September 2010 Grocery Challenge

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  • Spiggle
    Spiggle Posts: 1,787
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
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    Hi Folks and welcome to the many newbies :hello:

    Spent a fab day in the garden yesterday so I was quiet!

    Went back to work this morning while OH went to work and see the doctor. Long story short I flew back from work to pick him up and take him to the hospital where they confirmed DVT. So warfarin for six months and the pleasure of injecting him over the next week or so. All in all a pretty sh***y day. Sorry that was uncalled for. :o

    Don't know how things will pan out over this week but I'll try and stay in touch.

    Keep up the fantastic work all,
    Spigs
    Mortgage Free October 2013 :T
  • Hippeechiq
    Hippeechiq Posts: 1,103 Forumite
    edited 31 August 2010 at 7:08PM
    Spiggle wrote: »

    Went back to work this morning while OH went to work and see the doctor. Long story short I flew back from work to pick him up and take him to the hospital where they confirmed DVT. So warfarin for six months and the pleasure of injecting him over the next week or so. All in all a pretty sh***y day. Sorry that was uncalled for. :o

    Don't know how things will pan out over this week but I'll try and stay in touch.

    Oh Spiggle, what a worry. No wonder you're feeling low hun, no need to apologise, it must be a bit of a shock, and you need time to get your head around it :grouphug:

    greent wrote: »
    couscous i know i should be able to use this but tbh i find it abit boring and tastless but refuse to bin it. - I love couscous. Make it up with squeezy garlic (dried herbs if you want) add roasted veg - Mediterranean. Serve hot or cold. Or add sunflower seeds, some roasted veg, cumin, coriander, chickpeas and sultanas for a more moroccan type. Serve with pork and roasted peppers and onions and courgettes (all in together) instead of rice. Use in wraps withj chicken (add salsa/ sour cream for stick-togetherness)

    Mmmmmmm, am loving the sound of that :drool:

    Love cous cous and love roasted veg. Must confess though, that I usually buy it in the packet already mixed.

    I have bought a bag of plain cous cous recently though, so am wondering what kind of quantities of cumin, coriander, chickpeas and sultanas would you use to how much cous cous if you don't mind me asking greent?
    Aug11 £193.29/£240

    Oct10 £266.72 /£275 Nov10 £276.71/£275 Dec10 £311.33 / £275 Jan11 £242.25/ £250 Feb11 £243.14/ £250 Mar11 £221.99/ £230
    Apr11 £237.39 /£240 May11 £237.71/£240 Jun11 £244.03/ £240 July11 £244.89/ £240
    Xmas 2011 Fund £220
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,613
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    Hippeechiq, thanks so much for telling us exactly how you do it. Anyone else willing to share the nuts and bolts?
    I have my super-whizzy spreadsheet :D

    At the end of each day I enter what I've bought, where I bought each item, what I paid, how many I got (and, if it was a Whoopsie item, then I also add what the full price should have been)

    This keeps track of what I've spent over the month/year, and where my annual budget stands (at the moment I'm over budget for the year-to-date, but hope to be well under by year end as my fussy eater/milk monster moves out on 12th and I'll then start working my way through my freezers/cupboards ;))

    My personal version (which has more to it than the one I share) also keeps track of my staff discount (Mr M) and the pennies I get in change - shoving this off to my sealed pot, so that all my grocery spends add up to a round 10p.
    Cheryl
  • NickJW
    NickJW Posts: 680
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
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    edited 31 August 2010 at 10:47PM
    ...it took me a day or two to realise my bottom didn't have dandruff :rotfl:

    I've been laughing at that for a good few minutes now - it only takes a little thing to get me going!:rotfl:

    Payday is tomorrow but since I've already declared August I'll add the spends of £3.51 for sugar, Lurpak, choccy bar and milk from the local Mr S. Updated signature.

    Flatmate cooked dinner - Salmon with Parmesan crust with mash and green beans. Was nice, but we both agreed it was quite dry. He made too many breadcrumbs so now has a LOT of breadcrumbs mixed with parsley and parmesan. Apart from freezing, does anyone have any idea what can be done with these? Would rather not do the same recipe tbh...

    I had a REALLY nice dinner last night, which gave me enough for lunches for today and tomorrow. I was only looking for a recipe to go with with a can of Cannellini beans which I was getting fed up of seeing looking at me in the cupboard. It was a sausage, bacon, and passata hot pot with the beans - kind of like posh baked beans with a smoky BBQ style taste.

    It's from a recipe but I've made a few amendments:

    BBQ Cannelini beans with sausages

    Ingredients

    Pack of 8 Sausages
    6 rashers bacon (ideally smoked)
    I can of Cannelini beans
    500g Passata
    1 Onion
    1 tbsp paprika
    1 tbsp brown sugar
    2 garlic cloves, crushed
    Splash Lea and Perrins
    Serve with chips, potatoes or rice :)
    One deep, non stick pan for cooking the meal in.

    1. Fry off the sausages for 10 mins until brown all over. Take off and transfer to another plate once done.
    2. Chop up the onions and bacon then fry for 5 mins (or until browned), add the sausages after this, pour in the passata, cannelini beans, paprika, sugar, garlic and lea and perrins . Simmer for 10-15 mins.
    3. Serve with chips, potatoes or rice, or if you want, in a bowl on it's own.

    I had with chips tonight, and baked potato today. Both yummy, especially since I was wondering what the h*ll to do with these beans!

    PS: If I've done wrong posting this, or if it's already been posted before then please let me know/edit it.

    Sorry again to hear about your OH Spiggle.
    Grocery Challenge Jan 24 0/300

    Grocery Challenge 13 -spent £1453.06
    Grocery Challenge 12 -spent £1565.51
  • Spiggle - not a nice day for you. Do understand a little as my sister also had this and and had to inject herself with warfarin as she was single at the time & couldn't drive. hope things get a bit easier for you.

    Hippeechiq - i'm with you now about the flan dish. Think I was being a bit thick there tbh!

    NSD yesterday for me and only a tiny spend of 95p today on a bag of spinach for 15p and a packet of chocolate brownies for 80p.
    Grocery aim £450pm.Spent £519 August, £584 July, £544 June, £541 May, £549 April, £517 March, £517 Feb,£555 Jan, £573 Dec, £465Nov, £561Oct, £493Sept, £426Aug,£496 Jul, £528Jun, £506May,£498April, £558 March, £500Feb, £500 Jan, £490 Dec, £555 Nov,£566 Oct, £505Sept, £450Aug, £410 July, £437 June, £491 May, £471 April, £440 March, £552Feb, £462Jan
  • tessasmum
    tessasmum Posts: 238 Forumite
    Looking forward to succeeding this time!! Must do a grocery shop tomorrow so I am off out to the freezers now to have a good rummage around and see what we can use up, then I am going to make a menu plan and then a shopping list - full of good intentions so let's hope it works!! My kids' days of school lunches are over, so I have to concentrate on making some good lunches for them to take with them - our secondary school dinners are not terribly good at all, so we don't bother with them. Shame, as the ones at primary school were good and my youngest enjoyed having them now and again for a treat.
    December GC: £350
  • wssla00
    wssla00 Posts: 1,875 Forumite
    Hippeechiq, thanks so much for telling us exactly how you do it. Anyone else willing to share the nuts and bolts?

    Here's mine: I write a monthly meal plan, and add in a couple of non plan days for takeaways or a dinner out or something. Then I go through my list and mark off what I already have the ingredients for in red, some of the ingredients for in orange and none of the ingredients for in green. I then write one big huge list from that including meat.

    After that, I use my supermarket (or whatever supermarket is taking my fancy at the time....) and write out the list of everything that is needed for the month. I order all the meat, all the root veg e.g. onions, potatoes etc and all the dry and frozen stuff to be delivered. I then freeze all the meat and any bread stuffs (e.g. bagels or burger buns) add that to the freezer alongside my frozen stuff.

    Everything else is stored where it should be. Finally the only things I need throughout the month is any fresh veg (I have a lot of tinned, frozen and dried fruit in at the mo) my garden isn't producing, milk, extra cat food and eggs if they are needed.

    I also make my own bread which helps me loads as it's much cheaper than the stuff I buy in the shop and tastes better anyway.

    Finally I make sure I always have value chocolate in, cocoa, flour, sugar etc so if I get a sweet craving I can make a quick pud or some brownies and that stops me going into the shop. Anything that stops me going into shops stops me spending, I'm awful for after a long day at work going into a shop and getting junk and expensive stuff just because it's a treat and I feel I deserve it, so staying out of the shops stops this.

    Good luck :) we all get wibbles but so long as you know that it's not failure if you do, it stops you going oh well... I have already overspent X of my weekly amount so I might as well give up and spend whatever I want for the rest of the month.

    Going to sort out my lunch for tomorrow in a minute or two. Going to have left over marinated chicken and some jacket potatoes. Yum Yum :)
    Feb GC: £200 Spent: £190.79
  • guccigoo
    guccigoo Posts: 483 Forumite
    Hippeechiq wrote: »
    You're welcome :) and you're right, we've a great bunch on people on this thread. :)



    Hi jackie, I started using A$da/Te$co smart price/value ones - both 12 for £1.29 - a few months back. Te$co are better quality than A$da, but the sheets are smaller, but I appreciate they're not everyone's cup of tea.

    It saves me enough to treat myself to a bottle of wine each month so that there's more to life than save, save, save......... Give me a glass of wine over something posh to wipe my backside on anyday :D

    i second that as i always buy tesco value toilet rolls, the asda ones are not soft at all:eek:
    I will lose 2 stone by this summer!!!!!!
  • wssla00
    wssla00 Posts: 1,875 Forumite
    edited 31 August 2010 at 8:21PM
    Spiggle: Hope thinks are OK. I have to inject myself every day and you get used to it in the end! I promise!
    NickJW wrote: »

    Flatmate cooked dinner - Salmon with Parmesan crust with mash and green beans. Was nice, but we both agreed it was quite dry. He made too many breadcrumbs so now has a LOT of breadcrumbs mixed with parsley and parmesan. Apart from freezing, does anyone have any idea what can be done with these? Would rather not do the same recipe tbh...

    You could make some really lovely chicken nuggets using some chicken breasts chopped up banged into flat pieces, dipped in egg (or the nigella way or marinating them in natural yoghurt and not dipped in egg) then the breadcrumb mixture and then baked on a baking tray lined with parchment. Yummy!
    Feb GC: £200 Spent: £190.79
  • guccigoo
    guccigoo Posts: 483 Forumite
    hi nsd for me today, will be doing a small shop this week as i overspent last week and still have lots of food in fridge and freezers, also as im starting my new job tomorrow :ji wont be getting paid till the end of the month so its going to be tight for me till then.

    on a happier note i harvested 3 of my onions today that were ready so cant wait to cook them and eat my HG veg :D Still waiting on my carrots and spring onions though :)
    I will lose 2 stone by this summer!!!!!!
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