January 2008 Grocery Challenge

windowshopper100

Just a quick one today to say keep up the good work and to update sig with today's spend of £24.03. Had a bargain of Olay Total Effects moisturiser with SPF reduced from £4.45 to £2.21 (cheaper than the Tesco's own Skin Wisdom)..... so I got 2:D .... (must stop grinning too much or I'll get wrinkle's and that'll be that money wasted!).

DH also spend £2.50 on a watch battery but since that won't need to be replaced for another couple of years I think I'll let him off that.

Did anyone see Hugh Fernely-Whitingstall's Chicken Run about the conditions the 2 for £5 chickens are kept in and wouldn't free range be better. We think about this on a regular basis but still the lure of the purse strings beckons on most occasions.

Would anyone consider eating chicken less and go for free range? We worked out in Tesco today that it was £1.40/kg more expensive. DH said it would be good to work out how much chuck we eat during a week, multipy that by £1.40 and decide wether we could accommodate this in the budget. Not even considering organic however!

Oh, I dunno......

Cheers for now
WS100

scotrae

scotrae wrote: »

As well as a few top-brand preferences we are pretty fussy about eggs and meat, especially chicken. (You can take the girl out of the farm but never the farm out of the girl, I guess!) I know that free range chicken is much more expensive but since we switched we've been amazed at how much further it seems to go on the plate, because it's firmer and so much tastier. We just eat less of it.

Set a little bit of extra cash aside to try a free range one instead of the bargain ones next time you shop and see what everyone thinks of the difference. See how much fat /liquid drains out and how the flavour and texture compares. If you want to take your experiment a little further it might even be worth seeing if you have a farm shop/butchery counter locally or speak with your local independent butcher about the difference. They might even knock a little off the price if you say you're trying to stick to a budget but want to give it a go and see if it really tastes different too.

Enjoy!

Skint_Catt

Just worked out on MySupermarket.com that next weeks shopping will be £14.25! :j That's if I can make it to the supermarket WITHOUT my OH! :rotfl: Otherwise its double that and then some!

Catt xx

dlb

Hiya.
Spent £44.70 today at tescos , stuck to shopping list and got some halfprices baking trays.
Dont know if anyone missed it but this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=665445
Has been really useful (thanks queenie) it is a free downloadable programme, which helps you create your shopping list including prices and then prints it off in catagories.
Used it for this first time today after spending the weekend making up my lists and it was great, i knew what i needed from each part of the shop, and the total wasnt far out!! Means i know roughly how much cash i need on me.
I will be using this from now on and have made weekly and monthly shopping lists to print off.

Little_Miss_Naughty

Hi All

Trying to make the most of the food i have this month. For Dinner we had chicken and i am currently boiling the bones to make stock.

Can someone please give me some advise on how long i need to boil it for and what can i turn the stock into after eg soup ?


Thanks

jackiegibbo

£2.69 in sainsburys today

Savvy_sewing

JoJoB wrote: »

Does anyone else feel all itchy to spend something? It's like giving up fags, I need a patch or something. I feel good about not spending, but also slightly panicked. It's weird.

I totally agree, but I went a bit off of the wagon, spending on reduced presents in Sainsburys, when I nipped in to get babymilk that I had forgotten on my Mr T and spent £23.00odd. Need to update my signature accordingly. Then I overspent on clothes as an indulgence!! Oppps. Budget was fine in Sept, oct and Nov, even dec wasnt bad, but think Jan has been my weak point. No more visits to town or borrowing the car again.!!:o

Sunnyday

Hi all,
I`ve had a very satisfying NSD today so i`m feeling really pleased with myself for once.
I also found a bag of apples in the back of the fridge dated for last October :eek: they have gone now and i have 3 apple crumbles sitting in the freezer as i type.
Lets hope i don`t spend anything tomorrow

*crosses fingers*
I`ll catch up with all my reading later or in the morning, i really don`t know what i`d do without everyone on here now.
Thanks guys!!
SD

rosieben

windowshopper100 wrote: »

...
Did anyone see Hugh Fernely-Whitingstall's Chicken Run about the conditions the 2 for £5 chickens are kept in and wouldn't free range be better. We think about this on a regular basis but still the lure of the purse strings beckons on most occasions. ...

I turned on in time to hear him say he was having difficulties persuading a single mum to switch to free range chicken. So I turned off. I'm tired of being preached at by someone for whom the term 'hard up' would probably mean he's down to his last £50k or whatever. When I was bringing up my kids I thought I was doing well to be able to afford any sort of chicken. Most often, as you rightly say, its much more a matter of economics than choice.

ihatedebt_2

Not a bad start for my first grocery challenge - £54.59 spent. Should of been less but OH tends to buy a lot of c**p when he goes to tesco (he hasn't adopted the MSE way yet) :mad:

Aiming to reduce that weekly amount this week!