January 2008 Grocery Challenge

mrssnowy_2

Hi all,just joining,if I may, after reading all the great threads.
We are working out what we spend in 1 month-OH and me-to see if we can cut back somewhere,don't buy ready meals,use up leftovers,but would love spare cash at end of month.
Maybe its the alcohol!
Off work as hand in plaster!!But wasn't plastered at the time.
Night all.

Mollymop5

Hi everyone.you're all doing fantastic I spent £4.53 today and didn't even leave the house! My sister kindly rang me fromasda to see if there was anything she could get me so i topped up on milk and some veg to make a soup for the weekend.I made naan bread today to go with a quorn curry we were having.It looked more like pitta bread but hey it tasted great and there's none left.

Blairweech

Well I went shopping and have updated my sig accordingly. Got cat food for the rest of the month, plus loads of eggs, a box of washing powder and chocolate fpr lunches.

Made my first loaf of bread tonight - haven't tasted it yet. I think it will be on the heavy side, as it has risen VERY well in the middle, and hardly at all at the ends. I used the recipe of the back of the Hovis bread flour packet, and it only suggested one rising??? Think I will go with Delia next time - her recipe doesn't use fat (cheaper), and has two provings.

Edit: Just tasted it - urgh!! It's so yeasty Will make my way over to the bread threads for inspiration.

kj*daisy

Spent £8.41 in Aldi today. Need to get meat from Farm shop tomorrow (sausages/mince and ham) and then Milk and Bread on Sunday in Asda/Sainsburys. But should hopefully stay under budget this week:)

curly_cabbage

I am really pleased with myself as you'll be able to see from my updated signature last week i only spent £2, Although i havn't completed this yet i have still only spent £14.47 with 3 days to go. My frezzer is still fairly full and have plenty of milk and bread, although i had a bit of a bake day yesterday and made some meals for next week so i am quietly confident that i may meet this challenge with bells on :T Good luck to everybody else.:beer:

MRSMCAWBER

Well done curly cabbage :T

I have just got back from a walk -mainly for exercise (lost another 2lb this week), but thought i'd pick up a bit of milk.... in the end i got:-

• 1 kilo apples - €0.89c
• 2 x 1 lt full fat milk -€1.46 -which will be let down again
• a pack of italian plum tomatoes -€0.99c and i will pinch seeds from these to grow :rotfl:
• 10 organic free range eggs €1.25 -which will last through next week and probably the week after
• a large jar of mayonnaise €0.59 -which will last ages
• 4 blocks fresh yeast €0.36c -which will make 12 loaves :T so i will potion it up and freeze it -saving me extra trips to the "bad place" where i spend money

so i spent €5.54 in total but i think thats quite good for what i have as most will run into the next couple of weeks

I have updated my signature, and i have amazed myself whilst i was shopping -i was looking at things and actually thinking "no, i don't need it" :eek: and i wouldn't bring a lettuce as it was 20c more than where i got my last one from...so i will go there on monday :rotfl: we have enough to last until then ...

I know its a bit early to be thinking about Februarys challenge but i am and i have decided that if i can get through this month spending as little as i am -im going to set next months budget at whatever i have left from this month ... That way I can put all of Febs housekeeping into my new savings account :T ...i don't see it as pushing too hard as i have the rest of this months housekeeping €200 in a current account if anything crops up...

Hmmmm I think im becoming an addict..... fingers crossed..long may it last

Well i had better get off and get something done... hope everyone has a great day

aytch

Well, as its pouring with rain I thought I would do my tesco shopping online - think I spent around £45, but difficult to tell until its delivered with discounts for multi buys!
Am most upset as I had to pay delivery charge for first time in 2yrs as none of the codes posted worked :eek:

Keiss_21

:eek:AAAAAARRRRGHHH!!!!:eek:

I have decided to weigh myself on Fridays now...and this week I weigh in 2 pounds heavier than Monday! :eek:

Oh well, I will have to try harder too!

Just remembered this is the GC challenge!

I did well last night (I think!).

After College I popped in to Mr T (9pm) for some in-date dried yeast and some chicken. I got a HUGE (2.2 Kg) chicken reduced from £6.95 to £4.65...result! That will do us for a while! I also got:

6 cheese & onion rolls 31p
6 sausage rolls 34p
4 organic kiwis 20p
Cheese/chive dip 8p

as well as some dried yeast and low fat cheese spread, so in all it came to £8.34, I am well chuffed! I was rather good and avoided lots of things that I would certainly have got before this GC, so I may be over budget this month, but I a definitely thinking more about what and where I spend my money.

The sausage rolls went into the freezer for my DSs at the weekend...they are TOO hungry! I had the dip with carrots for my very belated tea, and DH had a munch too...10:30..mmmmmm!

This is my first month of the GC and I am still getting into the swing of it. My total spend is mounting up but it is definitely better than it would have been if I hadn't been GCing.

Off to my chiropractor now, will stop off at Lidl to get bread flour so I came start up the bread maker again. thought I had loads of bread flour, but not so much, so need stocking up...must do a full inventory of the cupboards!

Oh yes, my slow cooker came yesterday, want to cook the chicken whole if I can (it just fits!), or would I be better to joint it??? Any suggestions gratefully received.

M

theamazinggem

hey all. not posted for a while but been reading. had a bit of a blow out this week in that i went up to london on wednesday to see a concert, then went out for mum's birthday yesterday, and haven't brought lunch today. not good. am thinking i'll leave the treats as treats and stick the lunch onto the budget.

last night i had to run in to tesco (only thing open) to get a last minute card and spent £14.76 on cat food (12 tins), a loin of pork reduced to £2, bread, brocolli and lettuce. i think there was something else but i can't remember. my memory is shocking at the moment it really is. anyway it was quite a bit of money for not alot of stuff.

going to do a freezer inventory at the weekend, which will be good. speaking of which do any of you know about freezing fresh pasta? in particular stuffed ones like raviolis and tortellinis? got a pasta maker for christmas and while it's probably not economical to freeze the plain stuff i make with it, i thought it's bound to be good for the fancier stuff....

i don't seem to get so many of the good yellow stickers as you guys, i seem to always just miss them, the people in my tescos must just be pretty fast. i get better stuff in the one by my work but as i go lunchtimes the reductions aren't usually as good.

trying really hard as my mum doesn't believe i can do the shopping for us and the cats on £50 a week (which is essentially my rent).

oh yeah the cats - do you guys know if costco or anywhere do felix cat food cheap? it's not easy to get them eating much else... (and a lot of it disagrees with one of them, which is not something i want to have to deal with on a regular basis!)

keep going all, especially the newbies like me who are finding it hard. it's all just about changing habits and learning tricks as far as i can see, and both those things take time...

scotrae

I've just updated my signature with bin-bags, one jar of half price pasta sauce (trying out Co-op brand while it's on offer) and DH's razors - and it's taken me over the £25 for the week. Ihad hoped that the razors might wait til next week but DH was 'passing Tesco' so popped in for these. Don't even ask about the five packs of lens-cleaning wipes that he decided he needed to get at the same time because those are not coming out of the GC budget, even if they did come out of the joint account. He didn't even use the Clubcard although at least I've got the receipt off him this time.

On the plus side, I stretched less than £1 minced beef out to a meal for four last night. (DH didn't dare comment on me adding a tin of tomatoes to his favourite cottage pie until this morning, to which I answered that it had been 'Mediterranean meat and potato pie' instead!) And we've got bread for the month in from a bargain at T earlier in the week. And I'm so much more focussed on home-cooking these days. For example, I made sweet eggy bread for my boys when they got in from school yesterday, which they loved. (Don't tell them it was largely egg because they thought it was normal pancakes!) All this and successful economies on toilet paper, dishwasher tablets and milk, besides only buying one pack of sausages instead of loads of meat so far this month.

Even if I've gone over the £25 for this week I can rest easy that we're making changes and I've saved at least £50 a week just by being more focussed. come to think of it, that's more than a quarter of what I'd have been bringing home in pay before Christmas, which makes things bearable.

Job-wise, I'm making myself available for supply teaching in the short term so we'll be having to get much more organised for next week, ready to leave the house and children at a moment's notice in the mornings.

Good luck for the weekend everyone. DH and sons won't be getting their sausages til next week but with a bit of luck I might find a pack of bacon in the depths of the freezer!