January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Savvy_sewing

I have a very old book on money saving, that taught me how to measure things and work out their costs, i e , per teaspoon for sugar, per ounce for flour etc and it has been my saviour. now its a godsend again. just wish that i had learnt principals in other aspects of my life..now make my own icing and caster sugar, and a lot of other things.

rosieben

windowshopper100 wrote: »

....... and I'm not singling out HF-W (just in case he's reading this - I've got most of your books!!) ...
WS100

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

rosieben

Mooloo wrote: »

I have a very old book on money saving, that taught me how to measure things and work out their costs, i e , per teaspoon for sugar, per ounce for flour etc and it has been my saviour. now its a godsend again. just wish that i had learnt principals in other aspects of my life..now make my own icing and caster sugar, and a lot of other things.

I used to make my own castor sugar with a coffee grinder (never used it for coffee) and I supppose if I'd gone on long enough I'd have ended up with icing sugar? How do you make yours please?

windowshopper100

Hugh, Huuugh, Rosieben didn't mean it - honest....:rotfl:

kazmeister

:money:

orchid-96 wrote: »

Wow this thread moves fast, managed to stay away from the shops today and for tea we had ham and pea risotto (with just long grain rice) which someone on here mentioned as something to do with what I had in...anyway it was really nice and even dh said it was nice - well he can't really tast properly at the moment as he has a problem with his ear and a cold, but he said "I can't really taste it properly, but from what I can taste it seems nice" so I will take that as a compliment :rolleyes: I have even got some leftovers for the twins to try for lunch tomorrow but its a guess as to whether they will entertain it! worth a try though...

Re the milk thing (watering down) my twins have to have full fat and I like skimmed (ds and dh are happy with full fat) so I tend to pick up some skimmed for myself but then when I don't have it in I top up the bottle with watered down full fat and find it is fine, I only really have it with tea though, but have had it with cereal and it was fine..

So a nsd today (apart from £2 for a cuppa at the local toddler group but that comes out of a different budget)

In my grocery budget I include all the housey stuff as well as food and also toiletries, but not petrol / ds dinner money / outings etc.

Glad you liked it

Savvy_sewing

ness_w wrote: »

Hi, I've a family of 8 to feed and actually no idea of how much we spend on groceries! If it's ok I'd like to join in, but just try to be a little bit careful this first month and then see how much I have spent then move on from there.

Ness.

best idea w hen you start is to keep your receipts for a month. then u know what u normally spend and can work out the difference to spend and budget relationship.dont cut it dramatically. just down shift or you wont manage it. until 6 months ago i had to feed 9 of us.all over 13yrs and managed it on 90 to 115 a week, but that was when money was not an issue. however £10 ahead over a week is reasonable if your budget can take it. it can be cut on snacks etc,
hope that helps. if you want costings per meal i can try to give them to you. just pm me.

rosieben

ness_w wrote: »

Hi, I've a family of 8 to feed and actually no idea of how much we spend on groceries! If it's ok I'd like to join in, but just try to be a little bit careful this first month and then see how much I have spent then move on from there.

Ness.

Hello Ness :wave: welcome to the [STRIKE]mad[/STRIKE] GC thread

thats good advice from mooloo!

kazmeister

Ok havent updated since my shop at the weekend but looks like OH has only spent about £7 in the week which is really good.

Have update signature having spent £86 of the £250 budget :eek:

CanadaBound

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.

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!

...
WS100

I only just watched this as I had recorded it and had spent way too much time reading the boards last night to watch it and tonights episode. Then followed a long discussion with my other half and we have concluded that we should try to stick to free range if possible. This is harder than it sounds as the hubby doesn't each vegetables so he has to eat quite a bit of meat (in contrast to me who doesn't eat very much at all).

However, as one of our many reasons for saving money is to move to a larger place in Canada with room to grow and raise our own livestock it seems a bit contrary to the point to get there by eating animals raised in a manner that we wouldn't use ourselves.

It's a bit of a toughie...

jpe20

Hi folks,

Thought I would have a go at this grocery challenge lark, I usually spend about 250 a month just on myself!!!! Includes beer and ready meals etc!!! So nice and healthy!

Decided to go easy and set a 180 quid budget for Jan. Spent 31 quid so far. Had a fridge freezer fail over christmas with loads of spoilt food so not much "old food" to use up in first few weeks like most people!

I usually shop at sainsburys cos I like their ready meals mainly!

Do have a small Tesco amd a large Morrisons (too many pork pies) nearby.

Good luck to everyone for 2008.

Jools