March 2014 Grocery Challenge

lizziebabe

Hi everyone :hello:

So please could you put me down for £160 for March, please.

I reached my max for February but want to spend less this month as have a lot of food in the freezer and BIG car bills.

All the best everyone.

lynnejk

Just managed to find time to catch up on all the posts so a BIG :hello: to all newcomers and good luck to everyone.

chirpycheap wrote: »

Do you grate or slice the cheese? This sounds like a great idea. Since my son left for Uni we are struggling to use up loaves quickly enough and are ending up with stale bread so this would solve that problem. :T

I know it's a bit of a faff but I always bag up my loaves in individual slices and pop in the freezer the day I buy them. That way they keep fresh and don't stick together. You can re-use the bags as they are clean and the slices only take a couple of mins to defrost on the worktop.

cinnamonpie wrote: »

A question that I would really like to ask here is where do you normally buy your meat? Supermarket? Butchers? Farm?

I tried the SMs but find the quality isn't that great. I would love to get from Farmer's market but the prices here are horrendous :eek: So have found 2 butchers (both about 10 miles away) which are good quality and not too pricey and bulk buy from them. I have found though that Al*i chicken joints are really good quality and price !! :T


Still on February thread - see you all Saturday
Hope you have a good week
Lx

Pippin12

Hi all - I'd like to start my first GC! I'll go for £30 for the month to cover my food, catfood, toiletries and cleaning products. There's only me and a cat to feed and I have bursting cupboards and freezer. I won't even have to buy milk as I have plenty of long life milk in, lots of cat food, lots of potatoes and frozen veg plus lots of store cupboard supplies and cleaning products. I don't eat meat as I'm a veggie. I'll need to buy eggs, cheese, fruit and some fresh veg. My month runs 1st-31st of March.

dylan2011

I did my first proper shop yesterday for the month. It came in at £43.22. I went to Ald*. I will need milk again friday/saturday and possibly some cheese as I forgot to get more and plan to use it for quiche and pies later in the week. Other than that, I have plenty in for the week and enough meat for most of next week too. Also started stocking up the cupboard again as some of my supplies needed replenishing - eg. tinned tomatoes. Gutted I can't get passata at the moment in my local ald*. Will have to bulk buy it when I next go to Lid* as they still have it cheap in there. x

lushlifesaver

Now up to a total of £23.73;

Bought two Easiyo sachets in H&B in Manchester on buy one get one half price; I know they are the most expensive stockist but we needed a couple of sachets sooner rather than later. Anyone else with a Easiyo where do you buy your sachets? I'm going to see if the multi packs from Lakeland/online work out cheaper per packet I think.

The venue of the training session last night has had a huge overhaul since bf was there 3 or so years ago and now has a Morrisons on site so, as we were an hour early for the session!, we nipped in and got everything we need for the fortnight except bacon, lettuce and cheese so happy with the level of spend we are now at.

Based on a 5 week month we should have £16 per week which means I have about £8.27 left for this week and next and bf is away 3.5 days next week so...should stay on track.

10 more working days until I start maternity leave - very excited now! Plenty planned to keep me from spending.

Any money left from this month will roll over in to next month's budgets - I'm expecting to have the full toiletries budget and minimum half the pet budget left in their respective Kittys. Not sure about groceries but hoping for a week of NSDs at the end of the month (as I'll be too pregnant to shop as I'll be just days from labour unless she makes an early appearance ;-) )

cinnamonpie

Good morning, everyone!

Florenceem Your food always looks so good! Makes me hungry just looking at it... yum.

Llynejk I really want to try out the butcher too. There are three in the next town along but to be honest, I have never ever been to a butcher's before and I am a little scared that all the different meat will be a bit overwhelming. I know it's stupid to be scared of a shop... :embarasse

cw18 I have never thought about buying meat in bulk. Great idea! I haven't got a membership or the freezer space but for bigger families I am sure it's a good way to save.

I know I said I wasn't going to go shopping until Thursday but I had some spare time on hand yesterday and went to the big SM near me. I paid 37.23 but got lots of fresh fruit and veg and stocked up on Nutella which now on offer everywhere (thank you, Pancake Day!), cereal and cheese. My fridge is full and I am happy

twigpig

skintmum2012 wrote: »

...... I feel as baby is getting older I would use powder when out and save on the bottles but not a clue how to make them up when out.

Generally, as long as you keep the powder and water separate until you're about to use it, you can't go wrong. So I fill my bottles with fresh boiled water, let them cool and pack them into a bag with the powder already measured out into a dispenser or small tub. When ready to feed, add powder to water and shake (warm the bottle then if desired) and feed baby. After 2 hours, it's needs to be discarded for hygeine reasons (assuming that it's not been put into the fridge to extend how long you have to use it). Hope that helps.

Captain_ladder

Hello! Been lurking for a while and would love to join you for march! We are 2 adults,ds1 (5) and ds2 (3) and we are all veggie. And a cat (really not down with the veggie, keeps bringing me dead birds!!).

Can I be put down for350 please. Have already spent 210 on a big shop. I'm not very good with computers so haven't worked out signature bit yet... Off to try figure it out!

X

twigpig

Just a quick note that Morrisons has the 50 wash Persil bio and non bio soap powder (that's the 4.25kg box) for £4.99 from today. Helps me as soap powder would be needed later this month anyway. Might take another to stock pile

MissOrganised1972

Hello March!

DH got paid yesterday & so the start of our new month. We were in desperate need of grocery shopping but I informed everyone that shopping would be done on Tuesday & until then we would all have to make do with what was available! Very proud of myself as normally I'd nip out & grab extra box of cereal or sandwich meat so everyone was happy! Not this time! And guess what? We all survived on less choice!:rotfl:

So, I made a meal plan & then priced it up online with Tesco (costed as £32) with a list of other items I could do with if I had any of my budgeted £35 left! Then I went to Aldi & purchased it all and managed to get all of these extras with the money I saved by shopping at Aldi and still only spend £36.73 in total....
Butter
2 cooking apples
A large bag of crisps
1 extra box of cereal
Self raising flour
Shower spray
500g pasta
15 eggs
1kg carrots
Cherry tomatoes

That extras list plus my planned shopping should see us through until next Tuesday.. Really pleased. Have also made a batch of the muesli bars recommended by LittleBill in February's GC (taylored for the ingredients I had in) & a batch of chocolate chip cookies (using up the remainder of the white chocolate leftover from Christmas) so that DDs & DH don't pinch my earmarked ingredients when they're peckish! I will NOT shop for groceries again until next Tuesday!