April 2008 Grocery Challenge

bertiebots

Mellika wrote: »

OMG :eek: How do you DO it??? Here it's just me, OH and 2 cats and though I haven't joined yet, I intend to do it with at least £260 to spend... Please tell me how you do it

lol:rotfl: you are the second person who has said that:D .....and a month ago I would have been joining you:rolleyes: . I have learned so much from this site on how to cook good cheap healthy meals and being a SAHM means I can cook everything from scratch including bread. We have tried lots of new things I would never have thought of. I was spending over £80 per week and we were eating no where near as well as we do now!! Look through the indexed collections for some great ideas , I am sure they will help you as much as they have helped me. The people here are great and ready to offer advice when you get stuck....:j

Mellika

bertiebots wrote: »

lol:rotfl: you are the second person who has said that:D .....and a month ago I would have been joining you:rolleyes: . I have learned so much from this site on how to cook good cheap healthy meals and being a SAHM means I can cook everything from scratch including bread. We have tried lots of new things I would never have thought of. I was spending over £80 per week and we were eating no where near as well as we do now!! Look through the indexed collections for some great ideas , I am sure they will help you as much as they have helped me. The people here are great and ready to offer advice when you get stuck....:j

Yes I have learned so much in here - Can't wait to put it all into practice when I move, as right now I can't.

To be honest £260 is just and estimate, I have no idea how much we spend so it could be way over *gulp*... or way under! :j

Ooooooh can't wait !!!!

purplevamp

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Still putting cheap coffee into the nescafe jar and DH doesn't seem to have noticed yet. Hope not to need more but we'll see.

We don't drink that much coffee in our house, just my Mum once a week when she pops round and hubby occassionally when he wants to wake up. I can't stand the stuff myself. I do however use economy teabags in hubbys cup then swap the bag with mine so he thinks he's got Tetley :rolleyes: . Well, he likes it strong so he takes his own bag out (cheap ones are square nice ones are round so he would notice...) This is only going to be until we use up the 160 cheapo bags I got as an experiment last month. I used to get them years ago but had forgotten how foul they are. Only another 90-odd bags to go :rotfl: :rotfl:

lil_me

Hello everyone, my budget starts on Monday, I see it's already included at £300. My budgets are for 2 adults, 2 children, 2 big dogs, hedgehog, fish and lizard including all foods (packed lunches for adults and children when needed), toiletries, cleaning stuff etc etc. After the using up month in March (ends tomorrow and I am VERY pleased I faced MrsMc's mean target for me :rotfl: ) I think we will need a little extra for storecupboard items we'll be out of, aswell as that the boys have 2 weeks off school and as my budget includes takeaways/eating out etc there may be a little more needed for this.

Kaz2904

Well DH went into town yesterday with the kids. He needed to pay his wages into the bank which is next to lots of butchers and he has to park in Mr T's car park to walk there.
He also wanted bread and milk- don't know why as we have both at home (But it's frozen and instant!).

Well the grocery budget protecting goddess was clearly watching over my funds because he couldn't park for ages and by the time he found a space he was miffed and hungry so flew in paid in cheques and went off to Asda (out of town a bit)- he then couldn't park there either so he came home and went to the corner shop, We don't overspend there because it's so scarily expensive :eek: . So my budget is doing alright and I think he is coming round to my way of thinking as I hate town at the weekend. We went in on Good Friday and I bought a load of christmas/birthday presents because I've no intention of going in for some time!
I need to get online to all of my savings accounts and see where we are with repaying what we owe but seeing the positives from this is certainly cutting down his spends. I think he's also realised that I mean it when I say his DVD's and beer arre to come from his budget.
I pointed out to him that my new BM was coming from my spending money when he raised issues.

Part of the issues are no food syndrome. Someone summed it up very well the other day when they said everything they had in the house was ingredients no bits.
I thought I'd covered it a bit with the banana cakes but DH and DSS don't like them. DH requested chick peas so I think he wants me to make him some humous (sp?) which would go well with the breadsticks.
The other issue is that we are kind of conditioned that a fridge should be bursting so if it's not then we must have no food- right? Again pointed out the other day when someone said you know you're an OSer when you have an empty fridge and a full freezer.
DH has always been a snacky type of person so I've always been inclined to freeze any leftovers so they are not demolished!

Funnily enough I was just having a conversation with my colleague and saying that DH always chucks mushroom stalks (not any more I hasten to add as I hover- distract him and then grab em and shove em in the freezer!) She said her Mum does the same. Then we both admitted that we're lucky if they get anywhere near water let alone being peeled and de stalked. What's it matter- it's going into 200+ degree heat anyway right?:rotfl: . So now you all know how gross I am I'll leave you to it and I'll update my sig when I've asked him how much he spent. It will be going the wrong way though because I've just realised that £5 of my Asda shop shouldn't have been grocery as £2.50 was DD's buying a Barbie and the other was- £2.50 Ooh- go and pick up another one for the next party!

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Count me in for £250 for the four of us plus cat this month.

We didn't *quite* make it in March, and I know I've got to restock on cleaning stuff (Fab yellow all purpose cleaner from Wilkos is on it's last dribble for a start...)

I'm almost out of thread for mending, and my son keeps getting mystery grease stains on his T shirts and hoodies so I'm probably going to have to buy something technological and expensive to sort that out, plus I'm out of Vanish White stuff, and my Vanish stick is worn down to a pathetic nub from trying to get rid of these blimmin' stains.

(My son's just got his first car, and is eating at home less often so I'm thinking drive thru burger grease???)

Plus I need hair dye, (Probably. It would be SO much cheaper if I DIY-ed so I'm trying to talk myself into it.)

My daughter needs "feminine supplies", the cat needs flea stuff, We need condoms, multivitamins, "scrubbers", Bloo Loos, cleanser / face wash, thermal protection hair spray, nail varnish remover... and I could really really really do with treating myself to a new mop and bucket cos mine is broken, and I've nearly tipped dirty water back all over my clean floor more than once in the past few months.

So, it's not going to be a cheap month for the household budget!

I'm really going to try hard though. I'm going to sort out a plan later today. It may have to involve more beans on toast than usual!

Love Jacks xxx

juliejim

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Part of the issues are no food syndrome. Someone summed it up very well the other day when they said everything they had in the house was ingredients no bits.
I thought I'd covered it a bit with the banana cakes but DH and DSS don't like them. DH requested chick peas so I think he wants me to make him some humous (sp?) which would go well with the breadsticks.
The other issue is that we are kind of conditioned that a fridge should be bursting so if it's not then we must have no food- right? Again pointed out the other day when someone said you know you're an OSer when you have an empty fridge and a full freezer.

My DH is like that - he'll look in the fridge or the tins' cupboard and say it's like Old Mother Hubbard in this house we need to go shopping! I'll say there's sandwich meat, milk, eggs, marg, cheese, yoghurts and salad stuff in the fridge - what else do you want? He doesn't really know but he still insists we need to go shopping!

juliejim

I spent £80+ @ Morrissons yesterday and bought 30 kg of dog food as well but as my month doesn't start until the 1st these aren't included. However, I'm hoping that apart from fresh stuff I shouldn't really have to buy much this month so I should come under budget quite easily!

This could be "Famous last words" though.:rotfl:

Jue

helliecopter_2

:rotfl: €€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€ :rotfl:

Look what I found - slightly embrassed though. I was moaning to DH how everyone else in the world could get a € sign, but I couldn't. I told him that all you should do it hold down Ctrl,Alt & 4. All he said was 'but that's not the Ctrl , love' Ooops nevermind am blaming it prolonged pregnancy fog (gave birth 2years ago and it's still not lifted)

Anyway my meal plan for next few days :

Today - Roast Pork,HM Stuff, & Trimmings, HM Rice Pud
Mon - Bubble & Squeak with Butcher's sausages (if enough cabbage left) or HM Shep Pie
Tue - Shep Pie (will freeze spare if don't have it on Mon)
Wed - Roast chicken legs and my fave hm roast veg
Thu - Fish Fingers (or sauages if we don' eat them Mon, Peas & Chips (going our for day and need a quick tea,treat for DD1)
Fri - HM Beef & Beany Stew
Sat - 2nd day stew -mmmmmm & dumplings
Sun - Roast Beef & HM Yorks & Trimmings, Chocolate Mousee
Mon - HM Chicken curry & rice

I've written it all up on my board in the kicthen and it's a great reminder to get things out the freezer. Most weekends I forget to do on Sat night so nip and get another joint!

Diane_239

hi everyone,
Count me in this month came £10 under budget for march ,going to do a meal plan later today for 5 weeks still got a few bits in freezer so shall have look what can make from there.i will set my target at £200 again it will be tight with April been 5 weeks but will give it my best shot.
good luck everyone.