March 2017 Grocery Challenge

Wysiwyg49

Lost track a bit in Jan/Feb but would like to rejoin for March, starting 3rd March for 4 weeks.

I think I've put £300 in my signature but can't remember! 2 adults, 2 teenagers, and trying to include packed lunch for me at work 4 days a week.

Food only, excludes household items and wine ...

I still struggle with family meals that everyone will eat. DS doesn't like anything "mixed up" which rules out lasagne, pasta bakes etc.! Must have a look at the recipes at start of thread.

JingsMyBucket

Thank you for the shiny new thread zippy. Can you please put me down for €200 for March 1 - 31. We're two adults living in continental Europe.

We have enough food to last us through the week and should be almost done with restocking stuff this week. Purchases planned for the first week of March are eggs, Dettol laundry disinfectant, and my shower gel. I'll restock veg this weekend.

My NSD are only grocery focused for now. Dining and lunch out are in different budgets.

karenccs67

Please put me down for £160

Winchelsea

£40

for me for March 1-31 please.
Thanks.

elsiepac

Ginmonster wrote: »

I can highly recommend putting a dollop of chutney in when you make soup. It works with any soup and any chutney and it really adds to the taste. I always do it as we seem to get given lots of the stuff and don't really use it any other way.

Excellent! Thank you for the suggestion Ginmonster, I will do! I pretty much make soup every week for my lunches anyway so this is a perfect suggestion for me!

Annoyingly we are supposedly going out for a "team lunch" today at work - but not funded by the company. Technically it's optional but my boss puts on loads of pressure to go and I don't really want to turn round and say "I don't want to spend £10 on a lunch when I have stuff made!" because they all make this massive deal like it isn't loads of money to spend on one meal (I'm talking Nando's here, not a decent pub meal or anything), and then it's like having to justify why I don't want to spend it and they always go on "oh it's only a tenner" etc, it's just irritating!

Oh well, I'm just hoping it won't happen lol - I'm such a team player :rotfl:

Ginmonster

I feel for you elsiepac, I think a lot of people don't really understand that not everyone's financial situation is the same as theirs and/or don't really think about what they spend and spend more than they have. It's only when you try to rein it in and work out where all your money is going that you can see how we're encouraged to just mindlessly spend money all the time.


Maybe you could suggest having what gets called a 'fuddle' in our office where everyone brings in some nice food - home made or not and has an at-work picnic. We get some people baking cakes, some bring bread and cheese, some just buy a big bag of crisps but it's quite sociable and cheaper than a meal out.

SugarGirl

Can I join too ? I've not done a challenge before but a bit shocked that we have spent over £300 in February on food just for us :eek:

So I need some motivation!

Can I set our target at £250 for two adults and 5 furbabies for the full month please?

Going to have a go at doing a meal plan (tried before but never got past the planning stage) and making stuff in batches (I am not a good chef so don't enjoy cooking)

elsiepac

Nice idea Ginmonster; unfortunately to put it in context, I work in IT in an office and a team that is all men - there are 6 women in the company of which I am the only technical one! I think they would just laugh at me if I suggested that to be honest!

On Saturday I picked up my veg suet and my two pots of nutritional yeast (buy one get one half price) - so pleased that someone (I've forgotten who, I'm sorry!) said about H&B, as I'd never thought to look in there and this offer made it cheaper per pot than my Amazon bulk price.

I made hutterite soup over the weekend (recipe from The Great Vegan Bean Book) which was literally using up odds and sods - a great recipe for basically a bean and vegetable soup. I accidentally made mine really spicy though!!

And last night I made a new recipe which was actually really easy and VERY DELICIOUS!

It's smokey butternut pasta sauce - here's the link to the recipe: http://ohsheglows.com/2013/10/21/smoky-butternut-squash-sauce-with-pasta-and-greens/

It looks like it has lots of steps but it was very simple so I thoroughly recommend it! I got 3 very generous portions - 2 of which I have frozen.



Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining (from £120 budget)
24 Feb.....M&S.......£03.10.....£116.90
24 Feb.....A1d1......£08.27.....£108.63
24 Feb.....T35c0.....£53.56.....£55.07
25 Feb.....H&B.......£04.93.....£50.14
25 Feb.....T35c0.....£00.93.....£49.21

Dharma_Bunny

Ald* yesterday and then Tesc* delivery this morning for a total so far of 47.78, including the monthly £3 midweek delivery saver.
I'm thinking of doing a big Asd* shop once or twice a month and dropping the Tesc* delivery, will give it a go in the next few weeks and see how it compares.

Unfortunately I forgot to buy pancake topping or spaghetti for the pasta pesto peas, so will have to pop out later. Taking the children into a shop is testing to say the least, but they need to learn.

XSpender

Please can you put me down for £400 in March?

Horrific and shocking overspend in February which has left me short this month.

I am trying a different approach this month and have taken £100 cash out of the back and put in a different purse to see if I can curb my overspending.

£10.75/£400