May 2008 Grocery Challenge

natzini

Morning all!
Yesterday we got our compensation cheque through from EDF and it's £25 more than we expected, so that's good. Still finished over budget, but we'll get there next month as we (hopefully) won't have power cuts!
Got a freezer full of whoopsies and portioned up meat, I'll be portioning up mash later on today as we have Jack Daniels ham for dinner, with mash and veg. I'll be making some Millies cookies later and will be making some yummy bakes during the week, as it's half term I can make cakes and then freeze them, which is great.

I'd like to declare May as £133.45 and my Grocery challenge for June will be £125

gunsandbanjos

My budget for may is finally bust:o It was maybe a tad low for a 5 week month though Went to Mr T's and spent £44.44 this was after all my discounts, not too bad though as it was a big stock up shop. My hubby thinks i'm stocking up in case there is a war:rotfl: I have about 7 bags of flour, 8 pasta etc

Dont know if this is just a Scottish thing, but Mr T and Mr S both stock Rowan Glen Spreadeasy butter, its only 70p for 250g so is cheaper than basics butter. I discovered it last week and have been using it in all my baking etc and its absolutely fine. The side of the pack lists the only added ingredient as salt so it is not full of nasties either. I currently have 8 pats in my fridge before they bump the price up:rolleyes:

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there Dink1

I hope you can grow lettuce in tubs



If not then im in trouble :rotfl:

victory

Morning in this wet and sodden day:D looks like it is a house work, re-arranging cupboards day today, oh well at least it is not a spend day, nsd again:D

I might venture into the kitchen later and make something but the kids have had so much recently I might just read the paper all day long:rotfl: :rotfl: it is not going to be a busy day:rotfl:

savingfortravel

Hi everyone

On television this morning there was a report about wasting food. The mum of the family featured was about to buy a £9 joint but said that she may end up throwing it away. She kept a separate fridge full of all her waste and a chef came and made a dinner out of some of it. The mother hadn't covered up the left over spag bol so that had to be chucked but a lot of it was fresh food that hadn't even been opened.

Anyway we'd like to declare our total at £55.93 so that's another 143.77 towards our Central American Trip...bringing it up to £712!!!

We're not giving up the dream until we know that OB (Old Boyfriend) didn't get the job he went for. So we will be adding another a picture to our fridge to keep the rainbow billed toucan and the howler monkey company... maybe of a respendant quetzal.. a beautiful green and red bird with a long tail found in Costa Rican rainforest.

Well done to everyone who has come in under budget.
Hugs to those who didn't.

Will continue to post on here until June thread is up...

SFT

mandy_moo_1

morning all :wave: and what a lovely morning it is today

i've just added up my spends for the month and i'd like to declare i've spent
:j:jfor May £191.65 out of £240 :j:j

i've still got a fair bit in the freezers so i'm gonna try for
£55 a week for June pls Mrs Mc

didn't really manage to get much on my whoopsie hunt this morning tho....just a 3kg bag of dog biscuits for 9p, box of glo-white sachets 9p and a box of colour run sachets for 9p.

still gonna pop out to Mr S for my milk with the vouchers, but i've included that in my total. i'm dead excited about starting the new challenge. i know its silly, but i love being able to put any spare money (when i have any!) in my sealed tin. haven't a clue what's in there but it's getting heavy!

thanks to everyone on here for all your support and recipe ideas...keep 'em coming!

hope everyone has a good day xx

just wanna add.....
Mrs Mc those lettuces look like they'll last you till christmas! wish mine would hurry up and grow!

SFT well done on your total for May....how on earth do you keep it that low? don't you have any pets? is it just the 2 of you? looks like you'll be able to bring your trip forward!

SuziQ

I am keen to join this as have just ended up on IS following loss of job (liquidation) but don't know where to start? Coincidentally,have been much more careful the the last couple of weeks,have been looking in fridge to use up stuff rather than throw it away (revolutionary for me!) and have done an inventory on all my cleaning,bath,etc stuff-loads there,only need some cheap non bio washing powder for DD who washes her own clothes but refuses to use my wash balls! I have been amazed and gratified at how little I have 'wasted' in this time.
So my question is,how do I know how much budget to set? I have no idea how much I usually spend-scared to know!-There's me,3 children (one special needs still in napies at night,cost £5 per month) and 2 greedy cats who can't eat dried food. I am veggie,am lucky that my 3 kids will eat anything and everything! I don't consider myself a great cook but willing to have a go and not working so plenty of time. I don't have many gadgets-no breadmaker,slow cooker or pressure cooker.

Another question-I have quorn bits and chicken-breast style fillets in freezer I need to use up-what on earth do folks do with them? It seemed like a good idea to buy them at the time and they weren't cheap so first challenge is to use them up!

Justamum

I]skuttles in hoping not to be noticed[/I

I'm declaring at a truly embarassing whopping £453.19 :eek::eek:

I]skuttles out again, head down in shame[/I

saffouri

Dear all,

Again a quickie - in the middle of the relatives staying and my going off early Tuesday. Turns out my sister-in-law combined this weekend with a business meeting and could claim £17 on meal expenses for that one day, which she's promptly given back to us to help us with our shopping. Knowing that, I spent a bit more on M&S food on Friday, and have taken that £17 off our grocery spend for this month (not sure if that's cheating or not however but even if I did add that spend in we will probably be just on budget in a couple of days :beer:). Baked up the courgette tea bread (a hit!) and herb bread, made up hummous and lentil salad to go with everything else over the weekend, and we're going through that extra fruit and veg from the veg box order like nobody's business. Glad we don't have 4 adults in the house all the time....

Good news is they've offered to do the cooking tonight and I'm banned from the kitchen - hooray! :j:j

DH and I still haven't worked out what we're doing for the June GC given my being away, but we'll see.

Hope everyone is well, hugs to those who need them.

saf

savingfortravel

Welcome SusiQ
Keep a diary in your first month and then you'll know what a realistic budget would be. Don't be tempted to set it too low as a sense of achievement is important if you're making this a lifestyle change. Then next month post your budget in bold red for Mrs Mc and she'll add you to the challenge.
Lots of cooking advice given here (although I wouldn't be the person to ask).
HTH

SFT