January 2009 Grocery Challenge

scotsaver

Congrats to JennyBee on the safe arrival of Baby Jonathan, fantastic news.:j

Congrats also to searching_me on Scan news, finding out it's a Boy your expecting.:D

MRSMC - I'm declaring for JANUARY £260.15, so £10.15 over, so I'm reducing February by that amount to make up for it, so please put me down for FEBRUARY £240.

Quite pleased that I'm not over by too much, on the positive side I have got 2 Freezers full of stuff, (can't resist a whoopsie) and also got a lot of meat in there, packs of cheese etc, also made 6 jars of Marmalade this month and some Lemon Curd which will last us a long time, so I don't think I've done too badly really.:p

The family are having Roast Lamb and all the trimmings today but I'm having Haggis, mashed potatoes and mashed Swede, the leftover Haggis will be turned into something else, thinking about the Haggis Lasagne recipe I posted earlier last week, of course I won't tell the family and see if I get away with it.;)

Hope you all have a good day.:D

debtfreein2009

Hi Everyone

Would I be able to join in Feb too please - I've worked out my budget as €85 a week to feed 2a & 2c so my monthly total is €340. Not sure how best too start so any tips would be greatly recieved. I do plan on doing a freezer stock list and some meal planning to try and clear my freezer which is in desperate need of a defrost.

tessie_bear

hello...just popped to asda and they have a few quite good offers...blue berries 37p apunnet also punnet kiwis 37p packet parsnips yes u guessed 37p but they were reduced to 20p due to over ordering....i didnt get them but 15 not free range eggs £1.00 maryland cookies/jammie dodgers 39p...i didnt get those as im still on my make cakes band wagon....i did get some cheap pretty coloured cake papers and they had nice looking sprinkles reduced...im still using dr oeteker jelly diaminds sprinkles and orange slices sugar flowers from when they were 9p.....oh and cif spray £1 and mr muscle spray cleaner 2 for £1.......i got a nice looking piece of isle of skye cheese that was 13p a kilo cheaper than value cheese......in the curry pot they had various dishes for chinese new year for £1 a portion which i think is quite good if u buy ready meal type dishes....i dont as like making my own but they looked ok....i made quite a nice crumble base by whizzing a tin of peaches in blender then stirring in half apunnet of blue berries and topping with crumble mixture......when i make a crumble i sometimes make twice as much and freeze other half in a bag ....it makes a quick pudding............have a nice sunday tess

carolt2

Afternoon everyone, just popped in to update signature, spent just over £20 which takes me slightly over budget for the month.....:o ,
Have altered signature to reflect this.
Mrs Mc can I declare at £155.27 for January

Can I please be put down for £150 for February please?

Congratulations JENNYBEE and SEARCHING ME.

jackiegibbo

HI MRS M HAVENT FINISHED COUNTING FOR JAN YET BUT PLEASE PUT ME DOWN FOR £220 FOR FEBRUARY

many thanks for all your hard work xx

jtb2412

Mrs M can I please declare £280 for January (spot on budget, will explain how in a bit lol) and could I please be put down for £280 for February too please?

Bit of a confession to make in that I spent the rest of January's budget (about £20) and already some of February's budget on some meat from the local farm shop. We went this morning and they had some huge joints/packs that they had dropped the price on by quite a bit :eek: . They're getting a delivery in tomorrow (it's all local meat and hung and pepared on site so they need the space).

Now i've spent approx £50 of Feb's budget already but for what we got, it was worth it . I've now got a freezer full of meat that should last us for at least 3 weeks :j . And, considering I won't need to start on the meat until 1st Feb, then I figured I would take it out of Feb's budget. (Hope that's not too confusing ! lol)

Congrats to all this month :beer: xx

shelovestobuystuff

Declaring £258.41 for January budget
which is £8.41 over budget but as the grocery bill this month included almost £100 :eek: for daughters birthday party buffet and 3 birthday cakes I have done very well indeed(1 birthday cake for family birthday dinner party and 2 needed for her big party with all her friends)

Please put me down for £250 again for Feb please.Sons 18th in Feb and so another big party to cater for so cannot reduce budget this month as I would like.

sharronej

procrastinator wrote: »

Just bought bread and milk yesterday, had bought a new load Friday and it was gone by Sat morn, just 2 slices left for DS beans at lunch time. I think he is the main bread eater at the moment at 15 he is on a definate growth spurt. We only buy wholemeal and I have never had any sucess with making it myself so rely on shop bought, do any of you home bakers make wholemeal and how is it? Is it very dense? DH picked up a fresh bagette on way home which we had with the SC soup, don't mind this but sliced must be wholemeal. My month will end Jan 31 so still 6 days to go but I will be well under thank heavens.

The way I do it is to use a portion (say a third to a quarter) of strong white flour - this seems to 'lift' it and the end result is closer to a shop bought variety. Also, I believe if you put vitamin c in as well that it also helps to make a lighter loaf but I've never been able to find any in powder form I think it is call ascorbic acid? HTH

Flat_Eric

I am pleased to report that my freezer in my garage is a little less full :j and I can actually see whats in it without having to half empty it first to find something!

I also found lots of thing I had forgotten about including some bags of yummy frozen fruit. A piece of naan bread that came in very useful for tea last night, bags of roasted veg and other yummy treats. It's almost like going to your local supermarket and finding a freezer with all your favourite foods but its all free and you can just help yourself :j:D:j

Need to menu plan for the next couple of weeks/until end of Feb so that for the Feb GC I can come in under budget. so I need to remind myself what I have and plan meals around that rather than think oh I fancy that and promptly go and buy it!
Having joined the sealed pot challenge, Im soon going to begrudge spending any money :rotfl:

sistercas

declaring at £402 :eek: £102 over bum! didnt account for it being a long month
definitely be better next month