January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Atalanta

I've done my "main" (I hope!) shop of the month tonight - usually I get Tesco's to deliver once a month, but as there don't seem to be any good points vouchers around at the moment I decided to go to Sainsbury's instead and stock up on things I like there. I spent £77.20 which is about £30 less than usual ...not sure if this is mainly because I'm quite well stocked so didn't need as much, or because I couldn't get everything on my list because of all the empty shelves ( I was not very impressed...)

Plus I need to add on the cost of 4 vegetable boxes for this month, which will be £17.25 each for fruit, veg and eggs starting next week.

So altogether I will have spent £146.22, leaving £253.78 for the rest of the month.

kayharcombe

Little_Miss_Naughty wrote: »

Hi All

I did my 1st shop of the GC today and i must say it was a bit of a shock. I have never looked at prices of food before when shopping but today because of the GC I did and i can believe how much i used to waste on branded food.

It was also a trip to tesco's and not waitrose for me. My question is it there any of the Tesco own brand / value products that you would not recommend buying over branded goods eg tesco own bread, tinned toms etc.

Thanks for your help.

Hi, I would not recommend value baked beans, unless for as an ingredient in stew or something, same goes for pasta sauce. Pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, veg are all fine, they usually go as second class fruit or veg due to non-standard size or colour, which EU standards state should be within a very small margin anyway, doesnt mean in anyway goods are inferior or less nutritious/tasty/fresh etc.

I would also look at price per unit/per 100g, ie heinz 4 packs of tomato/vegetable/cream of chicken soup are currently 1.18 until 15 jan, which works out at 29.5p per tin, is cheaper than tesco own brand, but slightly more expensive than value, I am fine with value tomato soup, but other varieties, heinz are much nicer, I would stock up on BOGOF`s and offers if there was a negligible difference.

I would suggest trying a few different products at a time, some you will notice, some you wont, and fussy kids dont tend to notice if they dont see packaging. Try www.mysupermarket.com, to compare price between supermarkets. many products are usually on bogof at one supermarket or more, you might have to shop around to find which one

Kay

LilMissEmmylou

ok so tesco arrived and several items not there so total was only £80 and a few pennys rather than £95ish. Ended up going into tesco to buy some hair dye and baby bits too which added another £12ish on and I know when I get home, OH will want me to get him meat to replace what didn't arrive (which is fair enough) (im at my mums for a few days - hes at home). So only about £150 left to do the month, shockingly im worried I won't do it, but i so want to! So shall try my darnedest to keep in budget as we are moving soon and we need the pennys for that!!

kittynortheast

Hello
Have been reading the posts. Love this thread! Well I've spent £63.73 today in Aldi and Mr Sainsys, not bad since... how do some have full freezers and cupboards after christmas when mine are bare??? Anyway Budget is set for £360. Hoping to be well under but I didn't want to be disappointed.

I love my slowcooker, should use it more.

I am a convert to Aldi, you do have to look at prices tho, some things are more expensive. Bread is lovely, rolls etc.. carton juice is cheap and tastes better than value juices, fresh pizzas 99p gorgeous, bag salads 99p.

Value stuff is a case of try, if its horrid I go back to the supermarkets own or posh branded, value tinned toms always buy (I use red onions and they are sweet anyway which help if a bit tart), washing up liquid is not as good, tho I paid 17p for a bottle and will do on a mega skint month but doesn't quite come up to scratch, value choc digestives are lovely. There was a great thread on this topic a while ago (sorry not techie so can't put up the link).

Any way will stop twittering.

bails

Whoever said this challenge focuses the mind was right! We, yes me and the OH, have just done a stocktake of our cupboards and freezer...and there was LOADS of stuff in there! Quite a bit of meat - OH is a veggie and I'm basically veggie too so will need to cook that up or give it away soon. We've made a list of everything we have, menu planned with stuff in the house til Sunday when our last Sains coupon kicks in and have a list of some meals to cook over the next couple of weeks. So very happy bunny, and great that OH is getting on board too
Can anyone tell me if there's somewhere to check Lidl prices please? We have one about 20 mins away so if it was worth it I could do a bulk buy there every so often. Is there anything that's a definite no-no from Lidl (I know it's subjective but happy to hear any comments). Thanks guys; all these challenges are made easier knowing there's lots of you out there too x

Frugaldom

Re the Aldi's questions, if you join their website (www.aldi.co.uk) you'll get the weekly newsletter telling you about their bargains. I don't even live near a Lidl's (until they build one, hopefully this summer) but thought I'd keep an eye on what offers they do. Only peoblem is I now want that £49.95 bandsaw for my 'start a cottage industry' challenge :rotfl:

NYK WACKY HINTS & TIPS - There's no point checking out bargains that you can't have. I must learn NOT to look

jacquij123

Talking about stocktaking the freezer my prehistoric one is dying so it's going to need emptying. Trouble is it's massive, double the size you normally see in the shops, it's going to take some work downsizing so I think we're going to be eating some odd meals.

Went to Aldi today, not very impressed with their fresh meat, they only had bacon and gammon, eccles cakes are yummy though and at 99p for 4 instead of 75p for 2 at Tesco they are good for a treat. Now I'm going to have to find that slimming challenge thread!

tattycath

Hi everyone. Well. I've finally done some kind of menu for the next 10 meals or so-out of the contents of my freezers . So I should only need to buy milk and fruit over next week (still making OH pay for loo rolls he bought that we didn't need!!!-they weren't even on special offer). So anyway, i am hoping to come in well under budget this month-I haven't even looked in the cupboards to see what food we have left (but they seem pretty full).
I knew that our evening meal would be fairly late today, so I told the kids that if they were hungry they could have a snack. (normally they are asking constantly because they claim to be so hungry!!!). Sods law that because I offered them food, they didn't want any and didn't snack this evening!!! (is there something in the water???) lol
Tip. If a large joint of meat is on offer (I mean a really good offer) and you only need a small one, if you can afford it, buy the large one and cut it in half, use half and freeze half-very cost effective we have found.

windowshopper100

First spend of 2008. DH spent £1.69 in Morrisons for a lunchtime sarnie. He says he wasn't aware this comes out of the grocery budget - he's totally aware now.:rolleyes:

Oh well, that'll teach us to get up a bit earlier in the morning to make lunch won't it.

... and we were doing so well.

WS100

jmf76

Hi all,

I'm a little late but was hoping to sign up for this month's challenge - have already started and have spent nothing so far!!!! Well I stocked up at the end of Dec so want to use it all up first. I'm going to stick to £200 for this month and then start to bring it down as of Feb or include more stuff in. Good luck everyone xxx