January 2011 Grocery Challenge

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  • laineyc_2
    laineyc_2 Posts: 923 Forumite
    Thanks, Candy. I love Fridays. My SIL is coming for a catch up dinner. I am make goats cheese and red onion tart, salad and garlic mash and apple cake for dessert.

    I am off to pick up my slicer this morning. Hopefully, this means nice slices instead of hacked meat. I am going to Morrisons for a look round for bargains. I have never been to Morrisons since I generally do my shopping online. I plan to have another NSD tomorrow.
    GC 2011 Feb £626.89/£450 NSD3/7 March £531.26/£450 April £495.99/£500 NSD 0/7 May £502.79/£500
    June £511.99/£480 July £311.56/£480
  • Flat_Eric wrote: »
    I have been missing in action this month. I'm not sure what happened but following my return to work on the 4th January, it seemed to take all my effort to get back into the swing of the work routine particularly as with the bad weather before xmas, things hadn't been done that should have been done meaning the start to the year was very hectic and my best intentions on my food spending went out the window !

    I had Mr T deliver two weeks ago and I'm intending on having another delivery on Saturday. I did a virtual meal plan (i.e, I fancy this, that and the other) and bought accordingly. Some of these foods remain uneaten almost two weeks later because plans have changed, I've been too lazy to faff making ??? or I just haven't been bothered so some two weeks later, I am finding that some of the food I bought has gone in the bin :eek: either because it is now out of date or has gone mouldy :(

    When I find myself throwing something in the bin, I feel very cross with myself. I am sure I read somewhere that of every 3 or 4 bags bought in the supermarket, the contents of one end up in the bin. It would be an interesting experiment if there was a person at the end of the checkout who relieved you of one of your bags as soon as you paid for it and promptly dumped the contents into the bin in front of your eyes. It would certainly make me stop and think.

    I've got the day off tomorrow and I intend to sit down and plan my menus for the next two weeks. That will take me up to valentines weekend. I'll try to plan for the whole month but will concentrate mainly on the next two weeks so that when I go to order my Mr T home shop, I am only ordering stuff that I know I am going to use. I don't want to find myself in two weeks time throwing stuff out.

    Out of interest - what do other people use to meal plan ?? Do you write it in a spreadsheet / diary / etc ??


    I start off with 4 pieces of paper with 3 columns (date/meal/ingredients) and then brain storm with the family what meals to have on what days, I also have a list of chicken/mince/sausage/pork/fish/beef/lamb meals and we try to have 1 meal from each list for each of the 7 days (hope that makes sense). we do have alternate HM chinese/pizza on a friday.

    once everyone has helped me plan 4 weeks (or however many days there are till next pay day) I get my geek/nerd hat on and put it all on a spreadsheet (if you pm me your email I can send it to anyone to have a look at) once its all written out on the spreadsheet I use a pivot table to create a shopping list. I then use that to check my cupboards and freezer crossing off things I don't need on the spreadsheet I take my laptop in to the kitchen to do this part. once I have done that I go back and sort out where I am buying things from I most;ly shop in a$da, a!di and my local butcher.

    Paper copies of the menu plan are stuck on the fridge so everyone can see what we are having and I keep my spreadsheet for future meal ideas. I have been doing this now for 3-4 months and we have never eaten so well plus i don't throw hardly anything away. forgot to say we do move our meal plans around nothing is fixed but because I have the things in stock for the meals its not a big deal we just cross out one meal and swap it with another.
  • Emily87
    Emily87 Posts: 32 Forumite
    Hi everyone, still making my way through the last weeks posts but just wanted to SHAMEFULLY admit.....I've totally lost track of my budget this month. I dont think I'm over by much but for some reason just stopped tracking my spending. ANYWAY my month runs 20th to 20th so i'll see you all in Febs challenge. Sorry for being a bit of a let down :(
    June Grocery Challenge - £???/£230
    Credit card debt - Start - £10,613 Now - £10613
    Personal loan - Start - £10,116 Now - £10116

    DFD - October 2015
    :T

  • CRANKY40
    CRANKY40 Posts: 5,677
    Debt-free and Proud! Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    £49.27 spent on this weeks shopping, making a total of £142.15 so far. Still plenty in the cupboards and freezer, although I have added in a few items in an attempt to broaden the house elf's range of foods eaten.
  • Mothership
    Mothership Posts: 823 Forumite
    edited 28 January 2011 at 6:52PM
    Left over Cabbage (savoy is best for this)

    Potatoes (mash half with milk butter salt & white pepper) Cut up remainder in to rough chunks.

    Swede (turnip The large brown skinned one) about half the quantity of potatoes (mash half with butter salt & white pepper) Cut up remainder in to rough chunks.

    Cheddar cheese (grated and sprinkled over the top)

    Grease a baking dish, sprinkle grated cheese all over bottom and sides of dish. ( to make sure you get crispy yummy bits to crunch).
    Mix together the mash roughly, with half of the cabbage, we are looking for a kind of marbled effect.
    Mix together the chunks of potato,swede and cabbage, arrange roughly on top of mash, press some into mash, leave little nooks and crannies or hills and dales, for the cheese and little knobs of butter dotted randomly over the top to fall into, making sure you place some on the tops of any exposed pieces of potato & swede.

    If you want some extra taste sprinkle some fried onions on top before you sprinkle the cheese.

    Bake in oven @ 200 till nicely browned on top.

    If I'm frying onions I make a little extra and leave in the fridge till I'm making this, you can do the same with the potatoes, cabbage and swede leftovers.

    It is easy, goes with almost anything, and is absolutely addictive.
    1st Purse £114.19 Monthly GB
    2nd Purse ££100
    :rotfl::j:wave::j:rotfl:
    Fridge Freezer £300 3rd Purse /£290.94
  • Well, had to bring DD to GP yesterday, and had to go to chemist afterwards. So went to Lidl as I was beside it and needed a few things we only get there, and got lots of fruit and veg while there. Spent €40, but got 2 bags: 3 packs of 3 lemons (only 59c each, so 20c per lemon v 45c in other SMs, and we're using lots for hot lemons these days), bag of 5 grapefruits for 99c (using for breakfast juice, again 20c v 60c min in SMs), 2 pizzas for weekend lunches (have pepperoni to use up), 2 packs of fresh ravioli for DD's dinners (99c v at least €3 in SMs, and good for a month - each makes 2-3 dinners for dd), bacon pieces (2.19, v useful for last minute dinners or making a difference to mac'n'cheese or chorizo potatoes), chorizo, bottle milk, bananas, cherry toms (down to 59c a punnet on special, so got 2 as we eat lots), bag oranges, apple juices, and a 20 pack bag of crisps (for lunches).

    The only thing I now need to buy over the weekend is meat and some mushrooms.
    GC 2010 €6,000/ €5,897

    GC 2011:Overall Target: €6,000/
    €5,442 by October

    Back on the wagon again in 2014
    Apr €587.82/€550 May €453.31 /€550
  • Hi
    Haven't posted for a while, have totally failed this month :( had an operation a couple of weeks ago and its my sons birthday today, so I've totally lost track of what I've spent though am sure its over my target.
    So going to start February with a totally clean slate and make sure I get myself organised :) in theory being a shorter month I should be able to do it for less, so could I be put down for £250 for Feb please.
  • *Twizzle*
    *Twizzle* Posts: 168 Forumite
    :mad: Got side tacked the last couple of weeks!!! I am blaming moo2moos DFW diary...its better than any book :o:D

    Anyway i have updated my sig and i think its about right :cool: Hey ho bring on febs GC :D
  • Pernicious
    Pernicious Posts: 1,786 Forumite
    Morning everyone,

    I didn't think there would be so many variables for this challenge...thanks to those who explained that!

    I am happy to declare £31.31/£32.53 for January :j

    Now that most of the freezer/cupboard stocks have been used up I am setting February's challenge at £150, (thanks for putting me down already :T) with the aim of reducing it further next month if this proves doable. Off to Mr T's tonight for the first shop - aiming to spend no more than £70 tonight so wish me luck!
    :idea:Debt at July 2012: £12,862.57 :eek:
    :dance:Current Debt: £0 :j
    100% paid off!
    :think: Savings Goal for November 2016: £5000 :cool:
    :D Current Savings: £1176.24 _party_
    23.52% Saved!
  • cat_smith
    cat_smith Posts: 1,258 Forumite
    Good Mr T shop yesterday. Stuck to list completely. Got some whoopsied salmon steaks for the freezer, but resisted anything else. There was a lot of whoopsied meat but I have a DRussel delivery on the first so I didn't need it.

    Am going to come in way under budget in my first month :j
    GC Mar 13 £47.36/£150
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