January Grocery Challenge 2015

xx_Jo_xx

Homemade soup bubbling away.
Also par-boiling some carrots and parsnips -- I'm guessing these freeze ok? Im sure I read that in here somewhere... I'm also off to check the recipes at the front of the thread

Have a good day all
Jo xx

Mr_Planky

Having just about stayed within my budget last month, I am reducing my target by £10 and therefore my monthly budget for January will be £230. Best of luck to you all

SilverBird_2

Spent £36.94 on a delivery from Mr T this morning, which was a top-up shop to help stretch what's in the cupboards and freezer until the end of the month.

£11.80 of this was non-food :eek: but won't need to buy these items again for a while.

All being well, if things go to plan, there should be 30 NSDs this month

[Just in case you're thinking that a Sat morning delivery slot is an extravagance, I took up the offer of a year's half-price any time delivery pass in Oct, so <58p a week for this! With a min order value of £25 and the fact that I buy mostly offers and EDV items, doubt my orders will add much to their profits! Yes, I know, should be out there, doing the rounds of all the shops, filling my trolley with YS items, but home shopping is the best option these days (especially on a cold, wet day like today and when the painkillers haven't quite kicked in yet!) with the added bonus of actually helping me to stay within budget far easier than I ever thought possible. Our GC budget is for food and non-food items, and same amount as last year, so will need to keep focused in order to remain within budget. Happy days!]

Smoosh

£5.88 on crackers, a bag of roast & ground coffee & a selection of fresh vegetables.

£13.24 on 8 litres of Pepsi max, 2 boxes of pods for the coffee machine & 2 bags of toffees (my wisdom teeth are coming through and chewing them takes away the pain )

£1.35 on whipped cream.

£20.47 so far.

Bobarella

Hi All
Today I spent £18.48 on food shopping & £6.99 on a bike lock for my son at the same time. I am assigning that to leisure spends for the month.
I had a 100 nectar points voucher if £5 spent on pet food in one go. So we got a 2k bag reduced from £4.50 to £3.60 & as that was unfortunately the last bag we got a 935g box for £2.50 to get over the limit. We feed our cat 35g twice a day so this works out to 6 weeks cat food which is excellent value.
Other great bargains were a 454g wheel of Stilton for only £1 reduced from £4. And the absolute best was the mince meat priced at 10p per jar for 822g. So we bought 3. Each jar will make about 60 mince pies so I am well happy.
I threw in frankfurters & value fish fingers as both will do cheap meals when added to existing store cupboard food.
The only extravagance was a pack of 12 monster munch but cost per packet is 23p. Try buying one bag of monster munch for that anywhere soon.

I took a photo of my reciept and loaded it up to Check Out Smart which is an app that rewards you for shopping. As I hadn't bought any branded items bar the monster munch I only qualified for the 1p reward but also entry into the win £100 shopping trip draw (can you imagine if I won)
I used up 3p roadkill in the self service machine, recieved a 10p brand match coupon for next time and earned 151 nectar points.
I would say that's a fairly decent shopping trip?

Bob

Solstice_3

Morning all, very glad I did a shop yesterday as today it's windy and cold and I can stay in the warm

Went to one shop only yesterday and spent £13.27. I'm am never buying mushrooms from the super 6 shop again as they were not in a great condition, I decided to use up the rest of the mushrooms I bought in a bolognese sauce so last night I cooked mushroom risotto for dinner and a bolognese sauce for the freezer (2 meals) at the same time and it was quite easy and satisfying

Today and tomorrow sees us using up the rest of the Christmas Gammon, I am hoping the pie I make tomorrow will do 2 meals.

At some point I need to sit down and menu plan but I want to go to the butchers and get some ideas on costs, I have a few ideas for meals depending on prices of cuts of meat.

Oh and yesterday I started my grow your own venture by planting an apple tree - I did it all by myself and feel quite proud, achy but proud Raised beds won't be this year as DH is working on the children's bedrooms but he has promised he will make me some. This year I will focus on planting fruit trees and bushes and maybe grow some lettuce and tomatoes. It's a start

NSD (6) today

greent

xx_Jo_xx wrote: »

Homemade soup bubbling away.
Also par-boiling some carrots and parsnips -- I'm guessing these freeze ok? Im sure I read that in here somewhere...

They do - but I'd recommend open freezing them before popping them in a bag if you can -- otherwise you have to try and prise the appropriate number of carrots/ parsnips off from the mass lump - which isn't much fun and also means you are likely to end up with broken bits x

rubiesr4eva

Found purse, I was hiding behind Santa in the dining room! However been to wall climbing, took flask of coffee and boys took Christmas choc, and seems as though wall climbing is paid for in 3 month blocks, I spent no money.


Boys are stopping at my mum's tonight, and hubby's treating me to a meal out, so for me, today should be a NSD.


Also invited ourselves to my mum's tomorrow for lunch, while we pick boys up, and I take down her decs, and hubby's mum has invited us round for tea, so tomorrow will be hopefully another NSD. Didn't need my purse after all

flubberyzing

I'm back on the grocery challenge, having not done it for a couple of years.


I'd noticed in recent months I was racking up £35-£45 a week on my food shop, and as a single person, with just me to feed, that is a lot. And a lot of it was mindless snacky stuff that was no use for making meals out of!
I was also buying a lot of store cupboard stuff, and never eating it! My SC looks like it belongs to a family of 4! Not a singleton!


So, I'm back on the GC wagon, with £50 in my purse. I got the £50 out the cashpoint all in one go, and put it into a separate purse so that I can really see the amount I have to work with.
I have made £50 work in the past, although it is extremely tight for me. But I figured, with the massive SC, it was worth a go.


I have also just defrosted the freezer, which was well over-due, and took a mental note of what was in there. A lot of sausages for some reason! I will do a proper inventory of the SC later today. I have no clue what's in there really.




A small spend yesterday, £7 something, to buy lunches and breakfasts for next week at work. Also had to buy something for tea for my sister, who was coming over to fix my computer for me.
I had some pasta sauce open in the fridge, which needed using up, so I bought some value mince, and with egg and seasoning I already had, made meatballs. It worked out about £2 less than buying the meatballs ready-made, because I also got an extra 4 made to put in the freezer!

Mrs_Cheshire

Checked my recipe for our meal tonight and can manage on what we've got in the house. Took the kids for a walk/scoot to the library in the rain to collect a book I'd reserved and took snacks and drinks with us so another NSD!