September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

Moniker

Evening everyone. Back at work this week so can't read all the posts everyday, but will try to keep up. We had cold sliced pork with jackets and salad yesterday and tonight I took a portion of hm bolognese sauce out of the freezer and we had that with spaghetti and grated cheese (and a glass of red wine!). I took two sausages out of the freezer tonight and I am going to put a sausage casserole in the slow cooker tomorrow before I go to work - liike everyone else I am in the mood for winter food!

At work yesterday lunch time a colleague went blackberrying so I decided to give it a go too. I managed to pick 1lb 2oz in about half an hour from the field at the back of the college and I made about 3/4pt of blackberry sauce with them as I don't like them in pies or crumbles. I put 2 portions of this in the freezer and then used some on my plain yogourt tonight which was delish!

I have been making my own yogourt , but recently it has tasted a bit acidic and it has been difficult to get it thick enough unless I put it through a fine seive when it turns into a soft cheese like consistency - nice but you don't get much left after this. Anyone know what I am doing wrong? I use semi skimmed UHT and start it off with a Yeo Valley plain yogourt and when I first did it it was fine.

Another work colleague gave me a marrow which she had grown on her allotment (actually it was a courgette which got too big!). I remember my mum cooking stuffed marrow when I was a kid - it had mince and stuff in it. Does anyone have a recipe as I would like to give it a try?

Have managed two NSD but will have to buy more bananas tomorrow. I won't have time to do a big shop until Saturday this week, so will be eating out of the freezer till then.

Sorry for the long post and all the questions! I am off to bed soon as I spend most of my working day in front of a computer and reading all the stuff on here is making me cross-eyed!

Night night follks.

Moniker

fluffysox

Hi everyone,

IOIWE Congrats on the wedding, your pictures were lovely:D .

Today was my third NSD in a row. Been back at work two days, pupils back tomorrow:eek: and OH been in new job two days:T .
However until recently I've had the car and he's had a short train journey. Now he's all over the place so needs the car. I'm trying to manage without buying another. Disadvantage: It's not as easy as you might think to find someone to car share even with the offer of cash. I've sorted the journeys home but OH still needed to take me there at mo. Still I'm sure I'll find someone soon.
Advantage: (on top of the obvious fact car's cost megabucks to run) It is harder for me to stop off at the shops on the way home.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: . Need Milk tomorrow however so have left money out for my Mum to get me some. She goes to local shops most days, and 4pt milk is only £1.

Anyway sorry for waffling on .

nicki_2

Went to Asda today (to get DD a new school skirt and pick up 2 storage boxes with lids) so decided to grab some bread mixes and bits while I was there, then popped to Aldi on the way home

Aldi -£4.44
Asda - £10.22 groceries (+ £5.60 on storage boxes), then another £3.30 when I went back to exchange DD's skirt as I remembered I forgot coffee & some frozen garlic bread (to have with frozen pizza for fast meals rather than takeaway;) ), and then there was the £8.50 on the skirt & a pack of nighties for me :rolleyes:

So balance at the end of day :
GC - 17.96/30
T - 4.85/15
X - 43.25 + £10cashback :o:o

Must stop the buying of extras but its all been winter prep stuff (curtain wire & the storage boxes, & nighties for me as I only had vest tops) and DD's new school skirt (I wish she'd stop growing!!! ) then the £19 on text books yesterday Oh well, should have a NSD tomorrow as I have a man coming to replace a smashed window and all they could tell me was "between 10-1 as the other job he's doing is a case of how long is a piece of string one" :rotfl::rotfl:

madkats

Hi guys,

Just wondered if i can join the monthly challenge im fairly new to the forums.

There is me, my hubby (chef so might make this harder!!)
and two children aged 3 and 5.

Im going to try to set it to £250 per month as i spend about £300 now.

Can i be added to the list

Oh and thanks to dark angel for the link!!! and her always good advice.:A

Madkats

*BigBird*

NSD for me today - well, actually a negative spend day as I took the weevils and their bag of flour back to Mr T and got a refund

I have been trying to work out how some people manage to live on amounts like £20 per week and having a close look at my shopping as OH and I have so far not managed to spend less than £300 in a month - usually a lot more :rolleyes: This week's shop included about £12 on salad and fruit - which is a week's worth just for me (OH gets fruit supplied free at work) I think that is an area where I can cut down, so from next week I'll try taking sandwiches to work and see what effect it has on the grocery bills (I eat at least 3 portions of fruit a day, so won't be far off my 5 even without salad at lunchtime). And as the weather is getting colder (was it ever warm???) I can also start taking some of my HM soup from the freezer.

Had a wave of redundancies sprung upon us at work yesterday. No-one in my department - yet. Wouldn't surprise me if there are more tho, so I need to make a real effort to get our outgoings down just in case the worst happens.

perrywinkle

Hi,

Just a quickie to update signature - mainly bulk buying to build up stores. Quite a productive day - picked lots of courgettes, tomatoes, green beans, blackberries and apples from the garden - so lots of things to make and prepare. Also made courgette tea bread, twinks hob nobs and banana and seed energy bars - should hopefully help when the kids ask the inevitable "mum, what can I have to eat?"!

Hope everyone has a good September

Perrywinkle

angelatgraceland

AAngel wrote: »

Can I just clarify what you are counting as groceries? All food, toiletries, laundry stuff, eating out, cup of tea from Bakers Oven when I'm in town? Just want to get it clear in my head so I'm counting what I should be.
I would have managed with just bread and milk today but had to go and do some shopping for a friend whose house we were going to for lunch so I spent £8.89 today but I am hoping for a NSD tomorrow.

This one really is up to you. Some people lump all of these things together and aim to cut back on the total spend. Others want to define what is being spent where and cut back on specific areas. Although I wanted to cut back on all of it I found it easier to categorise it. I have: food
,petrol
,medical(prescriptions, dentist,plasters etc)
entertainment(meals out/days out)
clothes
toiletries
houselold(cleaning stuff etc)
booze(cans to drink at home)
Garden
DIY
Presents
Household maintenance(real repairs-big stuff)
That works for me as I now know where it goes exactly as I keep a spending diary and a spreadsheet in excel(if anyone wants it I will sendd it-just pm me)
Some areas I can do little with-medical for instance. Entertainment varies but is controllable. Food and household has greater savings.
I would find it really difficult to guess an amount to cover everything and its always a question as to what counts. If I buy a couple of bags of chips I call it food-I I go out for a meal I call it entertainment.
Keep a diary and do it whatever way you think may work best for you.
One of my aims was to find out how much we could live on over the period of a year as my DH wants to retire early on health grounds. Can we afford it? What do we need? What areas will we need to cut back on? All of these questions will be answered at the end of the year-although I can come up with the figures now which is good.It has taught me a lot but the diary is the most important step and is essential.

mhe

ok - i think i might cry.
The day before i went on holiday my dad kindly cut my lawns whilst hubby was at work. Came home at wekend and mum had bought some bits for us so just eaten out of fridge. Went to tescos today and got some freah meat to freeze. Got home and went to freezer in garage only to find that it was switched off and smelt vile. I think 2 and a half weeks ago when dad switched off the lawnmower he also switched off the frezeer!!! Loads of food ruined - 2 whole chickens, 4 packs of mince, 2 packs of chicken breasts, 2 packs of steak, 1 gammon joint, 4 packs of salomon fillelts, scampi, bread, milk, soya mince, quiche, frozen things id made like soup and pasta sauce and pizza bases to name but a few. My carefully planned work gone in the flick of a switch. All the way round tesco i kept saying i dont need that its in the freezer and now its in a bin bag in my wheelie bin.:sad:

Winky,_The_House_Elf

Poor thing mhe! Sending you a (((((((((((((( b i g h u g ))))))))))))))))))))))!

I think you have got more self control than me, I would definately cry!

Winky x

cammumof3

Hi all

Done my weekly shope today and it came to 54.42, slightly over for the week but I did get lots of stuff that I wont need for a while, like spices, coconut, frozen veg and stuff.
Over the last couple of days I have made custard cookies,fruit loaf, and tonight have made yoghurt. Apart from the yoghurt that we will have tomorrow the rest went down a treat.

Dried milk .... does any one know what else I can do with this other than yoghurt as got a big tub and it says to treat as normal milk in the fridge once opened, so I assume it will only last a few days.

Thanks Caz