February 2017 Grocery Challenge

karenccs67

Yesterday was another NSD :j.

Tuesday was hubby's birthday and we went out for a meal at our favourite Indian restaurant, everything was lovely until the end where we were bullied into giving them a 5* trip advisor rating, we literally couldn't move from our table, :mad: if I can remember my user name I'm going back on the site to see if I can change it or failing that leave a bad review under another name. Anyway I had saved the money, we always have a takeaway for our birthdays so the cost doesn't come out of my food budget.

On Tuesday I set up Save the Change on our bank account, so fingers crossed at the end of the year we will have a few extra £££. I've also applied for a few jobs, so fingers crossed.

I need to buy petrol today so not a NSD

Islandmaid

Just popped out to put the bins out..... far too cold to venture out again Will spend the day in the kitchen by the warm oven baking and making

Hence NSD :T

Worrierwalker

I've just calculated our food spending so far for February

£149 out of a hoped for £350

Don't think this shopping every 3 or 4 days instead of once a week is quite working out for me. The other night I did a Teso online shop thinking I could use a voucher I had, only to find it was in store only. Why does modern life have to be so complicated?

AlwaysHungry2016

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday! :wave:

I am officially overspent by £9.20 this week! Total spent £15.15... :eek:

In London I get around by cycling but in the past couple of days I managed to overstretch myself by eating too little and cycling too much (one day did not pack any lunch, ate bare minimum to avoid spending money and went on a major cycle around London in a very cold weather). Felt really unwell after that and ended up buying easy-to-prepare / comfort food without really planning it. Saying that, took some time off to stay in warm bed to recover and catch up on few episodes of favourite TV.
Back to work today with nice packed lunch (remains from my 'spending spree’) :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Florence_J wrote: »

Hi guys,
I just have one question which is if I cooked the whole lot in one go can I freeze it in individual portions and then reheat later? Or would it have to be kept 'fresh' in the fridge?

Yes, you can freeze it.,

Well, I know I'm not over budget, but really i'm feeling my shopping is (somewhat) out of control. My freezer is RAMMED. I'm feeling really upset with myself. It's not so much what I have spent, as it's not been very much, it's more a thing of buying stuff that wasn't needed, when I was wanting to use stores. I don't so much food hoard now, but have a mini backlog of when I did and never want to do that again. I have binned loads, just mainly catering tins of beans now, which will get used. I want/need some tomatoes/lettuce, dairy free cheese (probably £5) and then a week of no spending - that's the plan. Sorry for the moan, it's made me feel a bit down.

Franalamadingdong

It's ok to feel disappointed save dosh. How about moving everything you want to use in the next week into one drawer, obviously you can have other stuff in there if you have not got the room to have just this week's stuff, maybe have the extra to the back. When you see a bigish space all at once you might find that really rewarding. I felt amazing having my two free drawers, and it allowed me to bulk buy stuff for the month that I had planned out.

Doom_and_Gloom

Since I last logged our spending here we have spent £24.82.

Put 2 portions of vegetable stew into the freezer as there was too much to eat before it goes bad. Today made vegetable curry in the slow cooker and have put a portion of it in the freezer already, [STRIKE]thinking of putting another in there too as there is loads of it (my slow cooker is 6.5L and was basically full).[/STRIKE] put another portion into the freezer.The rest is in the fridge.

Vegetable stew for lunch, vegetable curry with quinoa for dinner for me today.
Oh had sandwiches for lunch, he's going to have beef stir fry and egg noodles for dinner.

£58.82/£140
£81.18 left

JensFeet

NSD #6 for February today as planned. I do need to do a top up shop tomorrow but have a (small) list to stick to but will hopefully buy enough to get us through til mid-next week. Will have to stick to Mr M's as that's local and saves needing to drive to the L!dl a good 10-15 mins away - this is annoying as I know the pots of single cream are about 1/3 more expensive in Mr M's and I will be buying a few but saves diesel by not travelling. Still annoying though lol.

Sorry to read you're feeling down about your shopping Save Dosh but some really sound suggestion from Franalanadingdong to have the visual prompt of seeing your planned items reducing over the week. I am finding the lure of the shops surprisingly difficult and almost have a sense that I'm missing out by stopping myself going shopping. It's utter madness but it's a compulsion I've had for many years so stopping myself from doing it and planning around not doing it has been extremely difficult. Like breaking a bad habit - and I don't have a great track record with habits!

Best of luck for the approaching weekend all x

JingsMyBucket

Hey y'all. I've been MIA the past few days but have been holed up at home waiting for those Amazon deliveries that have been barely showing up. It's a bit maddening because I'm not walking around as much as I normally would be, but at least I'm not spending any money on groceries or household stuff!

I haven't spent any money since Sunday when I bought some fruit and veg at the market for €5.50. That brings me to €284.92 out of €400.00. That leaves me with €115.08 for the rest of the month. Let's see if I can make it. OH leaves on Saturday afternoon to the UK so tomorrow afternoon I'll probably buy or make a few snacks for him like bananas, peanuts, etc. Afterward, I want to splurge on some things for myself as a treat this weekend and V-Day. I'm going to have so much fun eating random things and stretching out in the bed!

lynnejk

Evening folks

I really don't know the answer for those who feel they want/need to go shopping. I don't actually like shopping very much - though I used to enjoy going to the market (we don't have one here ).

I am a bit of a hoarder as well, but tend to bulk buy things we use when on offer - which obviously leads to rather heavy stocks at times - but saves us money in the long run.

I send DH to do the weekly 'fresh' shop with a list - he doesn't deviate on principle as it's my 'part of ship'. Should something not be there and he sees a sub, or there's something he thinks I would like, he will phone me. If he wants things outside of the list he has to buy them himself :rotfl:

I also do an on-line order for 'heavy' stuff, especially sparkling water of which I drink a vast amount, and general stores about once a month, to save DH carrying it all. I do, however, punt through all the offers and set a maximum level of spend, and it has to come in under that

I find I'm actually too busy to spend lots of time shopping or wanting to shop. I work part-time, do some work from home, do the cleaning, laundry and cooking. Amongst other things I keep in touch with friends and family, follow the news, am learning Spanish and love reading.

I think meal planning, batch baking and keeping an eye on stocks so you don't 'suddenly run out' of something you need, is maybe the way to go to save having to go to the shops.

Sorry for long post but hoping there's something in there that might be of help.

NSD here today :j

Hope you all have a frugal Friday
Lx