March 2008 Grocery Challenge

mandy_moo_1

Phew!! just worked my way thru all these pages, so pls can you put me down for £50 p/wk Mrs Mc. thats for groceries for myself, DD 17 & DS 14, and 3 dogs

probably a bit adventurous, dropping from £70 p/wk but as i'm gonna start losing one of my benefits in a couple of months, i want to try and start cutting back now.

i've already been really good, making my own bread buns and freezing them.......haven't bought any bread for nearly 3 weeks now :j

savingfortravel

Hi everyone!!
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!!
Welcome to all the newbies.You'll find lots of support and ideas here.

Mrs Mc- THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK THIS MONTH!! You look after everyone!!! I had a wonderful time in Germany with my mum and the weather was just as you described. On Saturday we cruised down The Rhine looking at the beautiful castles, watching the snow fall all around us. Then on Sunday we went to Cochram and sat outside eating Apple Strudel. Our hotel had a great location, we looked down upon the Moselle River from our balcony. Food wasn't a problem, very well looked after.

Just caught up on threads... well 4 hours later...

Mike D-I find many posts highly amusing but rarely lol (sad isn't it).. however when I read that you thanked the ladies for advice on sanitary towels I howled. Can't wait to tell OB, you're already a real favourite of his.
Have a fantastic time in Cornwall.

Jill D-Lots of hugs to you...

MHE-Now teach in a Prep school-hench long hols... have taught in local state schools too...I know how hard SS teachers work.
Congrats on your milk purchases .. very impressive.

Bails-Hope you're folks have a super time in India. Went about 5 years ago to Agra, Jaipur and Delhi.. simply amazing...so beautiful

Well finished March-Spent £55.35 out of £200 budget. :T
Can't wait to update sig in a moment.
April runs from 26 to 25 so sort of 4 and half weeks.
Mrs M-Please put us down for £200 -April - works for us, we'll add any savings to our CA Adventure.

Well done to everyone for taking part in the March challenge!!!!!!!!! You give me so much inspiration!!!!!!!!!!

weemissy

Hi everyone
just having a 'quick fix' before I pick DD up from nursery and then DS from after school care. Supposed to be on holiday this week but am going to work extra hrs this week and next - needs must. Anyway for those of you who like a scone pizza base like myself, I use the one from Delia's complete cookery book. I multiply quantity by 4 for a baking tray size.
4oz SR flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz butter/marg
2 tbswater
2 tbs milk

sift flour and salt, cut butter into, rub until breadcrumbs, add liquid grad. I then just mould it into a baking tray with my fingers, sometimes when I remember I add mixed berbs to it, then add toppings of choice and cook.

I had a blast from the past last week when I popped into my mums and she had made a sweet that I had completely forgotten about, it is dead easy and very nomnomnom. Relatives gave us it in Canada yrs ago - can't reference it, maybe they just made it up. they called it 5 cup salad, don't know why:rotfl:
1 cup tinned crushed pineapples
1 cup tiny marshmallows (big ones cut up will do)
1 cup tinned mandarins
1 cup des coconut
1 cup sour cream
all mixed up in a nice glass dish - veeeeeery yummy

Over budget this month by £8, and already spent £40 of Aprils which doesn't start til next week :eek: but meal planned for the whole month last night for the first time so £20 on fish, bacon, mince in M&S also got potted salmon paste on special in M&S - use these for packed lunches for a change, heard a nutritionist once recommending giving your child a good quality fish paste. £20 on cravendale and lurpak as offer runs out today, and tinned tuna.

MrsM could you put me down for £200 again for April - thanks - clicked on the box as directed to put this in red but because I have zoomtext I don't have colours comming up :rotfl:so which box is the red one? grid ref please. I know I will just enlarge the important bits.

OMG just noticed the time, still to update sig.
X

Girl_least_likely_to

Thanks to all those who have suggested things I can put dessicated coconut. I'll try Toxic Lemon's Chewy Health Bars (is anyone else wondering why they're called "health" bars when there is so much sugar and syrup in them :rotfl: )

There were a couple of things I bought this morning that I didn't really need atm but my morrisons is a bit carp at stocking certain things, so I bought their Bettabuy washing powder, 2 x own brand All Bran and Synsodyne was on offer too. I have to get these when I see them, I don't like not having them in as I'm not sure when I'll see them again.

I forgot grapes in Mr M's so I popped into Aldi to get them. They had 500g minced beef whoopsied to 99p from £1.99 so I got 4 and they are crammed into the freezer awaiting instructions.

I've spent the grand total of £16.11 this morning to make my March total so far to £199.37. I'll still have to get milk and F&V for the weekend and I have to take my MIL to Asda on Thurs so I'll be into damage limitation by then :rolleyes: . It's my 2nd month of doing the challenge but in both months I have a stuffed freezer at the end. I have a growing addiction of going to see what's whoopsied in the different shops, I'm spoilt for choice where I am having all the major supermarkets within a 2 mile radius of where I live so plenty of bargains to be had. I'm actually getting to the point now that I won't buy any meat unless it's reduced. I suppose I should feel lucky I can get so many reduced items but I can't help feeling I'm on a slippery slope into bargain addiction

Hello, I'm Girl Least Likely To and I'm addicted to whoopsies :rotfl:

mummyleads

please can someone help me how do i get my buget down we useally spen 130 a week for 2a and 3k this need to change i need to get this right down please can someone give me some tips thankyou

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon everyone

Can't decide if i am very good or very bad .... hubby had to nip onto camp so i told him to throw me out at the Naffi for a wander... hubby knows that what i relly mean is that im on a whoopsy hunt -
Spotted minced steak whoopsed to €1 a pack..and well it would have been very unfrugal to just leave it there.. so i [STRIKE]jumped on them [/STRIKE] i mean i picked them up all 5 :rotfl:
So i have spent another €5 of my March budget... well i can't take it out of Aprils as i don't have it yet
So im now at €42.25 out of €50 this month.... but i deffinitely don't need anything else.. no i don't...honestly :rotfl:I keep checking my receipts thinking that i must have spent more than that this month as i have so much food.. but NO my receipts n spread sheet say i havent :j
I have turned 1/2lb into a chilli that shoud do hubby 3-4 meals ...plenty of grated carrot, onions, oats etc and the rest has some how been crammed into the freezer .. can feel meatballs, savoury meat roll, italian cobbler coming on to use it up

Dinner tonight is tortillas..grabbed the balls out of the freezer, with 1 of those southern chicken breasts..grabbed out of the freezer (good job as i wouldn't have got the mince in otherwise :rotfl:) .. sliced up and in the wraps with hm coleslaw and salad on the side mmmmm

We are nearly there everyone.. a new month is just a few days away :T keep up the good work

And girl least likely to ..can i join your group for people addicted to whoopsies please ?:rotfl:

lil_me

***throws dummy from pram*** 85p for a tin of sweetcorn!!!! I know now why I only use the Coop when I have to. Ok I bought the organic one, mainly because it was cheaper per kilo than any other (green giant is not hohoho it's expensive!!!) but still I could have got 3/4 for that elsewhere. Sheesh!

Oh but that's all I spent I think the shock stopped me from even looking at the other things in the shop, inc whoopsies, I didn't even look, which doesn't usually happen :rotfl:

mumofjusttwo

Wish DH liked mince!! Seems that you can do so much with it. He only seems to like Chicken in black bean sauce, curry and roast dinner although he could quite easily eat a whole roast on his own :eek:


mummyleads I am quite new to this and am sure other will be able to help better. I think that general advice is to try and keep receipt of all your grocery spends so you can see where the main money goes then try and bring it down from there. I would suggest giving yourselves a realistic budget so you can really aim for it rather than one you know that you will not be able to achieve.

Good luck with it.

savingfortravel

Mrs Mc/Girl Least Likely to/Other members of W.A. (Whoopsies Anon)
-You have my respect!!
It isn't just about saving money its about the appreciation of food..can't bear waste and by buying such items they won't be thrown away.... Its fun as well...I love reading about your cooking plans, what you can do with what you've bought.
I salute you....

Forgot to mention our plans for the veggie garden earlier:
OB has made me a list
Veggies

• Red Onion*
• Parsnips*
• Carrots
• Brocolli
• Potatoes
• Cucumber*
• Peppers*
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Brussell Sprouts

Fruit

• Blackberries
• Apples
• Red currants
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Loganberries (never sure what to do with these)

*First year of growing these
SFT:T

purplevamp

Haven't been on here since Friday, can't believe how many posts there are :eek: and I can't read them all (sorry). I've had 3 NSD due to the bank holiday. We went to in-laws in Wales (well technically just outside but we had to drive through Wales to get to their house, through the "troll bridge" :rotfl: ). Anyhoo today I spent 99p on some H&S shampoo which was reduced from £2.19 and £1.29 on four bananas which worked out at just over 32p each???!!!!! That was from my local shop. If I got hubby to get them from Tesco when he picked the children up it would have only come to 68p. Not buying from them again in a hurry.

MrsMc please could you put me down for £300 in April? That seems to be a do-able figure (just). I'll give you my March total in a few days as I may have to buy some more bananas - I must be running a home for chimps the amount we get through:rotfl: .

MrsMc (again) I have a quick question about your tortillas...when I make them they roll out to about 5", is that about right? They seem small but it may be that I'm used to buying the large 10" ones.