March 2014 Grocery Challenge

Coxy11

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't posted in days.....but budgets finally updated to here

MrsCautious - sending you and your girls a big (((hug))) on the loss of your dog x

JIL - thanks for the ginger loaf recipe - I made it on Sunday and we are still enjoying it

A couple of trips to Tesco at the weekend for f&v and bits for packed lunches. Dinner last night was mince and pasta bake, and tonight we are having meatballs, spaghetti and hm tomato sauce as I forgot to get the other planned meal out of the freezer today doh!

Good luck with your interview cinnamon

Coxy

poppycracker

our month finishes tomorrow, I'm not sure how but I've come in under budget! Doing a stock take later, then will write a meal plan for the week and a shopping list for tomorrow

bmma

NSD todat that makes7 I think no it is 6

poppycracker

oops, no its not tomorrow our month finishes, its next Thursday. Oh bother.

Frugalsod

Grocery wise I am doing well. So far only £8.44 for the month to date.

Nicki_Sue

Love and hugs MrsCautious x

Nicki_Sue

I set myself a very limited budget from Sat until today of £38 and managed it with 71p to spare
Our usual budget will be £70 a week, Thurs to Thurs and I'm hopeful I'll be able to shave some off that within the next fews weeks. I'll be filling my grocery envelope with cash tomorrow.

ikesmummy

Wow, haven't been on here for 6 days. Have read through several pages of posts but still lots more to read.

Budget not looking great but really shouldn't need much more this month so is still possible I will come in within budget.

Adapted one of my recipes today, I have been using quorn mince instead of meat for a while, made a shepherds pie today with said quorn mince but also added a good portion of mixed beans as well as my normal peas onion mushrooms and carrots, my thinking was mainly to bulk it out and make it stretch further and was a big hit with all of us.

Mama10

Quick update, few spends today but overall spent £81.26. Have updated my signature but think I'm out by a tiny bit so about to update again. I think I just need one more big shop this month which isn't too bad and then just little top ups.

I'm impressed I made carrot and lentil soup and spaghetti bolognese using up veg from the fridge that badly needed using and which I would have usually just thrown into the bin... So that's a few lunches and 2 teas for the freezer.

My plan is most teas I make to make double and freeze half. I don't really have time to have a whole day of batch cooking while looking after a 2 year old and 7 month old as well as the school run. This way I can stock freezer while just making normal tea and doesn't take anymore time and saves me cooking on a later date.

Thanks for keeping me motivated with everybody's posts it's really helpful.

lushlifesaver

Went to Makro and bought laundry detergent, fabric softener (both on very good offers), toilet roll (buy one get one free - split with mil although we still have a pack and a half left from last time so now have about 56 rolls in the cupboard!), 5kg chicken (20 massive breasts with the mini fillets etc still attached), 1.5kg mince, 12 bottles flavoured water, 6 bottles of normal water (bf to take to a tournament), net of small oranges, bananas, 18 eggs, a new cup blender (like the 'nutribullets' we've seen on tv but only a tenth of the price), box of cola whip sweets, box of dolce gusto pods, reduced kiwi fruit...think that's everything! Hoping it will keep us going a while.

The chicken we should now have plenty of for at least 4 months, mince should see us through 3 minimum (lasting longer now we are eating a wider variety of meals!) toilet rolls and laundry items should see us right through until my return to work.

Had a nasty surprise today...the tax credits people have said we've been substantially overpaid so will lose a chunk of our weekly award next year. once baby arrives and the new tax year starts my income drops significantly as I'll only be on SMP our award will go up but so will how much they take each week in line with that ah well it has happened now. I'm just going to plan as well as possible and economise plenty whilst I'm off then save like mad again once I'm back at work so we can get it paid off sooner with as little worry as possible!

On that note tomorrow I am going to visit an aldi whilst bf has his S&C session with a pen and paper and make a note of the prices of bits we would usually buy to see what savings I could make there...time to get the thinking hat on (i knew things had been going too well for too long!)