August 2007 Grocery Challenge

teedy23

Hi all, had a bit of a busy week so havent been in as often, so hello to all the newbies. I,ve hardly spent a thing this last week, just milk and 1 loaf, would have bought more bread today but they,d ran out by the time I finished work. I still have some stuff in the freezer, and cupboards still hold a good few meals, but soap powder is all gone, that was my big box of free stuff from survey too, also loo rolls have gone almost. I,ve been getting meal deals from Boots this week at work and using my points to pay, at the moment if you buy 5 meals in a month you get the 6th free, you have to have an advantage card, so a free meal on Monday. Have lots of mocs lined up for use too so this challenge looking good

juliejim

Hi All

Been to Rhyl for the weekend but we didn't have to buy lunch on Saturday or breakfast Sunday so didn't spend too much on food (just everything else)!

I'm not going to include what we've spent on food this weekend as I don't really know as DH got most of it.

Need to pop to Asda or somewhere today as I need bread, milk, margarine, etc but going to make a list and hopefully stick to it.

Catch you all later

Jue

cheerfulness4

Morning all.
Going to make a big push to avoid all shopping this week, although I have to take my mum to do hers tomorrow which is always temptation.

Managed to fill the freezer with some nice 'end of day' bargains from Morrisons so I think I've got meals for this week and most of next. Few homemade dishes such as pizza and macaroni cheese will fill the gaps.

Had an unexpected lunch invite for today so am away to rush round the housework and then get myself ready. Can't wait to see what she makes. :j

FBThree

Oops not doing well at keeping out of shops although I hadn't realised I was quite so bad at it! And reading how much other people aren't spending Really brings home how much we spend. Sigh.
Planning to meal plan this week. Did tidy up store cupboard so know what I have in there. But have also realised we have to build up catfood and litter stocks for when we are away later in the year, so might do some of that now whilst catfood is on offer and Mr T is offering double points on spend.
Now going to save some money by turning PC off!

JAMIEDODGER

off to do my first shop of the month this morning. will make sure i spend over £30 so i get £3 off with my voucher, some of this food is towards our camping trip, we go tomorrow. will update later:)

mouche

This is a 5 week month for me starting on the 1st - so the first and the last week are actually only 5 days long!

Though this is my first "official" GC, I have been doing this on my own previously so I thought it would be easy. Did the Asda shop on Sunday and spent just 14.07 (had budgeted 20) so was quite pleased with myself - until I tallied up the 'popping out to the shop' receipts which came to 10.83! The thing is it's usually DH who pops out to the shop and he never sticks to the budget I tell him to! Oh well, I will soldier on and try to keep the rest of the months expenses down - though with my parents arriving on Thursday I get the feeling we're going to overshoot spectacularly this month!

teedy23

i,m going to make pasta and a rather nice spicy tomato suace to take to work today, but will have to buy bread and milk, oh and cat food, poor moggy is falling out with me as he doesnt think he,s getting the kind of treatment he deserves, keeps drawing me dirty looks when I put his MS food down to him, and then looks longingly at the fridge. Emotional blackmail lol

shell2001

Hi All

Had a trip to Asda yesterday for stuff for the BBQ. Bought DD1 new lunch pack bag and drink bottle and some craft stuff for them both too. Total cost was £44.00. Not too bad as got the meat for the BBQ and also a whole chicken, pork steak and 3 packs of sausages for the freezer. So at least another 6 meals there.

Then went to Chinese supermarket and spent £28!!! did get 1kg of crispy duck, 50 mini vegetable pancake rolls, Huge jar of chilli Sauce, 2 huge bags of chowmein noodles, pancakes & hoi sin sauce for the duck (yummy), Huge bottle of Sesame oil, huge bottle of Soy sauce, 2 pots of curry sauce and a couple of other bottles of marinate (which we tried on the chicken for the BBQ yesterdayand were lush).

Then another £11 in poundland. But toothpast and smellies as well as other essentials bought. Also got some more aluminium lidded containers for my HM takeaways.

So now takes my budget to £140 for rest of month. But I think I now have at least 3 weeks worth of main meal items in. Still got 12 pints of milk in freezer too! Plus about 5 bags of bread flour so sorted there too.

Will update my sig when I get a minute

The_shuffs

The_shuffs wrote: »

hi everyone this is my first GC and i am not finding it very easy my OH always puts a downer on anythihg i do to save money he never thinks it will work hates eating really cheap food and sticking to the meal plan but i am not going to give up so HELP me keep going im still smiling

Hi all thank you for the good words of advice really helpful had long chat with OH last nite and i think i might have talked him round told him how much we could save and that we could use the money we save on a new lawn mower (he is a bit sad about cutting the grass) so here we go so far this month i have spent about £100 that should last us 2 weeks we being 3 adults and 2 kids plus my OH kids every week for over nite stay so i need all the advice i can get :T

Moniker

The_shuffs wrote: »

Hi all thank you for the good words of advice really helpful had long chat with OH last nite and i think i might have talked him round told him how much we could save and that we could use the money we save on a new lawn mower (he is a bit sad about cutting the grass) so here we go so far this month i have spent about £100 that should last us 2 weeks we being 3 adults and 2 kids plus my OH kids every week for over nite stay so i need all the advice i can get :T

Well done you! Talking it over is always a good idea and when he sees how much you are saving he will be impressed.

You don't have to buy really 'cheap' (i.e. poor quality) food to make real savings. If you cook a lot from scratch you can really save and have the satisfaction of knowing that you are giving your family healthy food unaduterated by additives!

For example I paid £6.35 for a free range chicken in Sainsbury's last week, which is quite a lot,but I will get at least 6 meals for me and OH out of it. (Roasted with sauteed rosemary potatoes and courgettes, cold with salad and new potatoes, then chopped leftovers in a chicken and broccoli bake with jacket potates). I will also get delicious stock from the carcass so no part will be wasted. I know that £1 a head is a lot to spend for some of us, but this is healthy food and delicious and I have never had any complaints from my OH (he never cooks so he knows when he is well off!) You could save even more if you bought a standard chicken (i.e. not free range).

Anyway, keep up the good work!