March 2014 Grocery Challenge

Frizzle_2

£8.40 on bread, milk and yoghurts

Faete

Popped into Lidl for a couple of bits today - £1.92.

I also bought seeds for my allotment - runner beans, French beans, beetroot, mange tout, carrots, two types of tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, lettuce and spring onions for £3.00 :cool:

It was my first year last year and I was swamped with tomatoes, runner beans and courgettes - hoping to diversify a bit more this year.

Fae xx

cw18

Today was a spend day (D/Debits out of the bank), so I decided to nip into a few shops for some bits I wanted.

A1di for 2 bags of white bread flour - £1.50

Qu@lity Save for facial cleaner (if they had any this visit) and microfibre cloths - they had both items, but none of this comes off my grocery budget. Also picked up a Mother's Day card and a pressie to go with it (presents budget).

Then I nipped into Mr T for a carton of the long life soya milk I use (I had an 'extra points' voucher so worth getting even though I have enough in for at least this month) and some table salt as I used the very last in the house on Saturday (for using in my bread maker, don't use salt for anything else). Came out with both of those plus some whoopsied herbal tea bags and whoopsied apple and cinnamon hot cross buns, some whoopsied packs of raisin and cinnamon apple cereal topper (10 packs at 10p each, instead of 40p each - nice on plain yoghurt or porridge), and some whoopsied W/watchers hot chocolate with caramel (10 sachets at 15p each, instead of 32p each or 3 for £1 offer on another flavour) - and a couple of small packs of sweets!

Also picked up easter eggs for 2 eldest GDs, DD, DS1 (on B2G2F) and DD's fella (Kind3r eggs, 2 for £1 instead of 82p each). Then white chocolate buttons for youngest GD (she'll only be 5 months old, but I like to get something even if I know her mother will end up eating them ), and a bar of chocolate for OH (that I had a 40p off coupon for!) So with 2 eggs I'd already bought that's Easter sorted, and of the £28 I budgeted I've spent just £6.28 :T (mostly due to not spending £10 on OH like last year!). Then I added 2 packs of Whoopsied (but very fancy) tea bags to the basket, which will become part of OH's Christmas stocking (bbe June 2015 and Sept 2016). This lot all comes out of my presents budget rather than groceries, but still gave me a bit of a shock when told what my total bill was....... Quite nice to work out that of the £15.77 bill only £5.88 of it was from my groceries budget

Got a £6 off £40 spend till spit which I'm now considering whether I can use, as I rarely spend that much in there (since I got Costc0 membership :whistle:) and I'm trying to use up what I have in. But I can manage almost £20 stocking up on my soya milk (up to the bbe on the packs on the shelf today) and a few packs of whole wheat spaghetti (want to change from the white to that, but appreciate it's a fair bit dearer).

Have continued to use up old house stocks. Yesterday was more ood cereal and cranberry juice, plus some already cooked and sliced poultry that's probably been in my freezer a bit longer than it should have been - but it smelt OK and once reheated it tasted a lot better than it did when cold. All I've used so far today is ood cereal, but that's because I totally mistimed my walk/swim/shop trip and missed lunch

Florenceem

NSD.
We had HM TITH + roast potatoes + roast parsnips + carrots + onion + gravy for dinner.

lushlifesaver

Was getting frustrated at wanting to use my easiyo more as I think the price of sachets is horrendous in H&B...but the parents just ordered two of the multi packs from QVC and have offered us half of each one :-) they have said they won't take any money from us so will have to find another way to repay them!

NSD for us, hoping for another tomorrow.

Zippy001

cinnamonpie wrote: »

Just goes to show that Use By dates are just a suggestion, really. In the same way I have had food (meat mostly) that went off before the Use By date- a quick look and smell of it confirmed it. You just gotta use your nose.

I would like to have an input here , I am a food technologist and have been working for several companies, supplying the retailers for approx 20 years. the company i work for produces products for all the retailers apart from M&S , Now a few things i know may help you all

1). most products are produced at the same factories for most retailers: only slight differences in recipe such as more butter /or slightly more fibre/ or more or less sugar etc for a finest product compared to a Ald* core brand. and most retailers compete with only tiny % of butter or cheese difference. asd* chosen by you V waitr*se standard product same recipe apart from a 1% extra fibre on one of our products

3). Best Before or best before end V's Use by , Remember best before end or Best before is an indication . many biscuits, crackers , dried products crisps, cereals, dried pet food etc have a low moisture so chances of mould and spoilage is virtually nil if packaging is not compromised. when opened unless stored in an airtight container may go a bit soft at the very worst. we have kept biscuit for 6 month life for 12 - 15 months with no mould , sometimes softening and reduction in flavouring is the only difference. so a month or two is fine and no risk to food safety at all.

4) product preservation: shelf life can be increased by weeks and even months by storing a chilled product at frozen etc . if it has not previously been frozen it will say suitable for home freezing. YS on meat is good for this. Please look for the frozen symbol first though.

As cinnamonpie says , use your nose but never risk it if smells off at all and signs of slime chilled products a few days after use by is normally fine I would never exceed 4 days after use by but quality will deteriorate before food safety though. Pre-packed Sandwiches would be dry before the mayo or prawns start to turn.

Never risk it if unsure with use by dates though. You never know if they have been re-packed at the factory.

sorry to go on. NSD for me and stuck to my Mealplanner today :T

K9sandFelines

Franigan wrote: »

Happy Monday!!
I will be the joke of this thread if I don't sort myself out soon! We are 3 days into the month and I have spent £80.13/£200.00..and I haven't even stocked that much!!!!

Here is how it is divided:

Food: £50.43
Cat Food: 8.52
Toiletries: £10.75
Alcohol: £10.43 (2 ales 1 red wine)

Boyfriend promised me to make do with half the alcohol we used to buy. I didn't even have to beg him but I guess he is willing to meet me half way since he hasn't quit smoking yet!! :mad:

At the moment, my figures are pretty laughable, but I will work hard to get ourselves on track again!

Good day everyone!

I felt like that! It's taken me from llast May to January to finally come under budget. You will crack it, even if it takes a while

MrsDoubleEwe

Can I join in please? I would like to put myself down for £350 for the month. This is for two adults and DD (11) and DS (2).

I've been lurking for a while and using a few of the Old Style threads as motivation for keeping my food bill down. My motivation has waned slightly and have been tempted into restuarants and to order take aways, so thought posting might help!

Have spent £60ish so far in Aldi/Morrisons. Will do a signature when I check my receipts:)

JIL

Whoop Whoop NSD for me.

I got to work this morning and on Friday there was a shop bought chocolate cake, with a best before date of 1.3.14. It was unopened and untouched.

I asked my colleagues where it was and was told it was ood so they had binned it!!

Its no wonder they never have any money.

ikesmummy

Thank you Kayster and SarrahB1989 both good ideas so will mull on it a little but probably use chopped toms. Or yogurt to try and De spic their portions.