February 2009 Grocery Challenge

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  • TheBees
    TheBees Posts: 601 Forumite
    Leed - To help with meal planning you could do what I did and make a list of all the meals that your family like to eat. You might want to ask them all for their ideas and flick through any recipe books to remind yourself of things that you've had in the past. Then you should have a nice long list of ideas to refer back to when you're stuck for ideas.
    Then look in your fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what you've already got and try to plan your meals around these things first.
    Then,if like us you have a busy family life with people doing different things after work or school you might want to plan quick and simple meals for the evenings when people have activities and more complicated meals on the evenings when you have more time.
    Finally, as you write your meal plan, write a shopping list of ingredients as you go along.
    I often make a menu plan which gets altered and swapped around at the last minute but at least you know what to get out of the freezer in the morning to defrost.
    Hope this helps!:D
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  • searching_me
    searching_me Posts: 18,414 Forumite
    o well january didnt exactly go to plan ... but thats due to cravings (thats my excuse and im sticking to it :rotfl:) but my feb starts hopefully tomorrow if not saturday i'll drop in tomorrow let you know :D x
    :)Still searching .....:)
  • Toonie
    Toonie Posts: 1,147
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    Hello, can I be put down for £170 again please. Still just about on January budget, but the last of that will be spent tomorrow as I've actually run out of sugar (that has never happened to me!)
    Grocery budget in 2023 £2279.18/£2700

    Grocery budget in 2022 £2304.76/£2400
    Grocery budget in 2021 £2107.86/£2200
    Grocery budget in 2020 £2193.02/£2160

    Saving for Christmas 2023 #15 £ 90/ £365
  • Reverbe
    Reverbe Posts: 4,210
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    I read in Januarys thread this is a 5 week month.. if so maybe I should increase???

    EDIT disregard that the calendar shows only 4
    What Would Bill Buchanan Do?
  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010
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    leed wrote: »
    I really struggle trying to plan meals in advance - any tips please?
    :rolleyes:


    You've had some good advice so far, but if you need more inspiration there's also a weekly mealplan thread that might help; you can check back through some of the older ones and there are loads of other interesting links there that you might find useful :) If you do a search for Mealplans you'll get a list of the more recent ones

    I'll put a link to the Complete Menu Plan Collection in the front recipe index here.
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  • Aeshna
    Aeshna Posts: 255 Forumite
    I was intending to go hit a few different shops to get the best deals with weekend, but I've now realised that the freezer is stuffed full rubbish! (in my pre MSE days!!) Anyhow, rubbish or no, it needs to be used up, so I'll try to mix some decent stuff in with it too. I really need to be more organised!

    Aeshna x
    Debt Free! - Thank you MSE posters for your enduring support

  • KAAT_LADY
    KAAT_LADY Posts: 4,714
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    £200
    :Tplease mrsmcawber:T
    dont know what happened to january :rotfl::rotfl:
    xx:D
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  • IsoChick
    IsoChick Posts: 223 Forumite
    Hello, I've never done a challenge before :o
    Please can I be put down for £200 ?

    It's a bit annoying cos we get paid in the middle of the month, so this time of the month is skint-time!

    I shall be planning meals (as I do anyway) and trying to use up the stuff in my freezers! :T
  • ladymay
    ladymay Posts: 1,126
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
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    Hello!

    I've been attempting to budget my groceries on my own for the frst time this month, so would love to join this thread for February!

    I'm aiming for £80 for february, just lil' ol' me to buy for, so shouldn't be too much of a problem. This will include food, household stuff and beauty products.

    Wish me luck!
    2019 Aim: Save £10,000
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  • scotsaver
    scotsaver Posts: 824 Forumite
    Hi Beki - thanks for the recipes and photo, looks yummy, shall definitely make a note of that. I buy Patak's Coconut sachets from Asda, you get 4 in a box, used to be about 56p, but this week they have gone up to 65p, still only works out at about 16p a sachet, just thought I'd mention it.;)

    I'm attempting to make a Tuna Lasagne tonight, never made it before but assuming it's similiar to a Tuna Pasta Bake, however, it has spinach in it so need to sneak that in without the kids noticing:cool: shall serve it with a nice bowl of salad so will have to go to Lidl's this morning as it's the only local shop that sells fruit & veg.

    I'm seriously considering just buying my meat from a Butcher's and Fruit & veg from a Market, ok with finding a local Butchers but not sure where to source the Fruit & Veg, the best I've come up with so far is Dartford which is about 15 min drive away so still under debate - just need to use up all the meat from the Freezers and then I think I shall give the Butchers a try - does anyone use just a Butchers and could give me tips on prices or even quantities to ask for - at the moment I look at a Joint in the Supermarket and go buy size:confused:

    Just feeling a bit disillusioned with Supermarkets at the moment, with all the bad publicity there has been about Tesco's and also about what happens to some meat that is being sold - I've always bought Free Range Chickens and eggs but feel I want to buy all our Meat from a Butchers now, think it is achievable within our Budget as we don't eat meat every night, have fish once a week and have a pasta dish once a week so would be interested in anyone elses advice/tips.:confused:
    "WASTE NOT, WANT NOT!"
    GC for OH, myself, DD18 & DD16 includes Toiletries, cleaning stuff & Food.

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