July 2009 Grocery Challenge

[scotsaver]

MRSMC - I'm declaring £291.55 for July. I know I'm over again but this was made worse by the 3 day loss of Electricity in the Dartford area as I had to buy Bread & Rolls that I would normally make myself and had to replace Milk etc that wasn't planned.

EDF have now fully restored the whole area so I can confidently fill my Fridge tomorrow from August GC.

MRSMC - please put me down for £300 for August. I have increased it for this month because with the School Hols I know the kids will eat more and I will be doing more baking etc for Picnics etc.

Have a good day everyone and I'll see you all over on the August GC.

[Frugaldom]

MrsMC, my total to date is now at £882.21

I've spent almost 74% of my entire annual budget! I'm left with £12.89 per week and the extra £25 for Christmas week.
NEVER GONNA HAPPEN! (But I'll carry on regardless.)

Going back to my '100 things to do with eggs', as I have plenty of these whilst the hens are laying.

[DrFluffy]

I did my last spend of the month yesterday in Mr A. I got lots of "Ooops" stuff, so did quite well.

Spent £31, got washing liquid tabs, evening meals for every night until Saturday and introduced the concept of lunch to my budgeting (start work shadowing tomorrow in a job that involves being on my feet all day, so figured some form of calories at lunch time is now in order - to stop me going "Ooops" and ending up in a me shaped pile on the floor!)

So - I went over by £21. Boo. My nan gave me £20 for graduating though, so I am semi tempted to remove my pizza binge as it's now a "present"

I have an amazing recipe for spag bol too - really quick (30 mins) and really tasty! It's quite cheap unless you add wine, but if you have it - yumm!

Spaghetti bolognaise
To feed 4:

500g mince beef
1-2 onions
as many mushrooms as makes you happy
1 clove garlic (two if you are garlic feinds!)
Tom puree
Tomato pesto (the key to the flavour!) - half a small jar (about 100g)
Beef stock (to the consistency you like)
Red wine - 1 glass

Chop and fry the mushrooms, onion and garlic.
Add mince, brown.
Add the pesto and puree, coat mince etc.
If using wine:
Add wine and simmer to reduce. Add beef gravy granules directly to wine to thicken/taste.
If not using wine:
Make up about 400mL of beef gravy to the thickness you like - add to frying pan. If not thick enough, add more granules directly to the gravy.

Simmer away until you're happy with it - between 15 and 20 minutes.

Serve with pasta/spaghetti

You can add what ever left over veg etc you have to the onions/mushrooms too - courgettes are lovely, peppers work too

It also makes an amazing meat layer for lasagna

The cheapest I've done this for is about £5.00 (with wine - cheap offer stuff from Tesco, the rest of which I used to make coc au vin and a red wine and onion gravy, so I've only included £1 of the cost here) using Lidl stuff and Asda value pesto, and I got 6 portions out of it.

[cw18]

Originally Posted by DrFluffy

as many mushrooms as makes you happy
1 clove garlic (two if you are garlic feinds!)

love those ingredient measurements

When I used to cook for 5 of us (2 adults, 3 children with 7.5 years between eldest and youngest) I used to use 500g mince and a whole 750g value tub of mushrooms in mine Mushrooms are the one thing I have to use or freeze immediately after purchase, as anyone and everyone who's here (even if only on a fleeting visit) will help themselves to a 'couple' for munching on - which is made worse by the fact everyone then feels obliged to give the dalmatian a couple, as that's one of a few veg types he goes all "puppy eyes" for :rolleyes2

I always seem to add lots of garlic too -- I start with some, cook a while, taste, add some more, cook, taste, add........ I managed to go a bit overboard on a couple some years back

[Casperthefriendlyghost]

Hi everyone

I am declaring my grocery spend for July 2009 at £16.55

MrsMc please could you put me down for £30 again for August thankyou.

I've already started on my August money as my month runs from the 24th to the 24th. I've spent £3.70 so far and have updated my signature.

Cheers
Casper
x x

[Moniker]

Just spent 20 minutes writing a post and got thrown out and even though I copied and pasted my message it didn't work grr!

Never mind. I won't be declaring until Thursday but have decided to stick with the same budget for August so can you put me down for £300 again please Mrs M?

We have visitors in the second week and as I go back to work full time in September I hope to cook some extra meals for the freezer so I have something handy for when I come home too tired to cook.

Have updated my sig - had to buy a bottle of milk for the local shop so a bit more expensive than the supermarket.

I have already done an online order from Ocado for Thursday night to use the 15% off voucher ( does anyone know if this can be used more than once? If so I will use it again for September before it runs out on 31st!) and I have also done a Sainsbury's online order for the following week mainly for household stuff. These two came to approx £120 leaving me £180 for the rest of the month. I should be able to do it as it's normally just me and DH here.

Further to the discussion about meal planning I find it easier to plan just one week ahead in detail. In my monthly big shop I include 4 pieces of meat for Sunday roasts, plus mince and chops or chicken pieces (whichever is on offer), and I shop weekly for the F&V and milk. This seems to suit me as it gives me a framework and some flexibility. For example I didn't fancy what I planned to cook on Friday so we had an omlette and salad and sauteed potatoes. The salad was mainly what I picked from the garden, but I did have to buy a lettuce as the first crop has run out an the new sowings aren't ready yet. I bought a Sainsbury's Basics lettuce for 52p and it was surprisingly good.

Well off to make coffee now.

Have a good day everyone.

Moniker

PS really pleased to hear the good news about your mum Mrs M.

[rosieben]

In one of my mad moments last week I ordered a sainsbug delivery £53, and also had an unplanned trip to lidl where I spent another £22 so I have now spent about £143 out of my £80 budget this month :rolleyes:

however .... I have enough food in the freezer and cupboards to easily last till end of August so very little shopping for the next month (I hate shopping!)

Great news about your mum MrsM

[highland fling]

hi everyone

have spent the morning blanching and freezing green beans and fresh peas. Have also stewed rhubarb and plan to freeze some of that as well.
Can anyone tell me if it is o.k. to freeze ratatouille (sp) . Have made a large pot of it with courgettes, onions etc I have been given and I don't think it can possibly all be eaten over the next couple of days.

with reference to ellemm post about her husband buying too many potatoes, perhaps you could make mashed potatoes and freeze them in muffin trays and then decant them into bags and take out and defrost as many as you need at any one meal. Would prevent potatoes going green and sprouting.
I plan to do this with some of the garden potatoes I have been given.

Made a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake the other day. Was given the raspberries and bought the chocolate from Aldi and everyone who tasted it said it was delicious.

Have had to buy very little fruit and veg recently as I am very lucky and I am receiving sooooo much from the allotment.

[ellemm]

Originally Posted by highland fling

hi everyone


with reference to ellemm post about her husband buying too many potatoes, perhaps you could make mashed potatoes and freeze them in muffin trays and then decant them into bags and take out and defrost as many as you need at any one meal. Would prevent potatoes going green and sprouting.
I plan to do this with some of the garden potatoes I have been given.


.

Thanks highland fling, will give that a try, hate to see them wasted especially as I have homegrown potatoes just about ready to harvest!

[sistercas]

Originally Posted by cw18

sistercas - how old is DD1? Could you perhaps have a 'budget' for the shop slightly above what you expect to spend, and then anything left (after she helps get everything on the list and check for better bargains) she can have towards something she wants? I used to find my children would do a lot more for 'free' cash (even if it wasn't a lot) than they'd do for free - and it should work out cheaper than doubling your expected bill :rolleyes2

thankyou CW18 / mrs McM

DD1 is almost 16, she absolutely loves cooking , we sat down together yesterday to talk about budgeting and how to make things stretch , and now shes all fired up for cooking as frugally as possible - bless her we will see how it goes . she loves watching barefoot contessa and then wants to recreate her recipes which are on the rich side most of the time. i think its just gradual process. I have shown her the recipe thread on here and she is going to have a go at making some cookies and twink hobnobs this afternoon. DD2 is going to make a pizza for tea as she has a friend coming.

all in all the GC for july has not been good and so I will just abandon it and start again for august

Mrs M can I have £400 for august please - thankyou

Mrs M so glad to hear your mum has the all clear

[highland fling]

forgot to mention was also given some small white turnips. I usually buy large orange turnips so not sure how I should prepare the white ones. Does anyone have any recipe ideas for them. Will not allow them to go to waste even if I only chop them up and add to a casserole.

[CommitedToChange]

Ok went over budget for this month but it was my first attempt so not too bad I think about £130 instead of £100.

New challenge for August is £100. Gonna pay for my weekly veg bag in advance and make use of the mail coupons plus moc's this week - so recon I can do it.

Off to get all my household stuff for the month - should be £7 worth for £1 - a great start I think.

[got-it-spend-it]

I lost track a little at the end of the month, so I'm declaring at an optimistic £185 for July.

Please could you set me £200 for August as I am stockpiling a few bits for when I'm on Mat Leave, and hopefully this is realistic enough to stick to. I've picked up the Tesco vouchers in the Mail yesterday (wombled copy at work), so that should help a bit too.

Many Thanks- GISI x

[CommitedToChange]

An excellent start - £7.15 worth of household stuff for £1.05. Thank you coupons.

I am determined to stick to my budget this month - surely its not that hard

[cw18]

Been out for a walk.

Popped into C00p to check Whoopsies, but nothing decent there.

Decided to wander over to Mr M and see if I could locate their clearance section(s). They've only been open 2 weeks, and my previous three visits hadn't turned up anywhere obvious for the Whoopsies to appear

But I found them today The meat was still horribly expensive though Nothing doing in the damaged packages/bent tins for us either. But I managed to spend £1.09 on £2.29 worth of goods from the bakery section, so not an NSD for me

Picked up 3 packs of Cinammon and Raisin muffins and 1 pack of Cheese muffins for me (down to 25p/pack, instead of 72p each or 2 for £1), and a pack of their basics scotch pancakes for DS (6 in pack for 9p instead of 29p) as he's discovered a liking for these under ice-cream

Now 84% of the way through the month and 55% of the way through my budget, with 14 NSDs under my belt. Would love to get 2 more NSDs this month to beat my personal best this year of 15, but already know I'm shopping on Friday which means I need to miss 2 of the next 4 days......... Shouldn't be difficult, but I'm not counting on managing it

[DizzyK]

We popped to Aldi this morning after taking the kids swimming. Got some bread, nectarines, grapes, tomatoes, peppers and a tin of syrup as I had one on my tesco shop that's arriving later in the week and this was about 30p cheaper! So £4.61 but as I have save the change on my bank account, it will round it up and bung the rest in my savings account so I've called it a fiver. Normally I use my tesco credit card for even more lovely clubcard points on my grocery shop.

I've got an online shop booked for Weds evening (£3.50 delivery only about 20p more than driving to nearest useful sized tesco) and that looks like it's going to be about £75 but I've got some bits on there to try a recipe for raspberry cheesecake brownies. Very indulgent but my friend is coming to see me who I haven't seen in over a year so what the heck!!

[Baileys Babe]

Hello (looks around shyly) seemed to have lost the plot recently. I failed to keep track of our grocery spends 2 months in a row (have kept the receipts). Will try very hard to keep on top of this in August.

Off to stock take cupboards, fridge & freezers and to work out a meal plan for as much of August as possible.

Must try harder. Augusts budget £310

[kayjay1809]

We've got completely off track the last couple of months but are back on track for August with a budget of £300 for the month. I'm giving my car up for financial reasons at the end of July, so am going to be experimenting with a monthly shop for essentials and stockpiling in a cupboard followed by weekly top-ups at the local market

[lollyfin]

Hi all,
I am a long time lurker on these threads (posted just a little)and you have all helped me so much already, thank you for that, but I need some more help now please.
My OH is changing from fortnightly to monthly paid, so his last pay on Sept 25th has to last us until the 30th of Oct, 5 weeks . So to make sure we can pay the bills and eat in October I am trying to put some money away and the only way I can do this is to cut our food budget.I usually spend 400 a month on food , cleaning stuff, toiletries and pet stuff ,there are 6 of us,2 dogs and a hamster,its a lot of money I know. This month I am trying to spend 150 which is still a lot I know and I know many of you manage on less than this and this is why I am asking you all for help.
I have spent the last couple of weeks going through meal plans and recipes and have made up a menu for the month which I think is doable and everyone will eat (at least some of it) and I have put in an order online at Mr T's, to stop me impulse spending with my little budget, that comes to 102.34 so I will have 47.66 left over for fruit and any essentials we run out of. I am going to be using up stuff in my freezer and cupboards as well so next month will have to be really inventive to eat for the same money.
I really need support from people to get me through the times I just want to go shove it and go to Tesco and spend money on rubbish. oh and any other cheapy recipes please, please share.
Thank you all in advance I know I won't be able to do it alone and if I let OH, DD1(18),DD2(14),DS1(10) and DD4(10) know what is happening they will spend the next two months moaning and refusing to eat.

Hugs
Lollyfin

[Penelope Penguin]

Originally Posted by lollyfin

Hi all,
I am a long time lurker on these threads (posted just a little)and you have all helped me so much already, thank you for that, but I need some more help now please.
My OH is changing from fortnightly to monthly paid, so his last pay on Sept 25th has to last us until the 30th of Oct, 5 weeks . So to make sure we can pay the bills and eat in October I am trying to put some money away and the only way I can do this is to cut our food budget.I usually spend 400 a month on food , cleaning stuff, toiletries and pet stuff ,there are 6 of us,2 dogs and a hamster,its a lot of money I know. This month I am trying to spend 150 which is still a lot I know and I know many of you manage on less than this and this is why I am asking you all for help.
I have spent the last couple of weeks going through meal plans and recipes and have made up a menu for the month which I think is doable and everyone will eat (at least some of it) and I have put in an order online at Mr T's, to stop me impulse spending with my little budget, that comes to 102.34 so I will have 47.66 left over for fruit and any essentials we run out of. I am going to be using up stuff in my freezer and cupboards as well so next month will have to be really inventive to eat for the same money.
I really need support from people to get me through the times I just want to go shove it and go to Tesco and spend money on rubbish. oh and any other cheapy recipes please, please share.
Thank you all in advance I know I won't be able to do it alone and if I let OH, DD1(18),DD2(14),DS1(10) and DD4(10) know what is happening they will spend the next two months moaning and refusing to eat.

Hugs
Lollyfin

Looks like you need the Grocery Challenge July's thread is here. There are recipes on the front page, and lots of posters keen to encourage you to keep to your budget.

I'll merge this thread later, once you've found your way around.

Penny. x