July 2009 Grocery Challenge

Savvy_sewing

Perhaps I will slice the celery and the peppers and freeze. Cant be worse then throwing them out anyway. I may have some mince still in the freezer, will check and see if I have, then i can always cook up a batch and freeze it for later. See how I feel as am not feeling brilliant today. Cough is driving me mad.

lainz

I loathe vinegar so don't have any idea about it, but as my sister can't eat eggs, i make eggless cakes, so far I've used recipes that don't use vinegar, but was thinking of getting some as it's so useful, but what do I get?

Challenge wise - i'm just over - but just need to get the famous fruit & veg until pay day :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

An incredibly nasty surprise is when you decide to write down every penny spent for a week in a notebook. I had the incontravertible evidence before my very eyes where it was all dribbling away to. I am now a completely different spender

mouseymousey99

or buy Lynx once - then top it up, it'll be years before he discovers....

whatatwit

Have a look on the mysupermarket.com site.
You can load a virtual shopping trolley and compare the prices between the supermarkets.

Asda smartprice is good value....I love their curry sauce & sweet n sour sauce, comes in a large jar and is soooo cheap.
With some leftover chicken, a tin of diced new potatoes & some frozen veg, I can make a really cheap & quick curry meal :drool: I throw some frozen peppers & a tin of pinapple bits into the sweet n sour :drool:

DrFluffy

SunnyGirl wrote: »

You're doing very well on your first challenge Dr Fluffy :j As soon as I read your post though I wanted chocolate .... now :eek:

Thank you . I'm slightly kicking myself at my £20 misdermeaner though - the next week and a half will be tight! I guess it's slightly easier to do when you really have no money either, rather than trying to save money!

Well, another NSD for me today (although I came close to going out for a bacon sarnie earlier - stayed strong though!) I'm now famished so am going to attempt to eat my body weight in omlette!!!

elantan

ok well i was night shift last night and this dongle really doesnt seem to be working will have to phone and complain about it i think ...

spends

friday £8.13 this was for hubbys lager and salsax2 and a packet of roll up papers he is going to try and make his fags last ...We'll see ...(gonna be hard when he has just informed me he has none ouch)

today £12.88 this was for

spinach £1.50
celery 69p
cucumber 80p
avacado £1
mangetout £1.50
pears £1.05 (4)
apples £1.70 (6)
carrots 23p (1)
limes 24p (1)
bananas 67p (4)
chicken £3.50

the plan is

cantonese chicken with fried rice for hubby for dinner
curry sauce boiled rice and onions for me

tomorrow is the day i rest my system so it is all of the above apart from the chicken juiced throughout the day

was wondering though ...with all the pulp that comes out when i juice can i make a stock?
it would be a fruit stock ...but it could be handy for icecream with fruit or something


it appears that we are not able to currently stick to the £6.50 a day plan (£8 -£1.50 for washing powder etc) i am going to have to do some thinking to get this sorted i have £6.47 left in the tub of doom i see no need to use that before monday thankfully and i will top it up with £40 then ...was going to put £45.50 in (£56 for the week minus the £1.50 a day) but seeing as how i have £6 already in i am not going to ...i will put it into the bank for emergency use ...

hubby is going to his parents tonight (he does this when i am night shift at the weekend) they usually buy him his carry out so i was hoping seeing as he said he will only drink once a week that he wouldnt have wanted to drink last night but that didnt happen ...it is ok though as we have the £6 left ...dont know what he is going to do for fags though lol

i was going to batch cook tomorrow but i have decided to leave it till i am off night shift so i will be batch cooking on monday

i was hoping to be able to divide 1lb of mince to do hubby for two days but he had the lamb mince last night and used the full 1lb hopefully it will be better though when he has spaghetti to bulk it out a bit

ok i think that is me for now if you can think of anything i can do to improve the situation or anything i have forgotten please let me know


cheers

whatatwit

Hi elanten :hello:

Asda do smartprice jars of sauce...curry/sweet n sour/chilli (I think) good sized jars and ever so cheap
If hubby likes the Dolmio sweetness, try adding a little sugar to a homemade sauce, sugar does tend to cut the acidity from tomatoes.

I did snigger about him finishing off the aftershave....I wondered if he had been drinking it

I know that soap powder is one of your mentioned items, how much do you use?
Can you find the time to pre-treat any stains and collars/cuffs before washing. I find that wetting the stain and rubbing with a bar of bathroom soap works wonders, especially on any greasy marks, and it should mean that you can use less powder.

absolutebounder

lazy_daisy wrote: »

PS. how do they stir fry veg in Africa, please? I would be very interested to know as I'm always looking for different ways to serve veg.
Thanks,
Daisy x

They put a little corn oil in a wok and fried some very finely chopped onions then added some salt and some spices (bit like steak spices with a hint of chilli. they stirred this around and then added some pureed garlic and tossed the veggies in for just a few secconds. similar to what I have done in the past but just slight differences in the spices plus I often use mustard which they dont

lynzpower

Hi Elantan Im still here

A few suggestions from little me

1) Spinach, you need to grow your own, it really is so easy. I think i got seeds from Aldi? for about 50p, and it crops and crops, as you cut it, it springs back You can of course freeze it, or use it and freeze it - ie mix with cheese as a pastry/ pastie filling etc and freeze, so you dont lose it. Of course also use in sandwiches, lovely and peppery and lifts the boring cheese sandwich

2) if anyone has mange tout seeds- im not joking these are so easy to grow and you will get loads if you water them B&Q had seeds for about a pound last year, or ask on a seed excahnge to se if anyone has any spares.Maybe someone will on here, if I had some Id send them. but they all got washed away

Im just interested what the other things are- could you buy a bottle of lime juice to use in cooking instead of the lime (or is it for drinks) if its for food, buy the bottle, its about 70p and lasts forever. I have put it in cocktails before too.

Salsa is really easy, you just need cupboard stuff. I have frozen it before , its fine. ( not quite as food as fresh but still perfectly OK )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/spicytomatosalsa_1614.shtml

Im thinking if he is wanting meat then what about sausages. I buy butcher ones now, but M&S own are only 1.69 - for 8. If you dont bother with meat then you can split them into 2 x 3 and 2 . So he can have bangers and mash x 2 and the other 2 with toast, tin of beans, few mushrooms. Therefore the meat stretches a lot further. Anoher heap way of getting meat is to put ham in a carbonara sauce. Or chicken scraps of course.

I would take a look at your cupbaord and meal plan for the week.

Its been a long time since Ive done it, but I am a bit poorer towar the end of this month, so I ha a good root around. Theres not LOADS in my kitchen but I spent a tenner and this should round things up for the week.

If you are eating veggie then have you been into iceland/ farmfoods where they havefrozen chese pies/ mediterranean pasties they are two for a pound. Also they have Q mince a lo cheaper than anywhere else. Also try Home bargains, this week I got noodles for 19p and chinese sauces for 30p (sharwoods/ amoy etc) .

I think £8 a day is actually quite generous to be honest.

If we were on £8 a day it would be
Box of Muesli £1
BOx of weetabix, shops own £1
4 pints milk £1.20
Loaf of bread £1
butter 75p

Breakfasts: total for the week with some left over for next- 5.25

Teabags- £1
half bag of sugar pw 35p
we dont drink a lot of coffee butPW it would be about 1/4 of a jar so 50p
LUNCHES
bake at home baguettes usually on bogof or offer somewhere £1 for 4
tuna - 4 tins for 2.50 always on offer somewhere, this will do 8 lunches for OH
( spinach lettuce etc whatevers growing)
multibag of crisps £1
box of cereal bars £1
LUNCHES 5.50 ( i always have mmy luches out and pay for them out of ownbudget, if I have time to stop, sometimes jsut a pastie or something on the go, if I take lunch im such a glutton i eat it before lunchtime, so stopped this!)
Sometimes OH will take a tin of beans/ spaghetti/ soup and normal bread for lunch along with crisp/ cereal bar/ etc.
I do vary this depending whats on offer, eg If there are no cereal bars on offer, then Ill choose choc biscuits, like a fake penguin instead. I also used to make things eg fapjacks but now really dont have the time

TOTAL FOR ABOVE- about £ 12

think about what you actually ned in the way of toiletries/ cleaning. Do you have a stash of stuff to use up, or not/ look around for the offers, I got a massive box fof surf WP for £8 a motnh or so ago & im not even a third of the way down. ., bottle of bleach and a sardrops should be enough? Then add in toiletries, there are some good bargains out there - you shoud be able to do it, me & OH share shampoo & cond but have our own shower gel, I never pay more than a pound for any toiletries and frequently pay a lot less. Shower gel is only 20 odd p at the real basic level and its totally fine. I really dont think you should be paying more than 8.00 a week on these things.Use value loo roll if you are not already. Price them up ihoneslty would be surpised if it was more than that.

that will leave you 20.00 for dinners. i used to feed me & OH on 20 in total , so I really am convinced you can do this!!!

YOU GO GIRL :beer: