Hi Everyone!
WOW!
Just to let you know that I (Mrs Slow Coach with technology) has finally got to grips with updating her blog list so I hope to be able to visit blogs regularly now. I hate missing things! But since I am following a HUGE AMOUNT OF BLOGS plus a member of Frugaldom forum, please be patient with me.
A big welcome to new followers of my little blog: MRS THRIFTY, NELILOU AND MERI.
Meri, I have added you to the Sealed Pot Challengers list-let me know if you are saving for a particular goal as I'll add that too. ANYONE CAN JOIN THIS CHALLENGE-THERE ARE NOW 50 OF US!
TODAY'S POST is about
FEBRUARY GROCERY CHALLENGE:
and Gill's challenge, here http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/
Today we withdrew the CASH of our £60 for our month's grocery shopping. (Just 3 of the bundle below)
We actually started our month on the 27th (due to my pay day) and so far have bought milk and bread mix =£1.38
Month's Grocery Shopping List:
BOUGHT TODAY:Large bag of potatoes from Farm Shop = £5.99
12 Eggs=Reduced price=£1.08
Pickle=£1.25
2 x cartons of chopped tomatoes=0.84
Value Pitta Bread=0.20
Teabags=1.39 (half to be used in March)
6 Bread Mix 4.08
2 Veggie Burgers=2.00 (1 pack to be used in March)
1 Veggie Sausages =1.00 (to be used in March
=17.83 plus £1.38 = £19.21
SO WE HAVE £40.79/£60.00 LEFT!
To buy
2 packs of Toilet Paper
Porridge
Treat Pizza-chosen by niece
Treat dessert-chosen by niece
8 Semi Skimmed Milk
If WHAT WE NEED comes to £19.21 or less we could
SAVE £20 TOWARDS OUR CAMERA CHALLENGE THIS MONTH
(aiming for £55 from our LOW SPEND FEBRUARY MONTH)
We have meal planned for the month:
We stockpiled veggie mince and fish pie mix/carrots, peas
Leeks in garden/pineapple and raisins in storecupboard/eat fruit from school.
We are eating veggie meals together to bring down cost.
Breakfast will be porridge
Snacks Beans on toast, home made soup, pitta breads, crackers, home made jams
Lots to eat out of the freezer
Sun 29th Jan-Home Made Veggie Lasagne with chips and baked beans
Mon 30th Jan-Sft-snack/Mr Sft Home Made Beef burger with potato wedges and baked beans
Tues 31st Jan-Sft-snack/Mr Sft at parents
Wed 1st Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Ham Omlette with potato wedges and peas
Thurs 2nd Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Sausage, mash and veggies
Fri 3rd Feb-Home Made Veggie Lasagne with potato wedges and baked beans
Sat 4th Feb-Home Made Beef Burgers/Veggie Burger with chips and baked beans
Sun 5th Feb-Home Made Veggie Shepherd pie with veggies
Mon 6th Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Ham Omlette with potato wedges and peas
Tues 7th Feb-Sft-snack/Mr Sft at parents
Wed 8th Feb-Home Made Chilli Con Carni with rice
Thurs 9th Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Sausage, mash and veggies
Fri 10th Feb-DINNER AT FRIENDS
Sat 11th Feb-Home Made Veggie Lasagne with chips and baked beans
Sun 12th Feb-Home Made Veggie Shepherd pie with veggies
Mon 13th Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Ham Omlette with potato wedges and peas
Tues 14th Feb-VALENTINES DAY TREAT FROM MR SFT
Wed 15th Feb-Sft-Salmon fillet, mash and veggies/Mr Sft at parents
Thurs 16th Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Sausage, mash and veggies
Fri 17th Feb-SISTER'S WEDDING
Sat 18th Feb-Pizza with chips (pizza to be chosen by niece)
Sun 19th Feb-Home Made Veggie Shepherd pie with veggies
Mon 20st Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Ham Omlette with potato wedges and peas
Tues 21nd Feb-Sft-Snack/Mr Sft at parents
Wed 22rd Feb-Sft Snack/Mr Sft chicken bites, wedges and baked beans
Thurs 23th Feb-Sft snack/Mr Sft Sausage, mash and veggies
Fri 24th Feb-Home Made Veggie Shepherd pie with veggies
Sat 25th Feb-Home Made Fish pie with veggies
Hey Wake Up!
WHY NOT JOIN US ON A GROCERY CHALLENGE THIS FEBRUARY?
Sft x
Thank you for comments about yesterday's post:
DAY 295 DREAMS AND MY FEBRUARY FINANCIAL UPDATE-CLIMBING THE CHALLENGE MOUNTAIN
GILL: I like smaller challenges to, they keep me focused. Big payments to Mortgage or Africa trip only happen once a month so the smaller things keep the momentum going. I love the fact that you are so motivated and thanks for inspiring me for the Grocery Challenge. I feel amongst friends.
SUZE: I think scrimping and savings is the way to achieve your cello goal. Looking forward to hearing how you do it. Maybe you could start up your blog again and post weekly? I was very lucky to get the giraffe photo. Will blog the giraffe story next week for you.
JO: Thanks for your support, we hope to go below £10k mark in July! (according to my finances table) then it will certainly feel like the last leg. Big changes for your mortgage too, once you are only paying a repayment mortgage you will really feel energised about it. For my sister's wedding we are making the romantic CD plus a very talented blogging friend of mine is making a card with their names and wedding date on it which can be framed afterwards. They really only want cash to pay for drinks on their honeymoon (it's a relaxed affair being a 2nd marriage).
SCARLET: I do understand what you are saying about being realistic in life. Who knows we might not ever be mortgage free or make it to Africa. No one can see into the future.
Being happy and healthy are the best goals of all and I love your blog as you live a really full, contented life. One I aspire to one day.
SUE15CAT: Once Mr Sft is paid I will look at the mortgage number and do a bit of rounding down. Beautiful numbers are so important and I'll go for the best I can....£0 will be the ultimate one of course!
BETTY: I try to post everyday but it's tough reading posts from favourite blogs. When school takes over I'll just post about one of my fav. Africa animals or birds. I am just thrilled people want to visit everyday!
17 comments:
You are SO organised well done, all your meals planned out for February, now that is impressive and an excellent way to save money.
AND you have three lovely treats to look forward to in February, what a lovely month.
Feb is always a bit of an expense for us as both my boys were born in this month on the 11th and 27th, and as they are always hard up we tend to give them cash to spend on what they will.
However, I AM keeping control of the housekeeping and trying not to buy much food in February except for milk and maybe a bit of fresh fruit and veg. We need to empty the freezers and cupboards for definite this month so we can start a new storecupboard for the new house, we'll see how it goes no doubt I will have to take some things with us but I want to see how little I can make that.
The camera in the picture is lovely, is that the one you hope to get?
Sue xx
That's a nice mealplan - and yes, you're very organised. I've only got the one week planned ahead at the moment which might be why my budgets are a bit higher than yours. :) Count me in on the Grocery Challenge though. I've a budget of £200 and hope to save about half of that. :D I'll be lucky!
KB xx
I am amazed that you know what you will eat in several weeks time, that is so organised!! I'd be no good as i like to eat what i want when i feel like it, but am glad that it's helping you to get to your goal and your dreams. That's a really impressive amount to live on food wise.xx
I'd love to join the sealed pot challenge with the aim of paying off a £2000 overdraft which is costing silly amounts of interest. I am going to add all my ebay money, anything we can save from the housekeeping budget and I am going to pay myself for every no-spend day I manage x
You're so organised, I am always impressed by you!
You can set up google reader on your computer and import the blogs you follow, it will then display when there are blog updates for you to read. It's really good, I skim through them really quickly and can always hop over onto the blog 'proper' if I want to leave a comment. It's a bit like having a personalised magazine delivered to your PC every day (or every couple of hours depending on how many blogs you follow) I recommend it xx
Isn't it great having the month's menu planned ? I hope you manage to put some money towards your camera- it sounds like you are on track to. I found planning a month's meals and going through the cupboards time consuming ( I keep a list of what's in the freezer)but it was worth it. I barely need to visit a shop until J gets paid in February, so that means more painting and sewing time for me! The dratted kitchen should be finished by the end of February- fingers firmly crossed.
I am always amazed at the difference in our meals..I am sad to say that hubby would not be in on the veggie food,however he is a big vegetable eater,i am afraid he is a "normal" Aussie fellow and loves his meat,so there for our grocery bill is quite a lot larger and we all are fruit eaters especially in the lovely stoned fruit season...so a normal week for us would be so much different.WE would think we were extremely lucky if our weekly shop is under $150 and that is inclusive of everything,cleaners,loo paper(which sometimes I think this house eats!)our meat costs would be at least $40 of that and fruit and veg about the same,then there is bread, milk all that...I notice that there are no casseroles as such and things like that,we over here have a lot of slow cooker meals etc in the winter and the costs are so much cheaper as you can get away with cheaper cuts of meat....summer it is a lot of grills and salads and steamed vegies,always 3 or more..so interesting reading your blog,I just wish I could get this cost down...I had to rob my hiding "cunning Kick" this week as our TV went to heaven so we had to replace it,luckily I had more than enough..but I hated taking it out! o'h well back to saving hard lol.
Holy mackerel, you are so organised! I'm really impressed:-) I'll join the challenge too. Goal is to save DKK1000 out of our normal DKK3500 food budget. This should be easily doable. I do think that hubby is getting a bit annoyed with all these challenges, though;-)He rolled his eyes and gave a big sigh when I suggested this one...
a whole month's meal plan!! I am shocked I nearly fell of the sofa! Impressive! I am going to try and do that! In the meantime, I had at lot of no spend days - I didnt count them but think there must be at least 15!!The rest were low spends so thanks for inspiring me!
Wow, that's a lot of meals you've got planned, I'm lucky if I know what I'm having tomorrow. It looks as though you're on track for putting some savings in to the camera fund though so it's definitely worth it.
I am super impressed with how organized you are. I know I couldn't stick with a menu plan for a month.
That is one of my failures, unable to make nd stick to a menu plan.
Gill in Canada
OMG Every month is a grocery challenge here SFT! Yes I know I buy wine & cheese etc which is a choice, but as for the rest of what we actually need: the cost just seems to go up & up. Good on you for being sooo organised & love that menu. I generally have a weekly meal plan in my head which is subject to change if I don't feel like eating what I had planned on the day (the privilege of being the cook!).
Is that the camera you are saving for? It's a good choice :) The husband has something similar & it keeps him happy.
Lastly where is that bridge?
I think I'm all challenged out for February lol! I've joined Carla's NO/Low Spend February and also her decluttering challenge. Plus I have your sealed pot challenge (and yes,I managed to hang onto $50 extra so guess where that is going!) and the 10 Pound Challenge (weight not money lol) so think I have EVERYTHING covered. I can hardly believe how LITTLE you spend on food!!
Lovely menu. I can't do the grocery challenge as this is the month I make a long journey, 200 miles one way, for my grocery and needs stock up. I will however stop my love of buying stuff (thrift shops and rummage sales) for February. I don't spend much but need to see how I can do with not spending.
I continue with my sealed pot challenge, surprising myself at how well it is doing.
You are so amazing to be this organised! Does your menu plan allow for any flexibility for example if you find something on offer? As I don't have a freezer or much fridge space I do have to shop twice a week but I try to stick to just what we need, which is easier if I stay out of the supermarkets and use local shos xxx
I've followed your lead and menu planned for the whole of February...I've set my grocery budget at £150 and I'm going to take the money out of the bank and use cash only.....this way I'll know exactly how much money I have left! Good luck :)
Awesome on a whole month of menus...I'm sitting here trying to make one for the week...instead I'm reading blogs....
Okay, I'm off to just do it!
Good luck on your grocery challenge!
Post a Comment