January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Rowan9

have managed to do no grocery shopping since Wed when I spent £4.78!! This thread is wonderful - thank you all so much for your input and encouragement. My total spend for the month so far is £73.58 our of my £120. My freezer is full and i have quite a lot of tins and pasta, rice, couscous stuff. I know now that i would have made it if my original plans still stood (me here on own until OH back on Feb6) but DD comes home on Fri followed by my sister coming over from Azerbeijan (sp???) for a few days next week before she goes house hunting (coming back to UK in May ). So...I might try to work it out on a ratio basis of how I have done until they arrive. Or is that hopelessly cheating???? I know that I don't want to be scraping meals togther for them and am looking forward to a special time.
Anyway, only need milk today and then that should be in until Fri when I'll need to get some fresh things.
Hope you are all managing this month - I'm off to read back through the thread

ps I've managed to give up sugar in tea - finally - at the grand age of 47
wen

NEgirl

i have just boxed up and frozen a huge pan full of broth and have worked out the list of stuff we need (including black bin bags, washing up liquid etc too) and it comes to £25 with a £5 contingency plan incase of reduced stuff - hopefully this should last us best part of the month with little top ups now and again. Both freezers are packed and i really shouldnt buy anything else to freeze as it wont fit in!! :rotfl:

This challenge is great as its made such a change over everything! I dont just mean the meals are sorted each day so less stress there but its also nice to see money in my account instead of worrying about not having anything to last the month out.....thank you so much to everyone for all your encouragement and enthusiasm!! :T :T :T

witchypoo

Happy belated birthday to Bobbykins! :bdaycake:

It's my daughter's 15th birthday today and she wants a takeaway pizza which is fine because I do one takeaway a week maximum, but not on the grocery budget at the moment at least. It was going to be a delivery from the local nice pizza restaurant, but since she noticed that Domino's have a BOGOF offer at the moment it's going to be from there so will save even more money. She also wants cheap ASDA garlic bread and some spray cream to make a hot chocolate. I'm very pleased as she is saving me money versus going out to the pizza restaurant!
I made the birthday cake yesterday, just need to fill with nutella and cover with galaxy

So far the month's spend is £136.30, so there's £113.70 remaining for the next 17 days. I'll be nipping out for bread flour, those bits for dinner, milk and some veggies for later in the week.

izoomzoom

We needed to pop into Tesco's yesterday because the milk had been hammered. I bought 2x4pt whole milk, 2 loaves of bread and another pair of shoes for DS1 but now I can't find the receipt. Worst case I'll check my online statement for the amount and subtract the £9 for the shoes.

Clothing obviously comes out of a different budget for us (well it will be now because I have discovered that we have spent a fortune on clothes / shoes this month - so far two pairs of shoes for both boys, 3 long sleeve tops for me and some long sleeve vests for the baby. Grand total £63 :eek: OUCH eventhough 3 items were reduced.

theamazinggem

ok i'm starting to have a bit of a panic. spent £65 yesterday. was pretty much on veg and cheese, some reduced ham, cheapo corned beef, bread, fish, cat food, and hair dye (did at least get a bargain there). no meat or wine or sauces or anything like that. i do not know how these feats are possible. i was all bravado at first but this is madness. there's only 2 of us (well 3 if you count my OH who's round all the time). ok there are also 3 cats, but still. madness. AND i've been cooking lentils and stuff, i even ate mould yesterday fgs!!

ok deep breaths. going to spend more money tonight as going to see La Traviata at the Royal Opera House for my mum's birthday (she's always wanted to go but never been), thinking Pizza Express as have a free wine voucher for there and feel bad making the poor woman have bogof big macs on her big night out...

mumsrus

hi, i really need to start budgeting on my food and grocery's i seem to spend an absolute fortune i think im addicted to buying too much, so this month i am going to collect all my reciepts to see how much i am actually spending and will be joining you next month, any tips would be greatly apprieciated as any money saved will be going to pay my fat credit card bill

kittiej

We spent £63.97 last week so now I'm sulking cos the budget is supposed to be £40

I hate my OH coming shopping, it always ends in disaster.

Must do better this week.

the_cat

Hi everyone
Well I've just got back from this weeks shopping and I'm doing strangely well. Have got £81 left to last me and only one shopping week to go!

Not sure whether to use this to stock up on any cheap stuff/offers for next month or save any surplus. Any ideas?

To all newbies, welcome! Stick at it, it really does get much easier once you get into the swing of it. Don't expect to get down to the smallest of the budgets on here to start with, aim to cut a small chunk off your current spend for the first month Ohand meal planning is a godsend! Make that your first change if poss.

mrssnowy_2

Had to look up the weights for a recipe for hummus,I tend to sling things in, and taste and add !
Anyway-a recipe for hummus
15oz chickpeas
2 garlic cloves
3-4 pieces of sun dried tomato(2 tbls tahini paste if you have an open jar lurking in the fridge,like I had for near 18 months!)
up to 1/2 pint skimmed milk OR olive oil OR veg.oil-don't add all in 1 go,test texture!!
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Blitz all together in processor,adjust consistency with little extra liquid,not oil.
Can use tinned chick peas in which case drain and use some of the liquid in making.
Hope this all makes sense.

mrsdoyle1981

Hi all :wave:

Im going to fess up....its all gone a bit down the toilet this month (due to going out several times to the cinema, out for drinks and for a pub lunch yesterday) All money relating to food comes out of this budget so i have to include it!

Anyway, ive got £35 left until 24th Jan (as well as £34 contingency tesco saving stamps) and i am so determined to come in on budget, even if we are eating plain pasta for the last week!

Im going to go through all of the cupboards and fridge freezer to plan some interesting meals as best i can. Ive got plenty of baking ingredients so i will be able to make a few cakes, as well as some cookies to keep the spirits high! Im baking some bread at the mo, and i pre-baked some pizza bases in the BM for tonights tea.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for posting recipes along the way...they are keeping me inspired and motivated to continue with this challenge. :grouphug: