May 2012 Grocery Challenge

14344464849176

Comments

  • chelseabun_3
    chelseabun_3 Posts: 699 Forumite
    Gosh! It's taken me two days (on and off ;)) to catch up with the end of this thread!

    Florenceem, I would have guessed a youthful early 60s! I have two older sisters, one is the same age as you and looks (and behaves) about 10 years older, the other is 60 this year, looks about 10 years younger, loves going canoeing! I know which I'd like to follow ...:cool:

    NSD yesterday, but Tuesday I started my second purse with a bulk purchase of cat food, tuna and sweetcorn! Is there a second purse thread somewhere? I've seen some people with 2nd Purse Challenge in their sig, but haven't found a thread yet!

    Small amount spent in Mr T on Tues - needed butter, blueberries and Maltesers :p:D which were on offer (of course!!) - will update sig.

    We're still working our way through the shepherds pie I made on Monday! DH said last night 'aren't we eating more meat than normal?' (We don't eat much meat by choice, we both like pulses and beans - weird, I know!:D) I explained that it was a 500g pack of mince, and I bulked it out with onion, celery, grated carrot and chopped mushrooms. So the actual amount of mince in each portion is quite small! He was impressed!

    Have a good day in the rain, everyone! :)
    CBx
  • Coxy11
    Coxy11 Posts: 4,837
    Homepage Hero Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    chelseabun wrote: »
    NSD yesterday, but Tuesday I started my second purse with a bulk purchase of cat food, tuna and sweetcorn! Is there a second purse thread somewhere? I've seen some people with 2nd Purse Challenge in their sig, but haven't found a thread yet!

    CB - 2nd Purse Challenge is here:

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3745005&highlight=2nd+purse+challenge

    Come and join us :D
    Cross-stitch WIP: Durene Jones Haberdashery Shop 365 1p challenge member No.6 Read 24 books in 2024 - currently reading The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill 1/24
  • Teatime
    Teatime Posts: 103 Forumite
    Chelsea Bun - great going on the Shepherds pie!

    I went to T yesterday as we needed milk. I went as soon as I got the kids in bed to see if I could get any reduced meat for the freezer. There for about half eight and everything had gone. I guess I really need to be there for about half five or something - would that be about right?

    I got the extra things I needed to make fifteens so they will be our treats for the week. Got a big block of value cheese - strangely enough, the medium sized one was cheaper per kg than the great big one! Loads of milk. My kids and I go through a lot of fresh milk but I am happy with that and am not going to change it. A few things we had run out of too so ended up spending £20. Not great for just popping in for milk. Next week, I'll make sure we get enough milk for the whole week at our weekly shop.
    GC June £78.50 / £250, May £262 / £250.
    Debt (excluding mortgage) April 2012 - £29388, May 2012 - £25588.
    Emergency Fund £0 / £1000.
  • fozziebeartoo
    fozziebeartoo Posts: 1,582 Forumite
    Today is planned as a NSD!

    The decorator left yesterday, so I have my work cut out for me trying to get curtains up and everything back where it belongs.........dodgy knees and poorly joints mean curtain hanging for me is like mountaineering for someone
    else :rotfl: but I will go slowly and do my best.

    Breakie was 1/2 a hot cross bun.

    No idea about lunch yet.

    Tea will be a HM lasagne I made and froze last week, packed with loads of veggies as well as meat :D

    A happy side effect of joining the GC is that I have lost 5lbs since the beginning of April :T

    Everytime I want to pig out, I think of Florenceem's portion sizes and hear her voice (not that I know what it sounds
    like ;)) saying "you don't NEED a whole muffin"......priceless words!! Thank you Flo! :A
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 9,289
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    craigywv wrote: »
    me again, does anyone know how to make cordial..... i growing blackcurrants and my bushes are already laden with what will be blackcurrants so i should hopefully be getting quite a large harvest of them, i do make jam and freeze some for pies etc but i seem to have an exceptionally large amount this year i would love to make RIBENA type stuff that you add water to dilute pls and ty:)

    craigywv - here's a blackcurrant cordial recipe - but it doesn't keep indefinitely like the shop bought ones



    • 450g blackcurrants
    • 250g caster sugar
    • 260ml water
    • Whole lemon
    De-stalk and wash the blackcurrants.
    Place the blackcurrants, sugar and water into a medium saucepan. Melt the sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
    Once the sugar has dissolved bring the syrup to a gentle simmer.
    Simmer the fruits for 5 minutes, add the juice and skin of the lemon.
    Bring the syrup back to simmer for further 5 minutes.
    Let the cordial cool for 10 minutes and sterilise glass bottle.
    Pass the cordial through a fine sieve, pour the cordial into the sterilised bottle, cool and keep refrigerated until needed.
    To serve, dilute the chilled cordial to taste with chilled sparkling water and plenty of ice cubes.
    Makes 750ml cordial
    Ok...I have just inventoried(IS that a word??) my cupboards/fridge and freezer and am sat pen in hand meal planning for the week.I'm actually gobsmacked what I just found in my cupboards!! Beans,tomatoes,kidney beans,cannelini beans ..pasta, rice,noodles galore.5 homemade frozen chilli,4 frozen shep pie bases,3 frz spag bols.Spices,sauces..plus lots lots more..gawd TONS!!!how did I not notice :eek:
    Am I starting the right way btw?My strategy is to use everything we have first so hopefully a nice cheap first week ;)

    Bumpmakesfour - That's a great start. The other thing I did was check all my tins and packets for any ood (out of date) stuff and I used that first. I actually keep the stuff out so I remember it but there have been 3 tins of coconut milk and 2 of condensed milk on the window sill since early Feb now :eek: so I think I may just have to use them or lose them! I meal plan now to have three or four fresh meals in the week and two or three storecupboard (cheap) ones. That way nobody has noticed a real difference and my GC has gone from £6-700 every month to under £400 for the last couple. I still struggle and try to avoid meal planning at my TOTM as I know I get greedy and desire sweet things. Others manage a square of chocolate a day but in our house, open chocolate goes in a single sitting (pigging) and no amount of hiding it helps as the hider eats the rest and just makes everyone else grumpy! :rotfl:

    Well done, just add a new technique to your approach on a regular basis and suddenly you will realise it works (I think I was rather conceited about my shopping (snobby?) when I started, but I'm slowly coming round). I compromise. I have sussed out where my lovely local butcher is better value and use him for those things and the real treat occasions but I buy the 3 for £10 in the sm (Waitfower is my fave) and divide packs to stretch things (red lentils in curry is my current favourite) - Oh and chopping up bendy celery to add a frozen handful to keep up the 5-7 a day without DH and DS even realising!

    A great start
    All the best
    SL
    Save £12k in 2024 - #2 target is £5000
    OS Grocery Challenge 2024 16.02% spent or £480.73/£3,000 annual
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My Debt Free Diary Get a grip Woman
  • mummybearx
    mummybearx Posts: 1,921 Forumite
    Teatime wrote: »

    I got the extra things I needed to make fifteens so they will be our treats for the week.

    Damn it!!! I forgot we still have half a sausage shape of fifteens left in the fridge!! I had a cereal bar last night as a sweet treat, wish I'd remembered about the fifteens!!

    Guess what I'm eating as soon as I get in from work tonight :rotfl:



    Really need to meal plan better for myself, was really hungry last night and DH was going out. Dinner for just me seems to be really difficult. Ended up having veggie fingers and baked beans. Not great, but it filled a hole I suppose. Shouldn't complain, I was honestly >this< far away from phoning a takeaway for myself :o and managed to control myself!!

    It's just difficult to come up with quick dinners for myself. I'm veggie, don't eat eggs (like I wouldn't make an omlette/quiche etc for myself). Starting to get sick of soup as I make it that often. Need to think more about this and meal plan.

    Tonight will be something with butternut squash. Probably the baked squash and tomatoes dish we made last week, DH really enjoyed it and has been talking about it since I bought another squash at the weekend :T
    Can't think of anything smart to put here...
  • jumblejack
    jumblejack Posts: 6,599 Forumite
    Florenceem wrote: »
    NSD here - need to get in quite a few of them - don't like my May GC total! :eek:
    We had roast potatoes, roast parsnip, steak in thick gravy, HM Yorkshire pudding with roasted beetroot, onions and tomatoes for dinner. I made 12 Yorkshire puddings so 10 to go in the freezer.

    7136651999_fb21fbaac0.jpg

    Tomorrow night is TITH.

    I have done my menu for the next 18 day's dinners - takes me up to next pension day.

    That looks lovely. Your yorkies are a triumph:T
    I'm so glad that your pic proves that it is not necessary to have roast meat on a roast dinner. I really would like to go veggie but my family are hard core carnivores:eek:
    I would happily scoff the subject of your photo:)

    Ps, what is TITH?
    :A Every moment is a gift. That's why we call it the present.!:A
    Grocery Spend Weekly Challenge (Sat-Fri):£30.50/£40
  • craigywv
    craigywv Posts: 2,342 Forumite
    craigywv - here's a blackcurrant cordial recipe - but it doesn't keep indefinitely like the shop bought ones




    • 450g blackcurrants
    • 250g caster sugar
    • 260ml water
    • Whole lemon
    De-stalk and wash the blackcurrants.
    Place the blackcurrants, sugar and water into a medium saucepan. Melt the sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
    Once the sugar has dissolved bring the syrup to a gentle simmer.
    Simmer the fruits for 5 minutes, add the juice and skin of the lemon.
    Bring the syrup back to simmer for further 5 minutes.
    Let the cordial cool for 10 minutes and sterilise glass bottle.
    Pass the cordial through a fine sieve, pour the cordial into the sterilised bottle, cool and keep refrigerated until needed.
    To serve, dilute the chilled cordial to taste with chilled sparkling water and plenty of ice cubes.
    Makes 750ml cordial



    Bumpmakesfour - That's a great start. The other thing I did was check all my tins and packets for any ood (out of date) stuff and I used that first. I actually keep the stuff out so I remember it but there have been 3 tins of coconut milk and 2 of condensed milk on the window sill since early Feb now :eek: so I think I may just have to use them or lose them! I meal plan now to have three or four fresh meals in the week and two or three storecupboard (cheap) ones. That way nobody has noticed a real difference and my GC has gone from £6-700 every month to under £400 for the last couple. I still struggle and try to avoid meal planning at my TOTM as I know I get greedy and desire sweet things. Others manage a square of chocolate a day but in our house, open chocolate goes in a single sitting (pigging) and no amount of hiding it helps as the hider eats the rest and just makes everyone else grumpy! :rotfl:

    Well done, just add a new technique to your approach on a regular basis and suddenly you will realise it works (I think I was rather conceited about my shopping (snobby?) when I started, but I'm slowly coming round). I compromise. I have sussed out where my lovely local butcher is better value and use him for those things and the real treat occasions but I buy the 3 for £10 in the sm (Waitfower is my fave) and divide packs to stretch things (red lentils in curry is my current favourite) - Oh and chopping up bendy celery to add a frozen handful to keep up the 5-7 a day without DH and DS even realising!

    A great start
    All the best
    SL
    thank-you thats great cant wait to be making it:T
    C.R.A.P.R.O.L.L.Z #7 member N.I splinter-group co-ordinater :p I dont suffer from insanity....I enjoy every minute of it!!.:)
  • jumblejack
    jumblejack Posts: 6,599 Forumite
    Morning everyone:wave:
    This week is flying by. (Does anyone else think that this year is racing ahead and you are left running behind it? Probably just me.)

    Today's tea is gonna be beef rogan josh and rice.
    We have used up everything that I brought very nicely so I am pleased that no more spends were necessary.

    I've not been able to post pics as I only have 3G on the phone for posting.
    The wifi here is charged so I will do without :)

    Have a lovely day peeps.

    Another NSD here.
    :A Every moment is a gift. That's why we call it the present.!:A
    Grocery Spend Weekly Challenge (Sat-Fri):£30.50/£40
  • xxlouisexx56
    xxlouisexx56 Posts: 2,267
    Combo Breaker First Post Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Please put me down for £270.

    I don't get paid for another week so trying to spend the bare minimum until then :D
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