December 2008 Grocery Challenge

rosieben

My gc budget is holding out so far, I've spent about £35 and will be spending another £30+ tomorrow. Hopefully that will see me through to new year apart from fruit, veg and milk

I use a lot of frozen and tinned veg too CW, so much easier as I cant always get to the shops.

I've been growing veg in containers for the last few years and there's some useful info, especially for novices, on the series 'Gardeners World Top Tips'. The first 5 episodes from last week are available here. In episode 2 Monty Don shows how to build a cold frame and loads of other veg growing advice, and in Episode 5 Carol Klein talks about container veg growing. Well worth a look for anyone wanting to grow their own

Sylvan

Altogether, including an hour travelling and the time it took me to put it all away, I spent almost 7 hours on it. Couldn't move for the rest of the day.:rotfl:

Back in the days when I was a single parent with a full time job I used to do a big shop once every 2 months (made the 3 kids push a trolley each:p). It works quite well if you're organised (or is that "boring"?) and you do tend to stick a little more closely to your list because you just can't be bothered with the extras:D
OTOH, shopping with kids tends to mean you end up with their extras too...
I find shopping with DH very stressful. He hates crowds so he tends to whine most of the way round and he has a sweet tooth so he just encourages me to buy rubbish. DH4 is much better, but I can't really justify dragging him away from his coursework.

Why don't you get hubby to take you there and then go and do something he enjoys for a while and just come and meet you before you go through the checkout, to help pack?

oligeo

I'm being very restrained - the fridge is only half full, and normally I'd be down the supermarket and filling it up, but I've planned our meals until Thursday, and I don't actually need any food. I just feel I do because their's a space. I'm going to hold out until Friday, and go shopping then.

Sarah

redmel1621

Hi All

Well I am not impressed with Mr T lately, My weekly shop came to £72 and I had barely anything to show for it, I ended up in the little Somerfield down the road and spent a further £40 roughly....

A few weeks back we had gone to Asda and spent £90 but that was ALL the food plus underwear for me and hats and scarves for the boys!!

I am going to give Morrisons a try this week and see if it works out any better than Tesco. Asda is a bit to far to get to and it is a huuuge one which is all to tempting to look at the homewares, clothes and dvd's etc.... Morrisons I can walk to and get a taxi back, which from there should only be about £3 instead of the £5-6 it costs to get back from Asda, or to have the Mr T delivered.

So, all in all I have spent £113 of my budget so far. I am also going to be getting a lot of frozen stuff for the Christmas dinner like Aunt Bessies roasties, stuffing balls, yorkies etc...I know it is a bit of a cop out and won't taste as nice as home made, but I will be 29wks pregnant on Christmas day and I really don't want to be shattered due to spending hours in the kitchen...This way I can just shove everything in the oven and let it cook itself.

Mel x

Blairweech

Sylvan wrote: »

Why don't you get hubby to take you there and then go and do something he enjoys for a while and just come and meet you before you go through the checkout, to help pack?

When I went to the supermarket with my ex, I said 'I wish there was some sort of adult creche I can put you in whilst I go shopping'. His response: 'There is, it's called the pub' :rotfl:

Had to get petrol earlier so went to Mr T and bought:

- Smoked ham joint, 2.5kg - £10 (£4.00/kg)
- 2 packs of Tulip ham - discontinued, 0.50p each
- 2 small loaves of RTC brown bread, one 18p, one 22p
- 2 packs of rolls - 2 for £1.20

Total: £13.14

So, the rolls will make sandwiches this week, the bread and the ham will go in the freezer and I will cook the ham joint, slice it and freeze it. That should be me in lunch for the rest of the month. I put my lunch into the Demotivator the other day - £8+ every few days comes out to £1000 a year :eek: :eek: I knew it was adding up but WOW. What an eye opener.

Just made a gorgeous dinner - I had this in a restaurant a few weeks ago and it was lovely so made my own at home - chicken wrapped in bacon, with a garlic mushroom sauce, served with roasted vegetable rice. :drool:

Going to make a sticky toffee apple crumble now - Just made cream using this recipe, as I did not have any in for the sticky toffee sauce. It actually works - I'm amazed.

So, end of week one
Spent so far: £25.56
Food waste: NONE (okay...I did have to chuck out some windall apples I had forgotton about, but as they were free, I am not going to count them)

mummy2mygirls

redmel1621 wrote: »

So, all in all I have spent £113 of my budget so far. I am also going to be getting a lot of frozen stuff for the Christmas dinner like Aunt Bessies roasties, stuffing balls, yorkies etc...I know it is a bit of a cop out and won't taste as nice as home made, but I will be 29wks pregnant on Christmas day and I really don't want to be shattered due to spending hours in the kitchen...This way I can just shove everything in the oven and let it cook itself.

Mel x

I dont blame you, this sounds a good plan, im due in march aswell so might be worth cutting back on some of the work, i know im going to be woken up at some silly hr by the girls!!

Well today i have to add £1.70 as i got some yummy looking sausages at some christmas market we went to, they were half price as they didnt have many left!

Tomorrow i am going into town to do a mystery shop and going to go to get some christmas presents so might pop into Aldi to see if there are any good things i can get......

of to update the sig....

ZLS1984

Dad went shopping for me today if you can call it that lol so not a big dent out of my budget. Will add all my totals soon just cnt find the recpit ooooooopppppps

Julimk

I had been avoiding the supermarkets at the weekend (as it is too busy) and shopping with DD (as she adds extras to the trolley). But as we were in town Christmas shopping I did the main shopping for this week (week 3 for me) while we were there, save an extra trip in tomorrow.

It wasn’t actually too madly busy & despite DD putting a few extras into the trolley it was still only £20.64.

As I have been doing the main shopping on Monday this is really a 5-week month, and I have reduced the budget again this month! But I am actually not too worried at the moment. DD will go to her Dad’s in 2 weeks when the school hols start & I will eat up anything that it left.

And I think we probably have most of what we need for the next 2 weeks. Mr T had white sliced bread for 50p (which will easily last us 2 weeks) & 2l semi-skimmed milk for 50p (got 2). Apparently Anchor butter for 50p too but sold out, so got 2x value. And FR eggs ½ price RTC so got a dozen; Mr T mature or extra mature 240g cheddar at 2 for £3, so got 2 extra mature.

Still enough meal portions etc. in freezer to cover the next 2 weeks as well, including some lunch stuff (soups & pates). I mostly use frozen veg too, as there are only the 2 of us & can get out just what we need for each meal, and plenty in.

So really only looking at needing some fresh fruit & milk for the rest of the month.

I’m already thinking ahead to January’s meal plan!! Have mackerel, trout, cod, smoked haddock, beef mince, beef steaks, gammon steaks & chicken breasts not needed for this month. So I won’t need much; am hoping to spot some reduced sausages. I don’t want to pay full price, as I hardly ever pay full price since GC, though a pack of sausages is hardly going to break the bank…

mama67

Blairweech wrote: »

When I went to the supermarket with my ex, I said 'I wish there was some sort of adult creche I can put you in whilst I go shopping'. His response: 'There is, it's called the pub' :rotfl:

Had to get petrol earlier so went to Mr T and bought:

- Smoked ham joint, 2.5kg - £10 (£4.00/kg)
- 2 packs of Tulip ham - discontinued, 0.50p each
- 2 small loaves of RTC brown bread, one 18p, one 22p
- 2 packs of rolls - 2 for £1.20

Total: £13.14

So, the rolls will make sandwiches this week, the bread and the ham will go in the freezer and I will cook the ham joint, slice it and freeze it. That should be me in lunch for the rest of the month. I put my lunch into the Demotivator the other day - £8+ every few days comes out to £1000 a year :eek: :eek: I knew it was adding up but WOW. What an eye opener.

Just made a gorgeous dinner - I had this in a restaurant a few weeks ago and it was lovely so made my own at home - chicken wrapped in bacon, with a garlic mushroom sauce, served with roasted vegetable rice. :drool:

Going to make a sticky toffee apple crumble now - Just made cream using this recipe, as I did not have any in for the sticky toffee sauce. It actually works - I'm amazed.

So, end of week one
Spent so far: £25.56
Food waste: NONE (okay...I did have to chuck out some windall apples I had forgotton about, but as they were free, I am not going to count them)

Sorry might be missing something but couldn't see a recipe to make cream only the one for the Sticky Toffee Crumble.

angelatgraceland

Had my Asda delivery today and it was all correct for once. Didnt have the SP wholemeal so they gave me a better one. The cheddar cheese tho is wrong price per kilo on their website(I did guess it was)-it gives the impression you get a kilo pack bythe way its worded when you look at the pack price its the same as the per kilo price-about £2 something. Well its £5 something per kilo so I will be phoning them. I slipped up with the Asda card payment and checked online tonight-eeeeeek Ive been charged £12 for late payment.:eek: :eek: :eek:
Well I may claim that back one day!!!::rolleyes:
Anyway-can't find any more codes for free delivery so my next order will be in 2 weeks time and over £99 so I get it delivered free anyhow. This was always the intention with the card!
Food tumbling off the shelves now and the only thing I need is baked beans which Id forgotten. Going to try eating other things!
Now if Im going to do a fortnightly Asda order I must mealplan better. Going to rope in dd23 on this as she often throws together the odd meal and unfortunately uses up something I didnt want to use up. Still got my steak as I had the savoury mince in the end so its steak for luch tomorrow.
Watered down some milk a bit 3:1 and put it in a jug. All the rest of it is in the other fridge in the garage. Had to take out the beer cos the fridges are full! Ummmmm I'm a bit of a hoarder methinks!
Indulged in one of the mini bottles of rose the other night. That was nice-just enough for 2 glasses of wine-not too much and none to waste. Not bad at 4 for a fiver. DD14 has strange tastes and has curry noodles for breakfast :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: and doesnt bother with lunch but that's teenagers I guess!