June 2008 Grocery Challenge

fizzel81

hmmm pizza menus comeing through the door make it so tempting
any large 12 inch pizza, 8pcs chicken wings, 4pcs garlic bread and a bottle of drink 10.95

but thats 1/8th of my budget ! and i could possibly make 5 if not more evening meals on this challenge for what i could buy above

nb menu now in the recycling bag

mrs_pepperpot_3

im doing a 210 shop for the month, im doing it al by mr t and online shopping, i only buy value and as for delivery charges i use online copons and two codes i found on the site, thats 4 x 50 shops for 5 people and two dogs, three cats, lol. my first two orders are sorted, but my larder looks like a mini tescos already. im cooking all from scratch, including rolls.

Zend

First shop of the month yesterday, was £66.64 but with £10 off vouchers it came to £56.64. I had only intended to spend £30 ish. Still, there were several reduced items which will do for meals for the month.

On Saturday I bought two cushions which were reduced. I paid for them from my pocket money but will probably get the money out of the grocery savings. Yesterday, £10 for compost, this grow your own vegs is not cheap:eek: .

mama67

wpsmyth wrote: »

I have three kids, 16, 14 and 12 and was never ended forking out money for lunches, phone top ups, clothes and other 'incidentals' that drained me and my wife of ready cash.

Then along came our superhero, Martin Lewis and gave me the idea to get my hard earned cash under control. So what has this to do with packed lunches? I told my kids why we needed some cost control, shared the extent of our spending on food and other stuff and believe me it was obscene. If you haven't used it, see budget planner under free tools on the right as it really makes you think! Then I set up standing orders for each of them and their own saving accounts. They get £15 each for the boys and £10 for my youngest. This money is for clothing, top-ups, any other incidentals and school lunches. I added a condition in their favour, if they wanted to pack a lunch from what was available in the house, and I was happy to supply within reason, they could save the balance. And what do you know, two out of three are taking a packed lunch now. The middle boy buys cheap canned drinks instead of 60p from the vendor and is more careful with his money than he was with mine. They are managing their money better than before and don't make any additional demands on me. The youngest has a healthy balance in her account and is delighted with her savings. And they have discovered free text offers on their mobiles now that they are paying too.:j Don't get me wrong, they have completely stopped asking for stuff, but now I have a ready reply.

Incidently, my first very long post. I cut my shopping on food and household from over £1,000 to just over £400 in the first month, April. The level of waste was embarrassing.

I did something similar when he started Secondary School with my eldest in that each time I get Child benefit he gets an allowance to pay for his "going out" clothes,and any extras/treats he thinks he needs; we still pay for school uniform and shoes, football boots - up to an agreed figure.

Add to that he now has a small Saturday job and is saving a fifth direct into the bank each payday, he always seems to have money and even offers to chip in towards the very rare takeaway we have.

Both boys have always saved Christmas and birthday money to use for their palystation games etc.

victory

zend how much do you think you spend on veg growing? Moving 2 weeks time and want to start , eat so much veg should counter act the initial outgoing in the long run?

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon ladies n gents

Ohhh yes managed to keep my behind out of the supermarket today 2 NSDs in a row

Have been outside -mown and strimmed the lawn and shifted round a lot of my potio as a lot of things were getting to big and fighting for space -and well i thought it might be nice if me n hubby had somewhere to sit too -have squidged that table n benches in :rotfl: don't know what i was thinking when i went out there as its scorching..so im now a big soggy puddle ... just checked and its 80 indoor in the shade and its 4pm here so not even the hottest part of the day :eek: ... and the veggies are going to need a super soaking tonight...oh well it all burns cals i suppose...

Im NOT going shopping tomorrow either :A :rotfl: .... still no room in the fridge..i did try.. had a huge wedge of water melon, strawbs, kiwi and black grapes for lunch -but it hasn't made much of a dent in it... im trying to eye up a gap so i can make some coleslaw for dinner tonight and extras for me tomorrow

Seashell -yep its strong bread flour you want

Anitaj - :T on the baking... be warned it can become addictive

Yesterday i dug out a lovely looking recipe for baguettes..can i remember which book/mag it was in? can i eckers like :rolleyes: i will track it down as they looked stunning and thought i could make some for hubbies lunches.. so that is my mission in a moment when i have had a cold shower...find the bloomin recipe

Right off for a shower before i pass out...

Lucifa73

Baguettes good fresh but go stale real quick...

Perhaps parbake the ones you don't need immediately and freeze?

OrkneyStar

Just popped on to update my sig with last spend £2.83 from the 'food envelope'. Not too bad- got some bread flour to tide us over til big Lidl shop in a week or so (have a couple of half bags left as well), spring onions for tomorrows fish cakes (rest will not be thrown away though!) and 2 pears to make some fruit puree for DS. Had a look at the reduced stuff- mainly bread but only down by about 20p and also some chilled stuff- most of it still far too expensive/not something we eat (chopped mango reduced to 75p, yet I can get whole ones for 49p or even less at Lidl)- have to be careful as not all reduced/whoopsies are a bargain! Took DS in his sling so that I did not have energy/room to carry much
Nice walk out for us both too.
Made another loaf this morning-half white/half beremeal mmmmmm
Also happy that I came across nearly £2 in change from last months food budget (my own challenge) so added that to the envelope, will make this minimal spend week easier I hope- still not planning to take any more from the actual food budget just the leftovers envelope!

This thread moves ultra fast!

poohbear59

I am someone who never, ever buys take away meals but I was feeling so s**t yesterday that I bought a curry for the family. It cost £41.75, so that is about a quarter of my monthly budget. DD has offered to cook the evening meal for me today, and we had yesterdays' leftovers for lunch.
I have resolved to go back to my NSDs and try to keep within the budget

DS3 is 18 at the weekend and I have a seperate budget for that. Thanks should go to lil_me for suggesting that about a year ago. June is our difficult month as we also have DH b'day.

mama67

Went to Mr S this morning and managed to get an assortment of meat from steak to whole chickens £40 worth for £25.

This with what meat I already have in freezer should just about do Juune with just needing some sandwich stuff for DH and DS2. DS1 has lunch money, and gets a good lunch for that but also takes his own drinks in.

At his school they are not allowed off the premises at lunch time so they can't buy C**p from the shop, he usually has a bacon butty or a toasted teacake at break and then a 12" sub at lunch full of chicken/cheese and salad. It helps as well that I know one of the dinner ladies and she doesn't see him for a couple f days she checks up with me to see if he's been off school.

he likes his food too much though to not get it. I give him £2 daily and this is enough for what he has.