April 2008 Grocery Challenge

ifonlyitwaseasier

today i should be spending £0 from my budget!!! have homemade bread and soup for lunch and OH isn;t in til this evening so i can make him dinner before he goes.

fingers crossed!!

cheerfulness4

Wooo hooo to you too MRSMC

Well I think thats me decided then... a day devoted to catching up on my seed sowing. I'm determined to cut right back on what I have to spend on veggies over the warmer months.

Had my last Gardener's World mag drop through the post (free with Tesco clubcard deals ) and I was delighted that there were seeds for tomatoes, basil, mixed salad leaf and peppers free inside, so thats some more to add to my list.
Will plant plenty of flowers too as it did make a difference when I had my allotment.... and I love cut flowers indoors.

Right, will quickly batch cook 4 lasagnes for the freezer while the sun comes fully round on the garden and then I'll boogie down to my little greenhouse and start sorting out my seed trays.

mrs-moneypenny

well ive started the month in the red (and the month hasn't really started yet:o ) BUT im hoping to do a claw back over the next 4 weeks. my favourite big jars of marmalade were on 1/2 price (reduced to clear ) in MrTs so i brought 6 jars 52p instead of £1.01 for a kilo jar, then went to aldi and brought 12 litres of their long life soya milk its only 55p against £1.30ish for alpro light in MrT hubbys no keen on it on his cereals but its great for cooking and in tea etc so that should last me the month at least, got 13 wholemeal sliced loaves in the freezer (55p each in aldi) and got 6 litres of aldi orange - i used to buy tropicana but DD and her bf drink huge glasses of it at a time. This might not slow them down but it is cheaper AND i've hidden it and will only put ONE in the fridge a week so they dont glug it all.


So technically ive overspent this week by £80 BUT if i draw £20 less each week for the month i SHOULD break even.

I've got 2 weetabix cakes made yesterday so that this weeks afters sorted, ill make a double batch of hobnobs later if i get time.

daisy_steiner_2

I quite fancy giving this a go. Having a look at our tesco bill for last month and taking a guess at how often we dash out for milk/wine/bread/f&v I think we spend about £160-70 a month. So I reckon chopping it down to £150 this month will be a good saving without being too scary.

Wish me luck for my first month!
I hope you all make great savings too.

BigMummaF

There were only two of us for dinner last night, so we had a bit of the cold chicken & a packet of flavoured couscous. I've some bacon mis-shapes that need using so I'm gunna have a go at MrDT's casserole & add the remainder of the chicken too:p

For those animal lovers amongst us, have you seen the home made treats threads on the Pets & Pet Care bit of the 'Marriages' board? Found these two & can recommend the liver cake for doggies:D altho our training club recipe uses wholemeal flour for a stronger taste.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=509020&highlight=liver+cake
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=758957&highlight=homemade+treats+for+dogs
Pet Related Savings.
homemade pet food?
Saving money on dog food
Cat Food Questions
Great Feed, House and Treat Your Pets For Less Hunt
Old Style Cruelty free dog food ideas

HTH.

mummyleads

thankyou mrsm for putting me down for £350 ill really try hard any tips please

Zend

I'm in again this month for £150. OH thinks it's £200 but I intend squirreling £50 away for Christmas. My month started on Saturday and so far I've spent £80 but hopefully that will last us for a while.

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Hi everyone,
hope you all had a good weekend. Well I had a NSD yesterday, weather was a bit bad, so I ended up baking some honey oat crunchies and planting some coriander, strawberry, tom and brussel sprout seeds, in the greenhouse and for the window sill.
I have some left over chicken from yesterday and want to make a HM curry for OH tonight, could somebody please let me have an easy recipe for a mildish curry(sorry but only used jars before, so this will be a new one for me)I`ve got a recipe for naan bread, so will give that a go.
Many thanks to you all.

angelavdavis

Am jumping aboard this month as I have some goals to achieve and need to tighten the belt.

The first one is that I need to run down the contents of the freezer as we are selling my OH's house and need to move the fridge freezer out of the kitchen into the garage and replace it with an underworktop fridge so the kitchen looks bigger! Have managed to pick up a fridge from ebay for £41 which I will need to collect, we plan to leave it at the house when we move. Sadly, the garage has no power, so I will have to empty the freezer.

So, I have three drawers of food to use up - therefore no shopping allowed!

I will be moving the bulk into MiL's freezer, but will need to meal plan so I can collect whatever I need in advance. Will get listing this afternoon after I have repainted the kitchen walls!

The second target for the month is that we need to give the house a bit of a facelift on a budget, so need to keep the pennies tight to free up some money for paint, etc. The house isn't in a bad way at all, we have simply bought the same colours the rooms are already painted in to touch up odd bits of wear and tear.

So, I am setting myself a £120 target this month, as the only thing we should be buying are milk, eggs, fruit and veg.

Good luck all!

Oh SavvyMummy, here is a link to a previous "quick curry" thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=603710&postcount=174

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Thanks angelavdavis for that, nice and easy for me. I might bulk it out a bit and add some veg. Got to go now and do bread rolls for the packed lunches tomorrow. Good luck in your targets.