January 2017 Grocery Challenge. NEW BEGINNINGS!

lynnejk

Evening folks

I have finished my accounts for 2016 and GC challenge finished at £2181/2230, with my Bulk Buy Fund actually slightly up from initial £100 to £105.32 :j

So I will leave the BB as is and add the £49 overs from main budget into our entertainment fund - should pay for a couple of birthday lunches eh

Mr T delivery today. The GC items came to £27.54, including lots of cupboard items on special. Also spent £5.59 on chicken at Al*i. So that's a total of £33.13 added to this month. Shouldn't need anything else until the weekend now.

Having hm chilli wrap tonight with a large salad, followed by some fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday
Lx

Franalamadingdong

No spends from us. Normally I plan weekly menu, buy I've done things differently this month and after doing a larder clean, sort and list I've planned 18 evening meals with some meals being doubles (as in stew will do us for two days). I've then listed them under titles, pasta (4 dishes), rice (6 dishes), casseroles (3 dishes) and other (5 dishes) for everything else. I've not done full 31 days to allow for any changes and an end of month fish and chip supper if we stay in budget. This way we can pick and choose. Persian chicken tomorrow and stew on Thursday and Friday. Got quite a few new recipes on the list, including discovering I can use pickled onions in stew!!! I believe I won't need to shop until the weekend and I'm on track for a lean month. Another win is I used half a pack of chicken for my tea tonight and both our dinners tomorrow and froze the other half and bulked it out with a green pepper and mushrooms instead of just being greedy.

maria3104

First shop completed for 2017. 42.61 from asd?

Here we go again on the frugal path.

M x

CountingPennies

Hi guys!

Its been over a year since I visited the site, however due to recent unemployment I'm back and needing to join in if that is ok.

Need to spend as little as possible. There are 5 of us which include 2 hungry teenagers!

Gonna start from tomorrow and aim for just £350 for the month. Not sure if this is doable, but I've been spending far too much on takeouts and rubbish due to the nature of my previous job!

So back to basics for me. Making meals from scratch. Got quite a few staple products in so I'm hoping I can do this. 2 of the kids are on packed lunches so I will be including ALL food and drink products (including take out tho I'm going to try and avoid) and it will cover all household products too. I'm pretty stocked up on some stuff so I shouldn't need too much this month.

Anyway, wish me luck! I look forward to chatting with some of you all again to keep me going along!

CP xx

zafiro1984

I tried meal planning but I'm afraid it's not for me. Quite often I didn't fancy what was for that day or I had been too busy to be bothered.

Then I tried a rolling five day menu - sort of pick and mix - I made three separate lists. One for lunches, one for dinners and the last for desserts. When I had used two selections I added another two to the bottom of the list. This was better but not quite right for me.

Now I just list what is in the fridge with their use by dates so together with the stockcupboard and freezer I use this method to make what I fancy and have time to do. It means I can use up that odd piece of cheese, those two sausgaes and one rasher of bacon not to mention that spoonful of cream that is almost out of date. I find I throw away practically nothing. It works for me but I appreciate it may not work for many. - each to their own.......

Snottycat

So we are on the 3rd Jan and I have already spent £18 at our local One Stop on some wine & nibbles for an unexpected guest! Still look on the bright side have had 2 NSD so not too bad overall. My fridge is looking decidedly free of anything veg like so I need to do a small shop to fill up with fresh foods. May hit Morries or Aldiii tomorrow to see what offers they have on Little ones off school till Monday so have them eating snacks and lunches which I don't normally need to provide, trying to bake more things like flapjacks and Crispy cakes to fill them up instead of biccies. Well I need to inventory the cupboards now to replace anything we need as I also go back to work on Monday and I have vowed no more "popping" to the shops in my lunch break to top up - spend way too much that way!

kkffoo

Franalamadingdong wrote: »

No spends from us. Normally I plan weekly menu, buy I've done things differently this month and after doing a larder clean, sort and list I've planned 18 evening meals with some meals being doubles (as in stew will do us for two days). I've then listed them under titles, pasta (4 dishes), rice (6 dishes), casseroles (3 dishes) and other (5 dishes) for everything else.

Sounds really flexible and doable!

CountingPennies wrote: »

Hi guys!
Need to spend as little as possible. There are 5 of us which include 2 hungry teenagers!
Gonna start from tomorrow and aim for just £350 for the month. Not sure if this is doable, but I've been spending far too much on takeouts and rubbish due to the nature of my previous job!...
So back to basics for me. Making meals from scratch...........
Anyway, wish me luck!
CP xx

Lots of luck. Sounds like a reasonable goal.

zafiro1984 wrote: »

I tried meal planning but I'm afraid it's not for me. Quite often I didn't fancy what was for that day or I had been too busy to be bothered.

Then I tried a rolling five day menu - sort of pick and mix - I made three separate lists. One for lunches, one for dinners and the last for deserts. When I had used two selections I added another two to the bottom of the list. This was better but not quite right for me.

Now I just list what is in the fridge with their use by dates so together with the stockcupboard and freezer I use this method to make what I fancy and have time to do. It means I can use up that odd piece of cheese, those two sausgaes and one rasher of bacon not to mention that spoonful of cream that is almost out of date. I find I throw away practically nothing. It works for me but I appreciate it may not work for many. - each to their own.......

Absolutely, to each their own. Circumstances vary so much. I'm a bit of a mental butterfly and I'm working with a month's plan (including defrosting timetable), which keeps me on track when my brain goes for a wander

First spend £43.71 at Asdadada
....but I'm hovering dangerously over a discounted slow cooker on Armourzone, which would need to fit into the budget somehow.

catznine

After two no spend days we ventured into Sains supermarket and spent £16.20 of our £120 months budget. I am having to be very careful of what I eat at the moment as I have bad heartburn but have meds starting tomorrow, fingers crossed! Anyway have bought bananas, Greek yogurt, 2 bags of quorn "chicken pieces" on offer at £1.50 a bag, whole meal loaf and pack of thins,2 packs of light babybels (also on offer -6 for £1), semi skim milk, tea bags and a bag of frozen strawberries and bananas. Having to avoid citrus fruit for now Hopefully no more spends until next Monday!

Florence_J

First NSD of the year! Will need to buy milk tomorrow at the rate my OH drinks it but at least I have one NSD under my belt.

Shouldn't need anything more other than milk and maybe bread this week. We have so much food that I've had to be creative with the storing of it!

pamsdish

1st spend of year £5 in Morries y.s. items mostly, will need more chicken for dog by weekend so trip to lidl on horizon.