January 2008 Grocery Challenge

TheDoolallyDilly

I popped to the butchers on Friday and bought some meat for the month - I spent £10.98. I have updated my signature.

TDD x

savingforarainyday

Hi

Did weekly shop at sainsbury on friday, needed to go there as ds needed gluten free bits and pieces 2 pies, 2 kieves 10 fish fingers, jaffa cakes and chocolate biscuits £9.68 :eek: . On the up side arrived just in time for all the mark downs, 2 trays of chicken thighs and legs 99p a tray, lettuce, watercress and stir fry only 20/30p each. Did the rest in Farmfoods yesterday.

Bought a breadmaker with the money my mum and dad sent me for my birthday in december, and have GF loaf cooking as i type.

I am pleased with my spend so far this month. It has made me think much more about what i spend, and i should only need to do one more supermarket shop this month.:D

LouiseJ

End of week 2 for me folks spent £49.23 this week so still under budget. Have written meal plans for the week and should not need to pop out for anything during next week.

The meal plans have really made an impact on the shopping budget and I put my blinkers on stick to my list in the shop unless there is a really good buy in the reduced section.

Home baking has really helped keep the budget down also and I now incorportate a dessert into each nights meal. I rotate with different flavoured 4 minute microwave puddings (treacle, chocolate, ginger) it costs pennies and takes no time at all to make. I also make all biscuits and cakes.

I have found that by having a good dinner and dessert we snack less of an evening as we are full from our meal. Plus we dont feel that we are on a budget at all as we still manage to eat well.

For all you newbies I used to easily spend around £400+ a month for a family of 2 adults and 2 teenage boys and relied heavily on ready meals and extra special brands. I would never bake anything and I have learned so much from these forums.

windowshopper100

Another £22.35 spent today for this week's menu. Leaves £25 til the end of the month. We're eating out at my sister's next Sat, so that combined with a couple of beans on toast and fridge remnant soup evenings, we should be able to do it. Thank goodness for a full post-Christmas freezer as a couple of previous posters mentioned.

In Tesco today they were selling Rosemary Conley EnerGI slow cookers for £17.50 (half price). They looked family sized too. I think the offer lasts until 21st Jan but the writing was very small and my eyes aren't getting any younger.

Many Happy returns to Bobbykins.
WS100

lil_me

Good afternoon everyone NSD today for me but did go to Aldi yesterday, they have an offer on 6 F&V each month for 39p each if that's of help to someone. This month is tomatoes, cucumber, savoy cabbage, kiwis, salad potatoes and....bother what was the other one...ah conference pears that was it...Anyway, think I saved quite a bit in there on what I bought.

Thanks rosieben for posting those cheap meals links, I was just about to look for them myself. My partner has decided he eventually wants to make an effort to eat more healthy, so I'm just hoping I can do it without blowing budgets every month. Hopefully portion size reducing will help absorb some of the costs....

As for chickens, happy chickens and all the rest of it. I will say never pressume a butcher buys in free range/happy chickens, my friends Dad has a chicken farm (sheds like those shown) and supplies a lot of butchers. I don't even trust one of the butchers I used to use as he always lied and said the eggs were free range and that was why they were expensive (then I found out what the codes mean!!!) I now only use one farm shop butchers for my eggs, chicken, beef, pork and lamb, I just don't trust anywhere else. Prices when compared per kilo are about the same as supermarket prices for a similar quality, but the food is far superior. I don't mind using a bit less when it tastes so nice.

redsquirrel80

Aargh, I'm not having a good month at all - I think I may have to start doing online shopping as I keep popping in to supermarkets for a couple of things and coming out with a tenner's worth I think part of the 'problem' is that I've discovered a new enthusiasm for cooking and trying out new meals so I keep seeing things and thinking 'ooh what could I do with that'... that and the fact that I'm trying not to buy lunch at work and I think I'm going a bit overboard in making sure I have enough in for lunches! Oh well, ten days till payday and a new month for me... onwards and upwards! :rolleyes:

windowshopper100

Don't lose heart Redsquirrel. If you're finding a new enthusiasm for cooking you will end up spending a bit more while you build up a store cupboard of ingredients you won't need to buy again for months e.g. herbs, sauces and stuff.

Don't think just because it's gone a bit awry so far that you've failed - you're making an investment for your cookery future!;) Don't give up on this month, even if you end up being £50 over budget, it's better than thinking 'I've blown it I won't bother again til next month' and then end up £100 over - it's like being on a diet - one day at a time!

Maybe don't be quite so adventurous for the next couple of weeks and keep it simple - see Roseiben's earlier post with cheap meals - there's a couple of posts on there that give an entire cheapy week. I might do that next week.

All the best
WS100

galacticgreen

When we set our budget for the month, we didn't have a clue if it was realistic or not, but thought we'd give it a go and see what happened. I use Microsoft money to record our spending, so today I have looked back at Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec and was horrified to see that we were spending on average £480 per month. (spent less in December than any other month!!!). Makes the £200 budget look very scary, but got to say we have eaten really well this month, probably better than most others and we still feel we could make it. This could mean a potential £3k saving on our annual budget. Now that would be cool, and maybe even the possibility of a holiday this year:T

Mollymop5

Happy birthday Bobbykins.Hope you had alovely birthday lunch

annie123

been without internet connection at home for 8 days!!! :eek:
OMG withdrawal symptoms or what!

Now its back:j

Really pleased with how I have done.
This is my first time at this challenge and it is amazing how much money I must have wasted:o I spent on average £450 pm..hang head in shame.

A little bit of thought and planning goes a very long way, and family are fine with it, DH even said nice to have home cooked food more often:D
Not going to get him out of the washing up at the end of the month!

Thanks to everyone here for all the support for us newbies:T
and who ever came up with this idea originally, a big thank you.

Off to read a lot of posts now......