February 2014 Grocery Challenge

debtfreefuture

Just done a small shop today for £21.28. Since joining the GC I'm definitely thinking more about what I buy and seem to be wasting less. Total is now £139.52, which seems a lot, but I have done load of batch cooking and bulk buying. So hopefully will come in under on the 21st February......:(

meg72

kiwiblue wrote: »

Another NSD, they are starting to add up for the month.
Dinner last night was interesting, started to shred the crayfish for cray salad, then realised there was a huge amount of meat, so ended up making a salad and a mornay, with an entree of bbq mussels it ended up being a seafood spectacular.
Back to more mundane food today, DH and I are camping for the next couple of days, so cooking will be very simple.
However I am determined to attempt focaccia bread on the bbq, could be very, very good or very, very bad!

Oh my you have me drooling over my keyboard, and have reminded me that theres a pack of mussels in garlic sauce in the freezer so will sort them out pop them in the microwave, wang up the heating and pretend I am having bbq :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

beth2242

Ate fridge Left overs for tea tonight, had garlic bread slices x4 with left over bolognese on top with chopped totals and grated cheese it was yummy. OH used up the bacon that was nearly out of date in the 4 slices of bread that needed using! Bonus!I do feel good about what we have had for tea and it was nice to have something different. But it has shown me that the meal planning doesn't quite go to 'plan'! Can't even remember what we had planned for tea tonight.
Tomorrow we plan to have frying steak with one of those Maggie sachets with peppers and onions and rice so I guess it's a stir fry basivally! A little too spicy for DD but she's having her friend for tea so they're having pasta n sauce (from a packet) and the rest of the left over garlic bread!


Does anyone else find their meal plan doesn't quite work? And I often find that I don't really fancy eating what I've planned!

claireyfairy82

I went to the shops again:mad:.

Spent £20.24 at Ald! & £27.32 at asd@.

I wasn't planning on going but DD1 needed to print her school project and obviously 1 page printed then it ran out of ink! I had made a meal plan for the next few weeks so I grabbed that and my list on the way out the door.

I needed tinned tomatoes (I get panicky if I don't have these in as there the basis for so many meals I make -silly I know), the ones I like we're on offer so I took 6 x 4 packs. These should last a while. I also stocked up on fresh veg, for a few pots of soup that I'll freeze and dinner over the weekend. Frozen veg that was also on offer, my new favourite being frozen peppers a bag for £1 it saves me wasting the fresh ones all the time.:T.

I'm so busy during the week with working, running the kids to swimming club (4times each) & other clubs plus my own sneaked in gym time and studying. How does everyone manage without reaching for the convenient/expensive option?

This should be me organised now, and will only need the weekly bread/milk etc top up shop. Well that's the plan anyway, I'm new at this!:D

Florenceem

Got some shopping today - I had £9.40 of coupons/vouchers + £10 gift card for Sainsbobs - surveys done.
Plus Mr F gave me some cash - so nothing out of the GC money. :j
I got bits that will store - getting quite a stash of food in the spare room.
We had easy meal - HM wedges + chilli baked beans + poached egg for dinner.

meg72

Florenceem wrote: »

Got some shopping today - I had £9.40 of coupons/vouchers + £10 gift card for Sainsbobs - surveys done.
Plus Mr F gave me some cash - so nothing out of the GC money. :j
I got bits that will store - getting quite a stash of food in the spare room.
We had easy meal - HM wedges + chilli baked beans + poached egg for dinner.

Well done on the survey vouchers, way to go eh, got to love your stash. I don't feel safe without it.

meg72

beth2242 wrote: »

Ate fridge Left overs for tea tonight, had garlic bread slices x4 with left over bolognese on top with chopped totals and grated cheese it was yummy. OH used up the bacon that was nearly out of date in the 4 slices of bread that needed using! Bonus!I do feel good about what we have had for tea and it was nice to have something different. But it has shown me that the meal planning doesn't quite go to 'plan'! Can't even remember what we had planned for tea tonight.
Tomorrow we plan to have frying steak with one of those Maggie sachets with peppers and onions and rice so I guess it's a stir fry basivally! A little too spicy for DD but she's having her friend for tea so they're having pasta n sauce (from a packet) and the rest of the left over garlic bread!


Does anyone else find their meal plan doesn't quite work? And I often find that I don't really fancy eating what I've planned!

I quite often don't fancy what I have planned, have come to the conclusion I must be a contrary old sod, I always seem to fancy the one thing I don't have in, despite having enough in to feed the street, but meal plans don't need to be set in stone and there is always something to eat.

charlies_tribe

Can I join you all in here please? I have no idea on an actual budget, we have just been spending way too much (we easily go through a 1000 for the 7 of us!!) Going off that I would like to set a budget of 500 for the first month. No idea how doable this will be. What actually counts as groceries? obviously food, but do you add pet foods, cleaning products, toiletories etc..

cw18

charlieyates wrote: »

What actually counts as groceries? obviously food, but do you add pet foods, cleaning products, toiletories etc..

Personal choice. Some people count the lot, some don't.

I don't have any pets, so that one's obviously out for me

I don't drink alcohol, so don't have that to make a dent in mine.

I very rarely eat out, so don't have a budget for that. If I grab a pasty or sandwich on the move I count it against groceries. If I go to a fast food outlet (last 2 visits have been while DD's been in labour with GD3 and GD4 - Jan '12 and Nov '13) that also gets added in. But if I were to go out for a proper sit down meal I'd probably cost it to my 'anything else' budget and not to groceries.

I have a totally separate budget for cleaning products, toiletries and medications (t&c budget), so those don't count in my grocery budget either.

Some people appear to count in things like nappies and baby wipes, but those would be in my t&c budget if I bought them.

meg72

charlieyates wrote: »

Can I join you all in here please? I have no idea on an actual budget, we have just been spending way too much (we easily go through a 1000 for the 7 of us!!) Going off that I would like to set a budget of 500 for the first month. No idea how doable this will be. What actually counts as groceries? obviously food, but do you add pet foods, cleaning products, toiletories etc..

Hi and welcome, there are no hard ad fast rules here, you include whatever you want, its your budget, I think 500 is very doable it works out at about £70 each per month.

But if you are used to spending £1000, then I think its a bit ambitious to drastically cut this to half, why not try 750 for your first month and see how you go.