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January 2018 Grocery Challenge

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  • Grannymolly
    Grannymolly Posts: 42 Forumite
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    Ginmonster wrote: »
    Morning everyone.

    Well I've managed to blow over half the budget by 5 days in. This should be a fun month! I've been off work ill for a couple of days and pretty much confined to my bed exhausted but I'm starting to feel a bit better today so I've started doing a few things in the house and reading stuff online. That took me to looking on the AF site and sure enough to making an order. £54.43 down on lots of great bargains. I've got tons of bread flour, pasta, beans, cereals etc but heaven knows where I'm going to store them all!

    So the rest of the month I'll need to be very sensible and just buy the fresh things I really need. Bread won't be one of them - I've got 12 bags of bread flour coming!

    £ 54.43/£100

    Hubby does :)

    We can only use Ariel so I get that usually when it’s on offer, I’ll just wait probably and buy it when it’s half price and that’ll save me some money.

    I just find their meat prices so much more now, veg is never that cheapeither and there never seems to be any of the wonky veg left.
    I used to ALWAYS shop there but I find myself using them so much less now when I compare prices and it’s still dearer even with 10% off.

    :eek:
    Family of 4 and a cat, trying to reduce outgoings GC JAN £225.94/£250 GC FEB £93.20/£250
  • JingsMyBucket
    JingsMyBucket Posts: 791 Forumite
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    PipneyJane wrote: »
    May I ask why you’d throw out the potatoes? They don’t go off. Potatoes keep for months, although they will eventually sprout.

    What about potatoes that are a bit green? Our tiny Christmas potatoes were a bit green when we bought them but I can see more becoming green now. Should I just peel them then slice them to freeze for later use?
    Today I headed to Lidl to get toilet paper :T :rotfl: and pork belly but walked out with some other stock up items including a huge chunk of parmesan that was on sale. They were selling huge pieces for €11.99/kg compared to the usual €16.49/kg price for the much smaller wedges. Funny thing is they didn't have the smaller wedges at all in the store, only the huge ones. Sneaky Lidl. The bill came to €20.52.

    I tried going to my halal store to get a tray of 30 eggs and some ground beef from the butcher counter but for some reason they were closed when I arrived. Probably for lunch or lunch time prayers. I'll have to head back there tomorrow even though I wanted to not spend money this weekend. We only have 3 eggs left and I wanted to prep ground beef for the coming week.

    Total So Far:
    €93.77 / €250.00
    1 NSD

    Ginmonster, I totally hear you about spending a lot so early in the month. I'm actually a bit frustrated. Maybe meal planning for part of the month may help me curb things a bit. I'm also trying to eat from the freezer while buying things to change my eating habits.
  • YorksLass
    YorksLass Posts: 1,712 Forumite
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    JingsMyBucket wrote: »
    YorksLass what do you do with the brandy sauce? OH bought a bunch of different creams/sauces like this for Christmas and we haven't used them yet. I've never had them before so am a bit lost as to how to incorporate them into cooking. Plus, I think OH is trying to cut down on rich stuff this January so if we don't find a way to use it, I may have to chuck it.

    Well, I guess it would depend on what your sauces are made of – are they sweet or savoury? Google something like “how to use up XXX sauce” and I’m sure some recipes would come up. It would be worth a try before you resort to chucking them. ;)

    The brandy cream sauce I have is sweet (a mix of sweetened pasteurised milk, double cream and brandy); I had some last night (instead of custard) on a thick slice of Stollen that I’d pinged in the MW and it was lush. :)

    It goes well in coffee (just the same as adding ordinary cream) or added to porridge oats that have been soaked overnight in water or milk in the fridge (for extra creaminess). It would also work with rice pudding or as a topping for fruit. Another idea would be to make extravagant bread and butter pudding. :D

    I’ve just made a batch of Christmas pudding ice cream with the bulk of it. Mash the pudding and cream together (you could use any rich fruit cake or crushed mince pies instead of the pudding), add some freshly made custard, whip well and freeze. Yum. :):)
    Be kind to others and to yourself too.
  • JIL
    JIL Posts: 8,693 Forumite
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    edited 5 January 2018 at 8:06PM
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    I had £115 left then I spent £4.90 in m&s = £110.

    Tonight I went to aldi, got a few fresh bits in for next week, spent a few pence short of £18
    I have organised my fridge and made a banana bread. I chucked out a few manky carrots and a cucumber that was laying at the back of the fridge. Best before mid Dec and for once I was glad it was covered in sellophane.

    So £92 left.
  • ceb1995
    ceb1995 Posts: 388 Forumite
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    DH went into the supermarket whilst waiting for me and got some yellow sticker branded stuff (i'm very anti brands:P) and some more noodles for his lunches so he should now have enough for the month, so that's £ 19.42/190 .
    Weekly shop planned for tomorrow morning but recon we shouldn't need much as there's a lot of meals we have in.
  • Glenda
    Glenda Posts: 150 Forumite
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    So far this week I have already spent from my grocery budget £43.39. This challenge is going to be more difficult than I originally thought....It doesn't help that I have also given up the nicotine replacement therapy which has been my crutch for many years.

    It's madness I have been forgetful, restless and irritable and all I want to do is eat or shop. Not just as bad as when I give up the actual cigarettes.
  • PennyGrabber
    PennyGrabber Posts: 1,288 Forumite
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    Evening everyone,

    I spent £1 today from the GC budget on 3 cartons of passata. I needed them so they were on my weekly shopping list, ready for Sunday in aldililly, but they were cheaper in ff00ds today so bought them early. I was in there for cat food as it's technically my corner shop and I'd run out.

    Takes me up to £8.03/£100, which I'm happy with so far. 4 weekly shops to go.

    PG x
    Grocery challenge for family of three - me, dd(12) and ds(11), feeding dp 2 or 3 x a week too. Only food, not toiletries. Jan £87.97/£100 Feb £0/£100
    Frugal 2018 needed! Saving and NOT spending
  • thriftwizard
    thriftwizard Posts: 4,668 Forumite
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    edited 5 January 2018 at 9:12PM
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    Another one here who's spent nearly half the budget for the whole month! £120 spent today, £50 at the market and £70 at the wholesalers. This included £20 that would normally have come from the Entertainments budget, but that got "blown" when DS3 requested a family takeaway the night before he went back to uni. As the timing of his MA graduation ceremony last month was just all wrong for us to take him out for a celebratory meal, we felt a takeaway was the least we could do, so we did it!

    It was also much higher than I'd hoped at the market because several regular stallholders weren't there; the butcher was missing due to illness (half the county is down with 'flu) and the fishmonger because apparently the New Year catch was very poor, and the supermarkets snapped it all up at ridiculous prices. So I had to buy more expensive options than usual. No doubt they'll be lovely, but it was money I'd rather not have spent. So I'll need to be very - vigilant - for the rest of the month. But there's still plenty in the freezer and the cupboards, so I'm not despairing - yet! 3 more Friday shops to go, some cat food to acquire, and a few small top-ups of fresh bread & veg; I can do this...

    ETA: trotted off online to acquire the catfood that seems to suit the resident mistresses of the universe - vet bills soar if we feed elder Madam anything else, and it's not a "posh" brand, just not the cheapest - to discover to my horror that it has literally doubled in price since I last bought some in October. So I have split out a "bulk-buy purse" as I have done previously, and ordered 3 months-worth. I will use the bulk-buy purse for pet & livestock food & also for flour (generally bought by the sack from the mill) and assorted dried pulses & beans to keep the resident veggies going.
    Angie - GC April 24 £532.07/£480 - oops: 2024 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 10/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)
  • short_bird
    short_bird Posts: 3,676 Forumite
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    Pickled Onion Monster Munch. I ask you. Of all the things for a mid afternoon snack :p 60p.
    Took a friend for a coffee today so that was £6.65 in total.
    Remaining balance £111.07, still plenty in the fridge and freezer.
    Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.
  • starting_again_in_the_sun
    starting_again_in_the_sun Posts: 128 Forumite
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    I've had to reduce our budget by 100 euros... For a variety of reasons, but I'm hoping we can manage (not much choice!).
    MIL kindly gave me 10euros towards shopping today so only spent 3.74.
    This leaves 125.99 until the end of the month!
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