March 2009 Grocery Challenge

Baileys_Babe

I am planning to spend no more than £300 in March, thanks Mrs M for adding me to the list. This is for all food, alcohol, toiletries, cleaning stuff, take aways, meals out, coffee shop visits, snacks, sweets, over the counter medicines. For me, OH & DS plus #2 due 21st March. Plan to breast feed & use washable nappies for little one to be that we shouldn't really notice an impact on our grocery budget for a while.

Have started to do an inventry of our cupboards/freezers etc. We have 23 lemons in the freezer, we always get some in our fruit box! Have yet to decide how these are going to be used, lemon curd (only I eat it ~ well BIL does but he has just diagnosed as diabetic, so that would be cruel), lemon drizzle cake, any other ideas.

Yesterday visited Sainsbugs and bought quiet a few packs of muller fruit corners (6 packs) as they were 2 for 1, does anybody know when this offer runs out? The packs also contained vouchers for free muller little stars :money:

brummiebabe

Had to pop to Sainsburys today for some fruit, bread, milk etc etc. Also got some of those muller packs (on 2 for 1) as we all like those (me included - & I don't like yogurt normally:rotfl: ) plus I got a bottle of comfort which was only £1. Spent £16.10 - so now have £284.26 left of my budget!

angelatgraceland

glitterball wrote: »

I have PMd Mrs Mc for £100 this month. February was a disaster I did not get my meal plans together and as a result spent double my Target :< So here's hoping March will be much better.

Hehehe Do you think she will send you £100? :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Oh I do know what you mean! Just the way I read it! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Good luck with March!

scotsaver

TheBees wrote: »

Scotsaver - Just wanted to ask how you cook the whole chicken in the slow cooker? Do you season it or brown it at all? Do you just put it straight in the slow cooker or do you add any water? How long do you cook it for?

Hi TheBees - I took the Info from the Slow Cooker Thread, I put the SC on High for 20 mins and then down to Low, cut up an Onion, Stick of Celery and a Carrot and laid them on the bottom of the Slow Cooker and added about 2 cups of water and sat the Chicken on the top of the veg and left it in the SC for 8 hours and when it was done it literally fell off the bones, was really moist and I will definitely cook it like this again. Also, it makes it's own stock in the bottom of the SC so I made some delicious gravy and put the rest aside for the White Sauce I shall be making today for Chicken Pie.;) The only downside was the Skin, obviously it doesn't crisp up, doesn't bother me as I don't eat the skin but DD1 & DD2 love crispy skin so I cut it off and popped it in the roasting tin that I was doing the Spuds in so everyone happy.:D HTH.

Shall be making a Chicken Pie for Dinner tonight from last night's leftover Chicken and shall serve it with steamed baby potatoes, peas & sweetcorn. Shall also be making Chicken soup from the carcass.;)

Have a good day everyone.:D

huxley

Originally Posted by redmel1621
Can I ask a question to those of you who batch cook? Do you have multiple cookware dishes, for example 3/4 lasagne or pie dishes? So when you are making a lasagne or a pie, you can make multiple and then freeze them in the dishes you cooked them in??? Or do you transfer them into different dishes for freezing??? Sorry if that seems like a silly question, or not very clear!

Hi, if I am making a extra pie for freezing I line the pie dish with foil, when its cooked and cooled I then freeze it, when frozen the pie can be lifted from the dish in the foil liner and frozen and just returned to the pie plate/dish when removed from the freezer for defrosting or reheating;)

sabs10

Hello all,

I am a newbie to moneyexpert.com, and closely watched Feb's challenge. I would like to have a go at this month's challenge.

In Jan i spent £216.43, and Feb was £205. So I would like to bring this down to help pay of my debts. Please put me doen for £175 for March.

My month is from 1-3-09 to 31-3-09, and is for myself, two DD (8 & 6), a hairy hound and the birds. This also includes Birthday party for 6 little girls as DD no 2 is 7 in four weeks.

Have a good day all

Sabs10

PurpleSkies

Just wrote a ranty post in Feb thread about how I've pretty much blown my March budget in the 1st day of the month! May just have to draw a line under this one and start a fresh next month.
Although I'm going to try and have a no spend month, except for milk, bread and fruit. Will see how that goes!

WelshWoofer

Morning all!
Am quite chipper today as I got proposed to on the weekend and said YES!!!:j :j :j

After all of the fuss died down it was back to the grind and back to Mr Ts where I spent £34 for the weeks shop and a few extras to celebrate - donuts, chocolate, crisps all to be consumed as a final fling before the pre-wedding diet!

So back to reality today (and work!) and I've done the mealplan for the week and think I have everything we need apart from maybe some extra milk later on in the week.

Good luck to everyone else....

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all
Well -6 days in and my budget is still in tact :T ....

I got the chicken n sweetcorn soup made yesterday -2 lots went into the freezer for hubbies flask and there is 1 lot in the fridge for his flask tomorrow
Im doing the chicken n veg cobbler tonight.... and the rest of the chicken is in the freezer
Im determined not to get anything else from the shops before Saturday -so that will give me 10 NSDs in a row and give me a good head start... then I will be doing a NAFFI "whoopsie hunt" and a shop at ALDI for lots more fruit/salad etc, until then Im using some stuff up from the stores I built up over winter....

PurpleSkies -I have just read your post on the Feb thread.... don't beat yourself up -I now do similar, like this weekend I will be spending quite a bit as I will buy enough things like yoghurts, milk, etc plus tins to last more than this month (saves petrol-and hubbies stress levels than going weekly :rotfl: ) -but then I will only need bits n bobs for the rest of the month. I think thats why I have gone onto the annual budget as my spends are quite erratic -if I see bargains I can't ignore them but it does mean that over the year our food bills are cheaper

right -off to get some more x stitch done -have a great day everyone

Coxy11

Congratulations to rachelmk - that's great news! :beer:

I had a NSD yesterday. DH returned from two day scout camp with leftover 'goodies' - one of the (only) perks of being a leaders' wife. We now have crisps for packed lunches and various packets of unopened biscuits. Unfortunately none of the rainbow trout or 'leader pop' made it's way back home (they eat better than we do!!) :rolleyes:

Hoping for another NSD today - I'm helping DD class with cooking this afternoon - Twinks Hobnobs - they love them!

Have a good day everyone.

Coxy
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