February 2009 Grocery Challenge

elizabunny

rosieben wrote: »

I've grown tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes (needs a very big pot), peppers, french beans and kidney beans, spring onions, cut-and-come-again lettuce (in a small trough) and potatoes in buckets and grobags; I'm going to try potatoes in my old kitchen waste bin this year, so the answer is you can grow anything in pots and containers.

I like elizabunny's idea of tumbling toms in hanging baskets too

Hi rosie -I'm sure your potatoes will grow well in the waste bin. We have been growing potatoes in old buckets for a couple of years. When the plant reaches the top of the bucket, I pop an old bottomless bucket on top and keep adding the soil to this. I've tried main crop this way and also some pink fir potatoes and usually I've had a couple of pounds per bucket -so you should get loads from your bin.

I love growing the tumbling tomatoes in baskets, I've found them so easy to grow and look after and they have always cropped well. I think growing our own is such a great way of supplementing our food budgets and think nearly everyone could find a tiny space to grow something. So far I have in my GH the Tumbling Tom Seedlings which are doing well, two or three kinds of lettuce, I pick the leaves young and they carry on for ages, Spring Onions and Radish -which are so easy to grow. I will also start the Leeks off this month.

This will be NSD 3. I am planning to make some homemade sausages later -this will be the first time:eek: so its going to be a bit of a hit and miss affair I'm afraid.

We are away to our little caravan in the forest this weekend -so I'll be taking all the meals we'll need from our freezer and hoping not to dip into any of our remaining budget too much. We may decide to do something a bit special for Valentine's but I'm not sure we will go out to eat and we may just have a nice candlelit dinner in the van with a bottle of wine. If we have a takeaway or wine, this will not come out of our grocery challenge budget -as it's not a 'neccessity' and instead it will come from our 'going out/treats budget (which only exists if we have a bit extra in the kitty -which I think we have this week). Sorry for the waffle -hope I've made sense:o

Have a good day everyone.

Free_in_Three

Hello All

I have updated my signature and I feel that I might have finally started to get somewhere with the challenge. It's only taken me since October:o !!

When I look back to what we were spending (about £350 to £400) and the amount of waste I feel that we have come a long way. We are eating better too:D

I am still over my monthly budget a bit due to some stocking up in Jan but this will even itself out over the year as I will be under for Feb and will be under other months too i am sure.

I will need to do a big shop in March as my stores and freezer are getting low.

Free x

orchid-96

Thanks for the ideas on growing stuff, theyr'e great...just need to get some pots/containers and seeds then, hope I am not too late to do it...

louby28 Thanks for that muffin recipe, I will try it that way next time...do you think I could use that one for chocolate ones? or maybe choc chip and put the choc/chips in with the wet stuff?

Just popped on to update sig, todays planned nsd has gone to pot as I needed to go to MrTs for dh to do a posh buffet for work tomorrow, and as I am not working today after all, thought it best to get stuff in today, so have swapped my nsd from today to tomorrow

I got a finest meal for £9 in MrT's which we are going to have on Saturday..well sort of - we will use the potatoes/wine/pud and do some fillet steak with it and keep the ready meal thing to have during the week...anyway I did well as only spent £23.91 in all and seemed to get quite a bit for that - T's are doing 'happy eggs' for £1 for 6 so got 2 packs (also have their reg med fr on offer for 97p but I liked the happy egg box ) the froobs are on offer for £1 for 9 which my kids love (specially the hsm packaging at the mo) so got 2 of those - then got some fruit, cereals (frosties half price at 80p and have the adopt a monkey thing on them) nesquick on offer £1.14, some walls sausages for the kids (skinless ones they lik for £1 for 16) 2 x 10 t's omega 3 fishfingers (2 packs for £2) some mint aero mousses half price 0.59 + huggies pull ups 1/3 off at the mo and I had a £3 off till receipt from T's + a pack of cakes for a treat...and other stuff....indluding some beetroot and some sushi that I have just had for lunch(sorry for the waffle but pleased with my buys today ) Just need to go to my local butcher now for some steak (if its not too dear) so will nip there on Saturday....and will probably need some bits on sunday to see us through next week.....

LittleEms, Hope your meal goes well with your Dad....I must try that recipe if its that good...

Ess-six

Well I'm doing a lot better this month - so far have spent £44.16 of my £180 budget.....but the freezer is running very low so I need to do a 'proper' shop. Have managed to find the time to meal plan this month which is the key to managing the budget - but I'm suffering very badly from there not being enough hours in the day (at home and at work) at the moment, and I'm still not getting round to reading up on this thread.

If anyone has a recipe for creating more time, would they put it on here pronto please!

scotsaver

elizabunny & orchid-96 - thanks for the info on growing your own, I think there are a lot of us on here now that are planning to grow a lot more this year, I've already got Potatoes chitting and have loads of packets of seeds just waiting to get started in the Greenhouse - hoping to make a start after Half Term as some of the packets say they can be started in February - I'm sure we will be able to support one another in the coming Months.;)

jintyb - don't beat yourself up about going over target - it's not set in stone, I went over last month and then just took that amount off this Month's target - some people on here do an Annual Budget for the GC as it helps when buying in bulk when you spot a bargain.;)

LittleEmms - you enjoy your Family meal, you can't put a price on that time together.;)

Updated my spends as I've been down to the Market to get F&V for the first time and will definitely be doing that each week now as I'm really pleased with what I got:- 1 cucumber, 2 Cauliflowers, 14 Bananas, 6 Granny Smiths, 4lb Carrots, 3lb New Potatoes, 4 Giant Baking Potatoes (they weigh 1lb each) and 2lb Parsnips all for £8 - was so tempted to get more but I couldn't carry anything else, have a plan to pop down there next week when the kids are of School so they can help me carry more.:rotfl:

Last night's Impossible Pie for Pudding was a real hit, so yummy and easy to do, you must give it a try.

Dinner tonight is a Chicken Casserole in the SC with Steamed Potatoes and Carrots.:D

yummymummy05

well i bought milk yesterday - and as we were going for an impromptu trip to the park i also bought 3 jars of babyfood (offer was 3 for £2) value sausage rolls for me,friend and her daughter. ds decided he now doesn't like them so had to buy him a sandwich!! (conveniently I can't find the receipts:D !!!)

Also i broke the baby monitor the other day so ordered a new one online with Mr T's (£10 off on the web!) to get free in-store delivery I also ordered my friend the blender that she wanted! However I now have to go to Mr T's this afternoon to pick it up - dh has already given me a list of stuff he wants me to get:mad:

To make matters worse, on tuesday I had a major cooking afternoon - I roasted a chicken, baked 2 carrot cakes (turned out more cinnamon than carrot though) and did 4 types of baby food for dd!!!! However was so knackered and hadn't cleared up or portioned out the food by the time dh came home at 8o'clock we ended up having our "valentines curry" for dinner and now have to buy another one for saturday!!! I think I'm gonna use my Mr T vouchers for this as I have no money left!!!:eek:

elly2

Another £5 here today DD wanted spag bol for tea so needed mince and spagetti, got some buns and a sausage roll and cookie for ds dinner also put 50p into the pot at school for his snack tomorrow (the change i had left out of the fiver will go into my sealed pot).

OrkneyStar

Hi.
Not much to say other than popped to Tesco for a few bits, got the Flora Buttery, cheese, Frubes and Rachels Organic yoghurts that are all on offer, plus enough bread and milk to last til next sizable shop (Tue 17th). I had actually started in Lidl but was not impressed by the dates on the milk (their milk normally has a decent date) or the bread.
Still have some money left though, for 'emergencies' until then.
Does anyone know when the next lot of Tesco vouchers come out ?
Thanks

LittleEmms

Jintyb, Orchid-96, Scotsaver and anyone else who wants it – its very simple and impressive!!

www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/jo/recipes/sizzling-beef-with-spring-onions-and-black-bean-sauce

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon all -cor seems ages since I was on here

Well my spends for the month are now at €60 although I'm half way through the month and a lot of what I have got is for the stores -oh and 64 andrex loo rolls well they wer €2.99 for 16

We have sideways flying snow at the moment -so still no seeds starting here yet.. although I have my sweet potato started -Im growing my own slips again ..and hubby is building arches etc at the weekends -in between the weather changes:p
I would urge anyone to give growing veg in tubs a go -thats how I do all mine and we are still eating roasted tomatoes n veggies from the freezer in pastabakes from last year :T -this year Im trying allsorts

I have some good news/bad news... I have to have surgery later in the year -but the good bit is that it means that the army will more than likely let us stay here so I can have it -this hospital is one of the best (hubby was due to be posted who knows where ).... so every cloud and all that :rotfl:

Dinner tonight is sausage casserole and mash with veggies... to whoever is having a go at sausage making -I make my own-its a doddle..so much so that my 69year old mum had a go at making some skinless ones -then ordered a mincer/stuffer from lakeland the same day :T
right enough twaddle
I hope everyone is well