February 2009 Grocery Challenge

angelatgraceland

orchid-96 wrote: »

..my other challenge this month is to buy only free range/organic chicken/pork and wanted to ask a question to those of you who do that...do you therefore buy NO other chicken products (eg. chicken sandwich from a cafe etc. / chicken meal out / frozen chicken kievs etc) I know a lot of the osers don't have any conv foods but thought as some of you might, I would ask the question (I do now and again mainly for ds/dh)

Well all of this takes time as we need to adjust our budgets. Im on FR eggs and chicken at the mo and am progressing to pork beef etc. Regarding the chicken products as they are processed items and truly not good quality-full of scraped off chicken,salt,fillers,fat Ive cut down drastically on them. I do still buy the odd item and assume its coming from caged hens-unless it says otherwise. The easiest way around this is to buy less processed food which is better for your health and your pocket. Difficult at times with little ones but better to make your own version from decent meat if possible. Rather than buy this stuff I find analternative which is most likely something totally different-in other words-Ive basically taken it off the menu. This didnt happen overnight though-its been over the last year. Processed food is a habit-its one I am in the process of giving up-unless its me who processed it!

SunnyGirl

mumzyof2 wrote: »

what is tomato cans of stock???
i have no worcestershire sauce

Too late now to be of any use to you as I assume you're out and the SC is bubbling away merrily but apologies for not making myself clear last night. I did mean two tomato cans filled with stock (either homemade or from a cube) I tend to put it like that because thats what I do - I've never been a great 'measurer' of things unless its a cake As for the worcester sauce it'd be fine left out altogether it just gives it a bit of an extra kick. A tiny pinch of chilli would do the same.

Hope this clears up the confusion :j

greent

orchid-96 wrote: »

..my other challenge this month is to buy only free range/organic chicken/pork and wanted to ask a question to those of you who do that...do you therefore buy NO other chicken products (eg. chicken sandwich from a cafe etc. / chicken meal out / frozen chicken kievs etc) I know a lot of the osers don't have any conv foods but thought as some of you might, I would ask the question (I do now and again mainly for ds/dh)

I used to buy organic chicken nuggets (too lazy to make my own) but DD now prefers just plain chicken breast. DH has chicken McD's. I will eat chicken out, but some of the places we go serve f/r chicken or local pork (use it as a selling point), so that's great. We used to ahve things like kievs, crispy chicken etc - but they are generally reformed meat. I have attempted making my own versions but the vast majority of the chicken we eat is roast/ stirfry/ fajitas/ curry anyway - which are made from either a whole f/r / organic chicken or chicken pieces.

The easiest way is to not buy them - but that takes time to wean your taste buds and habits Babysteps

gt
x

nmlc

Originally Posted by orchid-96

..my other challenge this month is to buy only free range/organic chicken/pork and wanted to ask a question to those of you who do that...do you therefore buy NO other chicken products (eg. chicken sandwich from a cafe etc. / chicken meal out / frozen chicken kievs etc) I know a lot of the osers don't have any conv foods but thought as some of you might, I would ask the question (I do now and again mainly for ds/dh)
Hi
Hope you don't mind me joining in but I make my own breaded chicken. I just cut up a chicken breast into nugget sized portions, dip in beaten egg and then hm breadcrumbs then put on baking tray and bake in oven 175f until cooked. Makes your own version of chicken nuggets/breaded chicken (at least this way your know what's in it!) Hope this helps!
I'm a Newbie I'm so grateful to this site I'm at last getting a grip of finances by taking part in the GC. Have just visited Trade Butchers for 1st time, I bought 4.5ilbs of braising steak (enough for 8 portions), 11 pork chops, 1lb unsmoked back bacon and 20 butcher's own sausages - 8 portions - this little lot came to £27.50 but have frozen all of it so have plenty for Feb.
Feb GC buget £350/£27.50 spent so far.

helzbelz_57

can i join this month please? this is my 1st GC so really a guess but im saying £200. this is for me and ds3.5 a cat and dog, also OH on 2 weekends. this includes all food, pet food, cleaning products, petrol and health and beauty purchases.

prophecy_grrl

I'm going to go for £200 again this month please. Just did an online shop of £71.22 it's HUGE!

EDIT - Just had my shopping delivered and it acually cost £70.69, am loving it!

princess_leia_3

Well I have done my meal plan for the month and there is not much to buy really so I am hoping to stick to this, I need to plan kids snacks and lunches too as this is where I often come unstuck, so I have started my Mr T online basket and will update when I have had it delivered!

orchid-96

Thanks for all the posts about the chicken stuff, tbh most of our chicken meals at home are just roast chicken or stuff done with chicken breast or leftovers so not really a problem, its just things like meals out etc. I suppose as someone else said baby steps is good and doing a bit even if we get the odd chicken burger out is better than not doing it at all....

Propecy girl, re yr huge order, I have found since gc and really trying to plan/consider everything, when I do a big shop (usually now online) I am getting loads and loads for my money (get loads of basics and offers etc.)

LoopyLinz

Hi

Can I join you all please? Currently have no idea how much we spend per month so if you could put me down for £175 this is for me and DH and will include cleaning supplies, smelleys and those chineses that we seem to be so partial to.

If we actually manage to come in within budget I will be well impressed. Thinking this will at least give us something to aim towards!

Linz xoxo

angelnikki

angelnikki wrote: »

this month I'm switching to only buying free range or organic pork, poultry and eggs. I'm going to alternate my weekly shops with MrT and MrS instead of just using MrT I'm also going to keep track of the cost and qty of meat we eat this month to see if next month we're able to afford a monthly meat box:j instead of buying all our meat from supermarkets

I've now added up all of our spends on meat for Jan and this came to a total cost of £27.82! This would have cost an additional £5.19 if the pork + chicken had been FR.

We have £6.62 worth of meat still in the freezer aswell as HM meals which will cover 6 meals for the 3 of us.

So the actual meat cost for Jan was only £21.20 (which would have cost £26.09 if it was all FR). This made 15 meals for the 3 of us. The rest of the meals we had for the 28 days were: 7x fish meals, 3x takeaways (this was for b'days and new year) and 3x veggie meals.

I'll keep track of meat purchases for this month aswell so I can get a better idea of our average spends, and will then decide from there whether we can afford the meat box instead

orchid-96 wrote: »

..my other challenge this month is to buy only free range/organic chicken/pork and wanted to ask a question to those of you who do that...do you therefore buy NO other chicken products (eg. chicken sandwich from a cafe etc. / chicken meal out / frozen chicken kievs etc) I know a lot of the osers don't have any conv foods but thought as some of you might, I would ask the question (I do now and again mainly for ds/dh)

I've always tried not to buy convenience foods but did occasionally have something like chicken burgers for an easy dinner. Now I'm switching to all FR we wont be having these anymore or if we do it will be HM from FR instead :A

For me, I want to buy FR because I want the meat that I eat to have been looked after in a certain way, and I'm also trying to buy foods that have been processed as little as possible (eg: I've switched to butter instead of butter like spreads). So, to me, eating shop bought chicken burgers, or eating non FR meat in meals out would contradict that.

But it's completely up to you what you buy, as it is your challenge that you have set yourself, so you make the rules! Work out what you want to achieve and take it one step at a time

Welcome to the challenge newbies :hello: Good Luck everyone!

Nikki x