us and there's really nothing else we can cut out of our budget except for the car which I hope we don't have to do as I would feel very isolated just me and the kids and no car!

just_the_two_of_us

Hi
Quick update - decided to go shopping today as the forecast for tomorrow is awful!

Spend of 19.82 in Home Bags, Al*i and local butcher to give enough until Sat 15th - maybe one loaf needed inbetween times.
Sig updated.

Still money left in my purse too!!!!

Everyone is doing so well - keep up the good work.

Anzac_Biscuit

Just a quick note on here to say I'm going to finish off with my Jan budget and then jump straight to March

Anyone else get paid in the middle of the month?

It's getting very lonely on the Jan thread

:rotfl:

Keep up the good work everyone, it's great to read your posts! :beer:

cat4772

We're currently spending on average £75 a week for shopping for the four of us (this includes nappies, wipes, detergent etc). but this includes ALL meals including salad and fruit (which seems to be costing a lot more than it used to) :eek: but I'm happy knowing my family are eating healthily.

Can you put me down for February for £300. this will include money for seeds and compost because we are going to grow as much of our own as we can this year (carrots, parsnips, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash, tomatoes, onions etc). i have tried potatoes before and not had much luck (grow loads but couldn't store them so ended up wasting loads).

will update at the end of the month.

Cat.xx

icontinuetodream

£3.50 spent at A!di yesterday...sig updated