March 2014 Grocery Challenge

lynnejk

Had HM Chicken Jalfrezi (freezer), HM Bean and Veg curry (freezer) and rice with fruit and yogurt dip. Scrummy


Managed another NSD


Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday
Lx

K9sandFelines

Still having problems with WiFi and phone line(apparently my line is bust), so quick post. I've managed to add spends to sig but couldn't post. Took advantage of lots of YS goodies on Sunday. Yesterday bought grapes, strawberries and single cream for DDs cookery, to find the one I was looking for in the freezer turn up !! £4.64 to add.

kayester

NSD today, chilli for tea tonight

Kayalana99

SarahB1989 wrote: »

That's a great start! Even just knowing exactly what you spent can be really helpful. Can I make some suggestions? Feel free to ignore them, its just what I've picked up from this board over the last few months You could downshift some brands - orange squash could cost you about 30p/bottle instead of £1.25, and you could start by mixing value squash into the branded one so the kids don't notice the gradual change. Branded hair stuff is on offer every so many weeks like clockwork, so if you find out when the brand you like is on offer then you could always buy it at BOGOF even if you don't immediately need it that week. Vegetables you can definitely get cheaper than that - most SMs do 3 peppers for a £1 in a bag, and you can freeze the extra already chopped up ready for another week, and some do a 'stew pack' of carrots/onion/other root veg for a lot cheaper than buying the veg individually.

Thanks for this, we have tried the cheaper sqaush I can't do it. I hate to admit it but my shampoo/cond was on offer... :rotfl: Not quite buy one get one free but the best I get is 3 for £10 on that...oh well. We could of brought 3 peppers for a fraction more but we never use them and I wouldn't of thought to freeze them. (We did buy two bags of carrots and just froze a bag straight in the freezer I hope thats ok?? They only cost us 21p for a extra veg bag)

Still got 6 sausages left we are supposed to be having a freezer day today so need to think what I can do with them...our first attempt at Toad in the hole went massivly wrong...I think it was a mixture of OH not cooking it long enough and using a lot of batter in a small bowl (so the yorkshire still had lumps of batter in it we didn't eat yorkshire) and the sausages spent a few min in the frying pan at my request as he put them on my plate pink and we couldn't decide if they were cooked or not... :rotfl:

smokies

Good Morning everyone,


A little frosty here - was hoping to have a NSD yesterday but ended up going to the chippy for both me and my DS, wish I had saved my money as they didn;t sit well with me and gave me a bad stomach all night


need to go to A*sa today need coffee and fresh fruit......


hope you all have a great day xxxxxx

MrsCautious

Hi everyone, I've been trundling along and am possibly a little over where I would like to be but still confident of coming in around £200, the thing is whatever the total, I know I'm genuinely doing my best -- not buying stuff for the sake of it, using up supplies, getting YS bargains etc.

We've had the most dreadful few days though as we've lost our beautiful little angel of our rescue jack russell, whom we have had to have put to sleep as she was suddenly very poorly with kidney failure. We are proud to have given her the love we have but she has absolutely been there for me since I lost my husband coming up to 2 years ago, it was his birthday a few days ago. It has been tough. Feeling bereft.

Good luck everyone, for me this month thoughts and plans about money have dwindled in importance, not sure how much attention I'm going to pay to my spends in the coming weeks, not going to go mad though, I think that would add to my stress.

recovering_spendaholic

Mrs Cautious - so sorry for your loss.

In the subject of squash, I took the decision a few months ago to just stop buying it altogether, along with fresh juice. At first everyone moaned but now I honestly don't think they miss it. In fact I bought some Ribena Plus on offer in Tesco a couple of weeks ago and it is still in the cupboard with hardly any used. I always have loads of ice cubes and everyone now drinks coffee, tea milk or iced water (mostly the latter).

I can understand chips with pizza, but one thing I will never understand is chips with cheese - or even worse chips, cheese and gravy!! DD's friends all have it from the chippy regularly but she doesn't like it thank goodness!! It is really popular though it seems!

I have got to use up some brocolli today, along with a bag of ys cabbage and leek. Think I will do a cheese and vegetable bake, which I always enjoy, but DDs might not want any. I am in a bit of a bad mood with them over homeworks etc so I am not going to make an alternative.

Last night I made a big sticky gingerbread cake to use up four Muiller apricot corners which had gone out of date - I swear I am not going to buy them again - I always give in to pressure to get them ("oh they're so nice we'll definitely eat them honestly!") and then end up with them out of date as I don't really like them. The gingerbread looks lovely but I have foil wrapped it and put it in the tin as you are supposed to leave it for 5 days.

Have got to go to the shops for printer paper as I have work due to be sent off today, and I may get some cheese sauce mix (I don't like using sauce mix, but it is substantially lower in calories than making a roux based cheese sauce).

Have a great day everyone!

Soworried

I have had 3 nsds aand today should be a 4th :T That really helps my budget stretch
It gives me £7.83 a day or £1.95 a person per day :j That isn't far away from the budget I started with.
I will need a few bits tomorrow, bread flour and plain flour and juice and things but I hope to only spend £10 if possible.

The slow cooker is going on this morning with 2 chicken carcasses in and some veg that needs used to make a chicken and veg soup. I might add some noodles or mini dumplings to it later. That will be lunch sorted for tomorrow.

I' sorry for your loss Mrs Cautious x

Suffolk_lass

MrsCautious wrote: »

Hi everyone, I've been trundling along and am possibly a little over where I would like to be but still confident of coming in around £200, the thing is whatever the total, I know I'm genuinely doing my best -- not buying stuff for the sake of it, using up supplies, getting YS bargains etc.

We've had the most dreadful few days though as we've lost our beautiful little angel of our rescue jack russell, whom we have had to have put to sleep as she was suddenly very poorly with kidney failure. We are proud to have given her the love we have but she has absolutely been there for me since I lost my husband coming up to 2 years ago, it was his birthday a few days ago. It has been tough. Feeling bereft.

Good luck everyone, for me this month thoughts and plans about money have dwindled in importance, not sure how much attention I'm going to pay to my spends in the coming weeks, not going to go mad though, I think that would add to my stress.

My heart goes out to you MrsCautious and I'm not surprised you are feeling bereft. How wonderful for your little dog to have ended her days with such a caring family and you must remember what a happy time she had with you.

We have a had a series of rescue cats and kittens, with two older girls after our DS's cat was chased by a dog and hit by a car, as one of them resembled his cat so much. Sadly she was very damaged and spent two years hiding in our bedroom coming out only to eat and use the litter tray. Eventually she gathered confidence and used to stand on me or sit next to me on the sofa, and let me stroke her. A dear old thing but brain damaged, deaf, blind in one eye and a broken pelvis from being kicked, so we reflected that her last four years were in a happy place and she ended her days a contented old thing, with warm places to sleep, plenty of food and affection from us.

There will be lots of rescue cats and kits, and dogs and pups in the rescue centres from May if you are ready for another and can afford one.

We are trying to further reduce our outgoings to try and pay down our mortgage in the next four to five years. Only £23 spent at the weekend but we will see. It's my birthday soon but will try to show restraint!

Very best wishes
SL

charlies_tribe

Just a quick post to say yesterday was a NSD and today *should* be too.