July 2014 Grocery Challenge

atolaas

Not happy...I've busted through my weekly budget by more than £20 :mad:

£9.90 spent today at Mr T... need to use more time planning and less time spending money :rotfl:

PennyGrabber

I ended up having diet coke chicken for dinner. Quite nice, but I put a bit too much garlic in it! Never mind. I have a portion left over for my lunch tomorrow so will have with a small jacket spud. Didn't tell bf there was coke in it - he can't stand the stuff!!

Didn't add up with the calculator as I went around aldeeee today, so spent more than I would have. However, all useful and all will be used up. I like to get the children some nice bits for the first week of the hols, and I stocked up on some bits which will be used in the next few weeks. Spent just over £40, which is a huge total for me. I have less than a tenner for my last shop of the month, but I'll only need bread, milk and a few bits of fruit, so it'll be fine. I hope!!

Night all

PG x

jintyb

Morning all, just popped into update my sig and catch up with the posts. Doing ok on my first month back, I have seen a difference in my money this month already. Plus I feel we are eating better as Im not buying so much "rubbish" Loving A!di and l!dl. Tons of f&V for not a lot of dough! Have a good one x

poolie_purse_strings

Hurrah...school's out for us and that means less chasing around (I hope)!

Have ben totting up receipts since my last post and have spent another £148.56 since my last post (including 3 NSD's) making July's total so far £381.42 / £500 with a just over a week to go, so more than do-able. Only fly in the ointment is nephew's birthday next weekend - I am making a large novelty Octonauts cake and have promised to throw a mini party which will involve some party food. Am still going to try and get within budget though if I can.

DD had an end of term "party" at school and had to take in cocktail sausages and sausage rolls, and had to take cakes in earlier in the month. Both kids are away this week and have required various food supplies to take with them - snacks which I would normally bake but have bought for convenience and because I think they will last longer and are wrapped more conveniently than if I had made them at home. I also seem to have fed various teenagers who have 'dropped in' (DS has done GCSE's this year so has had a lovely long holiday already - resulting in a house full of hungry boys!).

I know my budget is a lot larger than other people's but the GC is really helping me to focus on spending and where it all goes...I will be pleased to stay inside my £500 limit all things considered, and might even persuade myself to shave another £50 off for August.

Anyway - no kids for 3 days so me and other half will be using up bits and bobs out of freezer. Here's to a low spend week apart from ingredients and icing for the Octonauts extravaganza I've got to create!

Poolie

Soworried

PennyGrabber wrote: »

I'm currently well under my £1pppd budget,

That is really good going, are you using up surplus cupboard items or do you think you can maintain that budget longer term? :T

I'm up to almost £80 spent in 10 days with 18 days to go, I'm happy with how much we have in though. I just need to get the most out of it that I can.
I'm making a corned beef pie for dinner tomorrow and we are having one of the l!dl £1.34 half chickens tonight. I'll do veggie rice with it.

I need to meal plan the rest of the week now and sort out lunches with the kids being off school/college. If I don't they will eat me out of house and home :eek:

Gracie_1827

Hello everyone:hello: after a gym and swim session this morning, I popped into Morrys to see if they had any bargains...saw a post about Aldeee cauliflowers at 69p...I picked one up in the "still fresh" section for 15p. was quite surprised because they don't normally reduce that low. Also got a tub of plain yogurt 45p.

Soworried I was thinking that about moneygrabber...doing "well under" £1pppd is going some. I'm into 116 days of £1 a day but I had a normal food cupboard of food and my freezer, although not chokker it had a reasonable amount of stuff. I've been working through all the stored dry goods and used that last of the dried fruits yesterday....prunes and custard:T

Moneygrabber...what kinds of meals do you eat?

Solstice_3

NSD today ^_^

Made Swiss Bircher last night for my Son (he's nearly 3) he is really into porridge at the moment but it takes a while to make and then cool down so I thought I'd try him on it. To my delight he loved it, he thinks it's porridge. I made it with apple juice so my 7 month old could have some (she's intolerant to cows milk protein) and I added a spoonful of greek yogurt to my Son's bowl.

I buy full fat greek yogurt for my Son, he likes it with honey or compote mixed in, yesterday they didn't have any plain in stock but they had one made with jersey milk with added vanilla - it's really luxurious like clotted cream crossed with yogurt so I've decided the more expensive one can be a weekend treat and the cheaper one can be for the week

elsiepac

hi everyone

I haven't really kept up with the thread this month however I've been much better at meal planning and sticking in themajority to it, and of keeping track.
I have gone over by about £30 which isn't nearly as bad as I have been recently so I'm fairly pleased. Will be trying to keep up with the thread more next month as it really does motivate!

Incidentally - does anyone know if you can freeze polenta once it's cooked?! Thanks in advance :T

Declaring at £190 \ £160 for July

August starts on Friday 25 July with a budget of £100 please.

Hope everyone has got on well

LC x

K9sandFelines

£31.30 spend at Asda online, which included cake making and decorating ingredients.

Also spent £1.97 on drinks and gingerbread men whilst out. Forgot to add this so will do it now.

PennyGrabber

There are several reasons I manage to keep under £1pppd:
- we don't eat mega amounts of meat. Eg 500g of mince, once padded, will do us four family meals.
- we have one meal a week which is tom soup or something on toast.
- the children spend every other weekend at their dad's, and I just have uu meals.
- I don't count household stuff in my budget.
- we have at least one veggie meal a week.
- I make stuff from scratch.
- I use leftovers carefully.
- I don't often buy ys as I find it costs me more.
- I split stuff before I freeze it, into useable portions.
- I freeze everything.
- I don't have expensive tastes.
- if there are los after a meal, that is my lunch for the next day.
- I started with a full stock, but it's not really going down. One week I'll buy cheese, another week mince, etc
- for school packups, we have the same sandwich filling for a week. Eg a week of ham, a week of cheese, of cheese spread, of tuna, etc.
- I shop at aldeee once a week with a calculator.

Dinners we have (not by any means an exhaustive list):
Toad in the hole
Sausage/chicken/beef/pork casserole
Lasagne/bolognese
Cottage pie
Pasta bake
Mac cheese
Omelette
Hm pizza
Hm pies
Roast
Boiled ham
Carbonara
Sweet and sour
Risotto
Corned beef hash
Traditional meat and two veg
Hedgehogs
Spiders
Bendy soup
Jacket spuds
Salads
Hm chicken nuggets with cheesy mash
Curry/chilli (for me, ch don't like it)
Cauliflower cheese
Tuna pasta/tuna pasta bake
Pantry/freezer surprise
Fish fingers and hm chips
Lighter dinners if not hungry, like beans/cheese/scrambled egg on toast

Hope that helps anyone, and answers any questions!

PG x