April 2008 Grocery Challenge

singlemum_4

This week i've spent £46.71 which has taken me over budget as im only on week three of my month!! will be trying really hard to spend as little as possible over the next week and use up everything in the cupboards/freezer.
off to do a stocktake now

Savvy_sewing

Well I havent got time to read all the thread this time. I was just going to put a small tesco order in, and it came to £93.34. To be delivered on Tuesday. So I am in a dilemma, think that that really would be April spending, but as its going to be eaten during May will it be the start of my next challenge? If so I came in under budget for April, ??

TheBees

Evening all

Had to spend another £25 in Mr T yesterday on essentials plus £2 on eggs from the farm so over budget a bit.

This month I haven't visitied Lidl or Aldi simply because we don't live very near either of them and i haven't been passing one to call in and we are over by nearly £30. Wonder if we would have met our target if I had been there or are their prices creeping up to equal the larger supermarkets anyway?
£340 again for May please.

Somebody posted a lovely recipe for slow cooked leg of lamb on here recently which I did in the slow cooker today. (With potatoes, carrots, herbs, parsnips, bacon, onions and wine). It cooked for 7 hours and was really easy and delicious so thank you whoever it was!:j

Anyway off to bed now after a busy weekend.

Roll on Thursday when the new budget starts!:rotfl:

Girl_least_likely_to

Evening All :wave:

I bit the bullet today had went and did my "big" shop at Mr M's which only came to £27.60 and still leaves me with £3.98 to play with :j . I thought it better to come in just under budget than to start next month with a really big shop which will see me struggle with for the rest of May.

We're away for 1 week next month in a self catering cottage and haven't worked out if the grocery shop should come out of the budget or not? I've placed a Tesco.com order to be delivered to the cottage soon after we arrive, it's costing £85 :eek: . I'll be adjusting it nearer the time to take advantage of any offers, so I hoping at least £10 will come off that way. The £85 includes stuff to make packed lunches with, all breakfasts and 3 evening meals (we'll go out or get a takeaway the other evenings). Hubby says to take some stuff with us but it's still got to be paid for whether we take it with us or buy it via Tesco. The 3 evening meals are finest ready meals (I ain't cooking big meals on holiday , there's 2 bottles of wine (only 2 ?:eek: ) and a few nice things like kettle chips, big bag of malteasers but everything else is regular food for a nice week away in sunny Wales. What does everyone else do regarding self catering hols? Would love some suggestions please

Well done to all those in budget and never mind to those who didn't quite make it. Just think of that lovely new May budget to play with

KITTY_2-2

As you can see from my signature, the birthday meal cost a lot more than expected - £79.88 to be exact :eek: :eek:

I was hoping to get away with about £40 but it's amazing what [strike]naughties[/strike] necessities fell in the trolley on the way round :whistle: Still there was loads of food left over after 14 of us had eaten so that is in the fridge to use up over the next couple of days. That way I don't need to spend anything else :rolleyes:

So I am declaring April's spend as £332.45 and £40.73 From May I am including pet stuff with food budget. Not sure how it will work yet but I need to come in much closer to target if I want to put any money away for our short break in October and for Christmas.

Best of luck everyone for next month. See you on the May thread :dance:

funkyfunkymonkey

Girl_least_likely_to wrote: »

What does everyone else do regarding self catering hols?

I think having a Tesco shop delivered to the cottage is a brilliant idea.

Our SC holiday will be in Spain - I don't suppose Mr T would deliver.

Mind you our appartment is about 2 minutes walk from a small supermarket and 5 minutes walk from lots of affordable restaurants. I don't intend doing too much cooking out there as I love their food. The beach is about 1 minute walk away - ooh I can't wait (only 93 days to go)

FFM

Savvy_sewing

When I go to Portugal, I work out a basic menu and I take small tubs with the things I might need, like mixed herbs, and cornflour, and I take the things that I know are expensive. Then when I arrive we usually have a bought meal the first day, I do the shopping and then I cook our meals for us. By doing a menu plan before I go, I am able to keep shopping to a minimum.

Poosmate

Hello all.

I'm new to this thread and wondered if I could join in May's Challenge.

I was trying to work out a target budget and I thought I should probably include my lunches at work as well. This bit is really bad so the feignt hearted should look away now! I discovered that for just the 22 working days in May I will pay £55 on lunches! (£2.50 for a baguette each day!) No wonder I'm in debt and broke! Tomorrow I will tell the sandwich lady not to save me one in future.

Usual household grocery shopping has been around £80pcm (just for me and my little cat, Poo), however, I have now taken in a lodger so I think I would like to set my budget to £120 for May.

I would like to start my May budget from 26/04/08 as I did a large shop at Morrisons then so next week will only do a small shop.

I've spent hours reading some of the posts on this thread and noticed about the nettle pesto/soup/tea and the elderberry cordial/jam as free food. I would like to offer a gift of free food to you all from a programme I watched over this w/e, kind of like a housewarming present - dandelions - you can use the leaves in salad and apparently you can eat the flowers too! I didn't know that. Apparently the root can be made into coffee(!?) or can be used to make a "tincture" which is very good for the kidneys. (I think you dilute the tincture with water and drink it). Of course you can make dandelion and burdock pop too (I don't know what burdocks are! lol).

Thanks and good luck to everyone for May.

Poo

Forgot to put my spends so far!

May Grocery Challenge £120/£29.06 spent so far.

Savvy_sewing

Tried looking for the May challenge last night but all I got was last years one? Anyone know if its been started yet, if so do you have a link or something?
Have decided that the £94 order doesnt come until tomorow, and wont be eaten until may so I am going to include it in Mays challenge. That means that I have come in under budget for April, £22.53 will have to wing its way into my savings account. Decided to top it up to make it £701.01 now.

victory

Can you put me down for a failure this month even though I have had some fantastic ideas/help/recipes taken from this thread:rolleyes: I am going for £350 for May please hoping to get it to £300 but if I am higher might make it especially as it is a 5 week one and two bank holidays which usually would entail barbecues:D