August 2017 Grocery Challenge

Spent £47.05 on 10th. Over £13 was on biscuits, sweets and trifle. :eek: I was poorly so DS went shopping!
Feel really down and trying to generate some motivation to go through the freezers.

Had some YS roast pork in the kitchen freezer which 'someone' has taken out and put in the fridge a couple of days ago without telling me so that will have to go in the bin. The same 'someone' also cooked a frozen family sized apple crumble, without telling me, and then left it in the oven (switched off) Talk about waste.:mad:
I think this month is going to be a real learning curve for me.

I count everything in my budget, except alcohol because you can't buy it in Australian supermarkets. Bulk buying, which happens every couple of months, just goes on the monthly budget: over the year it should therefore get easier, since I don't go through everything I buy during the month I buy it, meaning that things like toilet paper build up over time and then I can have a really cheap month, hopefully, in November to save for Christmas.

Didn't manage to get to the cheaper supermarket this weekend thanks to a mad schedule of children's birthday parties, but still managed to keep the weekly shop at around $210. I'm at $416/$950 with two weekly shops left to do.

Meal plan!
Sunday: Butter chicken and HM naan bread
Monday: Gado gado (my chickens have started laying again! Lots of egg recipes coming up)
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Tuna/potato patties with warm couscous salad
Thursday: Haven't a clue. Soup probably.
Friday: Slow cooked beef casserole

:hello:Hello to all the newbies and welcome back to all the returners.

Spends for Week 2 came in at £13.94 – two shops and 5 NSDs.

Now into Week 3 with Friday spends of £7.60 in the market plus £37.97 in Sainsbobs.

This was for "needed" items plus promo offers of things we do/will use and ys bargains of fruited teacakes, potato cakes and 6 decent sized turkey breasts. The turkey pieces were individually wrapped in a zip-lock freezer bag and cost 80p each.

I also got some other reduced items that weren't short dated, more like sale items that I'm guessing they won't be selling in future as they all had BBE dates of 2018/2019. These were 3 sausage casserole mixes with the bags that you oven cook everything in (20p each) and enough stock cubes (beef/chicken/veg) to keep us going for a very long time. Bargainous price of 10p per box, 10 cubes per box = 1p per stock cube. :)

Like others on here, we’re also on holiday countdown (14 days to go :j) so now I'm concentrating on using up all the fresh foods from the fridge before we go. I've done meal plans for the next two weeks and as far as I can work out I'll only need to get milk, butter and perhaps a couple of other odds and ends. I’m looking forward to having a very healthy surplus left in the budget!

I do an online grocery order for delivery for the heavy/bulky stuff (no car and can’t carry too much) but, since joining this challenge, I’ve found these have gone down from one per month to one every other month. We’re eating well (tbh, probably better than before) and I’m not spending any more either so it just goes to show that I must have been buying far more than we actually needed.

Will update signature in a mo. Have a good week everyone.

Morning!


Busy weekend looking after DD (as DH was away with his Dad for a weekend fishing trip for his Birthday), trying to tidy, clean and cook.


Popped to Morries on Saturday for Milk top up, dr pepper zero, .......yeah, mostly junk food This would explain why I gained 2lbs this week, instead of losing any! Came to £11.85.


NSD yesterday at least.


Today, L for Diet Pepsi, a sandwich for lunch (wasn't organised this morning) and butter for home (running low). £5.26.


New total £301.63/£300. I'm over already


I did a bit of a freezer tidy this weekend, and we have LOADS of food in. It's just top ups on fresh stuff that we need, and maybe a few more nappies.


I used all the pureed veg to make a veggie soup, as suggested, so will have that for lunch this week. I tried making bread, and it tastes nice, but is quite dense. It did rise well, both times, but sank as soon as I removed the cling film the second time and didn't rise any further in the oven. Don't know why. Also made some more moroccan chicken for DD as had a cooked chicken breast left over. Have plenty of prepped meals in the freezer for her too.


Got the PM off today, as got her 12/13 month jabs NOT looking forward to that. Hopefully she'll recover quickly. Gonna have some sliced grapes in a pot ready to give her afterwards, as they usually cheer her up. Fingers crossed!