August 2008 Grocery Challenge

lemonade_money · 4 August 2008 at 9:03AM

Chell - a shopping morning and baking afternoon whilst heavily pregnant?!? Well done you!
I have £106.72 remaining from my £300 budget :eek: But it's not all bad, I have absolutely loads of food and will only need fruit, salad and milk each week.

newmoneysaver_2 · 4 August 2008 at 9:04AM

Chelltunes - Mr M are doing the 50p items again:
`M' Quarter Pounders
`M' Diced Chicken Fillet
`M' 8 Pack Thick Pork Sausage
`M' 4 Pack Salad Tomatoes
`M' Little Gem Lettuce
`M' New Potatoes
`M' 12pk Barmcakes

(from hotukdeals)

I spent 54p on 3 bananas on my way into work and I'll me popping to Mr M later - hopefully they will have some 50p bits left.

Chell · 4 August 2008 at 9:19AM

lemonade_money wrote: »

Chell - a shopping morning and baking afternoon whilst heavily pregnant?!? Well done you!

It has got to be done

. Trying to stock the freezer a little as I won't be able to after having a c-sec. DH thinks he can cook but he adds the most odd things to a meal, he enjoys his cooking but we don't. :rotfl:

Thanks newmoneysaver, we are veggie though so half of those we won't buy.

ifonlyitwaseasier · 4 August 2008 at 9:25AM

morning all,

well the stardrops impressed yesterday, my friend couldn't believe how clean it got things!

we were shattered!!!! but it was a nsd as they treated us to lunch and dinner (subway and pizza!

)

am planning another nsd today and have a chicken noodle soup thing to try later and i'll post the recipe if it works

ioiwe x

the_cat · 4 August 2008 at 9:34AM

Hi everyone

Just popping in to update my spends. Went to several supermarkets yesterday (luckily live near quite a few!) to stock up on bargains and have now spent £106.30.

Won't 'need' anything for at least another week now, but may be seduced by Lidl reduced ice-creams for the kids (yeah, right:D

!!!!) later in the week.

QUICK HEADS UP: While in Mr S yesterday spotted that they have now reduced their Supercook decorations etc. Roughly the same prices now as MrT/MrA and lots in stock - might help those of you who like me got there too late in the other shops.

EagerLearner · 4 August 2008 at 9:40AM

MrsMcawber - try to add 2 tablespoons powdered milk to the yoghurt, it really does the trick. Then pop the lot through some muslin for 1.5 hours...

Brighton Belle - I don't know what went wrong, I thought you were supposed to make 3 batches in all, from the original batch... but my second one was a disaster. Will add even more milk powder next time.

Overall we worked out that the first batch of 500ml of homemade yoghurt costs £0.55 (live yoghurt), £0.25 milk, £0.05 powdered milk = £0.85 total for 500ml so almost half of what it costs in-store (£1.50ish). If and when I can get it to then 'create' another 2 batches, it lowers to £0.30 per each of the other 500ml... = £0.85 + £0.60 = £1.45 for 1.5kg. A saving of £3.05.

Bails - Excellent, great to do this with you - I am sure we will do well. I wrote out my menu and think I have lots for this month, with any luck, I just need around 6 'mains' ingredients - around 3 portions of chicken, 3 of fish. So I will try to look for deals on these in advance... however my freezer shelf is full!

JayJay14 · 4 August 2008 at 9:42AM

Thanks for the heads up on Mr M's offers NMS I'm off there this afternoon with DDs 1 & 2 so hopefully there'll be some for us too!!

On hol this week and so far today I have run the DW once, the WM twice, empied the utility room freezer and set it to defrost and puwe alsot rice in the SC to cook so I can bag it in portions when the freezer is up and running again.

I've got lots of plans for batch cooking etc - lets just hope I don't get too distracted. DD1 has already conned me into taking her to Leeds on Wed but I thnk it will break the week up nicely.

I also finaly have a garden after 4 years of wasteland - I was very ill a few years ago and what with last years floods as well it's taken us a long time to 'get round to it' but thanks to all the ideas on here, and not least to MrsM and her potio:A I now have the beginnings of a veg garden. We planted some broccoli (had to buy it from the garden centre as it's too late otherwise) and also some seeds. Carrot, spring onion, raddish, parsnip and salad leaves, we also got a lovely rhubarb crown and are thinking of getting some blackcurrant bushes to go next to our raspberries. OH is also pondering a grape vine against the back fence though how well it would grow outside here in Hull I don't know but it might be an interesting experiment.

Anyway off todig all the ice out of the freezer - see you all later:D

KAAT_LADY · 4 August 2008 at 9:44AM

goodmorning everyone

Another NSD I hope

As we have everything in ,, I still shouldnt go out for anything,, but DH is gooint to the docs today,, so that usually means prescription which we get at MrT's,,if I ask him to stay in the car I dont usually buy anything,, well we will see

see you soon

KAAT

Tigerpants · 4 August 2008 at 9:57AM

chelltune wrote: »

Just updated my sig, I can't believe that it is dead on £60! It was £58.61 but DH went and got a part bake bloomer from Tesco Express to go with our rissoto last night, naughty but it was yummy and we were still in budget. That was £1.39 making the total £60 exact for the week. This is for two adults, a five year old and three year old. From later this week I'll have an newborn too but I plan to breastfeed, use real nappies and hopefully real wipes most of the time. I've got some cotton wool and disposable nappies for while I'm in hospital.

I'm off to Morrisons later to get our groceries (Asda store is cheaper but hge and I can't be bothered trawling round there with the children), I am really short of quite a few basics . I'm also going to have to buy a few things that we don't need yet eg toothpaste so I can take the old one and leave some here for DH. I hope to do some cooking/baking this afternoon.

Chelltune I am in awe :A :T :T :T

I wanted to murder everyone about me just before I went in to have my third not go supermarket shopping and baking :rotfl:

Am also in awe that you manage to stay so within budget too - really not quite sure what I'm doing wrong

but I'll try

Actually, I will go and have a look around now as I am HUGE into baking and that takes up loads of money on eggs, flour, icing sugar etc. so if there are any additional hints and helps on this I would be very, very grateful but will go and look around too.

Hoping to have a NSD today

We were supposed to have a full roast dinner yesterday but the chicken didn't defrost in time so ended up having pasta and pesto so that means we sort of have an extra meal in the bag for this week as it has pushed all my menu plans back a day :T

Have a friend's children here today though so that means loads of food being eaten and as it is sadly raining they're hanging around lots and mooching for snacks

kids eh

Good luck all!!:D

SueB · 4 August 2008 at 10:40AM

Morning all.
Just come back from shopping and have spent another £12.44.
£10 of that was in Poundland. I managed to pick up 2 tumble dryer balls - I'm cutting back on the TD but hopefully this will help when I do use it. I also bought microfibre cloths - 1 dry and 1 wet.
So money spent but hopefully money saved over time

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August 2008 Grocery Challenge

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