July 2014 Grocery Challenge

poolie_purse_strings

Where does the time go? Feeling a bit the worse for wear today after a boozy day in London with friends yesterday...am definitely getting too old for lunchtime drinking and late nights. Anyway back to the serious business of budgeting...

My aim for July is to increase the NSD's - if I'm near a supermarket from late afternoon onwards I have a strange compulsion to pop in and look for "bargains", hence freezer is jammed full and never seems to go down!

Did a big shop in Morry's on Thursday - had acquired 3x £1.50 off if you spend £20 vouchers all of which expired on Thurs/Fri so asked the cashier to stop when the sub-total reached £20 and paid then did the same again and finally did the rest meaning I could use all 3 vouchers. Spent £104.19 so a bit over the £100 a week I am aiming for, but not too bad (for me!!), and we are well-stocked (although DS & DD are doing their darndest to make a big dent in the supplies). Will update siggy in a mo. Have had a NSD (on groceries) yesterday & today so feeing good about that.

I was mega organised today and got some YS mince out of the freezer early this a.m. - I have made chilli con carne and a minced beef and onion pie filling which I will re-freeze for an easy week night tea when I'm working. Have got some YS chicken thighs to make into a casserole tomorrow which I will also freeze for another day. :T
Sending positive vibes to you all for a successful MSE weekend.:beer:

Poolie

Solstice_3

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Solstice_3 I am really interested in the simply cook and hello fresh boxes - they do seem a bit pricey, well the simply cook seems more reasonable. What are they like quantity wise? There are three of us - do you think that the box for two would do all three of us?

I love finding out about new things like this!

Hi the Hello Fresh box depends on your appetite for us personally this box had 2 out of 3 meals that I could and did stretch. The chicken ceaser salad did enough for 4 (we had it twice) I added some of my own salad and the chicken breasts were bigger than I normally buy and even my Husband said he was happy with one between us. The Thai Mussamen Curry would easily feed 4, the recipe called for 200g rice, I used half and added some basics naan bread and some poppadums

Hello Fresh - Thai Mussaman Rice with Chicken and Chestnut Mushrooms. by frankie.ko13, on Flickr
The Monkfish would have not been so easy to stretch

As for whether it is MSE well no not if you're are trying to cut right back but my box was £19 courtesy of a referral code. It was so nice I am trying to work it in for a treat every now and again.

Simply Cook is a spice box so you have to provide the meat, veg etc you just get the pastes and spices with a recipe to follow, I got a voucher for that one too and have another 1/2 price box to use. For me it's worth it because you get to try 4 meals for £10 with spices that you might not normally buy. I like to get the different curry boxes but have tried quite a few things now and they are all yummy.

I have 1/2 price codes for both if you want to try a one off box, just PM me if you want them.

Spend today again, sigh I bought more YS meat but with meals in mind so not too bad I guess other than having to get to Thursday on about £10! I should be able to do it if I only buy milk *determined!

Frizzle_2

Popped into morrisons to use the voucher. Bought fruit, naan breads for Monday and squash so spent £1.50. Pleased with that!

kirstydriver

Hello! Can I join for July please?

Target £180 for two adults and a toddler.

Spent so far: £71.96/£180

thanks

Lemonbee

Spent £75.42 yday on shopping including a couple of bits for our caravan hol in August, not taking husband again just reading receipt he added £8 of things we didn't need!!!

I've meal planned up to Friday but my plan is not to go shopping until the fridge is empty again I've probably got bits for soup, bread and even a tart to stretch till a week on Monday. Store cupboard has been restocked with tin toms and pasta etc too

Got a whole chicken and gammon for Sunday dinner and use the meats for salads and sandwiches.

Today will be a NSD

Jacksmummy

Friday was a NSD for us, yesterday I went to Morrison's yesterday to use the last 4 x £5 vouchers, whilst there I bought a loaf and a bar of chocolate for DS so spent a grand total of £1.38

K9sandFelines

£3.50 spent yesterday. Mammoth shift today,so hoping work feeds me something nice and I only have to buy the bare essentials on my break.

Enjoy the sun

FoxFace

£17.69 spent today. Needed potatoes, bread and cheese amongst other little bits... also picked up 2 huge packs of YS chicken thighs for £1.75p per pack (down from £3.50p) and a wedge of reggiano parmesan YS'd to 80p, which were not on my list but nevertheless a bargain!

Total spends for July so far £109.40p, so slightly over the halfway point, but have plenty of meat and chicken for the rest of the month and don't plan on shopping again this week, so have everything I need to see me to the halfway point for the month! Looks like I am bang on target so far :T

Have made some cheese and sundried tomato scones this morning and am about to make a quiche with the leftover ham/gammon from yesterday and some 7p YS'd broccoli... then the cornish pasties for dinner tonight and lentil soup and cakes for the boy's packed lunches this week...

Looks like I am spending the rest of today in the kitchen then :rotfl:

lushlifesaver

I too am noticing Florenceem's absence; I do hope all is well with her!

A few spends to report; when Dad visited on Friday we went to Argos but there was no stock of the baby monitor I wanted to pick up in any store within 20+ miles and Aldi when we both picked up a few bits and Dad footed the bill (he is lovely!) and Asda where I spent a whopping £52.92 but this breaks down between budgets as follows:

Baby items: Nappies, 2x formula, link rings toy, new dummies, dummy rein and 2 sun hats £34.69 (actually needs split between personal and baby budgets)

Grocery spends: £18.23
2x sharer sized bottles of diet coke; as they still have names on bottles I got a 'mum' and a 'dad' on 2 for £2 and have stashed these for our holiday in a few weeks
2 x cupcake kits; one fairy and one dinosaur both reduced to 60p each (cases and picks) wouldn't usually buy these but they are cute and will get used quickly
a small magenetic dry erase board £1 - again wouldn't usually buy but wanted a small memo board for the kitchen
Smart price pasta (will last the rest of the month) 29p
Smart price spread 78p (again will last a good few weeks)
2 multipacks of chocolate bars at £1 each for bf's treat tin,shouldn't need any more bars or treats for him until after holiday now
a schwartz sachet for southern fried wedges 88p - not something I've been able to find for ages so grabbed this one to try
large malt loaf £1 - i *think* i can slice and freeze this as bf has it with lunches so this could last a while
4 x cadbury twin pot desserts - on offer at 50p each otherwise bf wouldn't have got them
sausages £1.55
reduced pork joint for roasting £3.85 - I don't often buy fresh joints as i buy frozen ready to roast ones usually but we both like pork and I've still not tried a roast from scratch in my oven yet!
spray oil £1.68 which will last more than a month, good for wedges etc. Usually get fry light but got flora this time and glad I did as it is much more of a fine spray than a spritz bottle

Then yesterday in the co-op I spent £2.54 on a box of coco pops snack bars and strawberry &yogurt filled belvitas for bf (both on offer; £1 and £1.54 respectively) these will last minimum of 2 weeks as bf is at work 2 days this week and only 1 the week after (some of his days off he will probably have one if we are out or he doesn't fancy a proper bowl of cereal)

Also £3 in Iceland on frozen veg and duck pancakes (to add to other chinese bits in the freezer)

so that's £23.77 to add to the sign between the two weeks budgets (last week and this week) which leaves plenty for bread, milk, potatoes and eggs which *should* be all we need during the week

Sequeena

My OH used some of the morrisons vouchees today and got this for £5.31
- bananas
- bag of pink lady apples
- green grapes
- picota cherries
- strawberries
- doughnuts
- 2.5kg potatoes
- high juice for my son
- alcohol free red wine
- 2 broccolis

This will keep us going for a bit

We are having baked potatoes with cheese and salad for lunch.