December 2008 Grocery Challenge

gailey_2

Right im off up high street to spend £20 bit exited wonder what I can get for all that?

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon all

Nipped to ALDI earlier....and spent €9.93 on :-

1. carton fresh milk -hubby forgot to take some out of the freezer -and I NEED proper milk after a week of Hospital tea
2. a red pepper
3. carrots
4. iceberg
5. cherry tomatoes
6. cucumber
7. a tub of a mixed veg coleslaw like salad -wanted kraut salat but they had none :rolleyes:
8. kilo grapes
9. kilo oranges
10. 2 packs part baked baguettes -for hubby whilst Im away again this week
11. big bag of paprika crisps
12. bar of walnut choc -just "because" :rotfl:

I am desperate for some fresh clean food so its jackets and salad for tea :T ... then my fruit nomnomnom...
The rest of the salad won't go to waste as hubby has instructions to bring me a tub every day when he visits me -so I can have it with my evening meal.. fresh salad/veg seems to be in short supply on the menu .the food is good, but I am so used to eating plenty of plain veg, salad and fruit:p

Right I had better get off..have a great day everyone

kayharcombe

Well, have been to the farm shop, and collected my half pig, which i share with partners mum, £64 total, my share was 34, plus i got 5lbs stewing steak, which was 7.50, and some bread rolls and a lemon, total 42.46.

NSD yesterday, but 4.27 in Netto on thursday, so 112.78 so far, but have more than enough meat to last month and more, next 2 weeks we should just need basics and top ups. I am sure I wont go over for the whole month. will pop out to netto and get milk later, and some sweets as partner is treating me and kids to cinema later. refuse to pay cinema prices for sweets and drinks.

put 3lbs of steak in freezer, rest I am making a large stew later to freeze as a family size ready meal. For the first time I have used more of the bits and bobs ie put chinese marinade on ribs, and am going to do something with the liver to freeze too. Usually use lambs liver, but never pigs before. Open to ideas

Kay

cw18

My parents swear by soaking pigs (or cows) liver in milk before cooking.... apparently they have a much stronger taste, but this helps calm it down !!

angelatgraceland

Had an NSD day yesterday even though I needed milk and cheese. Usind powdered milk at the mo and Asda coming tomorrow so deliberating whether or not to go out today(well it is getting late) Think I may stay in and not bother as delivery coming at 11-1 tomorrow. Spent very little last week-think it was about £30-will update sig later. Therefore have a lot more dosh available this week. Had really cheap meals today. Oatso simple for breakfast(onffer) made with powdered milk.
Sardines on toast for lunch-breakfast and lunch no more than 50p!
Everyone else has been "doing their own thing" which is common in this house. The sardines would have stretched to 4 slices of toast if mashed up a bit and spread but Im trying not to eat too much bread. Bought them in Tesco for 17p. I may try a month of living on a £1 a day in January just as an experiment-not expecting my family to take part-but in saying that its only a little cutdown on what we spend anyway.Made a veggy curry the other day and cooked a chicken at the same time. That worked really well as we had the chicken for tea for those who wanted it-others had curry-hubby had both! Bits of chicken over went in the curry the following day to make it chicken curry. Darn them-the carcass had dissappeared before I had chance to boil it up but it was picked off for the cat.
DD and DS made 60 mince pies yesterday but they won't last til Christmas they will be eaten.
Oh I was also told to soak liver in milk-told it made it more tender-I dunno but I do it anyhow if I buy it which is rare.
Got to rummage in freezer later for tomorrows dinner-want something different to chicken if I can. Difficult cos hubby wont eat many things.

carolt2

Evening all, just popped in to update signature

Spent £19 odd in Aldi including getting some fruit and veg offer for 39p, very impressed with quality.
Did another spend in Mr T just a re stock basically.
Signature adjusted.

Glad to see you back Mrs MC

gailey_2

Well to think I was exited feel bit dissapointed with my shop this aftrenoon.

1st stop iceland-milk still cheaper at £1.25 for 4pints so 30p cheaper than local shop!

my inner cake monster made me spend £3 on cakes now feeling guilty

6lyons cupcakes love these cant get them elsewhere cost £1!
cad cake bars 10 for £2-yes impulsive shouldent have brought but was peckish and they were tasy will cheer hubby up later!
Right I have mushy peas in cupboard so brought some more chips
macain french fries on offer at £1
and youngs fish only £2 for 2large fillets so fish,peas and chips 1 meal!
weightwatchers erady meal £1 great for emergancy standby do love their chicken curry.
Looked at chese and thourght no get elsehwere however was tempted by bousin garlic chese spreda only £1 only to discover later co-op had same one for £1.08 bogoff so bit annoyed!Its yummy on crackers.
Got frozen cod fillets for £4 hwoever filelts seems smaller and less sof them than there used to be!

iceland £13 in total so thourght ok not bad

Then went in co-op with intention spending £10 max

brought chese £2.29 bogoff spend ages deciding which one was better value
philadelphia 300g boggoff at 2.08 semed good will last us ages
salmon on offer 1.99 so fab wit crackers of if i get rissoto rice
thorght 4 losee baking potoes be good value and estimate £1 big mistake cost a whopping £1.96!
weetabix £1.31 as got no cereal
porridge oats 49p to make biscuits/flapjack
sugar 55p
golden syrup 1.09 to make biscuits
right brought reduced meatballs last night so was looking to make cheap sauce however no cheap sauces but wanted passata they only had napolina which was expensive 86p per pack so bit annoyed as not much cheaper than sauces.
1tins of puree 25p
clementines on offer at £1
daughter likes much bunch yogurt on offer at £1 for 6
got small tin ofbeans co-op own 34p and heinz spaggeti for 37p as cheap thing for daughter to eat on toast for lunch I can have bousin or phialdephia on crackers.
Ended up spending £16 in co-op was not amused as was hoping for spare £5 go to fruit and veg shop.

I think i did ok
have meal planned enough until tue as we have

2 readymeals in frezer for mon nite
tonite meatballs and pasta
sunday tuna napolitina for hubby as have tin of tuna/milk and packet mix
we also have 4baked potatoes 2 each
frozen fish with mushy peas and chips
got spare chips for hubby to go with cheap 10pcurry sauce we have in cupboard
Also got frozen cod and more paasata to make chest tomotoe fish bake.

so thats 7 meals

for daughter got beans spagetti and tin of tomatoes and cheese to make her pasta so shes sorted until tuesday too as shes got weetabix for breckfast,yougurts and clementines as healthy snack.

We still got lots of crackers and crisps in cupboard
need to bake a loaf of bread as got 1 bread mix left and hubby will just have to make do until tuesday.

Wi;l bake homemade hob nobs tonite too plus got tiny bit of icecream and apple strudel in freezer.
Glad i dident have to resort to mushy peas soup and broccoli curry.
would fish be odd in curry? as could try cod korma?

so far this month

£7 local shop
£10 co-op small
£13 iceland
£16 large co-op

so far £46/£250 budgeted feel thats bad as only dec 7th although our usual budget is £200 which we overspend by £50 a week so about right.

Problem is we run out of basics and feeezer and cupboards bare!
So will have to spend extra this month on basics and christmas.
Im fearful taking hubby in iceland as he will spend 2much.

tessie_bear

im glad u are back mrs m and hope are feeling ok....gailey that was a heck of a shop....did u notice if iceland had the party food in ? the canapes and bits and bobs........have u ever tried own brand philly type cheese....we have sainsburys own and it is quite cheap i think u have to try own brands and sometimes i have been pleasantly surprised........i noticed the coop has biggish looking turkeys half price which might be of use to someone....i prefer a crown as i have a smallish oven and noone who likes the leg meat

CRANKY40

I am making my next two weeks shopping lists with the aim of going nowhere near Asda Christmas week (22nd to 28th of December), so I may go slightly over my totals for the next two weeks, but hope to make it up on the 3rd week.

On the third week, I hope to just be popping into the co op on the way home from work for bread and milk, that will be all. The co op on the way home is fairly large, so I'm going on a recce on Monday to buy my normal Monday top up of milk there, and see what it's like. I don't usually go there, which is a bit daft really. It's actually easier than Asda to get to, and hopefully does not have as many money spending distractions :T

gailey_2

OH is home and not impressed with all i brought as dident buy any pop!
I dident buy alchol either seems scary to spend £29 today and not have brought any luxuries dident buy meat but did buy fish and salmon.
Im annoyed at boissan and overpaying for passata and baked potatoes everything else was probably ok but regret buying cakes too!
We tried own brand cream cheese but hubby wasent keen so stick to phili but look for deals.
As for cheese always sems so pricey we seem to get through loads so again hunt for deals now got huby to switch to mature stronger chese as a little goes long way then.
I worked out when we got home that we got enough stuff in cubpoards and freezer for 7meals we have enough for lunches we have enough snacks yogurts,satsumas,crisps and cakes.
We run out of squash so need more however got enough coffee milk and sugar im gona have to make a home made loaf tommorow and homemade biscuits and still got strudel and icecream for dessert in freezer so not all bad!
I tried to get things that complemented the limited stuff we already had in house as we going to do big shop tuesday.

tessie bear yes iceland had lots of partyfayre which we normally buy every year and normally still eat until march as hubbys buys too much hence me not wanting to take him there! But co-op/sainsburys all do 3 for £5 partyfayre too so you not limited to iceland and those annoying jason donovan ads.
Dident see any turkets in coop but their meat and fish section was ok.
Co-ops ok if you shop the deals only for some everyday basics like passata they can be expensive and cant believe how expensive their veg was spending £1.96 on 4 potatoes! yes im still in shock!
On plus side own brand coffee 1.69 and fair trade you really do have to shop around to get best deals these days.

Im gona go for large free range turkey same as last year ss can get xmas dinner,sandwiches and curry out of it too so better value than crown
If I had bigger oven would love to try goose!