January 2009 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Afternoon all!
I am declaring at £175 this month (£25 over budget but never mind! I forgot it was a 5 week month and didn't budget for it so £25 for the extra wek isn't too bad I suppose

Have plenty in for this week and will start to plan a mega shop to start February off next weekend. At least that's a 4 week month for me!

Lemon sole, new potatoes in garlic butter and salad for tea today - am starving!

Have a good rest of the month and see you on the Feb thread!

redmel1621

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.

I usually make it 75% wholemeal 25% white....it comes out absolutely wonderful:D

The other thing to try is different makes of flour as they do vary a bit, and also if you buy the 'very strong' as opposed to the 'strong' breadflour, it is usually a bit lighter too.

Mel x

Zend

Declaring for £230, thats £30 over but I did buy lots of half price food today and forgot it was a 5 week month. Please put me down for £200 again next month.

Flat_Eric

evening all :wave:

i hope you all have had an enjoyable sunday. :j

my project this evening (once i have been to the mother in laws for roast ) is to update my meal planner and I hope that I can plan (and then stick to it) up until the end of February :rolleyes:

I have been out to the freezer in the garage to remind myself what is actually in there which has meant that I have now been able to delete a few items from my home delivery order which stood at £87.93 and now stands at £69.05 :j .

I will go on again before its delivered to see if i can delete anything else and reduce it even further!

I was planning on buying some pork steaks to have with my tea tomorrow, but I discovered some beef medalions in the freezer so I am defrosting these instead and will have them with some jacket chips and sweetcorn :j They have resided in my freezer since May last year when i bought them but I guess they are still ok to eat?!)

On a final note? do you buy your fruit and veg fresh or frozen? for some reason the other day I ended up with something like 12 peppers and 3 had to be thrown away today because I didnt have room in my fridge for them and had to keep taking them out and when I went to put them back in the fridge today, they had all gone to mush. Being a complete MSE convert, I really begrudge throwing anything away now. I even have pak choi in my fridge that I bought about 3 weeks ago - it hasnt gone moudly yet so until it grows little legs and starts to move, its not going anywhere! :rotfl:

my question is though - I believe its more money saving for me to buy frozen veg and fruit rather than buy fresh because I can then take out what I need as and when I need it and nothing gets wasted!!

what do others think?

Frugaldom

Flat Eric - you can slice up peppers and freeze them - I freeze them in margarine tubs or plastic bags and then add them as I need them when cooking. It means you can take advantage of any on offer if you get the chance

Still doing not too badly here, althought the meal planning is still not in full swing. I just don't seem to have what it takes to be that organised, so have only managed to achieve a 3 day plan at best. Stockpiling going great but (there's always a but) I always seem to be needing something and the price hikes are so much more noticeable when you haven't purchased a particular item for several weeks/months. For example - I'm now running out of peppers and fruit plus I can't find mung beans anywhere, so my chow mein / stir fries are bean shootless! :rotfl:

katholicos

sharronej wrote: »

I would do exactly as you say, just keep the receipt in a different folder/envelope and count it as February before you do order though have a look at the cashback kings website because they are giving cashback for people who are new to their website. I have just saved twenty pounds on my latest order!

Brilliant advice about Cashback Kings! Thanks very much for that, and great idea about putting the recipt in a different folder for February. Thanks very much for your help on this, it's much appreciated!

katholicos

I haven't got my final amount totted up for January yet, but it's looking like i will just come in under budget :whoopee:

hamish222

I got lost again this month, not been adding up but think did okay as had lots in freezer. 200 for feb please I am going to try really hard this month, not only with budget but eating well and sourcing locally. I have ordered a veg / fruit box with 6 eggs for 9.20 a week and I am going to go to local butchers and get a freezer pack. In meantime I still have loads in freezer. So I am going to use some of it up, although not really sure what to make. I have joints of lamb, beef and pork and when I make a joint it is always tough. I also have 3 packs of pork fillet that dont have clue what to make and 1 frozen lobster. Will start of with the easy things such as the chicken and mince etc.

Baileys_Babe

katholicos wrote: »

I've got a bit of a dilemma now. I just received a Tesco email with a code in it for £10 off my online grocery shop....

What do you all think?

I would make the most of the voucher. If you can use the voucher without incurring charges (from overdraft or cc). You can always try and not use any of the food in January, possibly have the delivery as late in January as possible to save yourself from temptation.

Remember you are doing this challange for yourself/family. I often get caught up in taking this all to seriously and then have a reality check.

:idea: You could always of kept this information to yourself and just mentioned in February that you had had a delivery for X amount.

kalojac

My month's still got 4 days left, so will declare then.

CAN YOU PUT ME DOWN FOR £280 FOR FEB PLEASE, THANKS

That should be £70 ish a week for the 4 weeks for 2 Adults, 3 Little Boys and a dog.