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January 2009 Grocery Challenge

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  • Hi
    just looking through the Asda mag and found an article on food waste. They recommended a site lovefoodhatewaste.com. Had a look and it is good with lots of ideas, menu planning and recipes. Worth a look.
    may your path be sprinkled with sunshine :A
  • gizmomum
    gizmomum Posts: 135 Forumite
    Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right thread to post on as I have not joined the grocery challenge but read it with interest. Anyhow I thought you good people may know the answer to my question.
    I have a very small amount of money to get food for the next couple of day and was going to try and get some veg, and maybe some cheap meat. I have egg noodles, pasta, broth dried mix, pearl barley, a bit of rice and some frozen veg at home so am sure I could make something fairly filling with that.
    A while ago I was able to pick up some cheap meat (chicken thighs or mince) at Lidl but they've stopped their offers on meat. Does anyone know if Aldi have well priced meat and veg, we have one nearish to me but I haven't yet paid a visit

    Thanks in advance for any help

    me
  • MRSMCAWBER
    MRSMCAWBER Posts: 5,442 Forumite
    Afternoon all

    I ended up doing a nip to ALDI ..... I was getting jittery as I was down to my last 3 yoghurts :p ...but I was a good as good can be :A :rotfl: ... I picked up:-
    1. 8 x 150g yoghurts @ €1.49 x 2
    2. 3 kilo nets of oranges @ €1.19 x 2 ...apples were €1.69 and I love oranges so €1 saved by swapping :p
    3. 3 kilo onions @ 65c
    4. 12 free range eggs @ €1.29
    5. 6 par baked baguettes @ 39c x 3 -great for quick lunches etc
    So a total spend of €8.35 to add to my signature -bringing me up to €87.67 for the month so far (and most of what I have got is still in the freezer):D

    Right ...dinner tonight is some beef I sliced and froze, roasties and yorky done in the remoskas, brussels and carrots oh and green/yellow beans I grew last year mmmmmmm
    hope everyone is doing ok ;)
    -6 -8 -3 -1.5 -2.5 -3 -1.5-3.5
  • OrkneyStar
    OrkneyStar Posts: 7,025 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    gailey wrote: »
    Well went shoopoing yesterday and went bit crazy as had little in house for weeks.

    spent £50 lidls
    £100 in sainsburys

    questions should i cook meals in batch cooking and freeze?
    what freezes well and how best to contain it bags or tubs?
    dont wnat to see any fresh veg go waste so was contemplating maing mash and ffreezing that along with soem other veggies.
    can chopped lees and onions be frozen? do i need to do anything with them?
    its just its was cheap lidls so on verge of going off.

    I think we done very good shop with lots of meat,passata and dried pasta plus lots of basics and deals.
    Sainburys gone massive on basic range defintaly offer great value now.
    I some times batch cook, although tbh I do it less these days, mainly cos I am at home more and enjoy cooking. I freeze meats in portion sized amounts (eg 1 or 2 chick breasts, 2 pork chops, 200-400g mince- raw or cooked with various things!). I agree with cw18 about freezing in bags being more space conserving, although freeze anything with a sauce in a plastic tub to keep it better. I have my freezer (roughly) divided into 4 categories- top is sweet stuff such as compotes, frozen berries, quick snacky things (sausage rolls etc), cold meats, any bread if I have it, next shelf is frozen meats such as mince etc, next is frozen chips, sweetcorn, peas etc and the bottom shelf is home blanched/frozen veg such as onions and peppers, along with pastry, cheese etc. I keep a freezer inventory (which helps keep like with like), anything added is added on list and anything removed is removed too! I also colour code, so anything to be used in this weeks meal plan will be highlighted in a certain colour, and the next weeks plan in a diff colour (and so on depending on how many plans). Seems a faff but saves lots of rooting and missing stuff or thinking you have stuff you don't!
    Many veg can be frozen as is (onions, peppers, leeks, mushrooms etc), others need to be blanched. This link is very helpful. I don't freeze mash although some do, and also not so sure about milk (although some in freezer now as my Lidl carton meant to be opened after the weekend burst so the amount I salvaged is in freezer due to us having enough milk for the moment actually in fridge).
    hth
    (ps mrsm I have book marked your blog :) It looks great.)
    Ermutigung wirkt immer besser als Verurteilung.
    Encouragement always works better than judgement.

  • scotsaver
    scotsaver Posts: 824 Forumite
    gizmomum wrote: »
    Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right thread to post on as I have not joined the grocery challenge but read it with interest. Anyhow I thought you good people may know the answer to my question.
    I have a very small amount of money to get food for the next couple of day and was going to try and get some veg, and maybe some cheap meat. I have egg noodles, pasta, broth dried mix, pearl barley, a bit of rice and some frozen veg at home so am sure I could make something fairly filling with that.
    A while ago I was able to pick up some cheap meat (chicken thighs or mince) at Lidl but they've stopped their offers on meat. Does anyone know if Aldi have well priced meat and veg, we have one nearish to me but I haven't yet paid a visit

    Thanks in advance for any help

    me

    Hi gizmomum - Aldi's have their Super 6 on Fruit & Veg, at the moment you can get a 5kg bag of potatoes for 49p, also Broccoli, tomatoes, mangoes, etc all at 49p - not sure about Meat as I only go there for the Super 6 offers but I'm sure someone on here will be along later with some advice.

    yummymummy05 - that's a fantastic incentive for you - good luck with that.

    MRSMC - love the Blog, shall be keeping a close eye on that as I have loads of packets of seeds that I bought ready for this year, just itching to get started but most of the packets say Sow March onwards.

    Hope you have all had a good day, Dinner tonight is Battered Cod, HM Chips and Mushy Peas (our usual Friday night!!):D

    Have a good evening everyone.;)
    "WASTE NOT, WANT NOT!"
    GC for OH, myself, DD18 & DD16 includes Toiletries, cleaning stuff & Food.

  • furndire
    furndire Posts: 7,308 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    orchid-96 wrote: »
    DH is going to cook the soup later, I picked up a butternut squash and he has found a recipe for it with other stuff we have in, the only thing we don't have is 'white beans' (not actually sure what they are :o ) it says soaked overnight...now, he will just leave these out, but I was wondering if a tin of butter beans would work? as I have some of these in....

    I would have taken it to mean that the white beans would be butter beans.

    We have just had celery soup and it was really tasty
    Sweated down head and a few odd stalks of celery & 1 onion chopped in a knob of butter. Added about 1pt of milk. Added 2 chicken stock cubes. simmered for about 20 mins. When I looked, it had split. A bit like if milk splits into curds and whey. the bits tasted ok though, so I whizzed the whole lot up in liquidiser (smoothie maker), and served. Topped it off with a fine grating of parmesan. and
    served with some whoopsied bread rolls heated up in the Halogen oven. Made 3 good sized dishes full.
    Rounded off with 4 min treacle sponge made in the microwave, and tin of custard from Lidl.
  • tessie_bear
    tessie_bear Posts: 4,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    hi.....im sure someone mentioned washing up liquid on here along the lines of where had the 10p basic type one gone....well im sorry i havent tracked it down that cheap but in sainsburys today they had a basics one for around 35p so a bit cheaper than the former cheap end but not back down to 10p....hth but sorry cant remember who im trying to help:o ...i agree with hoever said sainsburys was working on its bargain value range....we buy the teabags 30p for loads...and we think they are ok ...thats the beauty of the value range...i try things and am not too gutted if i dont like them when they dont cost much iykwim ...........have a nice evening tess
    onwards and upwards
  • Hi. just niooing on to up date my GC sig. I seem to be on track for Jan, there is just over 2 weeks to go and I still have about £106 left:T.

    MrsMc- i'm going to do the lemon potatoes tomorrow, so will let you know how they went down.

    Keep up the good work everyone.

    Shelley x
    Back on MSE again! to take control of my finances and not let it control me. :T May grocery challenge £41.96/140
  • trish123
    trish123 Posts: 134 Forumite
    First month doing this so far so good,been shopping at aldis and cant beleive tge difference in prices.
    :rolleyes: Jan grocery challenge £300/£210 spent so far.I can do this:T
  • Popped in Somerfield today and got 5 small loaves at 22p/24p per loaf. Noticed Andrex on offer-2x 9roll packs for £6.50 and Nescafe 200g for £3 I think? Bought some cheap sarnies reduced to approx 50 per pack for the family as a snack tonight(were £2 per pack)-spent $5.30 altogether.
    Resisted the milk although we are low as Ive got 2 pints of goats milk(a whoopsie)thawing out. Took lunch to work yesterday and today-my reduced ryvitas from Approved foods, with my reduced instant soup also from AP.
    Seriously have to use what Ive got as we really do need some space! As Im now on annual budget split into calendar months, Ive spaced out my "allowance" for grocery over the month and I could have put the next lot into my purse yesterday but it wont go in until tomorrow so Im 2 days ahead of myself.Just need to sort out tomorrows menu now.
    :rotfl: :rotfl: yes £6.50 not £56.50:rotfl: :rotfl:
    Annual Grocery budget 2018 is £1500 pa £125 calendar month £28.84 pw for 3 adults
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