January 2017 Grocery Challenge. NEW BEGINNINGS!

Islandmaid

Another NSD here

Made Shakshuka and HM bread tonight, and cooked tomorrow's dinner whilst the oven was on :money:

elsiepac

Franalamadingdong wrote: »

Sounds like a win Elsie! My mum and dad are about to give me a denby dinner service because she wants a new set. Thanks for the concern, it's to do with my job. A friend thinks it's a case of bullying in the workplace, but it's really complicated and I'm unsure. I've been so miserable about it all and full of anxiety I'll be going to see the Dr. Unfortunately, before that I have an appraisal at work, but I'm not sure if it is a true appraisal or some sort of disaplinary action. I've written how I really feel so may find myself out of a job come Thursday!

That sounds horrendous, good luck for today, I'll be thinking of you with my fingers crossed x

fairy3 wrote: »

I joined the flylady challenge at the start of the week and am finding it a great distraction from shopping!!

I'm doing FlyLady, but the full system through the website. I'm a 30 day olf FlyBaby!!

meg72 wrote: »

Well last day of January for me.

Didn't manage to spend nothing but only bought eggs and toilet rolls, 2.50
so 77.50 left. Almost all of the months budget Am going to invest most of this in my own little shop. and stock up for the months ahead. Have found a half price offer on coffee, half price dishwasher tabs and an absolutely brilliant offer for gammon steaks at only 89p a pack of three huge steaks, will cut these in half, so six meals. and 2kg cooking bacon for £1.49. Oh and will need another sack of potatoes 25kg at £5.00.

Going for another month of use up freezer stocks as want to get rid of one this year to save on electric

That is AMAZING, well done you! An inspiration as always!

___

Yesterday I had my Tipping Point audition! I think it went well, they said even if we don't get shortlisted from it, we still beat thousands of people to get that far! Which was nice :rotfl:
I could hear anytime between now and May as they are shortlisting whilst they film, which is Feb-May, and is 135 episodes for series 8!!!

Anyway, I've had a couple of small spends, basically on junk food. I've been feeling really tired so maybe I've been craving energy, but conversely I've been doing well on my FlyLady routines and as a result been going to bed at a decent time, so maybe just the dark mornings are catching up with me!!

I got paid today so new Challenge starts today, I came in over budget, which I identified last week and said I wanted to keep it under £30 over If you see what I mean, well I went nearly £60 over, so an epic fail there. Totally let it all go at the end and really annoyed again. It was a longer month and I should have been more careful at the beginning. Roll on Feb...here I go again!

Declaring at £199.08/£140 - Fail!!!




Date.......Where.....Amount.....Remaining from £140 Budget
21 Dec.....T35c0.....£09.00.....£131.00 (Veggie Mains and Prepared Veg - lazy)
23 Dec.....T35c0.....£06.14.....£124.86 (Crisps, Nuts and Snacks for get together)
24 Dec.....H&B.......£03.88.....£120.98 (Mushroom Tofu Pate and Sandwich slices)
24 Dec.....T35c0.....£21.20.....£99.78 (Proper Grocery Shop and Toiletries)
29 Dec.....A1d1......£01.64.....£98.14 (Red Onions and Basil)
29 Dec.....Chippy....£06.95.....£91.19 (Oops!)
1 Jan......T35c0.....£23.53.....£67.66 (proper grocery shop)
2 Jan......T35c0.....£01.00.....£66.66 (kale)
3 Jan......M&S.......£02.50.....£64.16 (sandwich!)
4 Jan......C0-0p.....£03.51.....£60.65 (Cauliflower, spinach, more kale(!), packet of crisps and choccy bar for the boyfriend - that was 63p and I used 70p of points so really it was free lol)
7 Jan......Viaduct...£04.25.....£56.40 (cafe)
7 Jan......T35c0.....£00.75.....£55.65 (reduced new potatoes)
9 Jan......C0-0p.....£00.89.....£54.76 (milk for the boyfriend)
11 Jan.....T35c0.....£28.77.....£25.99 (Proper grocery shop except for loo roll!)
13 Jan.....T35c0.....£05.35.....£20.64 (Chips, Onion Rings and Ketchup - none needed!)
14 Jan.....T35c0.....£13.44.....£7.20 (more crappy and prepared food, not needed)
16 Jan.....Ald1......£02.70.....£4.50 (pasta, crumpets, chocolate and biscuits)
19 Jan.....T35c0.....£14.55....-£10.05 (prepared food, YS items and stir fry stuff)
20 Jan.....T35c0.....£38.43....-£48.48 (Groceries and Party food (which came to £15.48 by the way!)
22 Jan.....M&S.......£5.82....-£54.30 (potatoes, and treats)
25 Jan.....T35c0.....£4.78....-£59.08 (pure junk food)

meg72

Ohhhh that is exciting fingers crossed for you.

medsdemon

elsiepac wrote: »

That's really lovely :happyhear All I get from my family Parents/sister I mean - I'm 32 and live alone thank god!!) is grief about being vegan! Except when they eat my food lol

Thanks elsiepac. She's 21 and still a student, so I'm glad she's eating well.

PS I bought her the first Thug Kitchen book, but not sure if she's tried any of the recipes yet.


Regarding my budget no spend today so another NSD to add to my sig.

We had leftover from yesterday's dinner with baked beans tonight. Tomorrow I think I'll prep a veggie chilli to leave in the Slowcooker whilst I'm at work. I like getting home to hot food and a warm kitchen ��

elsiepac

Thanks meg72!

medsdemon he Thug Kitchen books are great, they really make cooking approachable and I've not made a bad recipe from them yet!

mrs-moneypenny

Butternut leek & walnut tarts for tea, going to mix the left over butternut filling with some left over mashed pot and makesome sort of fritters for tomorrow's lunch.

NSD today

Caterina

Just confirming a NSD, been to the supermarket to do the shopping for the night shelter but did not get anything for myself, as promised earlier on. Going to update my sig.

ancientmum

Signature updated. Higher spend this week as I bought some toiletries. On the positive side, I will not need anything until next week's shop.

Zed42

Evening all ..

I've been lurking, but tonight I've caught up on all my receipts ... and well, erm, yes ...

We have £36.19 to last us until the 25th.

This makes me very twitchy. Not because our cupboards are bare, but because we do spend way tooooooo much on takeaways due to general knackeredness. If I don't cook, DH gets takeout is the general principle.

This is not to say he can't cook, but more by the time he's got home, it's late and I've already cooked for DD. It's a bitter cycle.

However, he knows how much we have and is currently on board .. to the point he went to Sainsbobs earlier and asked before he went as to whether he could buy peanut butter (bleurgh .. ) I said, of course he could ... if it came from his social budget ... no peanut butter was bought tonight!

Tonight we had baked spuds with bolognaise and cheese, very nice too. Tomorrow is pie, mustard mash and beans .... all pretty low maintenance, but homecooked (Well, actually the pie is homecooked, but not homemade).

Wednesday, is tricky, as we enter varied dinner times, so normally results in a takeout as I don't want to cook twice .... I'm thinking something to do with sausages (mainly because we have them!) Perhaps sausage with pasta.

Thursday, DD is at Guides, so needs a quick early dinner, DH isn't home until late ... aaargh.

Friday, I'm out of the house from 06:00 to 19:00 ... so my interest levels on cooking will be pretty low.

The weekend, well, DH is out @ 06:00 until not sure when, he's rowing in a couple of races, so need to ensure he's got a decent brekkie inside and some snack bars.

Sunday is all over the shop ....

And so it goes on.

I know this is no different to anyone else, but it is very tiring, on top of 2 jobs etc.,.

Back in June I took a day off and batch cooked "ready meals" ... it worked, but we're now out of them. I really do need to do this again I think .... but not until February!

mrsnicewriting

hi all

I have just caught up with myself receipt wise and have only shopped three times so far! eating from freezers and tins, topping up with bread, milk and eggs when required. This site has given me the much needed kick up the backside to reduce our grocery bill. Before I would have just shopped willy nilly even though I knew I had stuff in doors, I would still buy more, but now I'm shopping with intent and only buying what's necessary really weird but what a great feeling to leave Ald1 on Saturday spending only £4.80!
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GC January £41.61 / £166.67 13NSD