June 2009 Grocery Challenge

Trinny

Hi There

Welcome - i am sure that the experts will be along in a minute - check out the challenges in here - someone did a feed a family of four on £20 per week, there is also Weezl 50p a day on one of the first few pages.

There are lots of ways to achieve what you want.

Lots of us buy up the whoops fruit, veg, meat, bread etc and fill the freezer

Others make every meal home made - using recipes which can be found on here in the index

Others - not me yet ( still learning) batch cook healthy meals and fill the freezer.

Some of us - grow veges in our back garden - lettuce in a patio tub for me:D

The key is baby steps - introduce one HM meal per week and work towards getting shot of the ready meals and processed foods.

It takes a while to change a familys eating habits

You can do it

Trin

[Deleted User]

I live alone and can easily feed myself on £20.00 per week. I do cook my meals from scratch because I like to know whats in them and have never like processed food very much anyway. Fresh veg from the greengrocers and not plastic wrapped stuff is my choice I am lucky that I have both a fresh meat butchers, and a wet-fish shop within the shopping centre of my village.
I am a list person, and my cupboards and fridge freezer have typed lists of whats in there.I can often make a small chicken(2.50) do me for around 8-10 meals.I slow cook it to get all of the meat off it .

First meal, some I use to eat with roast potatoes,stuffing,yorkshire pud and three types of veggies, ( one meal)

Second meal, some meat I will use in a chicken and leek pie, which after its cooked and cold I can quarter up and wrap and freeze (four meals)
The remainder scraps of the carcass and the darker meat I will use to make a curry, filled out with grated carrot mushroom,tomatoes onions,beans diced red pepper and anything I can throw in that was left over cold cooked potato ect.This will make me about 4 medium size portions to devide up and freeze. (four meals) one portion with some boiled rice with a few peas or sweetcorn chucked in and maby sme saute sliced potato make a substatial meal
The remainder of the carcass goes back into the slow cooker for another half an hour to get every scrap of meat ect off.Discard the carcass and sieve the remaing liquid into a large jug.when its cool and settled skim of the fat from the top and you will have a lovey chickeny jelly underneath.This can be used to make a nice chicken and leek and potato soup in the slow cooker I can usually get about three litres of soup from this and pot it up and freeze for use later with crusty bread for a hearty lunchtime meal Three litres of soup is (three meals)
So I can make
I roast dinner with all the trimmings
4 meals of chicken & leek pie (quartered up in the freezer add your own veggies)
4 chicken curry portions
and three lunchtime meals of chicken and leek soup to be served with crusty bread for lunch
So 9 dinners and three lunchtime meals for the cost of
1 chicken (£2.50)
3 leeks (1.12)
carrots ( 40p) onions (36p) Rice about 60p a bagspuds about 75p One red pepper (68p)Tomatos,(50p) cheapest ones the best as they are going to be mashed up anyway a handful of peas,and a handful of sweetcorn a few herbs and spices if you have them in the cupboard some curry powder and a small chopped up garlic bulb.
That will give me 9 dinners and three luches for under for around 7 quid.
Puddings are even cheaper and fill out the meal a couple of sweet apples grated with a sprinkle of brown sugar on the top.pop under the grill till the suger bubbles then pour a pint of made up Birds custard over the top
two apples 30p, a packet of custard 30p a pint of milk 40 p and two spoonsfull of brown sugar. hearty apples and custard for a quid
I like to invent foods that go together and cost very little roll on september when the blackberries are out my freezer will be full of blackberry pies, and frozen ones to mix with a cheap as chips box of icecream.Blackberry icecream is to die for and so cheap to make.Jelly you can buy in a supermarket for about 20 p which with custard will do at least four pudding serving. Pudding rice is cheap as chips to buy and bunged into a slow cooker over night with a handful of sultanas makes a lovely filling pud when added along to the leak and potato soup becomes quite a filling mid-day meal.tes time can then be just a cheese salad sandwich with maybe an apple or orange to follow .I like to swop my main meal around .sometimes its at lunchtime, and then I will have a lighter meal at 6.p.m. breakfast is nealry always porridge as its slow-release and very filling. sometimes I may change and have toast and a scrambled egg for a change .Its quite easy to eat well if you organise yourself and on a Sunday night I usually do my menu for the week and anything I haven't got I can buy on Monday. I never buy Veggies on a friday or Saturday as the price rises then.Tuesday is a better day to buy them as the week-end left overs have gone and the fresh stuff is in.Mind you I rarely shop at week-ends anyway the shops are far too full of folk pushing and shoving and I like to shop in peace and take my time .Alays around 10.00.a.m. as my breakfast has gone down by then and I don't go to the shops hungry either.
Minced beef is great as 500 gms just over a lb and a quarter will make once the meat is cooked and maybe padded out with some oats and carrots and onion I can devide up into three saucepans .
One saucepan I will add kidney beans to plus some tomatos & garlic and chilli powder and maybe some sliced mushrooms .This will be divided up into probably 3-4 portions for freezing chilli con carne. (4 meals)served with rice
One saucepan I will add tomatos and mushrooms and chopped red peppers to .I then make two small lasange with (2 Meals)served with salad
last saucepan I will add a small tin of baked bean to and make 3 single portion cottage pies (3 Meals ) So with a bit of stretching I can make a further 9 meals with 500 grams of minced beef about £3.00

Penny-Pincher!!

JackieO-WOW!!!!!!!

Penelope_Penguin

nirelandguy wrote: »

I wouldn't give the half of it to a dog, I mean the meat has turn't brown::rolleyes:

What's wrong with that That's how meat is supposed to be - what colour does it go when you cook it - brown

I'll add this to the June Grocery Challenge where you can see how lots of people feed themselves on a budget.

PEnny. x

Penny-Pincher!!

nirelandguy wrote: »

Is this possible? I'm fed up living on bloody processed muck. It would have to feed 2 adults and 2 kids, My OH works in a major supermarket and gets first pick of the reduced items, but to be honest I wouldn't give the half of it to a dog, I mean the meat has turn't brown::rolleyes: Any tips appreciated.

Yes it is possible!

Make a list of all food you have in and start by making meals with just that or buying the minimum needed to make the meals a full meal. Then write down a weeks meal and the ingredients needed. Add breakfasts and lunches. Add the fruit needed or juice to top up the F&V. Our fav basic meals are:

Roasts
Toad In Hole or Sausage & Mash (+Veg)
Chilli or Spagbol (We use lamb, but pad out with beans or peas etc)
Stews (Throw anything in)
Shepherds Pie (+ Veg)
Couscous (VERY cheap, but needs a stock cube and flavours/veg etc)
Chops, Spuds & Veg
Egg & Chips
Omelette

I buy frozen broad beans, sweetcorn, peas and sprouts which total £4 and do us 2 weeks, but also buy fresh carrots, cabbage and cauli. We get bananas (2 a day, so 14 a week), apples (14 a week) and other fruit if on special or at market. Then fruit juice with breakfast etc. We spend about £8 a week on F&V for 3 of us and we get our 5 in a day with the added baked beans and tinned spagetti on toast etc.

A weeks food would generally be:

F&V £10
Bread x 2 (Dont eat much)-£1.50
Butter-75p
Cheese-£2
Ham-£2
Yogurts x 16 - £1.96
Milk x 10 pts - £5
Minced lamb 1kg-£2.88
Chicken-£2.05 (Waitrose)
Sausages-£2 (95% meat)
Eggs x 12 -£2 (FR)
Beans x 3 - £1
Rice-50p
Couscous-50p
Squash-55p (double concentrate)
Biscuits-£1
Crisps-£1

That comes to £36.69, so just gives you some idea.

HTH

PP
xx

Boodle

Can I please declare June as £146.26? Thank you! We are doing our first "July" shop this evening, and are working a 5 week month.

Well done everyone who achieved a good effort this month! :T

ellemm

Can I please declare June at £47.05 Mrs M.

Pleased with this even although we were away for 2 weeks, still managing to use what's in the freezer rather than buying more stuff.

Mrs M please put me down for £180 for July.

Must now get back to normality and get some meal plans sorted before shopping at the weekend. Made some homemade pesto last night to have with pasta tonight - yum.

XSpender

Can I declare £1411.39 for the half year against my £2650 annual budget? Thanks

I am going to try and pull back most of the £86.39 overspend this month by only spending £150 of my annual budget in July:eek:

This month I will be trying to shop in a different way, doing a weekly shop based on what I need rather than doing a bigger shop when I get paid then struggling towards the end of the month. I also need to get back in to meal planning and using the bulk meals I have made in the freezer.

I want to get some more stuff in the freezer as I start some medication on 6th July and don't know if I will be up to cooking much.

Well done all those who achieved their June budgets and good luck to all for July!

XS

mummy2mygirls

hello everyone i used to post on here - did have a yearly budget which i as sticking to but then had my baby and lost track - so was thinking i will go back to mthly! Will be reading the rest of this mths and join in on julys. Just wanted to say hello again and hope your all getting onok with your targets.

earthmother

Not sure if I dare show my face

I have gone approximately £90 over - and seeing as this month was the first month I kept a detailed list of what I'd buoght, I unfortuantely know where most of it went


Didn't think I'd had a 'bad' month, but obviously I have as I managed to spend £67.10 on Bakery (cakes, fruit loaves, pain au choc, crumpets, scones etc), chocolate/sweets and puddings (cheesecakes, yogurts, ice cream etc) :eek:. The frightening thing is, most of this was on yellow labels, so I dread to think what it would have come to full price.

I definitely need to curb this, not only for the food bill, but for our health.


Next biggest spend was on milk - £65.27 on approx 112litres - which equates to 0.8litres (1.4 pints) each per day - which is higher than I'd like, but not overly excessive seeing as the kids will choose it over other drinks most times, and hubby is a big milk drinker too. I reckon I can cut 20-25% off if I'm careful - which with the 'treats' pretty much gives me this month's overspend.


So, I'll declare for this month - £368.06 spent - and do a stocktake over the weekend ready for a bit of storecupboarding, before I declare next months budget.