March 2017 Grocery Challenge

poohbear59

I have spent £38 on topping up at coop over the last few days. It soon disappears on top ups. Hopefully will get a trip to Aldi soon to do a proper stock up.

tigerfeet2006

Think we have found a house. Yaaay!. Just need to go through the process now of form filling and references and credit checking etc. Hopefully this means we will be in our own place in a couple of weeks though. Yippeeee! Then the budgeting starts. It's going to be fun having to start with no larder at all. Boooooo!

Hope you all have a great day.

pamsdish

Popped to town for a few odds and ends, £25 spent, ys meats bumped it up, but got pork joint, lamb joint, minced beef and some chicken thighs for the dog,

purpleybat

my grocery shop on the 14th was slightly bigger than I thought it would be and came in at £24.70, thinking about it now I'm not sure what I bought but I know I had 2 huge groaning bags of groceries .
my sister and hubby are staying this week and have dug throo the freezer and found vegetarian curries for tonight but she's asked for veggie sausages and cabbage tomorrow that i'll have to buy.
hopefully next weeks shop will be small as still pulling ufos out of the freezer. my month doesn't finish til the 29th so think i'll be over budget.

Ginmonster

Small spend of £2.52 on bananas (always buying bananas - you'd think I had a pet monkey rather than a 4 year old), plums and peppers.


£67.87/£100

fairy3

Afternoon all - have not checked in for a while but updated totals for month and still in budget. Few small shops to supplement freezer and storecupboard in between being away.

Thought it would have been lower but noticed have had multiple 'small' shops which soon add up. Only 9 NSD's so far but away from Sunday for five days with all meals included so should catch up....

Using up until then and have beef stew in SC just now and using up fruit bowl for crumbles. Freezer is looking clearer but no panic yet.

Hope all keeping warm - howling wind and chilly here today

elsiepac

Did my Ald1 then Tesc0 run last night. Realised I could have made it a lot cheaper by not doing the soup I'vebeen craving for next week - but hey, it's done now.

Bought super6 oranges in Ald1 for 65p - only, when I checked my receipt just now I found they charged me £1.45!! I've posted on their FB page so hopefully will get some kind of credit. Fuming really as I only needed 1 orange, but as they are 40p for a singleone in Mr T I figured I'd get the super 6 ones then can use them the week after as well! Shot myself in the foot there.

Having one of my favourite things for tea tonight and lunch tomorrow - Goddess Bowl from Oh She glows. Out for tea tomorrow night, and not home for lunch on Sunday as it's an open day at the rescue I help at, so will probably end up with chips. Recipes from Sunday night onwards are:

Lunches - Summer Vegetable Pesto Soup
Dinners - Chickpea and Kale Stew, Succotash Pilaf, and Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad

Yes, I've gone £50 over budget. BUT this is £30 less than I average per month, so I'm seeing it as an improvement. Plus, I've kept myself topped up with stuff instead of letting it all run down and meaning I need to have a very spendy first shop next month, so that should have a knock on effect and even out my spending a bit.

My April starts from next Friday. *Technically* no more spends needed.

Not declaring till Thursday, but as it stands I'm on £170.47 / £120

Think I will work to a higher budget from now on. I'm fed up of being so far off.
I'm looking at this like my actual spends tend to be around £200 a month regardless of budget set, so £170 is an improvement. I'll have a think about what I can sensibly set for April.


Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining (from £120 budget)
24 Feb.....M&S.......£03.10.....£116.90 (reduced hot nibbles)
24 Feb.....A1d1......£08.27.....£108.63 (proper grocery shop)
24 Feb.....T35c0.....£53.56.....£55.07 (proper grocery shop)
25 Feb.....H&B.......£04.93.....£50.14 (2x nutirional yeast - planned)
25 Feb.....T35c0.....£00.93.....£49.21 (veg suetas forgot on Thursday)
27 Feb.....T35c0.....£06.60.....£42.61 (EXTRA BITS - not on meal plan, but incorporated leftovers!)
2 Mar......A1d1......£08.23.....£34.38 (proper grocery shop)
2 Mar......T35c0.....£15.40.....£18.98 (proper grocery shop)
5 Mar......M&S.......£01.07.....£17.91 (potato)
6 Mar......Tesc0.....£01.00.....£16.91 (loaf)
7 Mar......Tesc0.....£06.79.....£10.12 (YS veg + rest of proper shop + Rennie)
9 Mar......A1d1......£09.96.....£00.16 (proper grocery shop)
9 Mar......T35c0.....£30.22....-£30.06 (proper grocery shop)
10 Mar.....Te5c0.....£01.70....-£31.76 (bread)
16 Mar......A1d1......£07.77....-£39.53 (proper grocery shop)
16 Mar......T35c0.....£10.94....-£50.47 (proper grocery shop)

FurryBeastOz

Standing at £23.28 for the month:D But I have been away for most of it and I've no idea what I'm going to find when I get home tomorrow. I can't even meal plan which is frustrating me.

Hopefully DH will have eaten some of what I left rather than living on pizza.

I'll need to fridge/freezer/cupboard audit before I plan, and shop. If I can, I'd like to just need milk, F&V before Tuesday, but we will see.:D

Wysiwyg49

I'm at £226.05 after more milk and some peppered salami for HM pizzas last night. They were OK but the "crust" was floppy to say the least! How can I get the crust to be crisp, does it need cooking in advance before the topping goes on??

Spanish omelette tonight. If I wasn't doing the challenge I would probably have bought something to do quickly, so it is making me think about what I've already got - finally...

Happy meal planning everyone! I've made a list of 28, going to try to pick 7 for next week that don't have a million ingredients - 2 more shops in the month, need to trim the list down a bit.

funfairprincess

Hi all x

Total fail tonight as we had a chippy tea but it was lovely. So that's another £23 out of the budget. Will be doing a shop on Sunday so everything could go a bit Pete tong!