April 2008 Grocery Challenge

mandy_moo_1

had to go into town to get a few bits, and do my gran's shopping ( i do it every week, wonderful grand-daughter that i am )

i only spent £7 on some fruit/veg, tissues, eggs, chocolate

my gran bought me 2 lots of 500g mince so that's gone straight into the freezer, which'll help with my budget

feeling pretty pleased with myself, cos i've only spent about £30 this week out of my £60 budget for the week

pinkcloudnine

[By the way, I recently cottoned on to the fact that the 4-pint bottles of milk are gradually changing to 2-litres (i.e. less than 4 pints). Am I the last one to realize this? I was thinking for example that Tesco Pure at 1.29 was cheaper than the standard brand at 1.34 but the 1.29 bottle is only 2 litres so works out more expensive per litre. :eek: Sneaky!![/quote]

I agree, frankerooney, the prices are all going up. I always look for price per kilo, litre etc, they aren't going to get one over on me!!!!!! The classic one is when the item is on offer, when the offer expires, the price goes up to more than before!!!!!
Oh, bought Mr T's finest bloomer loaf, as was the same price as the normal one, well it was stale within 24hrs, & didn't even taste any better,shan't bother again.

Moniker

Hi everyone. Just got back from Sainsbury's and have spent £49-75 - but only about half of that was food - the rest was on discounts on Simple toiletries - £1-50 off their Regeneration moisturisers (which I think are better than the much hyped Boots ones), so I couldn't pass those up and other toiletries. Over £150 to last till the end of the month (which is two 'big' shopping Thursdays for me) and we are away for a short break in the middle. In fact some of the toiletries were for the holiday so should probably have come out of a different budget!

I looked at the Cravendale milk in Sainsbury's and it is indeed on 2 for £2 - but I didn't buy it as the Cravendale bottles are 2pints each whereas the Sainsbury's own brand are 2.72 pints so it works out more expensive to buy the 'special offer' ones.

Thanks for the advice about making yogurt. I have got some on the go at the moment and hope it turns out ok! I repaired the two broken lids with sticky tape!

I have just made a cheap and quick lunch for DH and me - cooked 4oz pasta until al dente, and then sweated off half an onion, three small sliced mushrooms, and two rashers of bacon chopped (left over from a packet we opened at the weekend). Combined this with the pasta and tipped in a tin of Campbell's condensed tomato soup. Topped off with some grated cheese and cooked for a bout 20 minutes in the oven. I am going to serve with some broccoli and some crusty bread -nomnomnom as MrsM would say - and only about 75p per serving!

Better get on with it then. Off to work this afternoon - my sore throat isn't really bad enough to pull a sickie and it's hard to get cover for the evenings at short notice so I will just have to be brave!

Moniker

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Hi everyone,
will read todays posts and update sig in a mo.
Went to wilkinson and LIDL today and brought from wilkinson: 3 for 2 packs of seeds. 1x pea, 1x pepper, 1x Broccoli. didn`t pay for peas, so free peas when they grow total £3.65 from my garden budget.
Also from LIDL brought 500g broth mix 45p and pack of 6 large totilla wraps 49p.
Could anyone be kind enough to give me a salsa recipe.

mikeD

Hi Folks

Have been very busy these last few days so haven't had time to read or post. Had a delivery from Mr T yesterday and it came to £93.90. This included a few items to take with us to the holiday bungalow this week in Cornwall (Nr Bude) tomorrow. Also got the nicotine patches and will start giving up when fags run out :money:. Will have to get groceries when we get there and as there are 12 of us (2 for the weekend only) it may come a bit expensive, especially if we eat out a lot. Still, why worry, it's a holiday :j.

Will see you all again on the 13th or if DS2 takes his laptop maybe before.

Ta Ta for now and good hunting everybody.

Love the FM

savingfortravel

Hi everyone!!
Quick question: When is the best time to add oats when cooking a mince dish? Hoping to bulk out chilli con carni?

MikeD-Have a great holiday. Good luck with the non-smoking!

Well done everyone... you're all doing great..
SFT

MrsBartolozzi

After a day spent walking along the coast yesterday we went into MrT's on the way home. Spent £18.54:mad: . It would have been much less, but OH and the boys were there too! A bottle of wine was added (for the weekend, he says) and drinks for the sooo thirsty boys as well as some treats. I was not impressed but was too knackered to put up a fight. No real whoopsies to be had there either. As previous posters have already said only a few pence off stuff that's going out of date and this was at 8.30pm too.

DS1 has an orthodontist apt later today, and to save parking money I usually park at M's;) . Which means I usually nip in and scout out bargains so I will probably have another shop to add later:rolleyes: .
We are off to stay at SIL's at the weekend, with a trip to MIL on Sun and then we are off to see the Bodyworks exhibition at Manchester museum of science and industry on Monday. I have no food plans for the weekend as costs don't come out of the food budget, but I will take snacks with us for the car journeys to save spending excess money at the service stations.
I am getting a bit edgy as I don't think that I will have enough money for this month, and need DW tabs and washing powder too. (only £69.83 left and it's only the 3rd:eek: )
Oh well if I don't manage to come in under budget again I'm sure I will cope - with all that I've saved in the last couple of months I'm sure I'll be fine.
Good luck everyone with your own Grocery Challenges.
Off to munch on some breadsticks (thanks MrsM) nomnomnom!:rotfl:

MrsB.

teedy23

i now have £11.21 left after buying bread today but I bought 4 copies of the Daily Mail to get the £1.00 coupon off pizza (on page 30) I wont count these as groceries. I hope Asda will take these without buying the product, if not Tesco will. I should profit by 55p per paper, this should help me last the month if I stick to bread and milk as planned. Also my lettuce seeds have sprouted HURRAH!
GOOD LUCK WITH THE FAGS MikeD

EmptyPurse

OK, I've started doing an online shop for this month and am up to £39 so far. That includes dishwasher tablets & salt, breakfast stuff and veg to make the following evening meals:

Shepherd's pie (4 meals)
Spaghetti bolagnese (4 meals)
Chicken & chorizo casserole (4 meals)
Beef stew (4 meals)
Sausage with onion gravy (2 meals)

I'll buy the lamb & beef mince and the chicken at the butcher's - does £10 sound about right to cover that? I've already got casserole beef & sausages in the freezer plus two tuna steaks.

So, that leaves me with another seven evening meals to shop for/plan. Oh, and I need to get stuff for packed lunches. Any bright ideas? I'll have half a butternut squash & half a turnip left over from the stew - could I use them for a soup?

WelshWoofer

Just a quick update....
Popped to Aldi to get some of the Supersix F&V offers and some parsnips and came out with 2 Bakewell tarts, grapes (that weren't 49p anymore!), oranges, salad potatoes and a bag of salad. Grand total of £4.08.
Still don't have parsnips so a visit to Sainsburys on the way home may be necessary - will try really hard to just go to the veg part and then straight to the till.

Am really trying to eat more healthily with more F&V but its hard to do sometimes.

Onwards and upwards!