February 2009 Grocery Challenge

mrssnowy_2

jintyb wrote: »

Just been reading the posts, and I know I shouldnt laugh but your accounts of your OH's shopping trips are hilarious. The definitely do NOT have the same shopping genes as us! They cannot seem to focus on the job in hand! :rolleyes:

Aw,in defence of my DH,I go out to work and he is retired thro' ill health etc.Today for lunch he had been shopping,got a delish french stick(we live in the middle of Wales -no MrS/T/M/WR etc handy:rotfl: )only a few arrive alt days in local health food shop!!!Had this with ham(DH),Brie(me).
Home from work at 6 ish,lovely smell of jacket pots went nicely with cold meat and coleslaw,all in all none cost much,but does come out of total.

DD and GS(age3)plus VERY LARGE dog coming on Sat.
Now that will muck up the totals:eek:


mrss

mrssnowy_2

rachelmk wrote: »

Have just been thinking about my meal plan (

So rather than end up chucking them away I'm looking for easy things to do with just plain old white spuds?
I was going to make some mash but that's boring (made leek and potato soup last night).
Anyone got any ideas?
I was thinking of a fancy layered potato thingy but don't know where to start and what I need......
Can anyone help?
I have basics like mature cheese, milk etc if that helps (and can pop to the shop on the way home from work for the odd low cost ingredient!)

Cheese and potato pie,mashed poatato and grated cheese,shove in the oven for 20 mins or so to brown and bubble-serve with pickled cabbage.YUMYUM nice and cwtchy

mrss

Girl_least_likely_to

2 NSD's for Sun and Mon but spent £2.06 today on 2 medium loaves and an egg custard from our lovely bakery at the bottom of our road to have with some HM lentil & bacon soup from the freezer. I am shattered atm as DD3 has had a noctunal cough for the past 3 nights, doc has given her some rubbish medicine. She's been trying to get to sleep for 3 hours now, gonna try honey next after watching Charlie & Lola on V+ for the millionth time :rolleyes: . Think another change to the meal plan will be order for tea on Weds, prob something easy like eggs on toast or HM freezer cassarole as the sleep deprivation is catching up .

OrkneyStar

Hi there,
Hmmm, As the observant ones of you may notice I deleted yesterdays post with shopping plans! Weather still yuck so trip to main town cancelled for Thur, ended up starting the week early by taking food money out last night. Spent £14.35 in the Coop on 2L milk, bread (£1.42 for a Hovis BOB :eek:), more dried peas- 2 x 250g packs, two big sweet potatoes, a red pepper, 2 cans Coop own beans, can kidney beans (I have dried but need a small amount- will freeze rest of can), 12 free range eggs (£2.99- is this decent price ?), 150g mushrooms, pickled beetroot (mmmmmm) and 5 (or 6 ?) organic bananas. Just Juice was 75p/L at garage so got two cartons there on the way home, spending another £1.50. I still have some money left so might pop to local butcher for some meat depending on weather (although it would be just to add to freezer-stock as we have a some in already) and will also need milk/bread come the weekend. May take the bus to town at weekend (when DS can be watched by DH), although may not have time as other stuff on!

Am very thankful for local shops and can manage fine for a bit without Tesco (until my value tomatoes run out lol!), and I bet many of you are too, or equally thankful for supermarket deliveries!

Take care in the bad weather all of you.

Slightly more expensive on food but saving on diesel.

jintyb

mrssnowy wrote: »

Aw,in defence of my DH,I go out to work and he is retired thro' ill health etc.Today for lunch he had been shopping,got a delish french stick(we live in the middle of Wales -no MrS/T/M/WR etc handy:rotfl: )only a few arrive alt days in local health food shop!!!Had this with ham(DH),Brie(me).
Home from work at 6 ish,lovely smell of jacket pots went nicely with cold meat and coleslaw,all in all none cost much,but does come out of total.

DD and GS(age3)plus VERY LARGE dog coming on Sat.
Now that will muck up the totals:eek:


mrss

Mrssnowy, please dont think I was being mean about your OH, he sounds lovely, it was just your account that made me chuckle! Hope he keeps well and have a lovely day.
Jintyb

mummysaver

You can do it!

Even if you have to drop down a brand or level from where you usually shop or try some slightly more "creative" ideas than normal! Everyone on here is fab at coming up with ideas, so as others have said post a list of what's in your cupboards/freezer/fridge and before you know it you'll have a month's worth of meals planned out for you!

Shopping around often helps - Lidl, Aldi and Morrisons generally have good fruit and veg offers. Other supermarkets have their special offers too, for instance 400g strong cheese is £2 is Tesco at the mo, and they have quorn mince at 99p (if you like that?). It's worth having a browse on www.mysupermarket.com to see each stores special offers and to check where the staples are cheapest.

And don't forget that some meals are always going to be cheaper than others, baked potatoes, omlettes, pasta, soup - these all help stretch the money but are filling and healthy.

A chicken can be stretched over a few meals - see the rubber chicken thread, and mince can be stretched out as well, it's amazing to watch a pack of mince produce cottage pie, bolognese, lasagne and chilli!

Good luck x

mrs-moneypenny

another NSD for me yesterday, but i might need to nip out later. i'll have a juggle through the cupboards and see if i can put it off for another day;)

tessie_bear

hi....i went back to the local coop and got the chickens i was rambling about and they had been further reduced as had sausages...so im going to keep an eye on things now as they seem to be reduced in stages....that is if the sad police dont cart me off....went to somerfield and they had a nice looking offer on rump steak...half price but can remember price but seemed quite cheap for a big bit of steak...im going to go back on friday and get some for a romantic valentines meal on sat:beer: cheaper than going out...and nicer on actual valentines day...i have found service and quality can go down in eateries on such occasions as valentines and mothers day...perhaps thats just me though.....also went to farm foods...uht longlife milk 39p a l i got a couple and they seem ok

on the note of organic meat....i like to buy happy chickens aka organic and anyother organic is its on special offer or reduced and iv always found the quality great ....perhaps the mince was a dud and u could complain....having said that is doesnt seem woth paying the extra if u arent keen iyswim....trial and error i suppose....
have a nice day tess

got-it-spend-it

Definitely look at what you have in the cupboards and freezer already.

How much will nappies and other essential toiletries cost you till end of Feb? That will give you an idea of how much you have to spend on food. Do you have any Boots points or anything you can use for nappies etc?

If it was me I would personally alternate a cheapy meal (something on toast, lentil soup and bread) with a more substantial meal. This should save you some pennies and will do no harm for a couple of weeks.

Maybe check out local Poundland etc for things like tea and coffee if you'll be buying those as they are often a bit cheaper.

panambi

Not had time to come on here for a while. Just updated sig, been to Netto to stock up on baking essentials, F&V, etc. Will spend next week (half term) baking with the kids. Should not need anything else now hopefully until the end of next week so fingers crossed will come within budget. Also passed the local bakery and saw they had a lot of leftovers from yesterday at half price so got a big bag full of bread, buns, etc for £2.50 - all in the freezer now.

I have a question about freezing HM meals - how do you freeze lasagna, shepperds pie etc that goes in the oven? Just wondering because I had a good quantity of shepperds pie left over the other day and put it in my pyrex, wrapped cling film round and froze. Had it about a week later but am not really keen on freezing my glassware so any ideas of how to best freeze these things will be greatly appreciated.