January 2011 Grocery Challenge

Ok just did the last of the shopping today (well except for the £5 in my pocket I'm not counting as it was loose change my hubby had from last months pay which he gave me, which will just go towards bananas later in the month for OH for work)

Know I went a bit over my planned £120 but think thats patly down to A] Me buying loads of toilet roll so should have enough for us next month as well, b] us doing our first trip to a farmers market (some stalls set up in Upminster high-street) wasn't 100% sure what prices might be (well worth it as never knew bacon could taste so good the bacon and pasta was well worth the extra cost ) oh and c] taking my hubby to the shops with me. Yes we needed all the cat food and I did buy some turkey mince we could have gone without, (didn't want to spend most the month only with beef mince) but when I say to him 'go treat yourself to the hot crossed buns on special', that does not mean, fill the trolley up with two lots of four hot crossed buns and some tiger bread etc...

Ah can't complain to much, we have spent £150-£200+ in a month before, so £128 something, isn't to bad at all in my book..

Next months budget will be higher due to using up all the sauces in the cupboard so I will need to go get some ingredient to make my own as going to try and make more of my own sauces from scratch next month. Really need too (and want too) cause my oh is diabetic and he is trying so hard (with me) to loose weight as he was really close to being put on insulin a while back and I don't ever want to see him using needles like that. Other thing is he had his diabetic eye test and the guy said my OH has to watch his sugar levels (he might need to have another eye test) nothing to get overly worried about now, but I want his sugar intake to decrease now rather then when its to late to do anything about. I new there was sugar in these sauces, but look at the ingredient (and I mean really look at it) you don't realise just how much sugar is in them sometimes (this goes for the healthy ones too)

Anyway enough of my rambling unless the cats get desperate for food, pretty sure we are ok for the next 4 weeks till my OH gets paid again.

One last thing, anyone got any suggestions what I can do with some beef mince I have. Just froze 800gs of it in small portions but got another 800g I want to add some sauce to then maybe freeze, can anyone thing of anything other then a red pasta type sauce to go with the meat?

(Once again sorry for the long post my bad lol)

May I join? My current average spending for groceries is £350-£400 ... for two people. And sometimes it was even more... I am going to aim for £250 to start with in January. I have already spent £60 and tomorrow I have another shopping but I think I am still within target and comfortable. *crosses fingers*

Weekly shop today of £49.69 in Mr T's. Stuck to my list, but took £5 extra incase of any bargains.
Had been sent a voucher for some free dog food. Dog food was 40p, yet the voucher only took off 39p. I know it's only a penny, but I don't buy that kind of dog food normally (it was a pouch and I only buy dry). Yet again Mr T's rip me off :mad:

Billie-jo wrote: »

I have 3 tubs of mascapone with a use by date of 10th Jan, will use one tomorrow on the cheesecake but can the others be frozen or not?

Not sure if they can be frozen, but you could use your mascarpone to make this gorgeous Irish Cream Tiramisu - it's a Nigella recipe, needs 500g so that should take care of both your tubs unless they're enormous! I made it for the first time just before Xmas to take to a friend's house for dessert when she cooked dinner at hers and it is DIVINE. :drool: If you don't like Baileys you could leave it out, but it's a great way to use it up if you have some hanging about after Xmas.

Just catching up with everyone's posts - no spend weekend here GC-wise, have been very good. :A Next week should be low spend too, just need milk, bread, bacon and some fruit. Joining in with the thread is really helping me to focus and not fritter money away on things I don't need - I really want to stick to the budget and not ruin a NSD with something silly if I can do without. So big thanks :T to everyone who posts and runs the thread, especially Rosieben - as a newb I find your posts really helpful, glad you'll be carrying on as you were.

lolly101 wrote: »

Yes definitely check, they are in the freezer section BTW. If not, the Value breast fillets are showing up at £3.99 for 1kg on the Tesco website. They don't appear to be on offer, but I remember them costing more than that in store today. Hope you find them!

Oh, sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you meant fresh

One of the side effects of the cocktail of meds my daugther is on is excessive perspiration, and so for the last few months I have regularly been buying Te$co own brand baby wipes so that she can freshen herself up between showers.

They were 87p before Christmas. I checked in store on Friday and they had gone up to something like 92p - which was bad enough - but I've just been checking the prices on My$upermarket for the shopping I need to get tomorrow (which includes baby wipes) and since Friday, they've gone up from 92p to £1.28.

How can they warrant such a rise? :shocked: - that's almost a 50% increase!

I'm lucky that I only need to buy a pack every 2-3 weeks, but at that price, I think any new Mums will have to seriously consider finding an alternative.

It wont affect me personally too much as I only buy a couple of packs a month, but if everything leaps up my amounts like this, it soon will.

We were all expecting increases but not at this level - or at least, I wasn't.

Obviously we are paying for the other "so-called" special offers and VAT busters being rammed down our throats as we walk around the store, by paying through the nose for other items.

Don't you just hate supermarkets?!