January 2013 Grocery Challenge

cattysmum · 1 January 2013 at 5:27PM

Afternoon all, ok first spend of the year on my cat, I usually buy in bulk cat food when on offer but have run right down so had to pop into Asda for a box of their own brand (Tiger) cat is soo picky though so I hope she will eat it. Got some whoopsied liver day before yesterday its now in the freezer and the cat had all the stringy off cuts for lunch yesterday. So todays spend £2.54. However wombled a discarded asda receipt on the car park popped it into price checker and got a nice little apg of £4.34.!!! good start to the year.

Solstice_3 · 1 January 2013 at 5:44PM

icontinuetodream wrote: »

Just to let you all know that I have started the 'don't throw food away challenge' for 2013 with Squeaky's permission....
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4366653

I need all the help I can get so do feel free to join me!!

Will pop along and have a look, sounds like a good idea

Annie_99 wrote: »

Happy to report my find last night! I had £4 in my purse and on the way home from work my dh phoned to say we were invited to a New year party and we had to take something.
I went into M&S as I got off the bus and there was a platter of houmous and veg sticks for £1.50 and a man was standing holding a similar platter, same price but with pasta, lentils and rice all lovely padded out with scrummy stuff. He noticed me grabbing the veg platter and asked if I "needed" the one he had. So I smiled and said Yes Please! he handed it to me and said, Have a nice time at your party and Happy New Year!!!
So 2 platters only cost me £3 and I used the other quid for milk!
Today is a NSD and Ive just found £2.40 in my jeans before I washed them! Woop!

What a nice man, it's always nice when you have a positive experience like that - hope your party went well.

We had curry last night, we ordered 2 currys, 1 rice, 1 naan and 2 starters. In retrospect we could have got away with 1 curry between us and one starter. Spent £12 on that, DH paid the rest. NSD today, thought the shops would be closed. Have to go out tomorrow as need canned pinto beans, dried ones need soaking for 8 hours and need them for dinner tomorrow night.

Back to baking today, made 2 loaves and a loads of breadsticks for DS (1 loaf and breadsticks in freezer). Bought some buttermilk to make soda bread, can't always spend the time to bake when DH at work so soda bread will be a quick compromise. Buttermilk was only 50p roughly so not megabucks

Will update sig with takeaway today and Mr T delivery tomorrow.

hex2 · 1 January 2013 at 6:14PM

Like so many others I need to get back on track so I am aiming for £300 for the calender month. 2 adults, 1 bottom less pit teenager, 2 children, 2 dogs, 4 cats, 3 hens.

poohbear, I have to ask what is the 'lamb pot'?

chirpycheap · 1 January 2013 at 6:14PM

I have been promising my son a trip to the cinema all week and with one thing and another it hasn't happened.
So today decided to take a trip to see the Hobbit. I checked online and found that even though it was a morning show we would be paying for peak rate tickets because it's a Bank Holiday!
After a search found that we could get reduced price tickets because we use 02 for our mobiles. So tickets for three of us were £13 instead of £23.
I packed some cans of pop from home and some of our Christmas sweets and so didn't spend anything on popcorn etc.
So total spend so far £105 - I may have been a little optimistic with my target! MOT tomorrow on car, fingers crossed that nothing expensive is required!

XSpender · 1 January 2013 at 6:15PM

I have defrosted the last 10 sausages from the freezer with the intention of making a double sausage casserole in the slow cooker for tonight and tomorrow but have left it too late to put it on. I start and finish work late tomorrow so will make it before I leave. I will make double sauce and use 5 sausages so I can freeze half the sauce and add sausages to it for another meal. This will use up the leeks and carrots in the bottom of my fridge. The other 5 sausages we will have tonight with mash and gravy.

I have lunches half made for tomorrow and will finally cut into my Christmas cake to add to them later. I have set myself a little target of making lunch almost everyday this month the only exception being when I am away from home for 2 days but I will take what I can for the journey/snacks to cut the cost as best I can.

I have a lot of potatoes to eat up and a few onions and I am determined not to throw much away this year. I will have a look at the thread someone mentioned earlier about not throwing stuff away for inspiration.

Kitchenbunny · 1 January 2013 at 6:28PM

Alrighty, first day of my annual GC and I'm happily reporting an NSD. We had roast chicken with all the trimmings for lunch and it will easily make several days' worth of meals with careful stretching for the coming week. Plus, MiL has promised me her chicken soup recipe from a 70s Dairy Cook Book so I am a happy bunny indeed. I've left a little chicken meat on the carcase and put it in the freezer for when the recipe materialises. Shouldn't be long - we both share a keen desire for comforting traditional food! It turned out really well today. Just got to make some chicken and stuffing sandwiches for Mr KBs lunch tomorrow (I'll be taking the leftover roast potatoes, a slice of chicken, the leftover gravy and remnant stuffing and heating it up at work for a 2nd day roast - yum!) and then I can put my feet up for the evening. I'm looking forward to getting as many NSDs as I possibly can this year. Best of luck, everyone.

KB xx

meg72 · 1 January 2013 at 6:37PM

Annie_99 wrote: »

Happy to report my find last night! I had £4 in my purse and on the way home from work my dh phoned to say we were invited to a New year party and we had to take something.
I went into M&S as I got off the bus and there was a platter of houmous and veg sticks for £1.50 and a man was standing holding a similar platter, same price but with pasta, lentils and rice all lovely padded out with scrummy stuff. He noticed me grabbing the veg platter and asked if I "needed" the one he had. So I smiled and said Yes Please! he handed it to me and said, Have a nice time at your party and Happy New Year!!!
So 2 platters only cost me £3 and I used the other quid for milk!
Today is a NSD and Ive just found £2.40 in my jeans before I washed them! Woop!

How lovely to hear about that nice man. I am quite nervous now about approaching the reduced section if there are a lot of people,
having been smacked in the face by a bag of salmon fillets by a hulk of a man who couldnt wait his turn, though not on purpose,
he reached over me to grab them and caught me as he hauled them out and twice almost elbowed off my feet on other occasions.
I approach with caution.

dreamywings1 · 1 January 2013 at 6:38PM

first spend of he year
£30 electric
£12.20 dog food

mossy · 1 January 2013 at 6:59PM

Happy New Year Peeps!!

Spent £7.78 at the evil empire today, needed bread for dippy cheese and ended up buying essential things like reduced Cadbury biscuits etc as well!!

Freezer reasonably well stocked and have written a meal plan for the week...go me!! :dance: So going to do a little shop tomorrow to pick up bits and pieces but will try and keep it at around £20 as my budget is starting to run away a little. Still £86 left and 19 days to go is pretty good for me!!

Still haven't caught up properly since seeing rellies and friends so hugs to those who need them and well dones to those who deserve them!!

CRANKY40 · 1 January 2013 at 7:03PM

I was going to leave shopping until Friday this week but we ended up going yesterday as we were going to visit my aunty and she wanted a few things picking up.

I spent £17.31 on bread, milk, choc chip shortbread for ds as he had to come with me, some dips, some cheap flash wipes, a small piece of plastic junk for ds as a bribe (he hates shopping) and some "nice to your nose tissues" which are an indulgence of mine. It seemed like a good idea to buy the tissues this week while there wasn't much else on the list.

Put the receipt through the price check this morning and was given a voucher for £5.62. Result! I resisted the temptation to look at the reduced items as I want to make inroads into the freezer stock pile.

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January 2013 Grocery Challenge

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