July 2009 Grocery Challenge

poohbear59

DD went shopping for me last week and spent £75 on food and other things at Aldi. I went later on Friday and spent another £17.60 so that is a big hole in my budget. I need to go over to Newcastle to buy another sack of rice as we have run out and DH spent £2.30 on a small bag of basmati. I will have to wait until someone is going over there as it is a waste of fuel going just for the rice.

Coxy11 I agree that the hot weather has scuppered menu plans, same has happened here too. I was doing mince and dumplings etc to feed up my boys but now it is too hot. Methinks a change of menu plan is called for but don't know where to start. Even jacket potatoes make the house too hot!!

cw18

NSD for me yesterday (little chance to get to the shops anyway, as I was helping out on a day trip from primary school - with the little darlings from the Reception class ), and looks like today will be the same in terms of GC spending.

I'd love to be able to change my menu from full blown cooked meals to salads - even if only every other day. But DS isn't a fan of salad (iceberg lettuce and cucumber only for him!), and is really only happy having that with omelette (which I don't want on a daily basis)

But, to be honest, it's not the cooking in the heat that bothers me - it's the eating it. So our evening meals are getting later and later :rolleyes2 I rarely use the built in oven, and that's the only appliance I ever seem to notice the heat from. Now I'm only cooking for two of us, I find most things that require the oven will fit into my combi-oven - and the best thing about that appliance is that jacket spuds are done in around quarter of an hour

Toonie

Its a NSD for me today, mainly because I'm aching far too much to go to the shop. Will have to go tomorrow to get apples for apple sauce. Last night had a lovely dinner of couscous, salad and chicken drumsticks which filled up a large dinner plate for £2.20 for the two of us.

We're having frozen cod tonight, either with pasta or chips. Considering my spends yesterday, I'm going to be trying to get to the Turkish supermarket every Friday (my day off) so I can get cheap salad throughout the summer.

poohbear59

I am going to make pasta with ham, chopped peppers and condensed soup for tonight's dinner. Then the kitchen won't be so warm. I can serve it with salad for those who want some. The condensed soup will cost me at the co-op but will mean a bit of time and energy saved.

greent

I have a huge bag of chard which arrived mistakenly in my veg box. I've made a chicken aloo saag type effort for dinner tonight, but still have loads left. The guinea pigs will eat some, but I'm wondering if I can wilt it in micro & freeze (I know it'll go in a big lump) to make more aloo saag type stuff at a future date? - I don't have the freezer space to make it properly now, but can squeeze a couple of tubs/ bags of chard in!!

Hopefully someone will have tried this!

greent x
spent far too much already - have visited T, S & A within 24 hours - and will need a quick very mini Aldi shop this week too!:o

natsing

I've spent another £35 of my food budget today, so at £70 already with two weeks to go until my month is up- hmm, lets hope I succeed, this dieting and moneysaving lark is a real grind!

mama67

angel13 wrote: »

ive started getting milk delivered to cut down what we are drinking (my son is the one who uses it if he sees it). Before we were getting through 18pints per week (3 of us) - still less that you though! Anyhow I am now having a pint a day and either 1 6pint or 8 pints from supermarket to top it up. So now between 13 - 15 pints a week so definitely using a lot less

I have 7 pints delivered each week and probably dependeing on what we have used another 4 pint from supermarket. That is with the boys both having cereal or a milk drink every weekday morning.

Casperthefriendlyghost

Hi everyone

Have been MIA for quite some time now. I had to suddenly fly back to South Africa last month as my mom had a heart attack and a stroke and sadly passed away on the 19th June, all in the space of one week.

But am back now and need to save money even more than ever before, just in case I get another call like that one God forbid. Apart from the shock there's the worry about finding money for a ticket home, which I luckily managed only just.

My aim for this month is £ 20. I am going to try and only eat of the freezer as it's got enough stuff for the next couple of weeks and I will only need milk as I baked two loaves of Gluten Free Bread yesterday and also 8 bread rolls and some scones, so should manage.

Good luck to everyone.

Cheers
Casper
x x

SunnyGirl

Casper I'm so sorry to read about your Mum :grouphug:

merzal

First spend of July for me - 50p on bread! Shouldn't need to get anything else but milk for the next week, trying so hard to live outta the freezer!