December 2008 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Just a quickie to let anyone that's interested know that the Lentil soup recipe posted on the index is yummy! And I can't cook!

Just fry a chopped onion, add about 250g red lentils and 1 3/4 pints of veg stock and cook for about 20 mins. It'll thicken up and be quite lumpy but then bung it in the blender for a few seconds and bob's your uncle! I put a tiny bit of cayenne pepper in mine for the last five mins of cooking to give it a bit of a kick and its worked out really well.

Very cheap and easy and very filling and warming on cold winters days like today.

I'm off to marvel at my culinary skills now - i.e. eat it for lunch!

candygirl

A quick code for anyone using mr Ts XX-KG32 is £10 off.I spent over £50 but not sure how much you need to spend for it.Will update my total tomorrow when I see how much has been deducted with multibuys etc

Sylvan

Aha, lentils :idea: Thanks Free in Three:T. I have to spend £18 in the Co-op on Saturday and I'm using Mysupermarket to cost as much as poss at Mr T and Mr A, since I can't find a price comparison site for the Co-op. The littl'uns haven't eaten lentils since they were toddlers (they make wonderful baby food) but they're becoming a litte more adventurous now so perhaps I can bring back spicy dhal and rice:D

gailey_2

Im bit worried now as got £100 left for decemeber but still need to get meat and frozen+more store cupboard basics as we ran out of lots of stuff.

Anyone know who sells cheapest free range turkey? As that will be huge expense this month.

Off to farm shop tommorow.

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Good afternoon everyone, haven`t been on here for months and months and lost the plot a bit, with one thing and another. So unfortunatly not sure what I am spending on my shopping, but will start again fresh for the new year and buckle down to some serious money saving. I haven`t read any of this months thread yet, so hoping to grab some spare time and do some reading. Anyway I think I am going to start gentle with £400 in January, I know this is a lot compared with a lot of you and I don`t think I will spend that much, but this is just a starting figure. I am hoping to bring this down every couple of months until comfortable for me.

oligeo

Well I didn't last until Friday to go shopping, I could have made the food last, but it made more sense to go today, as DH is off work and we could go in his car - free fuel, and the shops are miles away.
We went to Aldi and then tesco, and spent a whopping £145.06, but that should see us up to Christmas apart from fresh veg at the farm.

Sarah

belfastgirl23

Money_saving_Diva wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Belfastgirl23 - thank you so much for replying so directly to me. I guess part of the problem is that I am virtually housebound, so my OH does all the shopping. I do an online big shop about every 3 weeks but he has to pop into Asda or Lidls or sainsburys etc to top up on the things you run out of all the time.

Plus he works two jobs and one of them is a late night finish so he stops off at a shop somewhere to buy chocolate and then always finds something else to buy... He isn't all bad and he does try hard but he has no will power and on evenings when he is really tired,it doesn't take much for us to end up having a take away. He was SO good during Sept and October - maybe it was the novelty or something, but once the weather changed and he started to feel a little more stressed over money, it's almost like he went out and started spending MORE. I don't understand it, but I do know how lucky I am to have a guy who works two jobs and looks after me too, it's just that we are gradually slipping into debt and I can't let that happen.

Anyway, still prising all the receipts out of him for the things he has spent this month so far and then will sort out my signature. We ate from the store cupboard and freezer last night so that was great! Chinese egg fried rice and chicken with peppers... very nice indeed!

Hope everyone is doing well with their personal challenges.

Diva.x

Hi Diva

I can see now that you have some more challenges than many of us :rolleyes: I dread to think what we'd be living on if we relied on DH to do the shopping - hummus, peas and wine would be my best guess! What I'm wondering is how much you can incentivise him to curb himself a bit. Y'know be a bit of a cheerleader about the fact that you're doing so well in keeping your heads above water and he's responsible for a lot of that.

The other thing I'm wondering about is thinking about the stuff you run out of. We use longlife milk since it keeps me out of supermarkets (I have a touch of your DH about me as well :rolleyes: and am inclined to buy too much once i go in there). The other thing I found really useful although it did involve an initial outlay, was buying a breadmaker. If you don't need to buy bread or milk it is amazing how long you can go without visiting a shop (at least a week, or 10 days if I'm lucky). So my mini shops are more about fruit and veg than anything else. And I do try to do these shops at fruit and veg shops to limit the amount of stuff I can buy.

But I do have a lot of sympathy with your DH, my spending goes to pot when I'm busy and tired as well! I'm wondering whether he's the kind of man who might respond to you doing him a list? If you could find a way to present it so that you're taking the burden of deciding off him rather than that you're trying to exert steely control it might work? Just an idea and it really depends on your DH!

But don't give up hope and most of all don't nag. I say as a nag myself but it never works, I figure it's like supernanny, ignore bad behaviour and reward good behaviour in whatever way works for you!

And good luck. You sound a lot more chipper today!

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi Everyone

Hope you are all having a good day!

Belfastgirl -
My fussy OH won't drink long life milk and he loves using the bread maker, but it's mostly fresh veg and his milk that he 'pops' in for.. He is also great at taking my lists with him - he just 'adds' to it.. *chuckles* I believe in praising the good stuff and trying to ignore the bad stuff too - I think we think alike hon!

Yes, I feel better today, just being able to express my frustrations on here and have someone 'hear' me did me the power of good. I don't like to get cross with my OH when he is such a star in so many ways, I just get really frightened about getting into debt and I know his credit card is up to the limit already. When I met him 12 yrs ago he was about £10,000 in debt but I soon helped him get organised and he worked really hard and is down to about £2000 which frightens me still, but is so much better.

Anyway, thank you so much for replying and letting me vent. I hate the fact that I cannot do simple things like go shopping or even cook on my own, but that is how it is right now.

We are eating from the fridge and freezer again today so hopefully no need for him to pop in to a supermarket or shop!!

Thanks again and a big thank you hug.

Diva.x

greent

EEK!! Have spent just over half the budget this month and we're only on the 10th!!! Spend does include £15 on steak/ cake for DD's birthday tomorrow, though (cheaper than going out for a meal) and £20 on xmas presents from Mr T - but it will be hard!

Have done online order from Mr S for 22nd Dec, to include turkey etc. There's only the 5 of us for Xmas dinner, so should be fine. Think most other nibbles are in, but will get DH some special offer beers from Mr T on Fri (would get them to tomorrow but my car's alternator has packed in - argh!!:mad: Goodness knows how much that'll cost Oh - forgot - spend so far includes £6 on deicer too.

I'm going to try and live from freezer as much as poss for next couple of weeks - we have one in kitchen and an ancient one in the garage. The one in the garage is not efficient, probably costs a fortune to run and has a habit of getting confused when the weather is cold and sometimes defrosts:mad: Shall attempt to pick up one from freecycle/ second hand from paper after Xmas. It doesn't have to be pretty, just functional. Living from freezer may make achieving budget this month possible, too.

Shall use some of my many packs of bread crumbs next week and make bread sauce for Xmas to freeze in small amounts (only DH & myself like it) Think lots of fruit muffins/ pies/ crumbles may be in order too - I have 2 shelves full of various frozen fruits! Hmm - I'm sure someone did a pudding we apples and bread crumbs - shall have to investigate......

DH is 99% being made redundant at end of month :eek: so is impressed with progress we've made since May (£750+ per month then !!!). May try to shave a little more off in New Year - shall see.

Hope everyone is keeping ok in this cold cold weather!

greent

CRANKY40

I spent £30.28 in Asda today, bringing my total so far to £62.28. There were some bargains in Asda. Their own vegetarian pizza made at the pizza counter were £1 for either deep pan or thin and crispy. I bought one to take to my friends tonight, and one to cut into portions and freeze for my lunches on the days that I don't work. They're not quite as nice as home made, but they're very close.

I had a 500g tub of Lurpak lighter on my list. It was £2.40. Two 50g tubs of Country Life Lighter were £2.24 each or 2 for £3, so I bought 2.

I was panicking in case Robertsons stop making mincemeat when they stop making jam (it is one of my favourite things and I should really learn how to make it), so I put a jar of that it, best before October 2011. I'll be Ok for next year then:rotfl:

MSD you can freeze milk, which I used to do. An alternative is to spend slightly more on Cravendale milk, which has been filtered, and so keeps in the fridge for longer. It tastes no different to me, or the tiny milk guzzler that possesses me (ds aged 4). Although the milk costs a little more, it has cut down on the extras that happen when i "just pop in" to asda for milk, so it's worth it I think.