September 2007 Grocery Challenge

cheerfulness4

Went and did my big shops at Morrisons and Tescos (using my mailings vouchers ) and spent another £41.17. Lots of meat, tinned and staples in now. Have lots of cheese in the freezer bought reduced from last month so think I'm set with my meal plans now. :T

cheletastic

Hi all

Glad to hear we're all off to a good start!:D

My September challenge starts today and I just need to get couple of things-bread, cheese, milk, etc so will pop into Mr T's after I've been to gym to get these.

Good news though - my new job starts Monday but I'm on a training course for 3 weeks first and have just read the letter and they are providing lunches :T So got 3 weeks without having to do any HM lunches therefore saving more money (and time)!!!:j

Good luck everyone - will update total later:D

Money~Bunny_3

I had a massive bit of luck yesterday that was very MSE/OS but a bit of a cheat! I went to check that my old flat was okay/clean before the lease ends - all but one person had moved out. He said I could have whatever I wanted from the fridge/freezer/cupboards! After carefully cleaning and sorting through (and chucking some unspeakeable grot), I had three carrier bags of stuff :rotfl:

So I scored a load of spices, 500g rice, 2 large nice frozen pizzas, lots of teabags and very posh hot chocolate, loo roll, three large tubs of powdered sweet tea mix, three boxes of icing sugar (??? - why?), several bags of flour, a full packet of wholemeal spaghetti, two wooden spoons, frozen pitta bread, microwave popcorn, lemongrass in oil, and a nifty grater for fresh ginger!

I feel so lucky! - I'm pretty skint right now. But I still need to make a shopping list for next week's meals and work out how to spend my... ooh, £3.42 that's left over from a couple of important cake-making sprees! But the fridge has eggs and parmesan cheese, and at I've got enough hot drink choices to please anyone!

Meanymoo

I'm in on the challenge, for the first time. We have a drastic drop in income as of this month, so we really need to tighten the belt. Last month we spent a whopping £294.57 on groceries (2 adults, 1 cat) and I'm pretty horrified, although it did include beer and snacks for a barbecue and a few takeaways . This month I am determined to stick to our actual budget of £200, and I really think we should be able to do it. I think it's a generous budget, even with organic veggies (we don't eat much meat). Currently doing a storecupboard challenge so hope to save a lot of money that way. If all goes well and we come in on budget, I'll reduce each month's budget by a further £20 from then on. Wish me luck!

olliesmummy06

Just got my shopping delivered from Tesco....used the 2 codes (thanks soooooo much) and saved over £30!! Got enough for the next 2 weeks at least, hubby cannot believe how much i got for £90!! Fingers crossed i manage it.xx

crockpot

Called in at Netto and Iceland on way home from town, spent a grand total of £21.13!

Freezer quite full and so are cupboards, even bough long life milk so hope i can keep away from the supermarket this week!!

Boys back at school on tues so I have made and frozen their sandwhichs for lunch boxes, they have same each day.

I will make my lunch daily and take with me, put on 5 lbs so need to get back on my diet!!

witchypoo

I planned for a month worth of meals or rather I'm using the following strategy:
Meal plan for one week:
Day 1 - one of my basic vegetarian meals from scratch
Day 2 - one of my basic vegetarian meals from scratch
Day 3 - one of my basic vegetarian meals from scratch
Day 4 - one of my basic vegetarian meals from scratch
Day 5 - frozen Pizza dinner
Day 6 - takeaway meal of some description
Day 7 - something I have never cooked before, to be taken from the hundreds of recipes I have stashed in a concertina file

This means I have to plan for one of the days, but it has to be something new to keep things a little adventurous. The four basic meals from scratch are things I make often such as curry, pasta with sauce from scratch etc. The whole week will repeat for the remaining 4 weeks, the variable days being the takeaway day and the new recipe day. I'll let you all know how this plan works out in the long run!

I ordered most of the stuff from Tesco, I just need to top up on veggies and fruit, milk, bread through the month but I have some bread in the freezer along with 2 of the pizzas. I spent £74.41 on Mr T, after a ten quid code and £5 on promotions. I couldn't find any further codes that worked with it, so maybe I should swot up over the coming month to see what codes can be used together. I don't buy many toiletries really as I make all my own stuff.

Along with a couple of little bits and pieces I bought on Friday, I am off to update my siggy!

JAMIEDODGER

my new month starts today. picked up a few bits this morning but that came out of last months money so doesnt count in my september budget.

made a chilli this morning (had a portion for lunch so 3 portions left for fridge and freezer) will only freeze 2 portions as will have the other one over the next few days as have rice to use up.

will be cooking a roast chicken tomorrow which will give me plenty of meat for a soup and sandwiches for the coming weeks lunches.

i will be doing my first shop of september tomorrow night for delivery on tuesday evening. i am considering doing a fortnighly shop from now on to cut down on the delivery charges. will be buying fresh fruit from lidl as soon as the children go back to school.

i have a store cupboard full of food and really need to start using some of it up! freezer is looking bare though so will have to do some bulk cooking at some point!

plenty of flours in though so lots of baking and pizza dough to be made!

lil_me

Right after complete 'naffing up' my bank record, thinking I had more money than I do because I didn't write some things down (I could kick myself at the minute) I have £150 ish less left from August which was supposed to go in to Xmas savings so I really need to try harder this month, much harder! Sons back on packed lunches which makes the major issue of that he's refusing to eat a lot of things he used to take, so that'll be a bit of a nightmare.

Going to do a stock take as such today and a meal plan for every meal, see how far I get, I know we need loo rolls soon so depends what else I need as to if I am putting online order in or not.

meanmarie

Just realised as I was getting into bed that I had forgotten to add the €7 I spent on a roast of beef ( on offer ) so I really spent €186.05, but I think that I forgot to add it to the number of meals I have, so that is two more for all of us, as should get a stir-fry out of beef for Monday.

Off to alter signature

Marie