January 2009 Grocery Challenge

orchid-96

Does anyone else have a compulsion to shop? I just love nothing better than to mooch around aldi/morrisons etc. looking for 'bargains' a nsd for me is a realy achievement!!! but I am trying my hardest with today being a nsd (fingers crossed) I have meal planned the whole week and am going to try my best not to 'nip' to the shops for anything....

Anyway hope you are all not tooo cold today....

Toonie

Got milk, spuds and bread yesterday at the shop and had a cottage pie for dinner. I bulked it out with lentils and oats and we have enough for lunch tomorrow, plus enough meat for a single portion-this has gone into the freezer.

Today, we're having roast pork with spuds (big bag of British charlotte potatoes for £1), veggies, apple sauce and gravy. There should be enough pork left for tomorrow as well.

dazzle21

Yesterday popped into Tesco and picked up a big pack of mince and a chicken also popped to Sainsbury to get nappies @1/3 off and a few other bits..(including a new duvet - much needed!). Meal planning definetly helping us to stay on track, as there are no more impulse trips to the takeaway! Have half the pack of mince bubbling away hopefully do 4/6 portions for freezer, and have frozen the other half of meat (i guess that is ok to freeze an open pack cover in foil??). Tonight is roast chicken with veg, yum!

OrkneyStar

dazzle21 wrote: »

Yesterday popped into Tesco and picked up a big pack of mince and a chicken also popped to Sainsbury to get nappies @1/3 off and a few other bits..(including a new duvet - much needed!). Meal planning definetly helping us to stay on track, as there are no more impulse trips to the takeaway! Have half the pack of mince bubbling away hopefully do 4/6 portions for freezer, and have frozen the other half of meat (i guess that is ok to freeze an open pack cover in foil??). Tonight is roast chicken with veg, yum!

I would put the mince into a plastic bag and seal it tight, will also take up less space than packaging. hth

undercover_angel

Spent £33 exactly on shopping today, went to 3 different shops to keep the total low. I also spent just under £2 yesterday on some ham and a loaf, so we are still well on the way to meeting our £200 target. I am VERY pleased! xxx

clutterydrawer

hannamint wrote: »

i tend to do stupid stuff like sweet n sour noodles cuz t'other half loves it and it costs about £1.50. either that or just any old oven bake simple stuff because i just don't have time at the end of the day. i'm contemplating the slow cooker thing but not sure because my brothers house ended up egtting burnt down because they left theirs on or something.. (too young for boring details) but yeah i cook pastas a lot because they're fast, but my partner isn't keen.

I'm sure you can make sweet and sour for less than that...you can get a serving of noodles for 8p in tescos, add whatever veg is on offer, and make a homemade sauce.

I can't bring to mind my speediest recipes but there are a lot of books devoted to quick evening meals, might be worth investing in one. good luck anyway

Anyway...grocery challenge...I ruined all my good intentions today becasue i went to the spar for the milk i forgot yesterday and ended up buying chocolate and yoghurt too ah well

CRANKY40

SavvyStudent wrote: »

Hannahmint - when I was 19 and a student for the first time I felt like I couldn't cook either! Turns out if you slowly build up your range of meals you'll get to the stage where you can have a crack at almost anything and it seems to work! My learning to cook was fuelled by hunger / necessity (no money for takeaways!)

Dh was a mature student, and he also said that if he wanted to live on the money that he had available, then he had better learn to cook. Even though we are not poor by todays standards, we are late starters and want to have our mortgage paid off before he retires in 10 years hence the money saving thing.

Dh taught me to use the slow cooker, and he is full of useful advice for money saving, such as just buy one carrot for your soup. It doesn't register on the scales so they usually just let you have it:rotfl:
(this was some years ago, and not something I've ever felt the need to try).

dazzle21

orchid-96 wrote: »

Does anyone else have a compulsion to shop? I just love nothing better than to mooch around aldi/morrisons etc. looking for 'bargains' a nsd for me is a realy achievement!!! quote]

yep, completely understand that! It's the thrill of the chase!!:rotfl:

fatcattaff

NSD yesterday, NSD today. I did go out for meal with my old man last night, but we've budgeted for this once a month, so I did so guilt free! We talked about what more we could do to cut back, including setting a budget for our 7 year old from Feb onwards, as she tends to be our achilles heel.

I also went over the food shopping in detail. Is it usual to become such a bore? I've just read an article about Approved Foods in the Daily Mail (online...I don't buy newspapers). I was going to check them out before, as they're local to us, by all counts, so hopefully, they'll be worth a look.

Roll on tomorrow. It should a third NSD for us!

gtx

:j Hi everyone - had no internet for a couple of months but all sorted now - a trojan for those who are more technical than yours truly.

i won't officially join this month but will still try and stick to our budget - we were very good november and very very bad december.

hope everyone is well and still around! i haven't read the whole thread but i can see new names and wish you all well - i'm still quite a newbie myself:D

take care

gtx