December 2008 Grocery Challenge

Sylvan

I've been using out of date lasagne sheets for decades. They should still be fine.

wyrdsister

Eek, been away for two days and nine pages already! Can I be put down for £90 this month please. Managed to come in well under last month but I'm bringing the money down since we'll be away over Christmas until after New Year so I wont be feeding us for the whole month and get a small break from cooking :j Hopefully Santa will bring me a new Remoska cooker that I've been hinting to my other half about

TheBees

TheBees would like to try for £300 for December please. We're going away for Christmas week so it'll be interesting to see how the budget goes.

Blairweech

First spend (in signature) - 25p on a drink at work. Actually 25p WASTED on a drink at work, as the machine had run out of hot choc powder so all I got was a cup of slightly milky hot water :mad: I drank it anyway cause I was thirsty
I'm going to include all my food, snacks etc at work plus any takeouts in my GC figure.

angelatgraceland

Please put me down for £325 for December challenge Mrs M -this is a five week challenge for me.
i came in under again in November at £235.19/£260 so Im very pleased and have some over if I spend more this time around.:j :j :j

reventon

Please can you add me in for this. As its my first month and with Xmas looming im going to go for £275 for the month. Thats for me and the missus and our 18 month old bubba.

Is that a lot ?? opinions please !

( I run my months from payday to payday so actually have been doing this since 25th Nov)

angelatgraceland

poffigirl wrote: »

Hi All

Today i made corned beef hash with the left over veggies from Sunday dinner for lunch, and Spag Bol for tea. I've sent DH to work (he's on nights) with his second helping and am intending on making a lasange with the leftovers. I've tried to make a cheese sauce tonight but managed to burn the sauce while sorting DD1 out for bed and have just realised that the lasange sheets are way out of date :mad: Oh well, it will taste the same with pasta swirls won't it

Oh I've dug out my slow cooker, but can't find the intructions and they're not on the website, noone has a Prima ABM12 by any chance do they????

See yousoon, off to do some purreeing!

Ive also used out of date lasagne sheets all to no harm. Just how out of date are they? I dont worry about a few months as long as they have been kept dry.
Re the instructions for slowcookers I never follow such things. As you have used it before you should be fine by just testing the food. Generally about 3 hours on slow or 6 hours on high for a lot of dishes. Depends on the recipe of course. If its mainly veg with mince for instance it wont take long assuming you have browned the mince. Generally I just bung it all in whatever it is-put it on high for half hour to warm up then leave it on low for hours on end until Im ready. Really slapstick I know but it is always well-cooked-I do test now and then if in doubt.

Well I have a lot of posts to catch up on as Ive just been so busy this week Ive not been on here-all 9 on here and about the same on the Nov challenge!
I came in under again and ?Ive just put in my order for Asda delivery with the intention of staying away from the shops and keeping warm. Less shopping means that hopefully I can catch up with some cooking. A few asda codes about for free delivery so Im ok for December! Was discussing Martin at work today-my workmates are now watching him on tv and have totally changed their views on shopping! So at longlast Im not the odd-ball!

reventon wrote: »

Please can you add me in for this. As its my first month and with Xmas looming im going to go for £275 for the month. Thats for me and the missus and our 18 month old bubba.

Is that a lot ?? opinions please !

( I run my months from payday to payday so actually have been doing this since 25th Nov)

Well it really depends what you include. Is it just food or is it nappies and formula and allsort s of other things too?

shellyx wrote: »

hi can i join you lot in here? lol we are a family of 5, 2 adults, 2 teenagers that eat as an adult and a 9yr old, on average we spend £80 a week on shopping, i really need to get this down as much as i can, so on saturday i did tesco online shopping and butchers and spent £60 so im hoping that will last longer than a week, i bought lots of store cupboard stuff as usually im one for quick freezer food but am determined to cook from scratch, these g.c have been great ive been lurking for a while, im hoping over time and knowledge i can get this down a bit more or am i expecting to much?

Well you sound similar to me but it depends if its "just food" or not. Mine wass about £80-90 on average per week but Ive now cut down to about £60 pw at present. Took most of the year to get to that stage though. I still have good quantities of food in the house(if I added it up about £500 worth at a guess)so Im not running on empty. Try to set about 3 no-spend days each week and never run out of things like bread milk and loo rolls because that is where it goes all wrong. We pop into a shop for 3 things and end up with 30! I always keep longlife milk dried milk and frozen bread along with about a months supply of loo rolls. Sound silly but that is what I find stops me spending. Good luck! Very acheivable I think but do allow yourself time.

beemuzed

Gosh, a bit late getting here this month!
Please can you put me down for £250 this month?

andrinaperry

I failed miseriblely in November not keeping track at all.

So I am thinking £300 for me please for December. New start for me.

Andrina

tango

£700 for November so not toooooooooo bad £40 over

£800 for december as we have people round:rolleyes: