December 2008 Grocery Challenge

Money_saving_Diva_2

We have a 20lb turkey usually and I always cook it upside down for a fair portion of the time and then turn it the right way up just to brown, and yes the meat just falls off the bones. The last couple of years we have put it in the oven overnight on a low heat and just let it cook for about 10 hours.. Mmmmm it's always lovely and moist.

Had a huge chinese for dinner last night. Friends came round to celebrate my birthday so that was lovely but a bit expensive. Tescos order arrives tonight too so my siggy will take a bit of a bashing!!

Hope everyone is doing well with their personal challenges this month.

Diva.x

Just remembered I need to find my purse to be able to pay the decorator before he goes home later!!

justpeyton4now

Nikkei wrote: »

So not only am I asking you can you still feed 1 mouth for £12.50 a week, but can you feed 3 mouths for £6.72 each a week.

With just DH and myself, I don't think we could do it on £6.72 per week. My best suggestions would be go ahead and buy the things you can store in bulk, only if they're on special or very inexpensive. I do have a few more tips that help me.

I'd buy tinned food in bulk. I use a lot of tomatoes, baked beans and fruit. Especially in the winter when the price of getting fresh fruit is more expensive. I try to keep a good stock at all times. Eat what is in season as it's usually less expensive. You can also bulk buy flour and store the extra in your freezer if it's big enough.

Dried beans/lentils are a great source of protein, cheap and very filling. You can add to casseroles and soups to fill them out. Also add some fresh veg like carrots, celery and onion and have a great soup. Barley also works well in soups to make them more hearty. Meatless chili if you add a few different types of beans and some seasonings is very tasty.

Make a meal plan for each week and then shop by it. This saves me getting extras I really don't need at the shops. If I'm buying meat, I look at what is on sale before making my plan and then buy accordingly. Remember that sometimes buying a large sized piece of meat, or really anything, may not be the cheapest route. Compare unit prices. When I do buy larger quanities of meat, I try to plan the meals so that I can turn the leftover meat into another meal. For example if I make a roast with potatoes, carrots and onions, the leftovers get chopped up and with other added veg become veg soup.

Don't buy ready to heat and eat frozen meals. You can freeze leftovers for that and know you're eating more healthy and cheaply than buying them. It's also usually less expensive to buy cheese and grate it yourself. I often buy a large block, grate it and freeze it in portions.

Hope you can find something from this that will help. Let us know how you're getting along with it.

*I also buy most veg frozen. It's less expensive, fresher as it's frozen the same day and not shipped and stored for a week or so before getting on the store shelves. Also as it's cleaned and ready to cook, I don't have waste from ends or bad bits.

OrkneyStar

nickynoo08 wrote: »

I know everyone says that meal planning is the best way to go, and believe me i've tried it, but my OH isnt interested, he changes his mind about what he wants then changes it again so ive given up.
Any suggestions?

Meal planning can help (although this week we have deleted ours and are going day by day!). Got to say the other useful thing is a freezer inventory- check this before you go shopping, the day before you cook etc and then it saves you buying stuff twice (or more!). You can, eg take out some chicken breasts the night before, then the next day you can build round that with things in your fridge/cupboards (eg combine with half a red pepper, some mushrooms, and other veg kicking around - these can be fresh or packaged variety, some tinned toms, seasoning - can make it Italian, Cajun, mexican if you add kidney beans too etc, and serve with rice, wedges, pasta or cous cous). Lots of room for variation (so OH thinks he is choosing!).

nickynoo08

What a good idea. I've still got £50 worth of stamps for mrT's, i was gonna treat us to loadsa choccies and other xmas goodies but i think it would most deffinately be better spent on stocking up on item such as toothpaste, shower gel etc....
We are also a family of 3 and we currently spend between £5 and £8 a week just on milk:eek: . Little un is only 2 and is drinking 2/3 large cups of milk a day, plus OH has about a pint a day too! We've tried to limit our grocery spends to £120 a month. that includes everything from nappies, to wipes to milk. So if i could bulk buy essential stuff i reckon i could get it down by maybe £30, so that would leave us with about £22 a week for all food. I think the only way we'd be able to do this is if i batch cooked, bulked out all meals with cheap seasonal veg/grains etc.. and knocked all or most treats on the head. I do think its do able tho, especially if you look at buying the value brands.
I also dont find makro any cheaper, you can get a lot of good deals in home bargains (a personal fav of mine) and in other shops or even internet.

OrkneyStar

Nikkei wrote: »

So not only am I asking you can you still feed 1 mouth for £12.50 a week, but can you feed 3 mouths for £6.72 each a week.

I think it depends on the mouths you are feeding tbh. We are three, but one of us is 18 months, and so certain things have to be bought for him (full cream milk, full cream yoghurts etc). Our milk alone is £1.29 x 3 per week for starters!
Good luck though.

mardatha

there's only 2 of us but one drinks a lot of tea (blush) and so we go through 3 of the 6 pint cartons a week. I cannot for the life of me get under £40 and usually more like £50. To be honest I'm getting very fedup of even trying, the harder I try the more I seem to spend

nickynoo08

You've really got me thinking now. I've just been upstairs and checked how many toiletries i've already got in - i've easily got enough shower gel, moisturiser etc... to last me through till the end of next year, plus i dare say i'll be getting more more for xmas! OH has a few bits but not much. In the kitchen i've got quite a bit of cleaning stuff and laundry stuff. I reckon i could easily get enough stuff using my £50 worth of stamps to stock up on toiletries and household essentials to last us a year, including loo roll if i bought value stuff.
I'm now gonna write a list of meals we noramlly eat and see how much it costs to buy the ingredients, see if i can use cheaper stuff or would be cheaper to batch cook n freeze etc...
I'll be back;)

Sylvan

JackieO wrote: »

Went into Tescos today ,didn't buy anything ,just checking the prices.Value oats have jumped up in price from 47-51 for 500g to 87p that's a bit of a jump in a fortnight .

Asda Scottish porridge oats are 25p for 500g. That's cheaper than their value range so I bought 4 packs. DH looked doubtful till I said "That's £1 worth of oats".:D

Unfortunately that means that, along with the £20 I had to pay for my £40 shop at Mr M's, I've spent another £21.79, which takes my total so far to £350.67:eek:.
67p over budget with 2 weeks to go.

PurpleSkies

Popped into Mr T to buy marzipan and icing for my cake (they were nearly cleared out of marzipan so had to buy the more expensive kind ) and ended up spending a fiver! But it was a couple of woopsies and some stuff for the week after christmas so I think that should be me finished spending now! Hopefully!

AlwaysHappy

Thanks for your kind words of support yesterday, am feeling a bit better as having a much needed NSD, my month ends on the 19th as well so could have been worse. Need to meal plan like crazy for January and try and claw back some of the overspend.