April 2010 Grocery Challenge

missy_dee_2 · 13 April 2010 at 10:03PM

Good evening all

Just upated my sig with £15 spend on Sunday at co-op/Tesco - total was £25 but £10 on wine and glossy mags - sep budget thankfully!

As I've still got lots in freezer I just needed milk, bread juice, fruit & veg(most reduced!) catfood, loo rolls. I then bought a co-op half price chicken and some greatly reduced pork steaks. I read on an earlier post something about a 'rubber chicken' - when I finally realised what it meant (DOH!) I thought I'd try it....roast dinner on Sunday, Chicken supreme on Monday and making a chicken & dumpling broth on Wed - could not face more chicken tonight! Not sure if I could stretch it more than that though.

It really has worked avoiding the shops - last week went twice - this week my target is just the once - I've even bought extra milk & bread to freeze - which I never do. I think next month will be hard though as I will have used up most of my freezer stock - but we'll see.

Anyway no food shopping until next Sunday but I will keep up with the thread as it's so inspiring - so thanks everyone.

Missy Dee

kezlou · 13 April 2010 at 11:47PM

Hi all well almost reaching the £100 mark, darn it. But i think i have everything in for meals for the rest of the week, i hope.
In my house (even frozen HM meals, cheese) magically disappear. Still got loads of rice, pots and now a kilo of pasta in, so should be okay.

Half way through the month so still have £66 in the kitty.

franby64 · 14 April 2010 at 7:47AM

Morning all

Managed to despatch £77.13 of my budget yesterday by going to the shops and having a T*sco delivery. I'm now 67% of the way through the budget but won't do another online shop this month so that leaves me with about £8.50 a day. I may even manage it this month!

Dreamywings1 and Sunnyday - Stay positive

I messed up thoroughly in December and March and didn't do much better the other months! I think the most important thing is just to keep on keeping track of what you're spending. I always keep counting even when I go over (which I probably will despite what I said above!). I do money in this house and I could never go back to not knowing how much I'm spending because it's scary and I'm the one who has to keep it sorted!

Have a frugal day everybody (I shall be "popping to the shops" for milk despite yesterdays spend

).

Winged_one · 14 April 2010 at 9:07AM

I managed a NSD yesterday, and almost one on Monday except I had a GP fee for DD, and a subsequent car parking charge (as the train station park was full, so I drove to work afterall and had to pay for the day). But at least it seems like DD doesn't have anything worrying going on - that was worth it.

DH decided he WOULD have dinner at home tonight after all, so he took a chilli from freezer in a mood as I hadn't anything out yet (he is out late and had said he wanted a chipper dinner, so I had planned on something like soup or scrambled eggs for myself).

I must get back to salad lunches again though, as I am feeling seriously bloated and overweight recently. I think it's the sambos for lunches, when I used to have a large bowl of veggies only. SO back to peeling a couple of carrots, grabbing a handful of tomatoes, and choppping half a pepper with a few olives from tomorrow. And a few salad leaves from the garden.

dreamywings1 · 14 April 2010 at 1:12PM

After some serious soul searching and giving myself a good !!!! kicking im determined to get back on track. Ive given myself a yearly budget of £4800 running from 1st April and ending on 31st March 2011 so as long as I dont go much more over this month ive still got 11 months to play with (time will tell to see how this goes) BUT i still think with serious meal planning and other bits I should be able come in under budget fingers crossed anyway.

I AM going to meal plan and I WILL stick to it!!!

On the plus side not been near a shop for a cpl of days and im having a PJ day today so that should keep me out of trouble lol

lizbob · 14 April 2010 at 1:16PM

i'm definately going to have to buy more salad, flour, milk and onions so i predict going over by about £10 seeing as i only have £1 left in the budget!!!

Sunnyday · 14 April 2010 at 1:22PM

Well i`ve just updated my sig after searching out and totting up my receipts and i`ve got less than £50 left to do 3 weekly shops :eek:

On the plus side the freezer is full and i`ve enough dog and cat food left to see me through but its the low carb food which i`m buying for my diet which i`m struggling with.

I had budgeted for this (or thought that i had) so i shouldnt be in such a muddle really, its my own fault though as if i`d stuck to the original meal plan then all should be well.

Thanks for your support everyone - it means a lot and spurs me on a bit to get back on track.:A

I need an overhaul for the meal planner but don`t have time for the next few days to sit down and look at it properly. I`m still sorting through hoards of papers and receipts, serves me right for not keeping up to date with the bank statements

Hopefully over the next week or so i shall be a bit more organised but that depends on the weather really as if its nice i shall be in the garden before going to work. Work does get in the way a bit

Happy shopping peeps - or not

SD

Bluefire · 14 April 2010 at 1:34PM

£3 on more cereal bars from Lidl - may as well buy them while they're on offer! Only a week & a bit to budget for before we go to Turkey so I think we should be ok for the month.

wssla00 · 14 April 2010 at 2:19PM

Hmm... wrote this earlier but it didn't write...Hmmm!

NSD for me and only six more days to go...! Whoop... don't think im going to be spending anymore until next week so should be ok

Going to have a baked risotto for dinner (if you haven't tried baking a risotto do- its so much easier and you wont want to go back to standing over a pot stirring constantly) with chicken and mushrooms

made it a couple of weeks ago and put it in the freezer so that is dinner for tonight.

I am also loving Asda's new fizzies... replicas of the big brands like fanta and dr pepper... all about 40p a bottle. Very good I must say

Enjoy the day all

Long_tall_sally · 14 April 2010 at 2:30PM

Never managed to get to Morrisons today as OH kindly took me shopping to Nottingham so just had a lovely Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. Have spent just over a fiver at the co-op though as they had 2 Warburtons wholemeal loaves for £2 and ICBINButter on BOGOF.

All these little shops are definitely adding up though. I think I have been going every other day recently, maybe more. The things that I got today don't really matter as they will soon be used up & would have been bought somewhere soon anyway but it is the other things that quite often find their way into my basket that aren't really necessary that keep pushing my spends up.

I think I will have one more look for my freezer content list & if I can't find it, I will do the next one on the PC so that I always have that one to refer back to.

I really must find the time to make some banana loaves as I have so many to use up. I got a big bag of them for 50p from the market on Saturday & even though we have probably already eaten about 6 of them & got our money's worth in terms of how much they could have cost, it still seems a waste to not use them all up.

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April 2010 Grocery Challenge

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