January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Skyegirl

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

,dogs eating more than expected they are getting more exercise with us so their food intake is up 50% from 400g to 600g each a day.I am on the lookout for the best buy,good quality dry complete food for the dogs.

May I suggest Autarky, its 100% natural complete dog food, no nasties, because its forumlated for working dogs you don't pay VAT on it. My dog is not a working dog and shes had this food for over a year now and she is fine on it:D I'll find you a link;) It about £16 for a 15 kilo bang, which is fab value especially as its completely natural.

http://www.autarky-foods.com/
http://www.csjk9.com/feed/autarky.html

Frugaldom

Hi folks, just been reading through your posts and gleaning more info regarding homemade roast potatoes/oven chips etc for freezing - great stuff! I'd also like to find out more about the fresh fruit & veg packs, are these something anyone can order or do you need to live within a delivery area?

I'm well within budget this month and DS has just arrived with my sack of Maris Pipers that I went and paid for this morning. £6.50 for the bag (EDITED IN - 25kg), so works out about 11.6p per pound or 25.5p per kilo. There are other varieties at £5.50 a bag locally but I know everyone really enjoys the Maris Pipers and they freeze lovely when mashed with butter & milk. (I'm going to try using milk powder next time, as someone told me it absorbs the extra moisture when defrosting.) Sorry about updating this but I have been pleasantly surprised to find that the bag IS 25kg, not 20kg

So, my total to date is £82.24 / £120 for the 3 of us. Any extra is being left in the bank and saved towards summer barbeques, family holiday stays and other special occasions when extra is needed. It's now called my "emergency surplus food fund" and it will be kept banked for the interest :rotfl:

DdraigGoch

It's a darn site better than mine! I used to order from a local one - being neighbourly and all - and either I forgot to go and get it *bangs head on keyboard, repeatedly* or they'd deliver it and I'd get a kilo of kale, a butternut squash, assorted bits and bobs and no onion, potatoes or carrots! Enough of the latter to last us the week would be nearly £10 :eek: So, it's back to Organic at whoever is cheapest. Not "right" but it's the best I can do until spring, when I firmly intend to grow something we can eat, even if it's only mustard and cress!

and bearing in mind my gardening abilities that's aiming a bit high already:rotfl:

mama67

theamazinggem wrote: »

who do you order from? (sorry if you don't mind i mean) i'm looking at a few and yours seems relatively good value...

Its www.woodlandsfarm.co.uk but if you go onto www.bigbarn.co.uk then you should be able to put in your postcode and a list will come up.

It all depends on where you are, some are only local, but others are national; mine is a local one.

mama67

DdraigGoch wrote: »

It's a darn site better than mine! I used to order from a local one - being neighbourly and all - and either I forgot to go and get it *bangs head on keyboard, repeatedly* or they'd deliver it and I'd get a kilo of kale, a butternut squash, assorted bits and bobs and no onion, potatoes or carrots! Enough of the latter to last us the week would be nearly £10 :eek: So, it's back to Organic at whoever is cheapest. Not "right" but it's the best I can do until spring, when I firmly intend to grow something we can eat, even if it's only mustard and cress!

and bearing in mind my gardening abilities that's aiming a bit high already:rotfl:

I do also buy extra potatoes every 2/3 weeks, just depends on what meals we've had, but they come out of the food budget.

Nyk that is a good buy for Maris Piper, our local (15 mile round trip) ,farm shop has those at £7.50/25kg sack at the mo.

The organic ones are £17.50/25kg sack.

Bit diff to when I worked on the potato farm just down the road, used to bring home a large carrier bag full every day, got 5 sacks to store for over winter for nothing. Unfortunately potatoes are not a viable crop for this farmer any more apparently.

Frugaldom

Mama67 - you will be the best person to tell me how best to store them. I've read so many different ways - in peat, in the ground, in hessian sacks, in paper sacks, cooked and frozen (experimenting with this just now). I know to basically keep them cool, keep them dry and keep them in the dark. Last house I lived in had huge earthernware crock pots and the potatoes lasted weeks in them so long as it was cold but I haven't decided on the best thing to do with this lot and am hoping to make them last long enough to grown some in the garden.

fallen_angel_shelley

i only just made it in under budget £193.39p/£200. but it was my 1st go at trying it. see you all on the febuary callenge thread.

orchid-96

All gone a bit pearshaped with my January budget, had my sister and her family to stay at the weekend and can't help but spend on stuff I wouldn't usually (like all the food for a great meal dh cooked) and more alcohol than usual...on the plus side, I did use a £25 m&s voucher that I have had for ages to get some stuff in (wine and the best food deals I could find!!) and we didn't go out anywhere expensive..

Need to update the sig, but looking like nearer the £300 mark...

I am going to change my budget this time to £250 for the month of Feb...I am going to be staying at my Mums for the half term week, so in theory should spend less, but I will probably spend more on other things....

Well done all and see you on the Feb thread...:T

lil_me

All peoples spends added so far

My total - £227.60 not bad considering 2 birthday meal treats in there

CRANKY40

I've been shopping today, and my final weeks shopping came to exactly £30.00. I couldn't have done that if I'd tried!

Edited to add that my total budget for January was £150.00 and I spent £141.96.