If you were to stock up for 6 months, what would you buy?

Iffy_Wallet

Hi. One thing you did seem to miss out on was prawn crackers. These chinese disks seem to last for ever in storage, and a small box lasts a long time. They are similar in cooking to the papadoms that you mentioned - ie heat the oil until suicidally hot, throw disks in, swish around and extract rapidly. All good fun, if you've got the nerve (and the skill).

Shopwise, we are lucky in Manchester to have a branch of the Chinese supermarket 'Wing Yip'. I'm sure that you can google for some Scottish stores that are similar. A 10kg bag of Thai rice is unmissable. Likewise, buying bulk spices from there is considerably cheaper than from an ordinary supermarket in tiny jars. And if you find one of these shops, check out their noodles too, for sure. The Manchester Wing Yip, has an interesting array of Chinese sauce bottles. They start out small. Further along the shelves, some turn into catering containers. And at the back of the shop, there is a warehouse section that the public may visit, (where the prices are exclusive of VAT, whereas the main shop is inclusive of VAT), and here they carry true catering boxes of multi-jar products. Very handy if you are on a 'mission'. (No I don't work for W.Y. or have any financial connection with them, apart from occasionally shopping there).

In terms of ordinary supermarkets, I have noticed that Tesco can be a bit fly sometimes when it comes to buying larger amounts. For example, I have noticed that with their own brand 'Gold' coffee, it can sometimes cost quite a bit more to buy (per gram) if bought in the largest jars, compaired to their smallest 'bedsit' jars. I don't know why that should be, but I have noticed it quite a lot in Tesco, across a variety of products, from time to time. So if you are on a mission to fill your shelves, have a close look at the price per gram on each of the different pack sizes, before putting anything in your basket.

Don't forget a trip to Lidl if you can find one. Frikadellen - German spicy ham rissoles - are amazing, and being precooked and being packed under a safe atmosphere, so should travel home well to your deepfreeze. They also have a great range of German sausage and chocolate.

I find packet mushroom soup (eg Knorr) very tasy by itself, and also very handy for making pasta sauce and general stews etc. I'd like to know where you can obtain that it bulk amounts.


Good luck and good hunting !

furndire

Iffy_Wallet wrote: »

In terms of ordinary supermarkets, I have noticed that Tesco can be a bit fly sometimes when it comes to buying larger amounts. .QUOTE]

They often are with the value stuff as well - often ordinary versions are cheaper than value.

Always check on the price label the cost in kilos etc.


One good buy at the moment in Tesco though is the value version of semi-skimmed milk - its about 12p a litre cheaper than the normal bottle. I know the bottle is smaller, but the price is per litre, it doesn't matter how big the bottle is (If you see what I mean.)

Pippilongstocking

mardatha wrote: »

thanks both of you... I did have a wee look and there seems to be a few ferries all from different places, so that helps. I don't mind rough seas but the OH hates it LOL. I fell in love with the big Rosyth/Zeebrugge one and was gutted when they stopped running. That was a 19 hours crossing-... pure magic, I loved it.
Aberdeen is no good because it means leaving teh car there, so a long drive then a long ferry -- too complicated.

Hope you find a route that suits you - we often do the aberdeen one and take the train - its quick and you arrive just about a five min walk from the ferry - I don't mind the aberdeen ferry too much there is a cinema etc (we did a sixteen hour adventure on it once but that's another story:D) as its normally me driving i tend to vary both to keep myself sane whilst I prefer not to be on a boat for 5 hours driving for 5-7 isnt much fun either - I am not a fan of the A9 - todays 7 hour drive has just about killed me its so long and unpredictable.

Mind on I have a set up spare 'B&B' room When you thinking of coming?

Orkney star glad you got away as well - I had used all my cheap petrol by the time I got to Tain and had to get some more - lol - hope you had fun x

Pippilongstocking

Iffy_Wallet

some really good ideas ! Thanks so much I know what you mean about those wee prawn cracker disks they are awesome.

I have to confess I didn't manage a chinese supermarket but got everything else on my list (and only one or two wee treats for DD baking and pasta making stuff).

The whole shop came in at - da da da da da daaaaaaaaaaa £286.11

Including a turkey, two bits of reduced fish and some bread (14 loaves of reduced bread:rotfl:couldn't help myself)

So Aprils Grocery challenge is £50 quid and so far none of that is spent aside the milk money - £4.50 a week (£9)

We have meal planned for the rest of the month and DS and I decided to do a month at a time isn't too scary really - so we are going to sit down again and do it for May in a few weeks.

He's wanting to go away for the mountain biking world cup in May in Fortwilliam - so I said we needed to keep the grocery budget tight - he suggested meal planning to me for May - lol:rotfl:

The garage is now renamed the stripey socks corner shop:rotfl::rotfl:

:Athanks so much for all of your help - counting loorolls, making lists on mysupermarket, brillinat sets of advice on here :A

:j:jI now own stardrops:j:j

Pippilongstocking

PS down in two weeks and I will do the chinese supermarket then!

PPS - Glad to be back TBH - far too much choice for everything almost 24hours a day on the mainland - bit too much choices and opening 24/7's for my liking -

Not that I mind the cheapness or the diversity its just hard to keep up with it all

Iffy_Wallet

Well I think it is a really good idea to plan your shopping trips, even if you live in a big city. The giants like Tesco would be happy to see customers in day after day, impulse buying from pretty displays. However, it is easy to run up big bills that way. The Chinese supermarket can blow some cash too, but with a visit only every 3 - 4 months on average, it isn't so bad if planned carefully. And even in Manchester, my nearest Lidl is about 12 miles away, so if visits can be kept to every 7 - 10 days, then so much the better. Some of the Lidl ranges are brilliant and some are hard to adjust to, so Tesco still gets visited (even though I'd like to cut it out altogether).

And this time of year may be good (if you keep your eyes peeled) to find left over Easter goods (Easter eggs, frozen turkey etc) at knockdown prices.

Thanks to everybody who've added ideas to this melting pot. Very thought provoking. And I hope that those of you living in the more remote spots of the UK dabble in making things like jam and sauces for themselves. Perhaps we'll have to pester Martin for a corner of the board where we can post "make it yourself" food tips. I developed a wicked recipe for making brown sauce (stoned dates, currants, brown sugar, vinegar, tinned tomatoes and water etc), mainly from looking carefully at the ingredient lists on bottles and giving it a try.

OrkneyStar

fayjmck wrote: »

PS down in two weeks and I will do the chinese supermarket then!

PPS - Glad to be back TBH - far too much choice for everything almost 24hours a day on the mainland - bit too much choices and opening 24/7's for my liking -

Not that I mind the cheapness or the diversity its just hard to keep up with it all

I agree, it is overwhelming sometimes .

fayjmck wrote: »

Orkney star glad you got away as well - I had used all my cheap petrol by the time I got to Tain and had to get some more - lol - hope you had fun x

I left Glasgow with a full tank and arrived in Scrabster with half a tank left, so was pleased ---- I drive a diesel though and perhaps I was not transporting quite so much stuff from south lol . I worked out that my diesel for the 600 mile round trip plus about 70 miles (perhaps slightly more) driving down there cost me £55, which is not bad imho.
Glad you had a good trip and you lucky thing getting another one soon!

Pippilongstocking

Iffywallet - I think thats a great idea - I use to live on a tiny island (ferry 3 times a week - no capacity for frozen foods to be 'frozen' when they arrived) so we did learn to make so much by ourselves. When you can't pop and buy it - you do get inventive. (Can I have the recipe for your brown sauce?)

Its how I learnt to cook really - baking, chinese, indian, thai and lots of lovely home made UK grub - we couldnt' get it so we had to think - OK how do I do that.

My SWRI cookbook given by an old dear at home was a god send and I got taught to make things like scones, pancakes etc by the older ladies - yeah we can all read a book but its the wee tweaks that they use to make things work everytime - techniques I guess. And I have passed so many of them on as well which is ace.

So thats me set up for 6 months now - I hope - we have a black board in the kitchen which is going to be used when we run out of things to restart the list. I am keeping the old one and I did stick to it to see how realistic my predicitons were.

2 kids, some part time work and a full time PhD - I am hoping that I have freed myself from the routine of shopping weekly aside from a trip down to the local butcher or lidls etc for fruit - which I can do with DD or DS and the dog cos now we have NO EXCUSE not to just walk - we have nothing heavy to buy til August

I do like buying and supporting local food (meat, fish, cheese, bread, milk) - and growing my own as much as I can - but as for the top ups at the supermarkets I don't feel very bad spending it all south - its not like my purchases will make a huge difference to the supermarkets here. I was a bit worried about spending that much 'off island' but when I thought it through I came to the conclusion that these places don't make a huge difference to our local economy (aside jobs) - and what I saved on my huge shop I can spend locally supporting local produce.

Off my soapbox now!!

Thanks for all the support - will be restocking my larder later on and stashing a few of the treats otherwise they will eat all the lovely stuff in a month!

My reduced turkey is on this morning for a lovely dinner later and then to rubberise

PS I have to say oddly I was a bit nervous of being able to do this and also its oddly comforting needing to figure a shop into your routine - now I just need to walk down and buy the local bits and enjoy that bit I guess.

Pippilongstocking

HI Orkney star - yeah its only a 'on the plane trip' for a birthday party in Ed - but its going to be nice to go and just see some people.

Glad your trip went ok - my berlingo does about the same petrol as your car does for a trip to glasgow - Darwin is far heavier on the fuel - but as work have covered the mileage I figured it was OK to take him for the fun factor

rosieben

Iffy_Wallet wrote: »

... Perhaps we'll have to pester Martin for a corner of the board where we can post "make it yourself" food tips. I developed a wicked recipe for making brown sauce (stoned dates, currants, brown sugar, vinegar, tinned tomatoes and water etc), mainly from looking carefully at the ingredient lists on bottles and giving it a try.

Can I second the appeal for your recipe please? We have a few sauce-type recipes in the Complete Cooking Collection, but no brown sauce