November 2008 Grocery Challenge

angelatgraceland · 17 November 2008 at 6:51PM

Well Iv'e had a great money-saving and spending day! Went to Mr T armed with vouchers which totalled £7.45 off my bill. One was the £5 on a £30 spend. Didnt need much(well nothing really) but ds wanted some party booze and dh wanted some booze too so it topped up the bill. I dont include booze tho and ds paid for his own. Got the 3 lots of meat for £10 -2 chickens and some "collar steak(pork) not had that before but it looks good for the slowcooker. Had some daily express vouchers and OK mag voucher. Bought 3 more DE papers for Waitrose later in the day. Spent £12.26 on food-the rest was booze or household.

Ishtar wrote: »

Sadly for us, there's no Lidl or Aldi here - currently the only other alternatives are Waitrose and Sainsbury's, which are both more expensive than Tesco.

If you're not online shopping, take a calculator with you...yep, it might look sad, but who cares?

I wish you luck OP!
D[/QUOTE

Came home and cut out coupons and went to Waitrose where I spent £6.35 in vouchers and a total of £17.01 on food!
Now I get many bargains in Waitrose and some things cheaper than tesco.
I got some nice blue cheese today reduced to £4.99 per kilo. 2 nice pieces for £2Good offers-usually get cat food and t rolls there plus reduced bread. Give them a look an hour before closing time.

sarahs999 wrote: »

:rotfl:I just wanted to ask - how do you find out when they mark down the bargains - is it just a case of hanging around until you see someone with a price-label gun in their hand?

All the shops vary but an hour before closing especially on a Sunday or Bank holiday seems to workk for me. If you dont get lucky keep trying a different time of day until you have the shop sussed!

Have now got a chicken in my slowcooker for tomorrow with a tin of value s/s sauce and a tin of stirfry veg(5p short dated) . Tonight 2 of us are having the peppered mackerel I bought reduced yesterday with some pots and mixed veg. I may be tempted to start on the chicken myself-DS will want something non meat at a guess and he can use up the baked beans I have in the fridge. So all on different dishes tonight to use what is in the fridge.
Just cancelled my Asda delivery which was booked for Weds-no longer needed. Total food spend so far this week is £52.22 and Im not sure whether I will add to it or not. I dont need to but if some good vouchers come my way I will stock up on bread and milk.

tirlittan · 17 November 2008 at 7:16PM

Haven't updated yet this month, but just went through my receipts and so far used £60.71. Might get bit tight towards the end of the month as have really no food in the house and need toiletries as well. Well, I'll try my best to keep to the budget.

keld · 17 November 2008 at 7:48PM

I am carrying on with my spending diary, which is making interesting reading. In line with my new OS ways, does anyone have any ideas for using up:
1 turnip (swede to those of you in the south)
500kg parsnips
1kg carrots
half a butternut squash.

My only idea so far is roasted vegetables, but that would leave the turnip which needs to be used today.

Julimk · 17 November 2008 at 8:07PM

I did it. My £30 ish Mr T shop cost me £10.97 once I’d used as many coupons as I could. And my trolley looked so healthy with all that fresh f&v, beans & lentils!

The beef stew was in the SC since this morning, so there were lovely smells wafting passed as I was trying to work. It’s done now, as are the chilli chicken & chicken and leek stroganoff and sausage casserole. Sausage & lentils nearly ready and as I had loads of sausages have made toad in the hole too.

Earlier this year I bought Nigel Slater’s ‘The 30-minute Cook’ (even though it came out in 1994). It is becoming a firm favourite because, as the title suggests, nothing takes very long, most of the recipes are for 2 (there are only the 2 of us) and he is very fluid about ingredients & quantities. The Chicken with Garlic, Cider & Cream is more or less from there.

Blanch 8 cloves of garlic in boiling water for 4 mins (they will go pale & soft & just pop out of the skins when squeezed, and the taste will be much milder). Heat some oil in a pan, add a knob of butter. Fry 2 chicken breasts for 2-3 mins, turn down the heat, add the garlic cloves & cook gently for 15-20 mins until chicken cooked. Take chicken out & put 100ml cider in. Bring to boil, mash the garlic into the cider. When most of the cider has evaporated add 75-100ml cream (any), salt & pepper. Return the chicken, cook for 2-3 mins & serve.

thriftylass · 17 November 2008 at 8:10PM

keld wrote: »

I am carrying on with my spending diary, which is making interesting reading. In line with my new OS ways, does anyone have any ideas for using up:
1 turnip (swede to those of you in the south)
500kg parsnips
1kg carrots
half a butternut squash.

My only idea so far is roasted vegetables, but that would leave the turnip which needs to be used today.

This would make a nice big batch soup (freeze some for later?), maybe not all the parsnips and carrots though, I would roast some of them.

JennyBee_2 · 17 November 2008 at 8:39PM

thriftylass wrote: »

This would make a nice big batch soup (freeze some for later?), maybe not all the parsnips and carrots though, I would roast some of them.

Damn! That was going to be my suggestion!! Soup is the last stop for a lot of my veg nowadays!

Also, if you're going to put butternut squash in a soup, the easiest way I've found to deal with it is to roast it in the oven in quarters with a little oil until it's soft, then you can scoop it out. Saves all that awful peeling time and also adds a little extra flavour!

As for all the useful ideas that have been brought up previously, my only one to add is that when I do my meal plan, I try and include as little time spent in the shops as possible. For example, I won't put a stir fry right at the end of the month because it'll mean that I have to go and buy fresh veg a couple of days before we do our big monthly shop anyway. We basically do a big shop around pay day, then a smaller one about mid month (for ham for OH's sandwiches, veg etc). In between we limit it to milk and bread. We've now got a couple of cartons of long life milk in the cupboard in case of cereal emergencies to avoid the dreaded rush to the shops!

So basically, the last week of my month looks something like this...
Chicken Supreme (packet sauce, sorry!), Pasta Splodge (pasta, tomatoes, bacon bits with cheese on top), HM soup (freezer), chilli & rice, beef casserole...then it's pay day next monday which means I get to have my stir fry because we will have been shopping!!!

Also, I always make sure that we've got a bag of peas in the freezer and a couple of tins of sweetcorn and new potatoes in the cupboard. Cheating i know, but on days that we're running late from work it means that we're still getting some veg! And we're less tempted to eat rubbish!

Sorry - I've waffled

I am by no means an expert as you can see from my GC (and there's only 2 of us at the moment!) but take your time and you'll soon be able to incorporate a lot of things without thinking about them.

MrsMcK_2 · 17 November 2008 at 8:50PM

Hi all,

Just added my recipts and have £22.50 left for the rest of the month:eek: I hope that I don't need much as freezer full of food but there is always something I have forgotten. Hope everyone elses month is going well and finish under budget.

xx

TheBees · 17 November 2008 at 9:07PM

Had a big delivery from Mr S today and so we have £30 to last to the end of the month.

rosieben · 17 November 2008 at 10:51PM

annelouise wrote: »

...
Bestest big news is.......we are moving to Darwin,Australia in a few weeks visa's awaiting. ...

Hi Anne, I was wondering if you are ok, there's a lot of scarey news around now for businesses!

Congrats on moving to Oz; my dd and her family emigrated last year and they all love it! they tell me that planning christmas on the beach is still a bit weird though

I hope you'll still visit and post from Oz Good luck

keld wrote: »

...does anyone have any ideas for using up:
1 turnip (swede to those of you in the south)
500kg parsnips
1kg carrots
half a butternut squash. ... .

That list is just screaming veggie stew and dumplings to me

gillaman · 18 November 2008 at 12:21AM

Not posting much, but I am sticking to OS money saving, e.g. making my own bread, soups etc. I started emptying my freezer, but it's getting full again. I also made one of the tortilla recipes on here for lunch yesterday. Had them with home made chilli spread and salad. Yummy. Going to add another £16.90 to my total for this month so haven't got a lot left to spend. Might just manage, though I need some fruit and marg. I have the makings of dinners pretty well to the end of the month though.

Edit: Just edited my signature, good thing I did - only £12.80 left.

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November 2008 Grocery Challenge

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