July 2012 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending · 27 June 2012 at 9:19AM

Thanks for putting my July budget down and for running this thread

.

I've spent £77 so far and don't need much else (if anything) this week so all good. LO fish pie for me today as others have HM pizza and I can't eat bread. Carrot and coriander soup was lovely and I have some LO which I can take out with me tomorrow in a flask.

Possession · 27 June 2012 at 9:37AM

A big meat order - £66.56 from our local butcher, but I did get a boned shoulder of lamb, 5 lb sausages, 5 lb minced beef, 20 chicken thighs, 24 1/4 pounders, 5 lb bacon. It will all be separated up and frozen and will last a while - longer than this month at least. In cases like this do people allocate some of the spend for another month?

lilian1977 · 27 June 2012 at 10:06AM

Hi - please could you add me to the challenge? I'm also doing the Fiscal Fast so am really hoping to spend no more than £80 on two adults and a 17 month old this month - have loads of stores in so hoping I'll be able to make do. I won't be including toddler formula milk in this budget.

My month will run June 28th until July 27th due to pay day date.

Thanks!

In_it_not_to_giveitaway · 27 June 2012 at 10:13AM

Possession - yes I've wondered about that too. In accounting terms this is called the matching principle, but on here everyone seems to talk in terms of cash paid.

I have quite a lot of meat in the freezer section of my fridge freezer and several things in the cupboard such as tinned fish, soups, instant noodels etc. If I used all of it and spent very little on replacements, then my GC spend for the month would misrepresent consumption.

This is why I like the cupboard system of one open, one spare. So far as all items are used then the items replaced in a month over a period of several months ought to reflect average consumption. This should work for all GC items except meat.

I agree with you that a large order from a good butcher is worthwhile, exspecially in terms of quality. Would it be too time consuming to divide the items and cost them on freezing and including the cost of the used items in the GC spend? It would depend on whether the butcher itemized the cost.

At the moment I am going to do a mixture of both - I know how much the meat is in the freezer (most of it is still on the packet) and for many items in the cupboard - but lots of other items will use a cash basis. Going to try and drain the freezer and cupboards to near zero by the month-end so that I can start properly for August. I am still at the stage where I am familiarizing myself with comparative prices across supermarkets, wilkinsons and poundland etc.

Oh - where is the cheapest place to get re-useable freezer boxes in bulk (need about 30)?

Best regards to all,

Possession · 27 June 2012 at 10:34AM

In_it_not_to_giveitaway wrote: »

Possession - yes I've wondered about that too. In accounting terms this is called the matching principle, but on here everyone seems to talk in terms of cash paid.

I have quite a lot of meat in the freezer section of my fridge freezer and several things in the cupboard such as tinned fish, soups, instant noodels etc. If I used all of it and spent very little on replacements, then my GC spend for the month would misrepresent consumption.

This is why I like the cupboard system of one open, one spare. So far as all items are used then the items replaced in a month over a period of several months ought to reflect average consumption. This should work for all GC items except meat.

I agree with you that a large order from a good butcher is worthwhile, exspecially in terms of quality. Would it be too time consuming to divide the items and cost them on freezing and including the cost of the used items in the GC spend? It would depend on whether the butcher itemized the cost.

At the moment I am going to do a mixture of both - I know how much the meat is in the freezer (most of it is still on the packet) and for many items in the cupboard - but lots of other items will use a cash basis. Going to try and drain the freezer and cupboards to near zero by the month-end so that I can start properly for August. I am still at the stage where I am familiarizing myself with comparative prices across supermarkets, wilkinsons and poundland etc.

Oh - where is the cheapest place to get re-useable freezer boxes in bulk (need about 30)?

Best regards to all,

Yes I could do that, I have each item itemised. The lamb shoulder is obviously a one-off as we are entertaining, that was £15.50. Although there may be leftovers I won't count it now.
The burgers were 60p each *24. I'm leaving only 6 of them as burgers, the rest are being made into meatballs (long story but they make delicious meatballs!) with each meatball costing 15p. I'm freezing them in packs of 12.
The chicken thighs were 40p each.
The bacon was £8.95 for 2.5 kilos.
The mince was £4.85 per kilo and I have 2.5 kilos.
The sausages were £10 something for 2.5 kilos.
I think there's meat there for about 38 meals, possibly more if I do some more stretching with lentils etc. If I take off the lamb it means the order cost about £51 for the meat in 37 meals. (I got this at trade price BTW if it seems cheap.) So perhaps I need to count £30 of it in this month and £20 in August.
Apologies for this being very long and boring guys!

katiegirl · 27 June 2012 at 10:56AM

Pay day today :j I love having money in the bank, I've been working for 18 months and its still a lovely feeling!

Despite the above I'm aiming for a NSD today and tomorrow and possibly even Friday! My daughter is going out for tea tonight and I'm working a 12 hour shift tomorrow (so she'll be having tea at my friend's), Friday is an inset day but we have food for meals, it just depends if we spend money when out really.

Dd took a sandwich, yoghurt and grapes for lunch. I'm going to have a wrap. Then I've got some chorizo sausages defrosting which I'll cook with tomato sauce (onion, garlic, little bit of chilli, tomato puree, tinned toms) and have some with pasta tonight, then mix some beans in and take a potion to work tomorrow and freeze a portion.

I've got two eggs to use so I'm going to make some white chocolate cookies later I think.

I love reading about what people grow in their gardens and how they use it, when we move house we'll have a garden for the first time and I plan on growing some vegetables and herbs. I'll be coming on here for tips!

In_it_not_to_giveitaway · 27 June 2012 at 11:30AM

Katiegirl - I only have a back yard. But I am determined to have a go at growing at least my own herbs - they are very expensive fresh and dried herbs come a very distant second, in terms of flavour.

Looking at some of the July budgets other people have for an entire family, £177 seems a lot just for one. I suppose step by step is a start.

So far I have had an NSM (No Spending Morning)! Formula NSM + NSA + NSE = NSD. It's always the NSEvening that's the problem - shopping on the way home from work!

Best wishes all,

sneakyspender · 27 June 2012 at 11:44AM

Hello all,

I have made.a yummy chicken curry for tea as homelate tonight. Just realised we have no rice. Looked at the chapatti recipie looks easy, only problem is needs to be left for an hour before rolling out. Could I do the dough now or would it spoil by tonight ? Many thanks

jedi82 · 27 June 2012 at 12:07PM

Good monring all!

Going to go for £400 again in July and try and actually achieve this. It is do-able, just have to concentrate....

Today is my birthday and so being very non MSE tonight and having a chinese take-away but that is definitely coming out of a different budget! Very impressed with my birthday pressie from DH and the kiddies - a blueberry bush! We don't have much money and so to get me something without going overboard and also something we can eat is fantastic (maybe I am winning him over to MS afterall!!)

Have a good day all

Jedi x

jasmin10 · 27 June 2012 at 12:29PM

ooh and were off, shiney shiney new thread, havent had chance to read up yet but will catch up tonight when I get 5.

So I have done my first shop for July and came in at £39.32, just under budget, fingers crossed I can stick to my meal plans for the week as we dont have anything else in except for what I planned so any deviation will lead to a spend.

I was up at 6am with DD2 and made some Bread Pudding out of the scrap ends that I have been saving from my hm bread, so that was in and out of the oven for 8.30am (house smelt luurrvely). Got back from school run at 9.30am and made Tuna Pasta Bake which I divided up into portions and put in freezer for DH to have 'ready meals' for work for the week. Also made some hob nob biscuits (nob nobs as DD1 calls then as she got muddled up with the name), so we have a few treats too. Just sat down after all this to have a cup of tea and a couple of biccies. Will then get DD2 her dinner, make some Jelly for DD1, ready for tonights pudding and then head off to school for 1.30 as it's DD1's Sport, then after that it's her swimming lesson and then back home for 5.30 to have dinner, salami pasta for DH and I and Fishfingers, hm chips and peas (an jelly of course) for DD1.

Phew, roll on 7.30 when they are all in bed

Must admit I have thoroughly enjoyed it all today xx

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July 2012 Grocery Challenge

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