January 2011 Grocery Challenge

Candy_Belle · 22 January 2011 at 5:00PM

First spend of feb's budget today did a big shop at A**i £45.01 and picked up a few things that I needed from Sainsbugs £7.35 so a total spend of £52.36!! But we have enough in for the week to keep us going! (hopefully.....) x

Mothership · 22 January 2011 at 5:08PM

scotsaver wrote: »

Mothership - many thanks for this - I've toyed with the idea of ordering from them before but thought they were too expensive but have decided that these packs look too good to miss out on and as we are cutting down on the number of days we eat meat then on the days that we eat meat it should be the best quality that I can buy. Have picked a delivery date in February so we have time to empty the Freezers to make room and I will take the amount spent out of Feb GC. :j

Off now to double check what we have in the Freezers and meal plan around contents so that I have enough space when delivery comes.:o

Thats EXACTLY what we are doing LOL. You know its just a great pity we are all spread so far and wide, I bet we would all get on like a house on fire. All like minded folk trying to feed our families and survive this recession.
I for one am sick to the teeth of having to buy from the big ones, and seeing all the little businesses go under. Six butchers/wet fish shops within a 2 mile radius of have closed down. The lure of cheap supermarket meat drew all of us in, and its just tasteless mush. I still have to go to the supermarket for most stuff, but I'm an utter tart I go to them all, buy the deals and leave.
I love the whole ethos of this site. The idea of the consumer fighting back really fires me up. If I need inspiration half an hour reading all your posts keeps me focused.

Long_tall_sally · 22 January 2011 at 5:08PM

becky170 wrote: »

Went to MrT this morning to stock up on some fruit and veg and spent £12.31. Hopefully I'll have enough to last me the week, and I absoutely must start eating things out my freezer and it's busting at the seams! Maybe I should do a storecupboard challenge

Yes me too becky. I have just had a very quick tally of my freezer as it is so cold out there & I have:
1 huge turkey
1 largechicken
1 beef joint
1 beef stirfry
1 pork stirfry
2 packets of normal sausages
1 packet of gluten free sausages
Fish fingers & fishcakes
Burgers& gluten free burgers
Gluten free chicken steak
Sausage meat
1 packet of prawns
1 packet of mince
2 Goodfellas pizzas

Bit silly really seeing as our new month starts again on Wednesday!

Forgot to say - another £1.50 spend last night as we had also run out of potatoes!

goingontoolong · 22 January 2011 at 5:40PM

Hi guys,

a bit confuzzled over the amount spent since there was stuff in there for DS that comes out of his pocket money allowance type thing. So £63.80 minus the £20 for his clothing allowance. £43.80 plus a £4 spend in boots for deodorant for OH. £47.80

However, like i said earlier, this is quite alot of cupboard stuff that I am hoping I will not need every week. I am going to make veggie soup tonight I think as theres tonsa carrots in the fridge that are within a whisper of being past their peak!! Got some onions of the same quality and some tatties so that will do us a nice winter warmer!

Technically over my weekly dream spend but I am certain that next week will be much less with this one being the first of the month for us. ;-)

becky170 · 22 January 2011 at 6:00PM

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Yes me too becky. I have just had a very quick tally of my freezer as it is so cold out there & I have:
1 huge turkey
1 largechicken
1 beef joint
1 beef stirfry
1 pork stirfry
2 packets of normal sausages
1 packet of gluten free sausages
Fish fingers & fishcakes
Burgers& gluten free burgers
Gluten free chicken steak
Sausage meat
1 packet of prawns
1 packet of mince
2 Goodfellas pizzas

Bit silly really seeing as our new month starts again on Wednesday!

I should do an inventory as I have no idea what I have in there

It's only a tiny table top freezer and everytime I go in/out I have to move quickly otherwise things start falling out! I'm looking forward to the day when I get my own place and can buy a big freezer :j

OrkneyStar · 22 January 2011 at 6:12PM

Rest of this weeks £40 spent:
£10 on diesel (£1.42.9p/L where I got it today)
~£11 in Tesco (spent about £15 but some was from my treat budget, eg a can of Red Bull lol!).
Basically pennies left this week, new week starts on Fri. Plenty in though, and Haggis/Veggie Haggis, neeps and tatties for burns night. Tonight was a fake-away of pizza, chips, garlic bread and salad.....mmm, stuffed now!
x

SilverCo · 22 January 2011 at 6:22PM

Small spend in Mr T last night, stocked up on their P1enty kitchen towel as 2-roll pack on offer at £1. Will update siggy when I find receipt! Only one week to go for me, then aiming to come in under budget next month!!

The Donald Russell meat does look very tempting, but I'm still not happy buying from a supplier that deals in Dutch veal - throwback from the days when calves were treated appallingly I guess! Shame we can't get our butchers to sell more British veal as it tastes lovely. Both DH and I also suffer bad reactions from eating beef, but veal is a much more palatable alternative. Plus side - means I won't spend more!

Silver x

dumpling · 22 January 2011 at 6:29PM

Well, I have certainly been inspired to stick to this challenge. I have one more big shop to go and was going to spend over £100 to get free delivery but that would take me over my budget so I have taken note of everything I have in my freezers and have halved my shop to just over £50 which would make me below my budget. Yay!:T

I've really enjoyed thinking about what we spend on food and how we can get it reduced. I love shopping but now I ask myself if I really need it before I buy it.

Sainsbugs have offered me 3 vouchers for extra Nectar points if I spend over £90 and before I started this challenge I would have done exactly that but now they cannot tempt me lol. :rotfl:

cjj_2 · 22 January 2011 at 6:51PM

Hi
Im gonna give this challenge a good go. We are 2 adults and 2 kids (one is very fussy with food which dosent help). Think I probably spend about £75 pw on food hoping to get it down to £50 pw. Just stocked up on Lidls mince @ 99p for 500g, spag bol for tea made from the tinned toms I stocked up on last week. Spent £30.13 since Weds so got £20 left till Weds. Gona make my own sandwich ham as per old style board it will save me a bomb and better quality also gonna do my own sandwich beef from joints when they are on offer.
Well done everyone so far:T

prettypaula · 22 January 2011 at 7:02PM

well well well, its took me lots of tea breaks to get through it but i have pretty much read this all the way through in the last few days!

hubby and i fell off the wagon a bit last year and had a LBM this month scraping change to pay for milk/bread etc.

its pretty ridiculous as we both earn good money, but i have fallen victim to the shameless commercialism of well, pretty much everything!

i totalled up grocery spending and takeaways from 7th dec to 8th jan using my bank statement and it came to a HUGE estimated £608!!!! outrageous, god only knows how it was this much and christ knows what weve done with it all... we dont have kids, just 5 hungry kitties.

so anyway, in Feb we will be sticking to £150 for the month, store cupboards are looking okay but think i may need to do a freezer re stock in Feb as we are skint and as such will be running it down until 31st when we get paid.

im also trying to lose weight with weight watchers, but i may revert to OS weight loss thread instead, which will save another £11 pm.

today i have:

Used a whoopsie pack of free range chicken thighs/drumsticks to make a chicken chasseur which is in the oven, and the drumsticks are in a seperate pan covered in spices for pack ups.
gonna have the chasseur tonight with mash and green beans.

friends coming over later so will make some home made salsa and have some breadsticks in the cupboard to put out with it.

crikey i aint 'alf missed you lot!

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January 2011 Grocery Challenge

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