January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Sunnyday

stripey_cheese_skirt wrote: »

bit late starting this challenge but I know that I have spent £73.82 so far. I'm going to give myself a target of £250 for the month as I am completely clueless as to what I spend on groceries... I think thats quite a lot for one person (my son eats most of his meals at nursery) but I've been doing lots of expensive things like buying my lunches at work and going to the supermarket without a menu plan or list. oops. hopefully as soon as i stop doing all that then i will save loads

Hi Stripey
welcome to the challenge you`ll enjoy it soooo much.
One of my big downfalls was the lunch at work thing, i used to spend at least a fiver a day or more sometimes. :eek:
It`s great here and full of interesting hints and tips.
Good luck
SD

Sunnyday

Blairweech wrote: »

Oh yes - I have a big pack of mishape bacon rashers which need using - any ideas for them (they have already been frozen)?

I always throw mine in the slow cooker with liver and onions, some stock or stock cubes, a tin of tomatoes and worcester sauce, oh and some red lentils.
This makes a lovely liver and bacon casserole.
They are also nice with onions and pasta in a sauce, with a tin of soup as a sauce i usually use cream of mushroom soup.
HTH
SD

Sassamac

I nipped out yesterday evening for cat food, bread and milk, which cost just over £3, but my total spend was only £3.96. With the remaining 90p I got half a dozen bashed up tins on the reduced counter, as well as half a dozen oranges for 3p and half a dozen fairtrade bananas for 9p!
I picked up a tin of chick peas and a tin of kidney beans, both of which I have been meaning to try, but not got round to it. Any recipe suggestions as I really have no idea what to do with them. was thinking maybe just bulking out casseroles, bolognaise etc. but thats very imaginative.

Updated my sig with my total spend. It breaks down as £31 on food and £10 on non-food. Just under target so far for the month so well chuffed.

Sassamac

izoomzoom wrote: »

Spent £4.63 at S yesterday. Included a 50p coupon :money: , and 2x4pt whole milk, which I have diluted down to make double the amount. I reckon DH will realise, as he likes to drink milk on occasion and you can tell the difference, but I don't mind buying a little bit of milk just for 'neat' drinking. The problem is knowing when the family will want a drink of undiluted milk.

I noticed some of my spuds were having a good look around the other day (growing eyes) so I decided to peel them and slice them up, and I put them in water and then stuck them in the fridge. Any idea what I can do with them. Quite fancy a potato bake, but I don't have much in - diluted milk, plain yoghurt, cheese ... I just don;t know what to do to bring it all together ????

If I get spuds that are on their way out I always roast them or chip them - the crispness hides the fact they were going green / wrinkling etc.

I have just starting diluting blue milk half and half. I find that if I use it in tea I have to use a lot more to make it white enough and then it goes cold quite quickly. I havent tried cooking with it but I imagiine its the same as cooking with semi. I always have an undiluted blue milk for cooking and the kids to drink. Hubby has been drinking less milkshake since I have been diluting, so maybe thats his way of hinting he doesnt like it, but hey ho - even cheaper if hes drinking less! (also could be cos hes got manflu)

Sassamac

stripey_cheese_skirt wrote: »

bit late starting this challenge but I know that I have spent £73.82 so far. I'm going to give myself a target of £250 for the month as I am completely clueless as to what I spend on groceries... I think thats quite a lot for one person (my son eats most of his meals at nursery) but I've been doing lots of expensive things like buying my lunches at work and going to the supermarket without a menu plan or list. oops. hopefully as soon as i stop doing all that then i will save loads

It does sound like quite a lot for one or one and a half people, but hopefully there are some good gains to be made from it this month. Its si easy to lose track. even just keeping track of what you spend and thinking about what you buy will help - then you could really go for the savings next month.

belfastgirl23

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

evening everyone

Belfast girl.... you can take the pepper seeds or tomato seeds out of the ones in your fridge and grow from them..nice n cheap.. courgettes grow really well too,
Even though you think tomatoes are cheap in summer.. just think what else you might buy whilst you are there in the supermarket i think im trying to keep out of the shops as much as possible -and growing your own helps me with that...you can always use old net curtains etc to cover salad when its growing to stop the bugs if you have lots of them for some reason mine were left alone last time :T

oooh it's lovely to have an 'aha' moment The net curtain idea is great!! I def did feel I could save money by growing salad if I could only figure a way to deal with those d***d insects. And sometimes too I thought our back yard was a bit too sunny - lettuce especially doesn't seem to like blazing sun from 7am till 4pm I am def def gonna try this, thanks! This is assuming we get a summer this year

I kinda fancy growing peppers too I have tried toms in the past (years ago) but the have grown very high with no tomatos on them. This might be the year!

Oh and Bobbykins I do think that some fruit can taste as nice as a biscuit (fresh figs are a personal obsession!) but alas it's the really expensive fruit

sparklewing

I'd like to join if that's ok, only started yesterday so a bit of a short month for me 9th jan- 1st feb.

In December we spent around £850 (including many take aways)! generally we probably spend around 600 for 2 of us and a cat, ridiculous.

however the majority of that gets thrown away past it's sell by date so I'm going for a substantial reduction this month.

I'm aiming for no more than £250 to include food, cat stuff, toiletries, cleaning stuff etc

Have menu planned and hope to reduce this each month til I'm around £150 but we'll see.

So far have been to butchers-£18.50, bought all cat stuff- £30 and had an asda delivery of £120. That should last the month except top ups of fruit, veg, bread and milk. Wish me luck!

honeybe21

id like to join this though not sure how much more i can save lol
for 5ppl (3 adults 2 children including me whos pregnant) shopping at asdas lowest home brands including cat food cat litter some tolitries and cleaning products we spent a grand total of £55.54

i shall start clocking up what is spent in the local shop from today jan 10th till 10 feb wish us luck and if u have any idea how we can go lower let me know.we do cook our own meals but we dont recieve healthy start vouchers as yet applying for them soon.

FunBrum

I had a great bargain last night at Morrisons:

I bought 18 large baps for 39p RRP £2.05
Two packs of two New Forest Barramundi fillets 19p per pack. RRP £3.18 per pack!:eek: :eek: :eek:
4 freshly baked pasties 59p. RRP 59p each. x 4= £2.36
2Lt Lilt 72p. RRP £1.49
Cost £2.08. Would be £12.26 saving, £10.18:T :j

redmel1621

Welcome all new GCers....

I just wanted to say don't be too hard on yourselves in the first month or two or three....(in my case)
Even if you just manage to save a tenner in the first month and then fifteen in the second it's ok....It has taken me until this month to really get to grips with this challenge and become fully committed, I started back in September and only managed to keep full logs for one month (see sig) the rest, i just started to slip so stopped adding it up and lo and behold spent a fortune, well spent well over my budget anyway.
So is what i'm trying to say is this, it does't matter how little you mange to save, as long as that money is in your pocket rather than in the large corporate bank of some supermarket chain it is win-win..

Good luck all

Mel x