January 2011 Grocery Challenge

redkids1972 · 22 January 2011 at 9:27PM

Well done supersally home improvement sound fab. Im overbudget this month but have a freezer full of food to see me thru. Gunna set Febs budget at £220 for 2 adults 3 kids and 3 cats. Its GUNNA be tight but I love a challenge.

martafdz · 22 January 2011 at 9:42PM

Today I am a bit disappointed with myself. I went to the city centre to but bedsheets and ended up buying far too many things

I have spent £5.77 in Aldi (2 x green olives at 39p, found this price really good!!; basic honey puffs at 99p, bread at 99p, red pesto jar at 99p and white cheddar at £1.99 plus a carrier bad at 3p that I forgot they charged!). Anyway, that makes my total £168.90 / £250. Did I need any of that? Nop. Only bread for tomorrow. Grrr! Lol

I also tried to make pizza today and bread two days ago, the result is that instead of saving money I have thrown away all of it since after cooking for ages the dough was still undercooked, grey and like a dense block of.. well, undercooked dough!

Really frustrating. I cannot understand why either.

Anyway, I am determined to master basic cooking skills in the next couple of years, so I bought myself a pretty pretty apron with pinky hearts (it's sooo lovely!!!), a chopping board (was chopping on plates), a casserole dish, a rolling pin and a painting brush. Plus double duvet set, £43.03 spent at TkM. Why did I leave the house!?? Oh, yes, to post the items I sold on eBay... which gave me a £20 profit I have already spent in cooking bits!!

Not proud, not proud...

At least I have £80-ish for the rest of the month, which I think it is maneagable.

zcrat41 · 22 January 2011 at 10:19PM

well, thought i'd pop on here and say hello.

In January I have spent so far over £400 on food for 2 of us which is horrific. To be fair, I suppose, we've just moved in together and I've been stocking the freezer and the cupboards.

We've moved somewhere well away from a supermarket and its been a real pain doing the weekly shop. So I've just spent 2.5 hours doing my first ever MrT online shop (with quidco £10 off and £7 cashback!!) I spent £120 but the plan is that that will last us for all of Feb for all the tins and dried goods etc. I also got lots of meat for the freezer and a fair bit of long lasting fresh stuff. So the plan is I can use our local farm shop that I stop at every day to get the paper for fresh stuff.

Hopefully the online shop won't take as long next time - I'm more tired than if I actually go to the supermarket!

Ilona · 22 January 2011 at 10:36PM

I walked to the small holding in the village to buy six free range eggs for £1.25. Later I went to my friends house and bought us an ice cream each from the shop as I was passing, £1.50. I think we deserve a treat. Opened my last bottle of Christmas wine tonight, I get three days out of a bottle. Steamed veg again for dinner, I don't eat meat.
Ilona

Catslovelycats · 22 January 2011 at 10:38PM

updated siggy to reflect £5.49 spend at Toby Carvery today
Although not groceries, my food budget includes eating out
hoping I can come within budget for next Monday

fingersxed · 22 January 2011 at 10:42PM

Hi All

Been shopping 2day. Things are improving both me n hubby trying not to buy for the sake of it. Updated sig. going to have to be abit careful next weekend so the we come in on budget. Don't think we'll be under but we shouldn't go over by much;)

Hope u all having a gd weekend:beer:

Missus_Aka · 22 January 2011 at 10:59PM

Thanks everyone for your replies......i was thinking because i stock up a lot some months & not others (next month i wont stock up) that i will give myself a yearly stocking up budget of £180 that i can decide to use whenever i want to stock up but reduce my grocery challenge per month from £150 to £135 so i still have the same target overall for the year....what does everyone think please?

Its just because i have bought 6 months comfort softener, 3 months of bleach, 3 boxes of washing powder, 1 month of tuna, 4 cans of mr muscle oven cleaner, 6 months of shower gel, 6 months of shampoo/hair conditioner, 6 months tea bags dont worry all very very good prices....cant believe 85 wash comfort softener is only £3.10!!!!!! I just would like to even it out better, It will mainly be non food items

Tropicalmoments · 22 January 2011 at 11:29PM

A couple of unplanned spends this week - £20 diesel into my car which I "borrowed" from dd last week for 2 days and which I discovered had no fuel in it:mad: Also succumbed to spending £10 on a takeaway last night. This leaves me with £26 left in my budget for next week - and I've got to buy a weekly train ticket on Tuesday for £19 so it's going to be tight.

I might have to up my budget next month if I continue to include travel as well as groceries.

pepsi-kins · 22 January 2011 at 11:56PM

Hi All,
I've had to give myself a very stern talking to this week. I've been stocking up on things as i've seen them on offer, which is fine but when I tidied the cupboards in the week, I found 22 tins of beans, 24 tins of tuna and 18 tins of tomatoes seeing as there is only me and DH, thats a tad excessive I think.
I'm re-jigging the menu plan for the rest of the month, to make use of what I have in, rather than buying more stuff. I'm really fancying the cheese and potato pie, thats been talked about on here, so much this week, i haven't had it for years.
This weekend i'm busy finishing an essay for my FdA, once that is done I fancy making some jams, marmalade and chutneys, and trying some of the different recipes on here.

Have a good week everyone x

Baileys_Babe · 23 January 2011 at 12:16AM

Hello all, I will admit I am seriously failing to keep up with this thread partly as it is so lively but mainly not having internet access for a week, I should do better in future as our internet appears to be restored as well as OH has resurrected my dead laptop with a new operating system.

I last updated on Wed 12th, we went away visiting family and friends on the Thursday and returned on Tuesday. Whilst away we went out for dinner twice with different friends, which covers the majority of our GC spends so far this year. I'm trying hard to use up food we have in before going to the supermarket, we now have a scrap pad where we note down things as they need replacing. I have also meal planned for the next 3 days, which is the best I have ever done. In addition we have come up with a few ideas for later in the month, just need to order the veg.

GC spending from 13-1-11 to 22-1-11 = £152.30
Dinners out: £123.25
OH away working:£23.29
Sandwich shop: £3.68
Groceries for friend we were visiting £1.68

January total £169.68

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January 2011 Grocery Challenge

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