November 2008 Grocery Challenge

distressedpleasehelp

Hi toffee 65

thanks for your post, it's all a bit daunting but I'm going to fix it!!

Primrose

You're getting lots of other helpful suggestions here but one way of cutting down on food bills is making lots of "One meal in a bowl" type dinners, i.e. big saucepans of home-made soups which contain lots of vegetables, beans, lentils, potato chunks etc. These are very filling and will also reduce the amount of fuel needed to cook meals. Large caseroles too, containing enough for meals over two days, bulked out with inexpensive meat/chicken and lots of vegetables will also help.

JennyBee_2

Hi all
Just in for a quick catch up in the middle of making some curtains! Have updated my signature. We're a bit over for the month but that does include a couple of christmas pressies and things we're buying for the baby (when it arrives!!) We went to Tesco today which was a nightmare! Got some bread, milk and kievs which were reduced (means I don't have to buy them next month as they've gone straight in the freezer!). As we had £6.50 vouchers which had to be used before the end of November it cost us a grand total of £2.04. Nothing else will be needed before the end of the month (24th for us!) so I guess I'll be declaring at what I've got now. Don't want to be too premature though so I shall wait!!

*BigBird*

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry to hear about the folks who are having a tough time outside of the GC. Big hugs to you. There are times when you have much better things to do than worry about the cost of lentils, so spend your time with the people you need to and come back whenever you are able.

Was very pleased with OH on Friday. He had a carp day at work and I had to unexpectedly dash one of the kitty-cats off to the vet after work, so neither of us was really in to mood to cook what was on the mealplan and we were teetering on the brink of heading to the chippy. But then OH pointed out that it was a bit of a waste of money and surely there must be something in the freezer/cupboards? Cue fish in batter and oven chips from the freezer with a tin of mushy peas lurking at the back of the cupboard Much cheaper than the chippy and probably a hell of a lot less calorific too. Full credit has to go to OH, as without him the GC would've been out the window!

I currently have about £16 left to last til the end of the month :eek: However I have accounted for the MrA delivery which is coming tomorrow and we should only need some fruit, veg and milk til the end of the month (famous last words???) The current spend also includes £15 spent on a Christmas tree in MrT, which isn't really grocery, so I may add that money back in. So it isn't as bad as it looks (she says hopefully...:p)

Now I need to ask for some help:

OH's folks have invited us over for Christmas day and we have offered to provide the turkey. I've never had to buy a turkey before What sort of size would we need to order for 5 people plus leaving some leftovers for the following day?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for what I could do with half a tub of quark and some fromage frais I have lurking in the fridge? I hate to throw anything away!

angelatgraceland

*BigBird* wrote: »

Now I need to ask for some help:

OH's folks have invited us over for Christmas day and we have offered to provide the turkey. I've never had to buy a turkey before What sort of size would we need to order for 5 people plus leaving some leftovers for the following day?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for what I could do with half a tub of quark and some fromage frais I have lurking in the fridge? I hate to throw anything away!

Personally I would opt for a "turkey crown". Ive got one for Christmas cost £8.99 in Co-op. They are £9.99 in Somerfield. Thing about the crown is that it is ALL breastmeat so easier to slice and portion. Quicker to cook also-so if you are not worried about not having the legs to cook later its much easier.

I got one last year and so wish I had done it before! You will easily feed 5 from one of these.There should also be enough for sarnies on boxingday or whatever you want to do with it. No "turkey mess" either-a much quicker way of serving it. I will edit this post later to include the weight of the one I bought.

Today I went on a whoopsie hunt and did very well. Somerfield was 5 packs sarnies and some muffins and peppered mackerel-£3.40 Waitrose I used £3.70 in vouchers. Got NOTW newspaper for the £5 tesco voucher, some milk,fr eggs, and 5 loaves of reduced bread at 35p per loaf-this was "good stuff". Also got 3 boxes of fresh cream cakes for 59p each but made an error on these as one want reduced and I paid £1.99! Oh well-they were nice and the vouchers paid for those!!! Spent £6.97 in there so still good. went onto Iceland where I picked up a booklet with £7 of vouchers in for stuff I will use. Treated us to some luxury icecream for 2 for £3 and some danepack cheese and bacon grills BOGOF in chilled. 5 kilo of nice big pots for £2 some veg and a chicken pie cos I didnt take my chicken out after all last night. So cold in my garage at night I hate going in the freezer-I must do this in the daytime. Spent £12.50 in there so total today was £23.17. Not going to need Asda delivery Weds eve now so I will ppostpone it until next weekend at least.

tessie_bear

on the subject of turkey i got a frozen crown from the coop today...frozen £6.99 not huge but as already said all meat no over cooked legs etc....im not sure how much it weighed but i thought it would do 4 for lunch (2 small kidlies) and enough for a sarnie.........crowns are great to carve (hack in my case).....what are people eating for xmas ? i whispered that in case its too early for such talk.......are folks upping the budget for xmas ? im trying to buy a few bits each week to spread the cost....i got 2 essential tins of quality street in asda last week at a very bargainatious £7 lovely

bestpud

Ok, will update my sig in a minute as I now know the weekly shop was £91.21 and we have just spent £5.88 in the co-op on bits of nothing for tea!

thriftylass

*BigBird* wrote: »

Now I need to ask for some help:

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for what I could do with half a tub of quark and some fromage frais I have lurking in the fridge? I hate to throw anything away!

As soon as I read that I thought mmmhhhhhh small cheese cake. Well depends on how much you have left. Or you could make small finnish pastries like Dallaspulla. Or for sth savoury, mix the two, add some herbs, pepper, salt and garlic to taste and use as a soft cheese spread in sandwiches or as a dip.

I spent another 20 quid in T*sc* today (actually 10 of that was household) but that's me done with grocery shopping for the month as I go on holiday the last week of November and won't need to by anything til then. That shopping trip also covered most ingredients I need for my sweets/baked items for my christmas hampers, well and a advent calendar for me (I know I'm too old for this but fancied one this year ) So total grocery spent for this month is 166.

Winky,_The_House_Elf

Can I just wish you good luck!

Sometimes just by looking at what we are spending it shrinks of its own accord! I kept buying things that my mum had (I'm now 35!) and others just in case I fancied them, others through guilt (I must buy fruit and veg to throw them away in a weeks time as they are healthy!) and how on earth could I say what I'd want for tea next tomorrow never mind next Tuesday?????

My biggest changes was meal planning, deciding what we were going to have and then making a list of what I needed to buy. I don't stick ridgidly, I might plan a curry but then fancy pizza, so I will swap it with another day, but I have a loose idea of what meals I have got in and it stops that dreaded feeling of I can't be bothered so I'll have a chippy tea!

I also open the fridge door and think "what can I make?" Rather than "what do I fancy?" and then if its not there running the shop.

Small baby steps, don't do anything too drastic in your first month or you will never stick to it and will feel deprived, eventually you will be using a bread maker, slow cooker and stretching meals with lentils and you will feel like its second nature!( ALL those things I thought were a bit extreme, and I would never be doing in a million years when I joined, but now really enrich my life and I couldn't do without!)

Any questions please ask, some usually has the answer or a point of view.

Winky

Welcome to OS, its a friendly place!

Taffyscot

Hi Distressed
Do find out when your Tescos marks it's food down. Food that has an expiry date that day can get reduced by 25% then later in the day by 50% and then by a whopping 75%. I had 4 kids at home and when they were teenagers my God what I didn't spend on food for them all. I wish I had known about all the discounted food then because now I do not need as much and tend to still by all the bargains because I can and because they are that bargains.
It is amazing what you can buy loads of loaves of bread for 9 pence. I got 4 cheese and onion pasties tonight for 58P perfect for lunches. I got a huge bag of spinach for 40 P and 2 large pork chops for 29 P. Then I went to check out and my huge bag of groceries for £9.00 and I used £3.50 in coupons that I found in the store so it only cost me £5.50. There are loads of ways to make your money go further. Hope this helps.
Taffy