January 2008 Grocery Challenge

DdraigGoch

Well, I managed a week without shopping, so that's £60 to the good - only OH has gone and spent it somehow .... ho hum.

Now, yesterday's another matter. I went and bought two tins of soup @ 59p each and a loaf of Brace's medium sliced bread - lovely toast! - @ £1.09!!!! I was horrified.

On Saturday we managed to get two bottles of cloudy lemonade, 400g of mixed nuts and two multipacks of plain crisps and 25p change - and it didn't cost anything as it was at Morrisons and we used a £5 voucher from the filling station. Unfortunately, Morrisons is 6 miles away so the petrol probably ate up a lot of the saving, but that's another matter/thread

Shall update signature asap.

JoJoB

Did quite well on the bargain front today. At work (M&S) there was a little basket full of jewellery that hadn't sold in the sale, all down to 10p each for staff. So nabbed a selection of very nice bracelets and necklaces for the grand total of £1 - reckon I've saved at least £50 on original price! So i now have a little selection in my present drawer for various birthdays coming up. :j

Then a £12 spend at Tescos, with lots of reduced ciabbatta and flatbreads for the freezer, and mushrooms reduced to 30p. Certainly have enough ingredients in the fridge now to cook up some nice meals the next few days.

Cushty!

Rowan9

loopy_lou wrote: »

aaaargh first day failure. went to asda and spent 75 quid! need more training eh! my budget is only 70. oh well im gonna see if i can average it uot over the month.

Just seen this while reading through - don't be hard on yourself is the first thing, I think. There is so much to learn but it's such a shock when you start economising on shopping. I've been doing it for a while, half-heartedly, and thought I knew what i was doing (always fatal :eek: ) - new on here and have set myself a too-low budget for this month. I'm just going to see how i go and i'm sure I'll save something rather than if i said oh heck it's blown and go off for a trolley dash! trolleys - hey, I've just realised that i use a basket more now deliberately - it works!

W

Janeryan

Janeryan wrote: »

Have just updated my signature to show how much in total I have spent since 21 December(early pay day for Christmas-it's normally the 28th)but here is a weekly breakdown as I am in the challenge for £40.00 a week

21/12 - £40 - spent £16.79
28/12 - £40 - spent £14.63
4/1 - £40
11/1-£40.

After that will have run out of money!! I will carry forward the underspend from weeks 1 & 2 to fund the rest of the month.

18/1 £48.58(£23.21 underspend from week 1 & £25.37 underspend from week 2)

BTW any veggies out there-Sainsburys have Linda Mccartney Country Pies on half price at 99p and other stuff from the range on half price too!

Ok end of week 3 for me(well no more shopping this week anyway-the end of the week is actually Friday!) and the totals look like this

21/12Budget £40-spent £16.79
28/12 Budget £40-spent £14.63
04/01 Budget £40-spent £78.51 (this did include £20.50 on my veg box as I owed them for 2 deliveries plus I stocked up on all the half price goodies in Sainsburys so I have plenty of dinner ingredients now-freezer was looking very empty before this shop)
11/01 Budget £40
18/01 Budget £10.07(monies left from underspend weeks 1 & 2 less overspend from week 3_

Good luck to everyone for the rest of the month-will check in again next week!

Frugaldom

£30.57 / £120 for the month so far and keeping a note of everything in my www.spendingdiary.com which is going to be my best friend for 2008. Today's only purchase has been milk - £2.96 for 2 cartons from Co-op :eek: and I fed the 4p change to 'Phil the Pig'.

Love this thread, it's great! Never knew so many people did this until I found the MSE forums :T

PS: Things I have learned since joining MSE:

You can refreeze cooked meat dishes if the meat was originally frozen when fresh
You can freeze milk
You can freeze eggs

I'm thinking that by 2009 I'm going to need a walk-in freezer and one huge delivery first week of the year to see if I can fit in a year's supply of groceries :rotfl:

CRANKY40

£25.70 for me this week. I have updated my signature. My freezer is still reasonably full too. Heaven help me when I have to refill it,:rotfl:

MRSMCAWBER

Evening everyone

Well the shops are now closed..and i didn't pay them a visit so im still well on track..must be strong..hubby is off work tomorrow so i hope he wants to golf as then i will stay in the house -and spend nothing :rotfl:

Im keeping a spending diary too, well i have one i have concocted on the PC and a big book to duplicate it...would have panics if the internet went down again and i couldn't keep track :rotfl:

Another one for you Nykmedia... might be of use, or might not if you buy fresh parmesan (which i do as we use less than the stuff in tubs).... when you end up with the chunk of rind, if you drop it into a pan of white sauce and cook it slowly -it will all but dissolve and give you a lovely cheese sauce
I think im following you from thread to thread

tattycath

Hi everyone. Needed to buy some milk today, and after OH spent a fortune on corned beef last night, I thought I ought to get a couple of tines. Last night OH spent £1.35 per tin at co-op. Today I spent 0.76p per tin at Lidl. I also got 10 x 1 litre cartons of long life milk @ 44p each. Dishwasher tablets were £2.99 for 40 (hopefully they are good) Mushrooms at 79p etc. Total spend £11.21. Had to spend £1.29 at local shop coz we only had 2 potatoes left!!! I have been really good and updated sig already!!! Hope everyone is ok today. I was on form last night, and to my shame I hadn't even had a drink!!!!!:D:D

lililou

HI all, Just about managing to scrape through each week. Need to last until 21st on £80. I think I can do it but the fridge is completely empty. Need to go bargain hunting tomorrow for sure.

mrsmortenharket

I haven't done a big shop yet (thats on the 18th) & I;ve already spent over £100.

Must sort out my freezer & pantry & use all that up!

Lisa