May 2009 Grocery Challenge

Natty68

Morning guys, afraid the shopping bill came to £58.35 this weekend, although £10 odd of that was my magazines for the month, I stuck them in the weekly shop trolley when Dh wasn't looking , which wasn't too bad

Oh and I also managed to spend £13.26 at Aldi on doggy treats, cat biscuits and fish for the month. But I did find out that they sell the same salad bits, mainly the same tomatoes, that I get in my veg box. This is helpful to me as I love the veg box toms, but MrA doesn't sell Aranca ones but Aldi do I spent a good half hour reading all the veg/fruit and where they come from and it seems that they don't really air freight that much either so I am pleased there. Somehow I think Aldi will be my emergency veg shop when I run out of veg box stuff.

Will update my running total

edit: damn just realised I didn't add on last weeks venison shop from the farmers market..oops. We got a venison&mushroom suet pudding, diced venison and venison sausages all for £10.00 As it was coming to the end of the season the man just kept throwing bits in..I think he wanted to get rid of it all. He won't be back now till September. Also bought some goats cheese for £3.62 and some rhubarb at £1.50 a bunch (which is now in the freezer!)

tessie_bear

hi...another lovely day...the sun is out...i have just spent 20 minutes wrestling with a butternut squash...i peeled it and cut it in to chunks...my mum then phoned and told me u dont need to peel them:mad: at least ill know for next time...i am roasting it with onion for tea...hopefully it will be nice after all the work it took

i am thinking of making rocky road to use up some of our easter eggs...they are sat on sideboard looking at me....i might make some crispy cakes as well

we are using up a stretch chicken today...chicken and mushroom pie...and tomorrow chicken and sweetcorn pasta...its market day tomorrow so i think ill go and get some salad and veg....might have a look at the fruit see what looks nice...i like markets we used to have a farmers market but it never really got going which is a shame...i went to a wicked one in the west country last year and it was awesome...fruit and veg,meat ,fish,cakes,bread...all lovely....id thoroughly recommend them if u ever get the chance

i keep going out and looking at my tomatoes...they look the same as yesterday...youve got to check though havent u ?

take care
tess

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Got back from my shop and have updated siggy.

Went to aldi, wilkinson, lidl and MrA. and managed to get some whoopsied items. Asda have an offer for 2x400g of cheese for £3, Aldi have mangoes 49p each this week, also passata for 39p and seeds for 35p each.

Hope this of help to anyone?.

Just of to have some HM carrot and corriander soup and HM roll yumm.

poohbear59

I have managed to spend absolutely nothing since my big shop at Aldi last Thursday. DS2 wanted to go to the Co-op last night to buy some creme fresh to make a past meal with ham but I made a roux sauce and added the ham and peas and a bit of hard grated cheese and it was yummy. I am going to make a fruit cake this afternoon so DH and builders have some thing to go with their coffee.

Natty68

Re the mushrooms and freezing them, I sometimes get an abundance of these in the veg box that I use them up so they don't get wrinkly, but then when the other box is ordered sometimes they don't have mushrooms in the size box I wanted. So I was wondering how do you actually freeze them - do you chop them up small, slice them thickly or just bung them in whole? Help!!

Hollysan

Hello everyone,

Well I don't think we'll do as well this month as last. Already two thirds spent, and two and a half weeks to go! But that did inlclude £95 on Tesco online, stocking up depleted storecupboards, and £76 from the wholefood warehouse, (breadflour, lentils etc) so we are well stocked, and we are starting to get things from the garden - we've been eating a lot of spinach and rocket!

Tessie Bear - I'm glad I'm not the only one obsessed with my tomato plants! I keep looking at mine too, they look so cute with the basil planted in between. You would think the novelty would have worn off after ten years of growing toms!

Natty68 - I find mushrooms don't freeze well - they lose their texture and go a bit rubbery.

We have visitors this week, so I think I will make a trip to Lidls tomorrow and try to get my head round entertaining on next to nothing. Hope they have some half price fruit and veg. I will have to forego organics this week because the budget is looking stretched. Although Lidl do a very good organic cheddar, if they still have it.

Good luck to everyone.

Hollysan

merzal

I have spent £28 of my £40 budget for this month, although half of that went on really nice steaks when we had friends round last week (still cheaper than going out tho!) Mum came to stay and bought us lamb chops and bread so not doing to badly this month. Going to do a shop later in the week for bread, milk, veg and fruit but going to leave it as long as possible to encourage me to use up what we have!

kezlou

Hi everyone well was a NSD yesterday, had rice and veg stir fry along with my last batch of mince mix and made it in to a chilli. Today quite frankly i'm sick again so decided to grab a fake KFC chicken mix thing and another block of cheese for £5 out of iceland. Also had to buy more milk today as we ran out spent two days now solid phoning up for car insurance, its driving me insane.

Freezing mushrooms
I tend to chop mine up then freeze, never had a problem with them, always been fine cooking straight from frozen.

Just updating signature.

scotsaver

Hi everyone, having this for Dinner tonight:- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4037268&postcount=448 I've put it in the Slow Cooker and it smells lovely, going to serve it with Steamed potatoes and carrots, shall let you all know tomorrow what the Family verdict was.;)

I slice any leftover Mushrooms and put them in those Press & Seal bags, I then just bung them into Casseroles, curries, spag bol etc when I need them and never had a problem with them.:cool:

Have a good evening everyone.:D

earthmother

Up a bit on where I should be at the moment, but all is not lost.

Had one of those days where I'd got lots of little bits to do and things to track down, so ended up in 4 different supermarkets. Of course I can't not check the whoopsies can I - Iced buns and blueberry muffins for treats and lunchboxes, a couple of 'proper' loaves of bread :drool:, 4 packs of brown baps for the freezer (lunches), strawbs and grapes (lunches again - the kids will think it's a special occassion), loads of fresh filled pasta (and sauces to go with - at least 3 meals worth) and [STRIKE]a partridge in a pear tree[/STRIKE] a pack of loo roll - all for half price or less :j


Oh - and me, hubby and littlest spent £8 McDs for lunch (it was a treat - he'd just had his first fitting for orthotic insoles and behaved beautifully - big thing for a 3 year old who doesn't like strangers and treats his shoes and coat like a comforter).

So - overall total for the month so far is £83.77, leaving £176.33 (with £50 of that spoken for in a Tesco delivery tomorrow) - considering the freezers packed to bursting, I think we might be ok