July 2012 Grocery Challenge

jasmin10 · 1 July 2012 at 9:36AM

Coxy11 wrote: »

Have some twinks defrosting on the side for today's snacks.

Didn't know you freeze these biscuits, I assume they come out ok. We've always tended to scoff them in a couple of days. But it would be good to know I could ration them by freezing them.

debbym · 1 July 2012 at 9:37AM

Put me down for £500 again please!

dizzyditzy · 1 July 2012 at 9:55AM

Happy birthday to Fozziebeartoo hope you have a good day.

With all the talk of buying tubs to freeze batch cooking I thought I'd share what I do in case it might save someone money. I cut my 2ltr/4pint milk bottles approx 3inch from the bottom all the way round, recycle top part. Then line with a food bag, put meal in, knot bag and freeze. When frozen I remove the bag from the milk bottle and label with masking tape. The blocks stack nicely in the freezer and to defrost I place them in a cut milk carton in the fridge HTH:D

Reporting a spend of £14.20 which included 1.1kg of cheese off cuts for 80p:j Now made into a cheese and onion pie made in a large roasting tin:)

Hope everyone has a good day.

EyesWideOpen · 1 July 2012 at 10:36AM

jasmin10 wrote: »

I too have decided on this as I think a small saving could be made. I have been making mine for the last two weeks and not bought any bread yet. DD1 says mummy's bread is the best and dosent want the shop one anymore. She loves it with butter and honey on for before school, one thing I can't believe is that she eats the crusts too so I don't have to cut those off anymore.

I tend to have to make a loaf every other day. I don't bother making in bulk as I just set it up of a night ready for it to go on at around 3am on timer - must say its lovely waking up to the smell of bread

Feeling very proud of myself today as I haven't gone off my meal plan that I made up starting from last Tuesday and have plenty of milk to last till shopping day next Tuesday. So feeling confident that no top ups will be needed meaning that I have managed our first wkly shop for July just under budget for the four of us at 39.32.

Had a NSD yesterday and should have another today. DD1 usually has a choc bar out of the machine after her ice skating lesson, but will do the same as last week and put something in my bag from the great tin.

I don't have a BM so cannot do this, but I am glad I'm not the only one who has decided to bake our own bread. Love the smell but also loving the fact that I am not so bloated after meals involving bread. Its been something of a revelation using wholemeal flour, and quite a lot of seeds etc and finding that the bread is fairly light in colour. Despite being "very dark" bread recepie. Just goes to show the amount of food colouring that goes into the shopbought bread. All good reasons to carry on making our own! Good luck with keeping it up :T

NickJW · 1 July 2012 at 10:38AM

fozziebeartoo wrote: »

I thought it was a lot of faff too......

But it just isnt when you do it!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

No idea why

Its certainly not an exact science (well not in my house).

My store is mainly household, dishwasher stuff, washing stuff, loo rolls.....nothing complicated to remember.

I get a pack of 9 Andrex off my shelf (£2 from Amazon) and put £3.50 (what I would pay in Sainsbobs) in 3rd Purse.

Exactly the same as if I had walked to Sainsbobs out got the loo rolls off THEIR shelf......I just get to keep the money myself and can use it on whatever I want :T

If I tried to keep money from savings in the bank like you said, I would simply fritter it away......

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Hi - I've often wondered about this as well.

What if you ONLY bought something because it was on offer and wouldn't have bought them otherwise? For instance I always get the TTD Frozen king prawns when they are half price at £2.50 or 2 for 1 at £5 (£2.50 each). Yesterday they were £5 a pack which I would never buy them at price, because I know they will be on offer at some point in the future. In these cases I wouldn't need to give money back to a purse would I?

A lot of the time I cater my meal plans around what I find on offer. I would never buy lamb if it wasn't on offer, and would just get pork or chicken instead. If a full price wasn't ever going to be paid does money to a purse need to be made as well?

Or am I still not getting it!? :rotfl::rotfl:

...........

Need to pop out to get some mayonnaise today to go with some potato salad with some salmon defrosted from the freezer and salad in he fridge (my housemate bought the salad). Always forget something when I go to the big supermarket so I'm going to go down to the little Mr T with the aim of getting mayo and JUST THAT!.

ETA - Happy Birthday fozziebear!

Spending_Vs_Saving · 1 July 2012 at 10:41AM

Please count me in for this month, i plan on withdrawing £60 today to last me untill the end of the month.

I started last month with good intentions and then lost all motivation to track anything although i didnt go shops that much or spend that much each visit so i might not have been that far off:o

jumblejack · 1 July 2012 at 11:01AM

dizzyditzy wrote: »

Happy birthday to Fozziebeartoo hope you have a good day.

With all the talk of buying tubs to freeze batch cooking I thought I'd share what I do in case it might save someone money. I cut my 2ltr/4pint milk bottles approx 3inch from the bottom all the way round, recycle top part. Then line with a food bag, put meal in, knot bag and freeze. When frozen I remove the bag from the milk bottle and label with masking tape. The blocks stack nicely in the freezer and to defrost I place them in a cut milk carton in the fridge HTH:D

Reporting a spend of £14.20 which included 1.1kg of cheese off cuts for 80p:j Now made into a cheese and onion pie made in a large roasting tin:)

Hope everyone has a good day.

Fantastic, absolutely inspired, 5 star tip!!

I am definitely going to do this from now on!

You are a genius.

I LOVE this thread. There is always something new to pick up from someone's posts!

Nice one :beer:

keza · 1 July 2012 at 11:09AM

dizzyditzy wrote: »

With all the talk of buying tubs to freeze batch cooking I thought I'd share what I do in case it might save someone money. I cut my 2ltr/4pint milk bottles approx 3inch from the bottom all the way round, recycle top part. Then line with a food bag, put meal in, knot bag and freeze. When frozen I remove the bag from the milk bottle and label with masking tape. The blocks stack nicely in the freezer and to defrost I place them in a cut milk carton in the fridge HTH:D

.

what a fab tip! im going to give it a go! the plastic tubs we get from the £shop always lose their shape in the microwave and we end up chucking them and we go thru loads! freezer bags are next to nothing and the milk bottle bottom can be reused! thanks very much! :T

fozziebeartoo · 1 July 2012 at 11:15AM

NickJW wrote: »

Hi - I've often wondered about this as well.

What if you ONLY bought something because it was on offer and wouldn't have bought them otherwise? For instance I always get the TTD Frozen king prawns when they are half price at £2.50 or 2 for 1 at £5 (£2.50 each). Yesterday they were £5 a pack which I would never buy them at price, because I know they will be on offer at some point in the future. In these cases I wouldn't need to give money back to a purse would I?

A lot of the time I cater my meal plans around what I find on offer. I would never buy lamb if it wasn't on offer, and would just get pork or chicken instead. If a full price wasn't ever going to be paid does money to a purse need to be made as well?

Or am I still not getting it!? :rotfl::rotfl:

...........

Need to pop out to get some mayonnaise today to go with some potato salad with some salmon defrosted from the freezer and salad in he fridge (my housemate bought the salad). Always forget something when I go to the big supermarket so I'm going to go down to the little Mr T with the aim of getting mayo and JUST THAT!.

ETA - Happy Birthday fozziebear!

Thank you!

The beauty of SPing is total flexibility.....

You can pay back the RRP, or the usual shop price or just what you paid for it, or what you are WILLING to pay for it......or get it free from your shop.

So with your prawns, I would buy them at £2.50 like you.....but when using a pack, I would probably pay Sallys Stores £3.00 for them to give me a little profit.

BUT.......you dont have to factor in a profit at all......and certainly not on everything.

Some of my fave SP stuff is:-

Diet pepsi, I usuall buy for 8 for £2.00 at Asda or £1.39ish for 6 at Lidl - both on offer, I never pay full price.

I transfer 6 tins at a time to the fridge and pay £3.00 to my SP for them, so 50p a tin.

My reckoning is, if I popped into Sainsbobs cafe because I was desperately thirsty, a drink would be £1.19....for ONE drink :eek:

Magnum Equador - 2 x 3 cost £2.50 in Farm Foods. When I have one, I give SP £1.00.....it would cost me more than that if I nipped to the corner shop.

If I am broke (which I often am) I forget about SP and just use the stuff for free.......Sainsbods dont let you do that :rotfl:

Sometimes I just keep a running record, and settle up when I HAVE got some money.

The thing i simply couldnt get MY head around was paying TWICE for the same item.....pay the SM and then pay me.....

It took ages to for me grasp the paying ME bit meant the money wasnt actually going anywhere, just into a seperate kitty to spend again later.

Anyway, if anyone wants to join us over on the SP thread, please do and I will stop rabbiting on about it here on the GC thread

because I love to read everyones budgeting tales! :T

Kitchenbunny · 1 July 2012 at 11:20AM

I am determined today is going to be an NSD. I've got everything we need in so I shouldn't have to buy anything, and tomorrow is the first main shop of July. I'm hoping to do one big shop, and then a smaller top-up shop closer to the weekend for fresh items, etc.

Does anyone else have difficulty the second month of GC? While I'm still determined to keep on and have as good a month this time, I'm worried I'll lose the impetus and slip back into old spending ways. It's too easy to be tempted by bargains..

I'm going to use the leftover chilli tonight to make a pasta bake instead of the tortilla pie-thing I had planned. I need to use the bacon for something else, so I'll just heat the chilli, cook the pasta, mix, grate cheese on top and grill till crispy. Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

K xx

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July 2012 Grocery Challenge

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