August 2015 Grocery Challenge

maria3104

Well after a marvellous day out I have massively exceeded grocery budget, but my cupboards and fridge are heaving with good things.

1st call £stretch £65 on sugar for jam, it will work out at 10p a jar for raspberry jam, assuming the autumn raspberries deliver the goods!
Bisto, offer tins of mushroom soup etc etc.
2nd call Ald*s. £103. Including 2 bottles of port for DH £6, if left without he buys in town at £15! Likes them both the same. Also got 6 rib eye steaks to celebrate this week family event. Milk, cream and all the usual veg stuff and lots of butter to make blackcurrant pies.Also got a kilo of GB red tractor mince and have made 2 lasagnes, already cut up and frozen in meal portion sizes. About 10 portions of spag bol sauce needs bagging and freezing. So for £7 will have about 20 meals. Lots of potatoes for lunch at work. Felt very non MSE as I was gaily putting things into trolley, but never lost sight of what I should be buying to be cooked eaten frozen etc.

Now I have done my first meal plan EVER, for the week ahead. Am interested to see if I actually stick to it and also whether it is a help, or a nuisance.

Tomorrow my plan is to batch bake using up egg glut and then batch cook pies for freezer. Everything is laid out ready for an early start, so off the bed now so I am fresh and raring to go.

Night all from a tired over spender.

M

missyp123

cyantist wrote: »

It does depend on the supermarket and if/when it closes but I find it's usually between about 7 and 8:30. Early last week I happened to be there around 8 and caught them putting all the reduced stuff out and got some bargains. Few days later we had to pop in and it was about 7:30 and all the reduced stuff had been and gone.

The checkout lady said that 3pm on a sunday is the best time to get bargains but that there's so many people there it can get a bit hectic so I'll be giving that a miss I think

thank you for that! i will be trying this in the week! may even give tomorrow at 3pm a go!

lynnejk

Evening all and a warm welcome to the new peoples :hello:


NSD here today but need to shop the morrow for weeklies.


Had a cheap meal tonight.


If I have any ends of beef stew/casserole left over too small for a portion I freeze it anyway - labelling 'for soup'. When I sorted the 'odds and ends' freezer shelf in the week I noticed four of these lurking. So today I defrosted them, added a mixed tin of beans, a tetra of passata, some garlic and a little chilli. Reheated gently and simmered for half an hour. I had a frozen YS flatbread which I defrosted in the micro and popped in the oven for ten minutes. Bingo and half left for another day


Hope you all have a super Sunday
Lx

hazeldreams

Afternoon all!

Poor results from the hazeldreams household! Due to unexpected visitors this weekend (with specific dietary needs!) I had to rush out to the supermarket to cater for them! Fast forward catering for 11 adults over 2 days and the budget is truly blown!

Not entirely sure the monthly food planner worked out for us. I totally over ordered on a lot of things which left us really short weekly for bread milk eggs etc..I really think bulk buying is the way to go but need to get my head around how that will work for us. Adding it to my to do list!

£397.33/£380

Happy sunday all!

t14cy_t

spends of £4 yesterday.

Thistlewhistle

I'm a latecomer to the August party but I've budgeted £100 for August and I'm living out of my freezer / cupboards. I've £22.61 left to last me until the end of Bank Holiday Monday.

I use YNAB to keep me on track so I know I'm being accurate with my recording of spends

Thistle

maria3104

In my freezer I have put:
2 lasagnes and meal portions of lasagnes and bags of spag bol.About 30 meals.
2 victoria sponges
2 choc sponges
2 banana and pecan sponges
1 plum crumble.
In my tin there are:
2 trays of flapjacks.

In my tummy there is 1 fougasse.
And my fridge is still heaving!

I calculate the vic sponges cost around 40p each to make. Love value flour, etc.
Productive day, but am tired now. Meal plan day 1 was effective.
M

MumofIowans

Did the final grocery shop for August yesterday morning and we spent $26.39. This pushes us slightly over budget but considering we spent so much at Cost0 at the start of the month, and we froze meals for October once the baby arrives, I'm pretty happy with it. Total spend is $363.73/$360

So overall, as long as we can see the week out, and there's no reason why we shouldn't, I consider the first month a success! Plus, it really got DH on board which bodes well for the coming months when things will be much tighter on one wage. Next month I will reduce our budget again and see how we get on.

Thanks for all the support!

lynnejk

Hiya everyone :hello:

maria3104 wrote: »

In my freezer I have put:
2 lasagnes and meal portions of lasagnes and bags of spag bol.About 30 meals.
2 victoria sponges
2 choc sponges
2 banana and pecan sponges
1 plum crumble.
In my tin there are:
2 trays of flapjacks.
In my tummy there is 1 fougasse.
And my fridge is still heaving!
M

WOW ! Now that's what I call batch baking. Well Done :T


Shopping today was a total of £ 29.25 at A*di so that still leaves me just over £ 22 to the end of month - that should be doable fingers crossed.


We had a traditional HM roast beef dinner today, with roasties, steamed veggies and gravy - it was lovely


Hope you all have a marvellous Monday
Lx

chocolatebum

oh lordy, expensive week again this week £113.20, still under my budget but i feel that i could be doing so much better