October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

17677798182124

Comments

  • Frugaldom
    Frugaldom Posts: 6,935
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    Forumite
    Popped in to confess that I have overspent ALREADY! The grocery budgetting and meal planning has gone to pot over the past week :(

    GROCERIES
    2008-10-01 - £28.89
    2008-10-06 - £10.50
    2008-10-09 - £8.97
    2008-10-13 - £1.50
    2008-10-16 - £1.50
    TOTAL £51.36

    I haven't even got a decent excuse - look at this! :rolleyes:

    Jam doughnuts :o
    Pizza :o
    Chocolate :o
    Crisps :o
    More chocolate :o
    More crisps :o

    It's been a very stressful month so far and there's another 3 weeks to go before the housemove!
    I reserve the right not to spend.
    The less I spend, the more I can afford.


    Frugal living challenge - living on £4000 in 2024

    Spends to date: £632.45
  • AlwaysHappy
    AlwaysHappy Posts: 1,506
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    MRSMCAWBER wrote: »
    :j :j :j :j :j :j
    Glad you like it, hope you have loads of fun with your new [strike]toy[/strike] -extremely important piece of kitchen equipment :rotfl:

    Hi Milliemonster and welcome on board... I will go and put you on the list ;)
    Hi there, think I missed the recipe for bread - is it for the remoska? Any chance of it? Many thanks.
    I'm not a failure if I don't make it, I'm a success because I :tried!
  • Jacks_xxx
    Jacks_xxx Posts: 3,874 Forumite
    fizzel81 wrote: »
    sorry to do this, can i b taken off the challenge, got home tuesday and around 7pm found a warm fridge and a defroasted freezer, the damm thing was making all the right noises but its 6 months old broken and awaiting someone to come and look at the ruddy thing to see whats broken if its reparable or if i get a replacement

    i have no idea what were going to do till its fixed, im so cheesed off as i cannot even keep milk cold


    Oh I am ever so sorry honey.What a pain! We had to do without a fridge for a while at the beginning of the year and I used to keep my milk in a thermos outside on the kitchen window sill.

    It was a bit inconvenient having to open the window every time we had a cup of tea but at least it was January so it was chilled. :rolleyes: :D

    I hope they sort it all out really quickly for you.

    And Nyk - you're allowed some stress induced treats now and again my lovely! Anyway knowing you you'll be back on track with the budget in no time at all.

    Hope the move goes smoothly!


    Love Jacks xxx :D

    PS I forgot to type my main reason for posting which was to say that on the lentils and porridge oats bulking out front I started small - as Rosieben suggested - with literally two handfuls of each chucked into a bolognese and I think I experimented with cooking the lentils first or not - but as long as they go in reasonably early and there's enough liquid they're fine either way. I also sneak in extra veg by chopping it small or grating it to give the sauce body.

    I know get 4 hearty dinner portions and 6 packed lunch portions of Bolognese out of one pack of mince.

    With curry I do even better (because Lentils are more normal in a curry perhaps so I can chuck more in!) I throw in a couple of types of lentils, some small beans such as cannellini and the porridge oats plus sneaky veg and I can get up to 14 portions out of 400g of chicken and nobody says they feels short changed in the meat department.

    The other day, as an experiment I did "my" curry (which starts with chopped chicken, onions, garlic and garam masala or thai paste and then I chuck in whatever we've got!) and I did the same quantity of chicken in a separate pan with a jar of Pataks sauce as per the directions on the jar.

    We all had a taster of the Pataks one on our plates but it would only have fed two of us at most whereas mine fed 6 for dinner that night plus I put one large "feeds four" size tub inthe freezer plus another 4 individual lunch size tubs.

    And they all said mine was nicer! :D And lentils and porridge and an extra tin of tomatoes or a stock cube don't add up to much. (I'm going to cost it out next time just to see, but mine will always vary cos what goes in it it depends on what I've got.)

    Rightio. Time for a shower before I hang the wash out. It feels blimmin' nippy today! Brrrr.
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Einstein
  • eveie189
    eveie189 Posts: 301
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Morning

    I am over budget for the month already and we still have 11 days to go. I was considering dropping out but after thinking about the posts that have been written when otherh people wanted to drop out I decided to keep with it for 2 reasons.

    1. If I can stick to my new unofficial target of £350 then at least it will be £65 less than i spent last month and a couple of hundred less than what I was spending before the challenge.
    2. I would only be cheating myself by not getting a full picture of what I spend. Escpecially because I have to spend a lot on the chickens I have just got and if I hadn't got them I would be under target still.

    Sorry for the long post
    Katie
    April GC 9th-7th may £0/£320
  • Jacks_xxx
    Jacks_xxx Posts: 3,874 Forumite
    eveie189 wrote: »
    Morning

    I am over budget for the month already and we still have 11 days to go. I was considering dropping out but after thinking about the posts that have been written when otherh people wanted to drop out I decided to keep with it for 2 reasons.

    1. If I can stick to my new unofficial target of £350 then at least it will be £65 less than i spent last month and a couple of hundred less than what I was spending before the challenge.
    2. I would only be cheating myself by not getting a full picture of what I spend. Escpecially because I have to spend a lot on the chickens I have just got and if I hadn't got them I would be under target still.

    Sorry for the long post
    Katie


    Mornin' Katie,

    Yeah..Don't drop out honey!

    If you look at my sig you'll see that I have had many many (many:D) ups and downs on the GC - and I learned something from all of them!

    For 3 months it seemed our ideal budget was about £287 but then the prices rises kicked in, my stashes ran out and now your guess is as good as mine!

    BelfastGirl always used to remind me that Yeah I'd gone over budget but I'd spent less than I would have if I hadn't been on the GC so yep I agree with both your points.

    Keep at it girl!

    Love Jacks xxx :D
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Einstein
  • puss14
    puss14 Posts: 310 Forumite
    Well I am officially $30 over my monthly budget and we are only 17 days in. I am seriously hopeless and feel a little depressed at my dismal budgeting attempts:(
    Thailand 3010/15000 2015
  • Not doing too badly so far. However, I do have a girls' night in where we take it in turns to go to each other's homes and cook for the whole lot of 10 of us! I somehow need to feed 10 people a good meal (there's a few fab cooks in the group) whilst not spending a fortune....
    I saw two shooting stars last night
    I wished on them, but they were only satellites
    It's wrong to wish on space hardware
    I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care
  • MRSMCAWBER
    MRSMCAWBER Posts: 5,442 Forumite
    Morning all

    Feeling slightly less like a badgers bum this morning (still look as rough as one though :rotfl: )-although I have been coughing n barking all night :mad: so I have probably kept the whole street up :p
    Thankyou for the PMs folks :D

    Hubby has gone for his golf comp so won't be back until this evening -which suits me, as it means i am going to veg on the sofa(although that is what I have been doing all week :D )..the most im planning is to try and see if i can muster a bit of energy to get some crochet done ...I haven't touched it all week :rolleyes: - I made bread yesterday and actually have some left :eek: so I have no cooking to do today :j ....

    I now have 1 week left of this months challenge -so I'm refusing to go out for the rest of the week:rotfl: .. Im still sulking that I would have spent under €10 so far, had it not been for this "pesky cold" :mad:
    I have even managed to make a bit of space in my freezers :T .... Im planning on making more next month too ;)

    Hi alwaysHappy...
    the bread is my usual recipe for baking in the oven -but just a little less water and it comes out of the remoska stunning :T

    Its just:-
    1. 500g white bread flour
    2. 3tsp salt
    3. 300ml warm water
    4. 14g fresh yeast
    • Mix as normal (the dough will be a bit firmer than normal-but it stops it going doughy n heavy in the remoska ;) )
    • leave it to prove in the bowl -covered with a carrier bag
    • tip out and cut in half -400g each
    • shape into flat sausage shapes and place side by side in the pan (mines a standard)
    • stick the lid on and leave to rise (don't let them get too close to the lid as they rise a bit more once you switch it on)
    • once risen, switch on and bake for about 30 mins
    • I then tip mine out and put upside down to bake for 5 mins
    • then tip onto a cooling rack
    So sorry about your bad luck fizzel - hope you get it sorted soon -and hope you can claim on your insurance:D

    Hubby loved his chilli cobbler last night :T made in the remoska , ooh and I made some concoctions.. a bit like a plain scone -with a thumb print in the middle -with winter jam in ..well I NEEDED something sweet :p :rotfl:

    Right I had better get off and make a cuppa..
    have a great day everyone :D
    -6 -8 -3 -1.5 -2.5 -3 -1.5-3.5
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,613
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    puss14 wrote: »
    Well I am officially $30 over my monthly budget and we are only 17 days in. I am seriously hopeless and feel a little depressed at my dismal budgeting attempts:(
    Just treat it as a temporary "blip"...

    Do have food in the house? Can you get creative with that? If you can get away with just buying milk, bread and f&v for the rest of the month that should minimize the damage to your budget -- especially if you're like me and have several bags of veg in the freezer and a number of tins of fruit in the cupboard (I could manage for at least a week without even needing to buy f&v apart from the bananas that DH insists on having on a daily basis).

    I know if I were to give in part way through a month (as I did with keeping records of non food items in July & August) then I also pick things up without thinking about the cost as much -- and end up spending even more.

    I'm expecting to go over in December because of Christmas -- I've already decided I'm not going to up my budget for the month in terms of how it calculates 'per person', as I [STRIKE]want[/STRIKE] need to keep as close to my current budget as I can.

    But I'll almost certainly have to adjust my budget part way through the month to allow for having to feed an extra mouth, as we suspect elder DS will be home on leave (and it could be for as long as 6 weeks!) but don't know for definite nor when it's even likely to be from!! Since he finished his Army basic training we tend to not got more than about 48 hours notice of his coming home -- which can be great fun in terms of having food in the freezer I can cook for 4 instead of for 3. I've actually taken to packing individual meat portions - such as chops - such that some are in bags of 2 and some are in bags of 1 (so I can pull out a 2+1 when he's away or a 2+2 when he's home) whereas in the past I'd have packed them all into bags of 3 and would have had to go out and buy fresh despite having a freezer full of Whoopsied meat :eek:
    Cheryl
  • tirlittan
    tirlittan Posts: 3,397
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Up to £46.55 out of £100 on GC. Not too bad methinks, but I haven't had much exciting food. 12.5 days to go as off on 29th abroad. I haven't really made enough effort to have inventive foods,but I've survived. Tried to meal plan and up till 15th it works as I only had so much money to spend. After pay day and a little trip to France I got bit disorganised and on Wednesday and Thursday bought both breakfast and lunch from Greggs. :(

    Next month have to try to meal plan better, just find it difficult as hardly have any freezer space as share with 4 others. Also, can you freeze sliced ham? Bought a packet cheaply that usually contains about 9 slices, but this time it had 15! And as there's only week and a half left before hols and I only really use it in my sarnies, I don't want to waste it. Thanks for any ideas.
    DEBT FREE OCTOBER 2012!
    Proud to have dealt with my debts!
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.8K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.4K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 606.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.7K Life & Family
  • 247.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards