November 2008 Grocery Challenge

ZLS1984

I need to get my budget down a bit too but at the moment it aint too high.

I need to think of a tasty dinner for 2moz thats if I can be botherd to eat.

Also I have a good recipe for oat cookies, if you would like it let me know and I will post it.

tessie_bear

i sat and chatted to a friend as she and her husband prepared sunday lunch.......omg the waste they chucked all the outside leaves of a cabbage in the bin.........i felt like retrieving them.....he went out and got aunties roast pots and a fruit pie.......i had to bite my tongue on how easy both were to make............its a shame they arent loaded but the cupboards were groaning with branded stuff its hard to say things about saving on food even though i was itching to......... do u know what i mean ?

blondy24

Hello,

Not sure if I have posted this on the correct section.

Here is my situation I currently live with my OH and our two dogs. We are currently spending on average £100 a week on food for just us two and then about £15 for the dogs including a bone each per week. I think that this is a lot of money and at the mo we are struggling with paying bills. Has anyone got any good ideas to reduce our food costs, or any good recipes that are tasty but cheap and reasonably quick. I would love to spend less on food every week - we have reduced the cost of pet food as now buy them supermarket own dog tins, but we go through 4 a day as they are both large dogs. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

Julimk

Declaring for November at £112.13


£100.00 for December, thanks.

Psychologically this is the big one – getting it into just two figures. But I have come down every month since I started. This will be half what I set myself the first month in September and a third what I actually spent pre-GC in August!

I think it is possible. My batch cooking this week resulted in 30 portions (9 different dishes, so a reasonable amount of variety) and I still have, untouched, 400g mince, 3 beef steaks, 2 gammon steaks, 2 cod steaks, 1 smoked haddock fillet and 6 chicken breasts. I reckon I could get about 20 meals out of that easily & that is without even starting on the lentils, beans, tuna, corned beef etc in the larder!!

I haven’t scrimped at all; my chickens are still happy, there is plenty of food in, we are eating well … I must have been a real spendthrift before. You guys are amazing. :T

geordie_joe

I'm sure most in here will say "cook from scratch", "batch cook and freeze", "Down grade to supermarkets own brand yourself" etc. But it would help a lot if you posted what sort of food you are currently buying.

Sunnyday

Hi Blondy24,

i was the same as you until this time last year.
We were spending the same as you for myself and my DH - we also have two dogs who are big eaters and a cat who is very fussy.

I started out by joining the grocery challenge and have got our spend down by an awful lot.
We now spend around £40 per week and sometimes quite a bit less than that (as low as £25 on a good week)

I batch cook and freeze as do many on here and i bulk buy when the offers are on and stash it all away. I have changed the dogs diet completely and they are actually eating better than they were before and so are we.

One thing that i did was to have a "storecupboard" stash of staples so that i could try different recipes without having to buy lots of different things for different meals - again advice from the GC.

I meal plan loosely and at least one week per month we can now eat out of the freezer all week so have to buy very little or spend the amount saved on stocking up the staples.

Many people are feeding families and i haven`t come across anyone who is in a similar situation up until now.
I shall send you a pm shortly.
Good luck.
SD

jackiegibbo

blondy24 wrote: »

Hello,

Not sure if I have posted this on the correct section.

Here is my situation I currently live with my OH and our two dogs. We are currently spending on average £100 a week on food for just us two and then about £15 for the dogs including a bone each per week. I think that this is a lot of money and at the mo we are struggling with paying bills. Has anyone got any good ideas to reduce our food costs, or any good recipes that are tasty but cheap and reasonably quick. I would love to spend less on food every week - we have reduced the cost of pet food as now buy them supermarket own dog tins, but we go through 4 a day as they are both large dogs. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

Just wanted to say hello and welcome there are lots of great people on here with fab ideas.Personally im not a person who cooks from scratch and bulk freezes etc but by joining the grocery challenge and reading everyone elses post ive managed to get my weekly shop down to approx £50 per week for 2 adults 1 child 1 dog and 2 cats.Have a good look round other posts its quite an eye opener and good luck

blondy24

Thanks for the messages.

Joe - I have recently started to downgrade on some of the foods I buy (e.g. stuffing, loo roll, squash etc) from a certain brand to supermarket own. One problem is that my OH likes to buy lots of sweet food (e.g. puddings) so I would need to cook sweet food too. I don't eat Beef or Lamb but he does so it is a bit complicated sometimes. I work full time so it would be a good idea to cook and freeze meals.

Sunnyday - Thanks for the advice. It is nice to find someone in the same lifestyle situation as me. What do you feed your dogs now? I will have a look at the Grocery Challenge. I would be interested in finding out what 'storecupboard' staples are a good starting point or any recipes etc.

Thanks for both your help.

gazza975526570

value items are the way forward for many things - ie weve just had a chocolate sponge pudding from Tesco that was 30p but will do for two nights - tasted nice and as good as regular ones

Its a bit hit and miss tho - so try different things

cuddlymarm

Hi everyone

Well the freezer (only a small one) is now full and the xmas cake, pud etc are all bought so now I'm going to concentrate on topping up my tins and working at getting cheaper meals. The turkey is ordered from local butcher and I pick that up on Xmas eve and my 2 grownup boys are only home for a few days over Xmas so I'm buying bread, cheese, veg etc as I need it. Hopefully this will mean less waste. My aim is to use things that I have paid for rather than run up bills (so I use the wood burner rather than the CH and the tumble dryer is strictly for emergencies) and use leftovers and try not to waste anything at all (so soup from veg peels etc, thank goodness for slow cookers)

Have a good week frugallers
Cuddles:rotfl: