January 2009 Grocery Challenge

dazzle21

Spent £16.80 in Mr T's last night, topping up mainly on veg, milk,loo roll and some baby food! also got us a tub of ice cream and bottle of coke as we're suffering a second bout of the flu! Have a roast chicken in the oven with tons of veggies so hopefully there will be lots left over for tomorrow for lunch and then use the remains for a risotto for tomorrow dinner!

gillst_2

Will be having a nsd today as have no intentions of going out. Just had some lunch, hm chicken and veg soup and some cheese and biscuits. Dinner tonight will be boiled gammon and cauli cheese, followed by hm bread & butter pudding to use up some bread that is going stale. Also made a cherry and almond cake from stuff found lurking in my storecupboard, so can indulge this afternoon with tea and cake!

Pay day for DH tomorrow, so I am going to run my month from pay day to pay day rather than a calender month. Trust this is ok. I spent £216.75 this month so a bit over target, but not too bad for a first go. Not found it easy and I think I underestimated a bit, bearing in mind that I have also stockpiled quite bit. Have enough baked beans and tuna for about 4 months. Cupboards still full and freezer likewise (only small freezer though).

Have considered an annual target but have decided against this and will stick to a monthly budget. Considered increasing to £250 but have decided to try again at £200.00. Will try harder. We so want to have a holiday in September and by cutting back is the only way we will be able to afford this.

Quick question - do I continue posting on here even though effectively I am now starting Febs challenge?

*BigBird*

I'm way behind you all this month Got an exam in a couple of weeks so studying for that has to come before catching up with the thread. Humph!

Still doing OK though. Just over halfway through the month, just under halfway through the budget :j Got a vat of soup bubbling away on the hob to have for lunch with the cheesy bread rolls I made yesterday - yum The rest of the soup will do my lunches for the rest of the week too. Need to get the slow cooker out in a mo to cook the gammon in apple juice for this evening.

I have a quick question - how can I store fresh chillis? My friend bought me a chilli plant for my birthday last year, which had LOADS of chilli peppers on it. I've been picking them as I need them and leaving the rest on the plant. They are pretty dry and wrinkly now, but still fine for cooking with (and hotter than when they were fresh!) However, I guess I need to pick what's left else the plant is not going to feel it needs to produce more this year? How can I store them? Can I just put them in an airtight container, or do they need to be preserved in some way?

Thanks

angelatgraceland

Yes-Id keep posting as when we go AWOL we go offtrack! Anyhow we all want to know how you are doing! Lots of poeple have their paydays mid month so thats not a problem. Thats why last year I broke mine down to weekly until I got ahead of myself a bit and Im now able to a calendar month.
If you want toe ventually do calendar month you need to delay a couple of days each month until you get there-amking each month longer so that eventually you are ahead of yourself by a week or two(it takes time). Whichever way you do it tho is fine! You know your limits and you seem to be doing well for first time! If you leave your sig and update it-people will know what you are doing anyway. Keep it up and stick around!

Im cross cos Ive just had to chuck out 2 packs of bacon dated 8th Jan! They were in my other fridge and got overlooked. Did the sniff test and they failed. Also dd wasted 2 half jars of sauces lat week and thawed out a tub of pasta and didnt use it. Not good. So-another £1 or so wasted at a guess-its just annoying!
Got turkey in the oven today which I got a couple of weeks ago. So tomorrow will be curry as dd is waiting for a curry in order to have the prawn crackers I got from AF. Cleaning out fridges is my job today! And not refilling the garage one with anything other than drinks!

Chillis-either freeze them whole or dry them. We dry ours-leave on some tissue spread out on trays for a few weeks in a dry room until very very dried and wrinkled up! Then put in jars or tubs. Freezing is the easiest option tho if you are unsure about drying.

orchid-96

Been to Mr M's today as DH wants to make another soup,so needed to get broad beans and chick peas, however they only had the small tins of chick peas (and I would have needed 4) so left that and tried at Aldi who don't seem to sell them at all which is a shame,so will have to get them tomorro (he was planning on doing the soup tomorrow anyway)....is there a world shortage of chick peas at the moment? it just seems wierd for a supermarket to only have 1 variety and in a small tin!

Spent another £13 odd (have updated sig) which included ice cream, yogurts, whoopsie sausages and a pie, + bits for the soup (frozen broad beans seem expensive though at £1.80 kg) I also got myself one of their small salads as a bit of a treat. Am off to the inlaws today for one of my mil's yummy roasts (and will no doubt come home with leftovers for tomorrow) so that has meant my joint has stayed in the freezer for next weekend yay...

I have now decided that I am going to do a once a month online shop to stock up on store stuff etc. and then nip out hopefully once/twice a week to do little mini shops for fresh stuff (+whoopsies)

Thanks for all the great tips on here..:beer:

*BigBird*

Thanks for the tips angel. I think I'll try both methods - just picked the chillis and there are 64 of them!!! So no great disaster if some don't work out, since we have plenty. And the plant already has flowers and buds on it, so hopefully there'll be another good crop this year

fatcattaff

Rubbish day yesterday, but I'm hoping for an NSD today to make up for it. I spent £25 on nonsense, mainly because of my daughter's party, though I can't blame her really. I made my cake and it was lovely, but I had a horrible thought in the morning and thought I should make it into a spy glass. So my husband was sent to Mr T's for a jam sponge roll, more chocolate, more cream and other such nonsense. He decided to buy new candles (why, I don't know..we had plenty) but the tin lid on it was a box of wine. I decided it was needed, so that was £15 down the swanny. If we can live on that combined with sponge roll, cream and chocolate for the next week, we're laughing. If not, we've got some work to do to get back on track. Hey ho...I wonder what's laying in wait in my freezer? Off to defrost fishcakes for tonight and spag bol for tomorrow. Only 3 days after that to sort and hopefully we can come in under budget for the month.

Off to check the thread for help...

JayJay14

Bigbird - my OH just sliced his chillies and keeps them in a jar of oil, they last about 2-3 weeks like that and he puts them on EVERYTHING, pizzas salads omelettes you name it.

When you have finished the chillies, strain the remeaining oil and you have chilli oil.

sistercas

spent £54 in Aldi, i only went for a few things!. I ended up getting a few extra bits OH wanted some beer and some chocolates to take to work for 3 people. even so £54 is a lot I think Aldi have put up their prices a fair bit!

BTW there is an interesting article in the observer HERE about supermarket value foods, dont think they are too impressed.

there is also a programme on channel 4 thurs 22nd jan 8pm called 'the true cost of cheap food' should be interesting

jtb2412

Popped the children to Mr S earlier (DS wanted a magazine with his pocket money and DD2 wanted the paper as it had something HSM in it :rolleyes: ).

I did buy a couple of things (even though I tried not to ) but justified in that they were reduced and i'll use them so not feeling too guilty !

Got a jar of Barts Green Thai Chilli paste (use a fair bit of this) for 25p and two jars of Barts Hot Chilli in Oil for 25p each too (all run out 2010 - must be discontinued ).

Also went to S'fds and picked up 3 Nacho kits for £1.45 each (down from £2.89, run out end of Feb). Me and the kids have these for supper when hubby is away at his monthly meeting as our 'treat'. I usually buy Mr Ts own ones (approx £1.90) but these were the 'named' ones and i've still saved £1.35 on what I would usually buy :T . Their Uncle Bens sweet n sour sauce is on offer too at 2 for £2 so got some of that as well (2 jars will do us 4 sweet n sour meals once i've added extras ).

I've learnt, since doing this challenge, that bargains are my downfall ! Although I've also learnt the very true saying "it's only a bargain if you'll use it" so trying to only buy them if I know I will definitely use them. I need to make sure I keep this mentality about me throughout the year and not just because i'm 1 month in .

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Catch up next week :beer: