March 2014 Grocery Challenge

claireyfairy82

Billie-jo wrote: »

Well that looks a lot better than my reheated leftover macaroni cheese. Can I come to yours for tea??

MrsCautious

Hello,

Had a NSD today. I have been doing without carbs in my main meal and tonight had a chicken breast (a frozen one, on offer in Sains yesterday, 7 for £3) with green beans, carrots and brocolli, plus a YS cook in sauce, with added mushrooms. With all that on my plate, I didn't miss the potatoes. I've also ditched all squash and fruit juice because of the sugar and am only drinking water, I'm tempted to lower my budget a little, but we'll see.

I'm defrosting some smoked salmon (that they always have on offer at Xmas) and some Basics prawns, I've saved some of the sauce from today and will have this tomorrow, plus veg. My daughters can have potatoes or pasta.

Tuesday will be a pizza for my daughters and a friend, from a voucher that says it's free, I may have soup or fish fingers with salad.

Weds I have a mystery shop, where I am asked to eat chicken and Thursday a mystery shop where I'm supposed to eat a curry, I'm taking the day off work and doing some voluntary work so am considering the ms a little perk! I'm going to make my daughters YS burgers (quite posh good quality ones!) with hm wedges with veg on Weds and Thursday their meal will come from Captain Birds Eye.

Friday it will be just me for tea, chicken breast and salad looking likely.

I'm doing my best to eat healthier than I ever have and kick start weight loss, supposed to be weighed 2nd week in April rather than weekly, to stop me being too preoccupied by what the scales say, I don't think I can stay off them that long!

Have a wonderful week xx

recovering_spendaholic

Glad to know I'm not alone AB!

BIG PROBLEM today! Fridge freezer broke down in the night and both are really full. It is 14 years old and has been on the blink for a while and I know that it is past repairing.

I ordered one from Very on buy now pay in 12 months and got a really good price for a Hotpoint frost free but it won't be here until Tuesday at the earliest.

I farmed out what I could but there is loads still in freezer which I will just have to leave in there and then eat it up as quickly as possible after the new one comes.

It will mean cooking lots of defrosted meats into meals to refereeze.

In work tomorrow so have done packed lunches for me and DD, and there is a big piece of gammon which I will cook in s/c tomorrow, and finish in oven when I get in.

Kiwiblue - sounds like a great set up you've got!

Hope you've all had a nice weekend - will do my April budget this week.

lynnejk

Had to shop today. Bit disappointing at Li*l as didn't seem to have about half the special f&v offers listed


Did notice however that Mr T seems to have reduced a lot of stuff. Example - large pot plain bio-yog now down from £1.40 to £1 so same as Mr M. - think there's a bit of a price war going on here as we have all the main SMs (ex Waits) plus Al*i, Li*l, Home Bags, and usual £ shops. It's interesting watching all the prices changing almost daily - definitely keeping me on my toes :rotfl:


Showed DH the 'My SM' site and he was gob-smacked at the difference in prices between the stores :eek:


So spent Li*l = £4.07, Al*i = £14.16, Mr T = £11.22.
Total added to sig = £29.45


Hope you all have some sunshine and a money-saving Monday
Lx

kayester

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Glad to know I'm not alone AB!

BIG PROBLEM today! Fridge freezer broke down in the night and both are really full. It is 14 years old and has been on the blink for a while and I know that it is past repairing.

I ordered one from Very on buy now pay in 12 months and got a really good price for a Hotpoint frost free but it won't be here until Tuesday at the earliest.

I farmed out what I could but there is loads still in freezer which I will just have to leave in there and then eat it up as quickly as possible after the new one comes.

It will mean cooking lots of defrosted meats into meals to refereeze.

In work tomorrow so have done packed lunches for me and DD, and there is a big piece of gammon which I will cook in s/c tomorrow, and finish in oven when I get in.

Kiwiblue - sounds like a great set up you've got!

Hope you've all had a nice weekend - will do my April budget this week.

sorry to hear, that is like one of my worst nightmares!
at least now its tomorrow you get your new freezer!

dinner money to pay out for today, not sure whats for tea will check dates in fridge after school run, need to pop and get milk and lottery aswel so will update after.

Frugalsod

lynnejk wrote: »

Had to shop today. Bit disappointing at Li*l as didn't seem to have about half the special f&v offers listed


Did notice however that Mr T seems to have reduced a lot of stuff. Example - large pot plain bio-yog now down from £1.40 to £1 so same as Mr M. - think there's a bit of a price war going on here as we have all the main SMs (ex Waits) plus Al*i, Li*l, Home Bags, and usual £ shops. It's interesting watching all the prices changing almost daily - definitely keeping me on my toes :rotfl:


Showed DH the 'My SM' site and he was gob-smacked at the difference in prices between the stores :eek:


So spent Li*l = £4.07, Al*i = £14.16, Mr T = £11.22.
Total added to sig = £29.45


Hope you all have some sunshine and a money-saving Monday
Lx

Yes splitting the shopping is now clearly the way forward. MSM is so useful for that.

charlies_tribe

Just a quick post as on my phone. Total now stands at 555/600 with 8 days to go. Need to write a freezer list to see what we have in. Off to a aldi today for a look round. Never been before so going to be nosy, any tips on what to buy/not buy very welcome.

Frugalsod

charlieyates wrote: »

Just a quick post as on my phone. Total now stands at 555/600 with 8 days to go. Need to write a freezer list to see what we have in. Off to a aldi today for a look round. Never been before so going to be nosy, any tips on what to buy/not buy very welcome.

Go with a list of things that you need and even a price at the other stores you might use. Then you will be able to see how different the prices are. If it is your first shop with them try everything that you might buy else where and take them home to see how you like them. You may not like some things and it is better to only have one to chuck if you really do not like.

lushlifesaver

Well I'm in to that ghost week in between my March and April budgets as we wait to see if baby arrives on time!
Spend of £1.30 on wraps last night, already added to sig, and a baby order put in to ASDA online but that's a separate budget - they now have £1 2hr slots which they didn't have last time I did an online shop(!) and their boxes of their own nappies are down to £5 each so mil (who uses nappies for her dogs as well as our niece when she has her) and I have each ordered a few boxes. We've order in a couple of sizes so we'll never get caught short now!

Only other things that should be needed this week are milk, gravy granules, more wraps. There's enough in the March budget for these :-)

If baby does make an appearance we have plenty in the freezer to keep us going whilst we get in the swing of things but I may need to cave in a buy a few supplies in like oven chips, quick cook sauces and extra snack items.

joedenise

Sweetie83 wrote: »

Really does make a difference writing updates on here. I havent' for the last month and gone drastically over budget. So next month I will be setting same budget and trying again.

Trying to save any bulk purchases by freezing more. Today bought 4 garlics in Iceland for 50p so have seperated into cloves and put them in freezer creating layers with baking paper so not all one congiled lump. See if that works/tastes ok.

Also made use of Tesco buy 3 meats for £10 and have seperated what I need and frozen the rest.

Absolutely agree that posting on here helps to keep me on track. I'm sure I would spend even more if I wasn't!

With garlic there's no need to freeze, they are better if they are just kept in a ceramic/terracotta pot with holes in so that they can "breathe". I usually buy 3 or 4 garlic bulbs at a time and keep them in a pot and never have a problem with them. My sister just keeps hers in an open bowl along with root ginger.

Denise