November 2008 Grocery Challenge

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I did a small shop today and put in:

Weetabix
Milk
Red lentils
Beef mince
Turkey thigh
Curry sauce
Chilli sauce
Spinach
Mushrooms
Tinned tomatoes
Spaghetti hoops
Brown bread
Red Leicester cheese
Tomato puree.

We have potatoes, pasta, gravy, flour, suet, margarine, milk, cornflakes, baking powder, cocoa and custard powder at hoem as well.

jexysbird

Hi please add me again for £300. I managed £274 all in household/food/toiletries for four of us in Oct. Much better than my £502 back in September!!! Hooray!!

Baileys_Babe

Spent £1.48 today on bananas & onions, signature updated.

candygirl

I put all my coins in a coinstar machine today and got £14 back, then spent £19 at tesco, so i'm only adding £5 to my total, as I don't count my loose change in the gc;)
DD's moved into her flat today, and couldn't believe how much a full shop cost:D I had to bite my lip:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

skintandscared_2

The way I now shop is like this.

I write down 7 meals that we both fancy during the week (just me and my OH to cook for). I try to choose meals that we already have SOME ingredients for in the cupboard or freezer.

I go through each dish and write down what I need to make it (eg if the first dish needs one onion, I put 1 onion on the list, and if the second dish also needs an onion, I change the quantity to 2, etc). Then I add any breakfast and lunch items, toiletries and cleaning products by going round the house and seeing what's running low.

I do the shopping on a Friday evening when it's quiet (and it keeps me from going out and spending money in the pub )

I then make any "freezable" dishes up on a Saturday - like curry, chilli, bolognese sauce, shepherd's pie mince and mashed potato. I've got a few big stockpots so I have them all going at once, and it saves time because when you're chopping ingredients you can do them all at once (i.e. if I'm doing a curry, chilli and bolognese, they all have onion in so I can chop them all together and divide between the pots). I then freeze them in portion-sized batches.

That would work really well for your family because people can have different meals, and if you're doing shift work it will save you loads of time preparing meals at all hours.

I have found that doing this has literally cut my shopping bills in half (and I do get a lot of "value" ingredients these days too, like tinned tomatoes and herbs instead of Dolmio sauces!)

The other benefit of batch cooking and freezing is that vegetables don't end up staying in the fridge and going off. They are cooked straight away. I always use frozen veg to accompany meals so there's no waste there either.

It's getting in the habit of doing it that makes all the difference. I'm sure you don't really want to be spending your precious time doing lots of small shopping trips every week?!

**edit**

Sorry - just re-read your post and seen you live alone. If you have a freezer, this would be even better for you because you could cook about 4 portions of each dish in one go and do about 3 weeks' worth of dinners! Then you simply microwave them to reheat.

Use freezer bags to put the food in, and put the bag inside a square-ish tupperware container when you freeze it. The bag will then pop out of the container and you'll have "brick" shaped blocks of frozen food that will stack neatly in your freezer.

Oh, and if something ends up rotting in your fridge ... DON'T BUY IT AGAIN!!

sleepy-lady

Hi CAT££ - I also live alone, I don't work shifts but I do commute to London 4 days a week - which means that 4 nights a week I don't get home till 8 o'clock. It's so difficult to cook for one person and to shop economically - perhaps we can help each other with meal plans and recipes?

nanokitten

Making a list and making sure you don't go to the shops when you'e hungry can make a big difference (especially the latter).

If you find you are left with rotting fruit or veg at the end of the week you need to start doing something to use them up before they get beyond eating.
At the end of the week you should do one of the classic dishes 'everything in the fridge soup' or 'everything in the fridge curry'. use up all those odds and ends of veg half an onion soft spuds, bendy carrots, plenty of seaoning (or a dollop of curry paste and you'll never know the difference).
It can go in a slow cooker or casserlole dish (just add herbs / spices for flavour) if your busy.
Fot the fruit apples, pears, plums, nectarines, peaches, bananas etc can be cut in half and stuck in the oven with a bit of sugar or honey.
You can also do it in the micorwave sprinkle with sugar cover (no water) an mcrowave until tender, the juices and sugar make a sort of caromel.

There is also alot to be said for cooking in batches and freezing or adapting each meal so tomato sauce goes with: pasta, then rice, then curried then in a baked potato or stew... alternatively make double and take the left overs for lunch (thay are always nicer next day). save money in the canteen etc.

Pink.

CAT££ wrote: »

Hi

I was just wondering what other moneysavers put in their shopping trolley during their weekly shop. I'm hopeless at shopping, I start with good intentions and add lots of fruit & veg, however, these can often be found rotting in the bottom of my fridge a fortnight later. I always end up spending a fortune, and yet, I often have to pop to the supermarket to buy ingredients. I should really menu plan, but it's a bit rubbish and doesn't always go to plan, as I live by myself and work shifts.

Hi CAT,

The best place on the Old Style board to get help, advice and support with cutting back your shopping bill is the Grocery Challenge so I've added your thread to it.

Pink

sinw

Hi - never knew this was ere, i was mailed re morrisons offer spend £160 for £20 gift voucher - thats 4 x £40 spends must be 1 spend per week for 4 weeks

http://www.morrisons.co.uk/dinneronus/

catnap53

Shopped at Sainsbury's again this week. I only spent 36.82, including a freedom foods whole chicken, (I haven't bought whole fresh chicken in years, usually get ready cooked whole in Costco or fresh portions so I will need to see if I can cook it properly,) and organic milk that was offer the same price as ordinary. Bought some of the basics range for the first time, so will see how these go.

The only problem was that as it was late there wasn't much fresh F&V left, so will go to Aldi or Lidl after church (shopping on a Sunday!), I also wasn't asked to get granulated sugar, I only ever have one bag in stock at a time of this as it gets used so little, and not by me, and of course I didn't notice that someone (for once) had put it into use.

Made some chicken and veg thick soup from left over cooked veg, there was still some left, so is now chicken and veg curry for tomorrow!

Doing well for spends with two weekends down, as long as I resist temptation this afternoon.

Struggling to avoid doing the same meals every week though, I don't mind pasta 3 times a week, but DH won't eat it at all, and you can't just substitute rice when the sauce is tomato or bolognaise, and he won't have vegetarian either, or fish unless it is battered with chips, or anything with a creamy sauce:mad:

Zzzz