April 2008 Grocery Challenge

scotrae

Remember me from January, full of newfound MSE enthusiasm and hubby's ingenious meatballs and veggieburgers? Unfortunately I've been busier trying to develop new business and supply teaching to bring the pennies in since then and wasn't organised enough to keep track of every penny. We have still cut back and had a budget figure in mind (approx £40 a week) but haven't kept receipts and records. I've done well in recent weeks with Flogit, surveys, Quidco and have started to ebay too so we're saving lots on our 2007 spend, softening the blow of me not being salaried. Unfortunately, our fridge freezer has quite literally fallen apart over the weekend so we need to get the new one and can't shop around if it means more than 48 hours delivery delay.

I'm starting again for April though and shall keep track of it all, starting with last weekend's shopping.

ifonlyitwaseasier

morning,

i was all ready to name today a nsd but OH decided he needed £10 for his work food for the week!! :eek: :eek:

and as i'm determined not to get any sandwichable food til i shop on friday i had to succumb. pants! oh well, at least i have all our dinners covered and best of all i'm getting a slow cooker tonight!!!:T :T :T next week will be a whole new cooking week, i'll be trawling the threads for ideas.

Girl_least_likely_to

lucielou5 wrote: »

Do you think it is possible to spend £50pw max on 2+1 still in nappies bearing in mind that 90% of our groceries are organic/eco friendly?

Hi lucielou I have just acheived £200 a month for me, OH & 2 1/2 DD who has just come out of nappies. I used to spend before having DD at least £350 :eek: . I can't imagine now what we spent it all on.

Some of my food is organic - milk, some cheese and meat. I get organic meat whoopsied (reduced yellow stickered items nearly at their best before date) and I actually rarely buy any meat that isn't reduced and prefer to get happy meat. I go to a few diifferent supermarkets over the week to have a look at the reduced section and it is a bit hit and miss, but it's worth it when a couple of weeks ago I got a happy whole chicken and 8 thighs for £5! This will feed us for at least 4 meals, a couple of sandwich lunches for OH and stock for soup.

It might be worth seeing if there is a local organic veg box scheme. I've not got one near me but some other posters look like they get really good value boxes.

I think you might find a bit of challenge buying absolutley everything organic & eco friendly but it'll be interesting see if it's doable. I'm sure some other poster will be along later to say how they do it (or don't! ). Anyway, Good luck and let us know how you get on

Welshlassie

I'm in.
We've set ourselves a budget of £260 (which is £50 per week plus baby additions. We did it last month and had about £30 over, so I'm going to stick to the same budget this month and then start cutting back.
We started on 28th March when I was paid.
We've currently spent about £25 (can't remember the exact amount as it is at home), but that includes almost all the baby stuff bought for the month.

angelavdavis

well i used up two portions me beef stew last night. Served it up with some mash and spinach. I think it will be salmon steaks tonight. Am on train as in london today and forgot to get anything out of the freezer before i left.

BigMummaF

Morning!

We didn't have MrDT's casserole last night cuz there was a bit more chicken on the bones than I thought.....but I've made stock from the carcass [which Pup was soooo pleased about cuz he got an extra portion from the scrags ]& will use that for the bacon doo-dah tomorrow:j An extra dinner for next to nowt:D

I spent 90p on a spray thingy to put olive oil in; a/to reduce fat used & b/to make the oil go further. It's Pup's first b'day today too, so he's a new lead I]needed away for training[/I @ 90p & I thought I'd found some industrial strength balls on BOGOF for £3:99 but less than 10mins of having one of 'em, he'd made a hole:eek:

My nearest Asdas are at least 45mins car journey in either direction:o Aldi is further & the closest [approx8ml] Lidls, Tesco & Morrisons are not that big. Half decent Somerfield [4ml], Tesco [1ml], Sainsbury [2ml] & our farm shops are a joke price-wise.
Hence the description of where I live:mad:

mrs-moneypenny

nipped in asda yesterday managed to pick up a bargain ds needed a white shirt for a choir trip they had one slightly big on the sale rail £1 so im doing a bit of 'tweaking ' on the sleeve lenght.

anyone else use vitalite? (DD is vegan so i use that for all of us) a couple of months ago i found morrys do a big cheap tub of marg that is suitable for vegans that is ideal for baking etc so that saves a bit more money. Its 1/2 the price of vitalite.
But the difference in the price of vitalite from shop to shop is scandalous! morrys 70p, iceland 80p asda 88p!!!! they are all identical sized tubs. no wonder morrys had run out on saturday when i went in.

having an nsd today, its staggered tea tonight boys need it early, DH wants it late not sure about the girls and i'll grab soup or a sarni when i can be bothered.

big mumma, keep a look out in morrys for the big bags of potatoes i started getting them last month after realising they are cheaper than te farm shops and i live in the country(ish). a 12.5KG bag is £3.79 i think they also have 'slight seconds' in 10kg bags that were even cheaper - not sure how a spud can be a second- probally small or funny shapes.

WelshWoofer

Flipping eck!
I haven't had access to the web since Friday afternoon and already there's 20 pages of posts on the April challenge - will have to sneakily read them at work today!

Just a quick update - spent £28.61 at Tescos on Saturday on the usual grocery stuff and then another £5.10 spread between Farm Foods and Wilkos yesterday.
Running total so far is £33.71.

I'm going to try to buy absolutely nothing but fruit until next weekend (5th April).

Made a yummy chilli soup thing last night to use up mushrooms, onions and a load of tinned beans of various types - the onl thing is that its massive and really filling so will be eating it (with pitta bread) for about three days to come! At least it was cheap and not one of my usual culinary disasters!

Off to update my sig.....have a good day!

Jacks_xxx

angelnikki wrote: »

Hi everyone!! :hello:

I'm on my 6th NSD today and I've got my first shop being delivered tomorow evening. It should come to about £80 hopefully but over £20 is toiletries (mainly for OH!!:mad: ) and £10 is for nappies/wipes.

Jacks have you thought about the implant? It goes in your arm and lasts for 3 years. I had this and it was really quick for them to put in and then you don't have to think about it for 3yrs.

Nikki
x

Cheers for the suggestion sweetie. :T I've just gone :doh: and looked it up. I think the reason my doc has never suggested it is that it can cause your periods to go a bit doolally and I have enough to contend with in that department already.

(I'm so sorry everybody. Shall I list my bra size and describe how I lost my viginity as well - just so that I have got absolutely every personal detail about me off my chest?! What am I like. :rolleyes: )

Plus I have weirdo migraines occasionally and I see that's another thing I read that they have to be careful of. I'll ask her about it though cos it also said that some people's periods stop and that would be pretty cool. i wouldn't miss 'em!

Love Jacks xxx

patentgirl

Morning all
A big thank you to who ever it was Mrs M perhaps about oats to mince to bulk it out more, a big success not one of the family noticed even DD15 who is fussy asked for seconds of sheperds pie last night hope the lasagne goes the same which I froze after adding a good handful of oats to mince mixture when I made that on Sun, tortilla wraps are going well in packed lunches too! everyone at work cant believe I made them
Third NSD on the trot for me as well only thanks to everyone on herex