March 2014 Grocery Challenge

twigpig

recovering_spendaholic - I buy those alpro desserts for my son. He has a lactose intolerance, so puddings can be a little restricted - he eats 2 most days, so I'm always trying to find an offer on them as we go through so many of them. £1.50 for 4 does add quite a bit into my budget. Thankfully, he likes all the flavours or he'd be bored of eating them so often. And well done on your Tesco freezer hoard :beer:


Florenceem - thanks for the hm potato cake recipe - looks easy enough so will give that a go at some point


just the two of us - Not sure if the apps question is about myfitnesspal or in general but if you want to use the tool for weight loss, you can simply use their website and track all of your food on your computer, so no need to have it on your phone at all. (as sarah said too - still reading through the posts )


kiwiblue - jealous of all that lovely sounding fish - I love fish but can't get DH to eat it so I don't make it often in our house as I get complaints about the "fish smell" (why did they remove the rolling eyes smiley, lol). Enjoy the gala tomorrow....


lushlifesaver - I'm rubbish at keeping up with the pregnancy thread but not long left til your bundle arrives. Wish you the best of luck About 4 weeks left for me, so we're trying to stock the freezer a bit too. Those tubs would come in very handy


My month runs to the 25th, and in the first 2 weeks, I've spent 75% of the budget with 2 and half weeks left, :rotfl: I think lots of us do this, but it makes it so much harder to slow down.
I did spend +£400 last month so it was always going to be challenging to get back to £250, but I won't be giving up. Made a big batch of meatballs from some ys mince last night ready to go back into the freezer. I just have to keep using up what's in there and hope to stay under my target.


Hope everyone has a good day.

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Spent a record £75 at Aldo,s yesterday, did have to buy alot of household essentials, washing powder, shampoo, loo roll etc as well as cat food wet and dry so i,m all stocked up now

Off to update my sig -and enjoy the sunshine....

lushlifesaver

Away thanks twigpig, 20 days left until our due date - so exciting!
I can see his point as they aren't cheap but they'd be so helpful for veggies, prepped meats (currently I spend a lot of time after I've defrosted meat prepping it for whatever purpose) but then I do already use the foiled take away containers for freezing homemade food in portions for us.

Disappointed that our lidl didn't have the half price chickens - it wasn't even that they had sold out they hadn't received any! So only bought some half price crisps (1.04 for 25 packs) and a sneaky treat of some cinnamon and raisin bagels for me. Total of £1.84 spent there

Iceland I bought; 1 pack of wraps, mushrooms, carrots, ready to roast turkey, Yorkshire puddings, 4 pints milk, a huge carton of orange juice, some mini kinder chocolate fingers as a treat for us. £10.25 spent there

Fultons; big box of honey Cheerios (should last 2/3 weeks for bf) and squash. £2.99 spent

So I got more than I had planned but obviously it should last. With the turkey its to serve 3/4 so I will roast it, dish our meal and slice the rest. I'll have some in my lunches Monday and Tuesday and then the rest should be in the fridge I guess as I will eat it as a lunch filler once on leave.

My dad is calling in on his way back from the airport and taking me for lunch at the local carvery so think I will just have a light tea later once back home.

I forgot I needed a lettuce though so need to pop out for that *doh*

Once home I'm going to cook chicken chasseur and portion it up for the freezer and will also bake some cakes - a few plain and a few banana and some chocolate I think

Off to add my £15.08 to my sig - more than I planned on spending but once I have the lettuce I should be fine all week...I think/hope!

Frugalsod

Yesterday and today are NSD and with the stocks I have in place, I expect to get through to Thursday or Friday without any risk of spending. Friday will be a spend day as I have a veg box booked. Thursday could be a spend day as I expect to run out of milk then, and if I time it well it could be a YS bargain day as well.

Frugalsod

kayester wrote: »

this is why i hate going to the supermarket, my £40 limit turned into £72.44 in Mr m, £1.00 in M&S and £8 in home bargains on pepsi! did get some good deals in mr m though and didnt do a shop last week and can do half a shop next week

£81.44 total :wall:

Have you tried shopping online? I do the vast majority of my long life products online. I get my meat from the local butcher and put it in the freezer. My veg comes in a veg box every 2-3 weeks. So all the other items I get online. I am able to do a bulk buy everything else for around £100 to £150 every few months, though It could be as high as six months. If you can get meat and veg from a market on a weekly basis and you should be able to make big savings. Also over time if you are a regular customer you might find the market traders might be more amenable to better deals.

FrugalLina

Hi everyone, had a busy few weeks, but still watching the pennies. I have a budget of £50 for March and did a big shop yesterday and need to hunt down the receipt, but it was under £20.

Hope everyone is doing OK this month!

cw18

£7.28 spend on fresh veg in A1di today - sig updated.

Grocery budget for the month is currently looking incredibly healthy, but that's all set to change on Monday as I'm looking to spend £40 in Mr T in order to use a £6 off voucher, and then I'll be "bobbing into" Costc0 for a few bits and pieces :eek:

Franigan

:wave:

Went out last night (for a change!!), so once again, we'll have last night's dinner another night.

Just got back with my shopping so here is:

Food:£ 34.21
Toiletries: £ 7.57
Household products: £ 2.91

Total: £ 44.69 (will add it now)

Week dinner plan will be:

Tonight: Roast chicken + roast potatoes + steamed green beans and carrots
Sunday: Carrot and Red lentil Soup
Monday: Chicken stir fry
Tuesday: Thai chicken curry (from freezer) + basmati
Wednesday: Veggie cottage pie (from freezer) + salad
Thursday: Veg indian curry (from freezer) + basmati
Friday: Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (will make it tomorrow for the freezer) + steamed broccoli and carrots
Saturday: Out for family do

I wish you all a lovely weekend!

*Added on Sunday morning 9AM: bought wine, beers, olive oil last night. Boyfriend went to the shop, lost the receipt and could not remember the total so I am reporting a vague £12. Already added to sig.

JIL

£150/£180.

Went to Lidl, bought five packs of pork chops. Twenty chops for less than £8 is really good value. They are British and fresh.

I also bought some salad, some nuts, the offer crisps, two crusty rolls and some feta cheese £18 or thereabouts in total (i round up or down to the nearest pound).

Thats down to £10 per weekend left for the remainder of March. I dont think I will buy the Lidl offer next weekend, its pork mince in our area and I already have some in the freezer waiting to be used.
I also got a £50 sainsburys card in the post for fixing my energy prices to May15 so that will come in handy.
happy Saturday.

Zippy001

Yesterday spent £8.49 in Sainsb**** on groceries

Just got back from to days shop

here it is
AL** £31.98
Ice***d £7.00
Toiletries £12.79 including deodorants, toothpaste, shampoo's etc

I have updated my signature , Our local costcutter is also doing half price whole chicken £2.75 each .... i have no room in my freezer though.

I am determined no more spend now until next week ..

Only 2 NSD in the last week , Need to improve this more.

good luck all with the next week.