January Grocery Challenge 2015

Coxy11

Good morning everyone,


First time posting since 27th December - that will teach me - 24 pages of budgets to write down and list


Budgets updated to here


Welcome/welcome back to:
gollysmissus, LavenderBees, willkeepontrying, LESLAMP, mousebolyen, ScaryGreen, FlacosFloozie, TryingReallyHard, miss kc, pinkpixie274, moredaisy, CAFCGirl, juliejim, timetrade, Lozza001, Zed42, Chloris, gayleygoo, Debtfreefreedom, wooftastic, Snottycat, mumofthetwins, Islandmaid, millionaire in training, wealthygirl, keza, Tiffany Aching, flossyp, oats, sootypea, e4rly, gill5blue, viv0147, eastville1, patentgirl, Cheap Date, greent, gunnie, tenstonetwowilldo, xx_Jo_xx, Claireee2008, Kathrynha, izzy65, dawn rose, Tidy Up Tash, Kahra, Lotti379 and Dot Common


NB. If I've missed anyone then please PM me. Please try to post your budget in big and red, as often I am skimming several pages, thank you


Good luck all.
Coxy

joedenise

Feeling quite pleased with myself as have only had one day when I've spent so today will be NSD #4.

Started off another rye sourdough loaf yesterday and that is now having it's final proof and will cook this evening when I'm cooking jacket potatoes for dinner. So will be ready for eating tomorrow - I really enjoy the taste of the sourdough.

Also started off some yoghurt yesterday and that is now being strained to get a greek style yoghurt ready for DH to take to work tomorrow with some grapes for a snack.

Will need to go shopping tomorrow as need some more fruit, mushrooms and rye flour (bag almost used up).

Denise

Cheap_Date

Morning all Back to reality here! Two teens went off to secondary school happily smiling this morning! Wonders will never cease!

Did a big Mr T shop at the weekend, so hoping that will last a while. I cleaned out the kitchen cupboards yesterday too, and found various tins and jars I'd forgotten about.

Today or tomorrow I will have to brave sorting out the freezer. It's like delving into Narnia, goodness knows what lurks in there.....

wishus

I only gave myself 20 minutes (with a list!) to go shopping round Sainsbugs this Saturday. We had seen this recipe for a sausage casserole on BBC Food and Drink and realized we had most of the ingredients, so I did this for us tea. Had to buy pine nuts (blooming heck, they're dear!). Made do with Rapeseed Oil, not olive, left out the bacon. Also, topped with wholemeal bread, because that's what I had, and left out the celery, because yuck celery!

It contains wine, and that's okay because I have the straggly end of a souring bottle of white to use up, and no spare ice cube trays to save it for future cooking. Otherwise, I am Dryathaloning. 5 days sober, people. :A:coffee: It's not for charity, it's for my liver and kidneys.

Of course, lists are great, but be prepared for only having 3 cans of cat food and a tiny amount of cling film left!

So, needs must pop to Aldi tonight for me bits.

meg72

Spent £2.55 on apples, pears and satsumas and 1.33 on packs sausage meat reduced to 19p each.


I thought the pork shoulder looked good at £2 a killo so bought joint at £4.14, used a £2 gift card was given for being overcharged a few weeks ago so cost me £2,14.


Total spend £6.02. Pleased with that cut the joint into 3 which should give me 12 meals and the sausage meat should be good for around another 20 odd. so already well ahead.


I love the idea of using last years money to get a head start on this one. and my plan is to stay ahead and hopefully get a whole free month next December.


£27 left till end of challenge on the 23rd.


Did anyone else use the free morrisons voucher some weeks before Christmas, I used two to get 2 sacks potatoes and 2 packs onions and they are still keeping very well.

Mrs_Cheshire

Just been to Ald* for my weekly shop spent £28.08 and a £1 in Mr T's on some korma curry paste. None of my local stores had any 4 pints of milk so will grab some later when I'm out for a meeting.

redmel1621

Just popped in to update signature. Had to nip co*p for electric so picked up a loaf whilst there. I also managed to prevent dh going to the reduced bit for lunch items. He is in the habit of picking up sausage rolls/pasty's/butty's/egg custards and any other junky type foods that are reduced. In all honesty we just don't need them. We have plenty of food in for lunches so it is a complete waste of money.

Anyway that means just a little 75p spend for me today bringing my total spend so far to £69.81.

Mel x

meg72

NewShadow wrote: »

Hi Bob, Not sure if this is helpful, but You might want to consider a bargains allowance as mentioned before?

This lets you take advantage of great offers and stock up on 'luxuries' to see you through the lean times. I do this as it means if and when I'm completely broke, I don't feel like I am - still eating steaks, roasts, berries, cheeses.

For example - before christmas I wandered about and had a look at the use by dates on the huge numbers of turkeys, ducks and geese in my nearest supermarkets. Many had dates between christmas and new year, so on the 28th I asked my dad to give me a lift and went and checked for reductions.

Got 3 whole 2.5kg ducks, a 2.8kg turkey crown, and two turkey legs for £20.

In the freezer (the turkey chunked into 4) that will do me well for the coming year - the ducks will do a posh roast at easter and on my birthday, and at some other point, plus leftovers for stirfrys/ sarnies.

The turkey will do curries, pies and stirfrys with each chunk doing meals for a week and the legs probably doing a sunday lunch each.

I did the same thing when tesco online were offering whole salmon at £5 per kilo.

I spent £80 (:eek:), but ended up with 4 whole salmon, filleting into quarters - meaning I've 16 very impressive lumps of salmon that again will do a very impressive roast, can be split into steaks, en croute, jacket potato filling - each one will feed me for a week plus the cats ate salmon heads/tails and I ended up with a boat load of fish stock.

On a more day to day level, this board and the grabit board is worth keeping an eye on - a few years back tesco offered 500g bags of pasta for 9p - I bought £5 worth (that's around 30 kilos...). Haven't had to buy pasta since :rotfl:

This is great advice, had to laugh at the pasta mountain, I have one too and rice and still getting through the 4p tins of mushy peas from way back when. I bought a years supply of my fave coffee last year when less than halfprice but as I now don't drink as much coffee, looks like it will last this year as well.

ScaryGreen

Spent £4.99 on Saturday on 10 muslin bags in preparation for making marmalade in the next couple of weeks, I'm looking forward to christening the maslin pan I got for Christmas from my Mum.

So far this month I've had 3 NSD and I'm not expecting to need to buy anything this week except for popping to Li&d tomorrow for bananas and the online shop that's due on Friday.

So my Jan GC spend is now £32.25.

DawnW

My Ocado delivery has just arrived, including 2 x 4 pint bottles of milk when I only ordered and paid for 2 pint ones, and the order actually costing £1 less than the stated total

This was a spend of £34.08 (included free delivery and a code for £5 off a £40 shop) and I have updated the total in my signature accordingly. I shan't be needing anything for a while now, so hoping for more NSDs in the coming week or so