July 2017 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Total spent today is £6.53 in two shops, so not bad. Needed saltanas to make the fruit and nut bars I have at work.

Hi Doom and Gloom. How do you make the fruit and nut bars? Would love to try something like this for work too. Thanks.

YorksLass

claireyfairy82 wrote: »

Nope didn't work I've completely blown my budget, back to the drawing board for August!!

Oh no! The saying "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray" springs to mind. Better luck in August, claireyfairy.

Week 3 ended with a small spend of £9.64 at the Co-op yesterday: milk, a packet of dried peas, x2 small ys pizzas, a large ys pizza, x6 ys 1/4lb beefburgers (all portioned up and in a now rammed-full freezer ), an apple and x2 tubs of beef spread. And I forgot to use a 25p off coupon for the milk. :doh:

£23.06 left in budget for next week and I'm hopeful I'll have £20 left. Next week's meal plan already done - practically everything is coming from the freezer - and so far all I need is mushrooms, a small tub of soured cream and some green veg. Tomorrow should be main shopping day but I'm meeting up with DD for a coffee and a chin-wag instead so that will keep me out of the shops. :)

For those of you with children starting the long summer break I send you my best wishes and lots of luck for staying in budget!

[Deleted User]

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Save dosh - I've been a fan of placebo for so long, nancy boy back in the 90's got me into them. I must admit I'm jealous that you've seen them live. Brian has such a unique voice that goes so well with their music.

I've been very lucky the last couple of months - i've seen a ton of groups at Glastonbury & Latitude - but I do work my ticket, so it's not all play. You could always do likewise if you were able to. If not, hopefully they will be playing in a town near you sometime.

claireyfairy82 wrote: »

Nope didn't work I've completely blown my budget, back to the drawing board for August!!

lol.... It probably would have been a lot worse if you weren't doing this, at least your trying and like you say August here you come.


Went to the market and spent £4.20, that's me done now until Monday. One bargain was 14 mango's for £1 (YES 14). I've peeled & frozen a load for smoothies and made a load of mango & peach juice - still 7 left, might need to run get some vodka and see how that tastes - :beer: . I have updated sig.

Merlin's_Beard

£15.65 on a shop. Went in for bread, milk and biscuits but picked up some beef and chicken on the reduced to clear so that's all freezing to help with next month...!

Total £98.40/£100... not quite declaring yet, but hopefully if there's anything to add in the next week it'll just be an onion or two and maybe a bit of fruit.

caronc

£32 this week bringing the total to £161/£170 so with a further week left I'm definitely going to over budget. I seriously underestimated how much having the kids back for varios spells would have on my budget. Still worth it to have them home for a bit!

pamsdish

£5.30 on 2 y.s. chickens from M&S.

XSpender

£14.70 spent on a takeaway last night which has not left much in the budget for this morning's and next Friday's shop.

£12.55 spent in Asda and £33.13 in Aldi. The Aldi shop did include a 500ml jar of EV coconut oil at £3.99 which we didn't need yet but as it was on offer at half price I got one to stick in the cupboard. I also picked up some boil in the bag rice for our camping holiday which could have waited.

I have about a fiver left for this week which will cover some pack lunch bits for DS sports camp at the end of the week and another bottle of milk if needed. I have also asked DH to pick up a tray of eggs on his way home from the veg stall at a local garden centre which is another £3. I will then have £60 for the following week which should be more than enough.

£359.65/£425

I am feeling quietly confident as usually at this point in a 5 week month I've blown it and am already over target

Doom_and_Gloom

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi Doom and Gloom. How do you make the fruit and nut bars? Would love to try something like this for work too. Thanks.

I do one part nut (I use cashews), one part dates and one part dried fruit (I use saltanas). Basically if they are equal amounts of each you should be good, then you should be good. I soak the nuts for a few hours to make them softer for the blender (have a blendtec so powerful but still soak them.) Put all ingredients in blender/food processor until it all comes together, it will end up in a ball, equally blended through. Cling film down, roll it out so it's the same kind of thickness as the nakd bars. Put the slab in the freezer, after an hour or so, before it properly freezes, cut it into bars our squares however many you think it's a good portion. Put back in freezer to properly set.
I pack then into a zip lock bag in the freezer and take out the day or day before I want to eat them.
You can make them into balls instead or bars/squares.
Hope that helps. Sorry I'm not very good at writing methods.

Spent £10.79 today. Fruits, vegetables and coffee.

£136.97/£155.
£18.03 left.

[Deleted User]

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

I do one part nut (I use cashews), one part dates and one part dried fruit (I use saltanas). Basically if they are equal amounts of each you should be good, then you should be good. I soak the nuts for a few hours to make them softer for the blender (have a blendtec so powerful but still soak them.) Put all ingredients in blender/food processor until it all comes together, it will end up in a ball, equally blended through. Cling film down, roll it out so it's the same kind of thickness as the nakd bars. Put the slab in the freezer, after an hour or so, before it properly freezes, cut it into bars our squares however many you think it's a good portion. Put back in freezer to properly set.
I pack then into a zip lock bag in the freezer and take out the day or day before I want to eat them.
You can make them into balls instead or bars/squares.
Hope that helps. Sorry I'm not very good at writing methods.

Brilliant, thank you. I will definitely give these a try.

[Deleted User]

Hi All, I haven't properly kept track of grocery spends this month but I know they have been more that I am happy with. Been trying to get back into this for a few months but my last weekly shop has really motivated me. It cost just over £50 and that's just for 2 of us and I decided that that was it.

Looking at some of the things I had bought, prices across the board seem to be going up, even in Lidl. The butter I get is up 19p, Yoghurt up 25p (I will no longer be buying that one) so it's time for me to get real and put some effort into getting back to a level I am happy with.

My budget for each month starts on 25th as that is OHs payday so I will start across on the August thread.

This week we have some unexpected cash left over from a short break we had this week (hotel quoted one price when we booked a few months ago and I set money aside to pay for it. But they had a special offer on which they applied to our booking too, so we have about £100 left over). I am going to use that money in conjunction with two £5 off a £30 spend coupons that I have for Lidl to top up on some bits for the freezer, probably mince, chicken and beef and some household bits like dishwasher tabs etc. Any left over will go into savings.