February 2009 Grocery Challenge

princess_leia_3

More milk for me today :rolleyes: I have never kept a track of how much milk we use but I think I might start as we have gone through 24 pints in a week :eek: that equates to approx £40 a month on milk alone :eek: I can't really cut it down as most of the milk is for ds's 5,3 and dd 1 and we have seperate 'green' milk .

Anyway its another fiver down and we are only on feb 3rd :rolleyes:

cw18

laurasbump wrote: »

What do you guys regularly buy at Lidl or Aldi?

Very little if I'm totally honest !! I go to A!di for my milk (cheapest within walking distance), and check out the Super 6 while I'm there. I used to get their large chilled lasagne tray, but now I'm only cooking for 2 it's not worth getting any more I've also had one of their tubs of pate a couple of times, which I enjoy on toast - but it's not something I buy on a regular basis. Oh! And mint imperials as a treat for DS every few months (since Mr T seem to have stopped their value ones).

Have also picked up their Chocolate Rice cereal before now, but Mr A have had their own on a multi-buy offer making them much the same price -- so easier to get when there as I have the car with me (only go when I need enough to make it worth bothering) -- and in any case DS has informed me in the last couple of weeks he prefers Chocolate Flakes, and the only place I can find those is Mr A

kunekune

I've bought a few extras: soy sauce, cheese, extra butter (cos making pudding), and some hot cross buns we had for a late breakfast yesterday once we realised that it was a snow day for us and not for the children! But v. cheap tea tonight: veg soup (using celeriac from the veg box, carrots, potatoes, onions and some good bacon, will put a bit of creme fraiche at the end) and bread, followed by rhubarb with a sponge topping (frozen rhubarb I had already). With cream. My excuse is that the cream needs using up, LOL.

Reverbe

Floxxie wrote: »

Thankyou so much for the sausage suggestions - knew it would be worth coming onto this thread. Had a horrible vision of my 3 recipes repeated for several weeks :rotfl:

Off to cut and paste them now...

Floxxie

You're welcome Floxxie. Let me know if you try mine and what you think..

orchid-96

Just updated sig with todays spends, had to go out and pick up some bits for ds birthday party on Saturday (and get cards and bits for dh's birthday tomorrow) I am including bits for his party in my spends and I got sweets for his school friends (the kids always seem to take something small in for their classmates) also lots of bargains in Quality Save like the straight to wok noodles and a couple of other thai bits that will be good for the weekend as dh is cooking chinese for us all on Sat night...

what I really need to do is get some baking in, I want to try muffins but need baking powder which is coming on my Thurs Mr A delivery, my lot just seem to need loads of snacks, so I must do some flapjacks tomorrow and am out of yogurts but as I have a packet of strawberry whip in the cupboard I thought I could do that tomorrow to keep me out of the shops

Will catch up with the posts properly later....Hope you are all nice and warm today.

starflower_2

I did a mid week top-up at the co-op this evening, i did my main shop for a week last friday for £55.12 so £10 under budget plus i have about £3 set aside each week for extra bread & milk, got a few bargains in the reduced section today and still under budget!!!:D so quite please with myself:
Got a large Ham & Mushroom Pizza reduced to £1 for the freezer,
2 x boxes of 4 fresh cream cakes reduced to 40p/box (tonite's dessert:p)
tub of carbonara sauce reduced to 52p (tomorrows lunch with pasta)
pack of 2 cooked chicken breasts reduced to 78p (in freezer)
together with my bread and milk I spent £5.03!!!

redmel1621

princess_leia wrote: »

More milk for me today :rolleyes: I have never kept a track of how much milk we use but I think I might start as we have gone through 24 pints in a week :eek: that equates to approx £40 a month on milk alone :eek: I can't really cut it down as most of the milk is for ds's 5,3 and dd 1 and we have seperate 'green' milk .

Anyway its another fiver down and we are only on feb 3rd :rolleyes:

I have always found I go through a lot of milk. I have always had the habit since the boys were tots that they have a glass of milk with toast for supper. They are now 6 & 8 and I still do this...the only difference is they can have semi-skimmed now. We all eat cereal in the morning too. I have come to the conclusion though, that the grocery challenge is not about cutting out essentials, (and everyone has there own essentials) but more about cutting out junk food and ready meals etc...which cost a lot more than home-made food and are mostly, unhealthy

Mel x

indebted

Not a brilliant start to February. OH did a lovely (but not budgeted or planned) Tea on Friday, then tried to help by going food shopping on Saturday. Havn't said anything as it was really sweet but inside thought AAARRRGGGHHH.

Must now get on track for the rest of the month.

elizabunny

dreamingofmoney wrote: »

Does anyone know can you freeze sausage casserole? and if so how would you reheat it?

Hi dreamingofmoney, I freeze my sausage casserole in those foil containers with lids. I like these because you can fit them neatly into the freezer (saving on space). When I need them I just defrost thoroughly, remove the lid and then heat them up gently in the oven until piping hot. Never had any problems with this, but you just have to be careful not to burn the top.

piggeh

I'm unofficially doing this challenge although still to work out a budget! I have £350 in my account left for the month, but also need to use some of that for jobhunting. Normally I would spend more than that really, but trying to get deposit saving back on course. If I spend substantially less I might treat myself to something

Anyway I have the following left in my cupboards so thought it might be a good idea to use them up:

Potatoes (those red type, good for mashing)
Butter
Milk
Garlic
Basil
Oregano
Tomato Puree
Flour
Cheese

I am popping down the supermarket in a minute to pick up a few extra bits if needs be (eggs, baked beans etc, need sometihng for lunch/breakfast tomorrow and maybe some wine or beer ), trying to sort something that will last a few meals to avoid cooking tomorrow/Thursday really - any ideas please?!