February 2009 Grocery Challenge

PennyGrabber

Just updating sig. Had a NSD today which is good, but with only £18.83 left, they need to be more often! I find it so hard to stay away though!!

Dinner today was a random assortment of stuff I bought after I made my meal plan and didn't really need but bought anyway... Must really pay more attention to it from now on, as I think that is the real key to sorting out the food spending situation.

As the children will be with their dad, dinner for me tomorrow will be something from the pantry, possibly a packet of flavoured cous cous, along with some cold sausages left over from today's dinner. Would've had enough sausages to make a casserole to freeze for another day, however, 1. I have no more freezer space, and 2. My greedy cats went and scoffed some of them behind my back!
Had a turnout of my fridge as it's bin day tomorrow, and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of stuff I had to throw out. It has always bugged me how much I throw away, and the GC seems to be fixing that for me! Well done to all who share thier hints and tips, however small. Between us all, we're doing so much more than saving money!
I'm off to carry on looking through the recipe thread.
Take care all! x

gillst_2

tessie_bear wrote: »

good afternoon....hope everyone is going well now in feb....on the subject of chips has anyone had any dealings with the tefal actifry ? it makes chips of quite a low fat content but cheapest ive seen is a £100 which is a lot to spend when it could be rubbish ...any comments gratefullt appreciated...im frit of chip pans and friers in general so for us it is no chips,chip shop chips or oven chips...i think some oven chips are ok others a bit pale looking....hm wedges are nice u wedge cut pots with bit of oil and herbs and bake on a tin in oven....ok but not chips iukwim......im told Easter eggs are bogof in wilkinsons ...i know its early but i plan to get a few for test and evaluation purposes tata tess

Saw easter eggs on bofof in the co-op at the weekend

Julimk

Fourth NSD in a row for me & sixth in seven days! The weather is a real incentive to stay in & not spend. LOL.

DD’s school was closed (I was scheduled to work at home today anyway) and I made us a lovely HM chicken soup for lunch using some wilted celery & spring onions from the bottom of the fridge, left over roast chicken & stock made from the carcass.

If we are at home tomorrow as well will need to venture to the Co-op local for some fresh milk. Have a little left for breakfast & some dried if necessary, but I think we will need to get this really.

Fortunately the Co-op is only a 2 min walk (Mr T or Mr S are over a mile away) & whilst it is pretty small they have fresh f&v, some meat, a small freezer section etc, so you could live from their stuff for a short while if necessary. And anyway, still have nearly 40 HM dinners in the freezer, plus loads of meat & veg, a small amount of fresh fruit & a well stocked store cupboard, so no panic yet.

TrixieB – I am planning on using my GC savings for spending money for August holiday too. Everything else is budgeted seperately, so am treating this as ‘extra’.

Atalanta

Hello everyone,
I am going to try and join in this month and hope to spend no more than £400 on all food, drink and cleaning stuff this month...Have already had to put £83.20 down for the 4 weeks fruit and veg boxes which we will get this month. Got a few bottles of wine left from last month and a few meals in the freezer so that will help.

nickynoo08

As the weather is due to turn bad again i thought i'd best stock up on a few bits n bobs. Anyhoo i spent just under £28 which wasnt bad considering my OH came with us. We normally spend loads more when he comes coz he just chucks things in the trolly without asking and me noticing:mad: , but today he was on his best behaviour. In fact he managed to find a few bargains for us;). I think all my money saving ranting has eventually started to pay off.
We managed to get a load of meat for sc, fruit and veg, yogs for ds, milk and loads of tinned stuff too. Freezers and cupboards are fully stocked again so should only need milk, bread f&v for next few weeks.

PennyGrabber

My underspends (if I am ever going to have any!) will go straight onto my mortgage. Need to ring them and ask how to do this, as never been in a position to overpay before.

That's a lie. Had more money before, but it seemed to not go so far! Now I'm by myself, spending less and paying things off seems to be more important, as does entertaining the children in a way that doesn't cost a fortune! Isn't snow great! You can play in it for ages, and all it costs is a hot choc each and a biscuit. How fab is that?!

I'd love to have some money over at the end of this month. It's do-able, as I only need milk and a few bits of f and v, but I need to keep away from temptation! My month has 20 days left to run, £18 left.

TrixieB

Julimk wrote: »

TrixieB – I am planning on using my GC savings for spending money for August holiday too. Everything else is budgeted seperately, so am treating this as ‘extra’.

Where are you off to? We are going on our first ever holiday abroad to Ibiza for a week Couldn't quite manage to stretch to two weeks unfortunatley though boooooo

TheBees

Had a quiet weekend at home and managed to do quite a bit of baking and cooking from scratch.

Friday evening me and the children made our very first home made pizzas which were a huge success. :j I made the pizza dough in the bread maker and we all created our own individual pizzas with some passatta sauce chorizo sausage, ham, tomato, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, some dried herbs and a drizzle of olive oil on top. (Most of the ingredients were from Lidls). They were delicious and we'll definitely be doing them again. JUST WONDERED CAN YOU FREEZE MOZZARELLA CHEESE? IF SO WOULD YOU TAKE IT OUT OF THE PACKET AND REMOVE ALL THE LIQUID OR FREEZE AS IT IS?

The roast pork shoulder a la Jamie Oliver cooked for over 5 hours on Sunday and was also a huge success. The crackling was brilliant and the first time I've managed to get it crispy in 20yrs of marriage! For pudding I made a lemon sauce sponge pudding which we had with some ice cream - Yum

Finally tonight I made a Jamie Oliver fish pie which went down well too. Previously my family would only eat fish fingers or fish in batter but we're getting a bit more adventurous at last.:rotfl: Today would have been a NSD but I needed a lemon for the pie.

redmel1621

Just popping in to update spends and sig...

Asda Delivery was £217.87, but I returned the dishwasher tabs as they had to substitute...they sent me half the amount for the same price I don't think so Mr A!!! So that will be a reduction of £4.00...although I now still need to buy them.
I also had to buy some batteries and also bought some chocolate, which I flaming well shouldn't of :doh: these two items came to £4.50....
Total spend for today - £218.37. Leaves me - £121.63 for top-ups etc throughout the month.

Off to update sig.

Any money saved from this challenge is all going towards a holiday to Disney Paris, which I am hoping to give the kids for Christmas.

Mel x

Baileys_Babe

mummy2mygirls wrote: »

I cant face the tesco shop on my own as ive got SPD which makes pushing the trolley a nightmare at the moe so thought this might be a good option.

Please, please, please do not push a trolley when you have SPD (or use a hoover etc) as this will cause lots of pain and make make the suffering worse. Last time round I was on crutches with SPD from about 15 weeks. Most of the big supermarkets were very helpful & I would either get taken around the store by an assistant or an assistant would take my trolley round whilst I shuffled along. Everybody was very patient with me. An online shop would seem the best option.

I know this is off topic but I would not wish SPD on anybody as it can be unbareable. If this post saves one person from agony, it will be a good thing. Thinking about last time still makes me cry.