September 2009 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Not too bad so far .Day 4 and have only spent £2.90 out of this weeks £30.00 so I am quite pleased with myself.Icelands 4pints of milk are on the offer at a £1.00 so I got one of those yesterday and a small loaf and some rolls for today as its the last day of the holidays my DD and I are taking the children out for some 'crabbing' at Whitstable. I also used up some money off coupons at Mt T's and got 75p reduced from my original bill. Hoping I won't spend much if any today as I'm making the coffee and a few bits for the picnic lunch and DD will top up with her odds and ends. I must make sure I stay away from the fresh fish market there though as I may get tempted.
Used up lots of bits for a salad last night for dinner so I'm feeling quite virtuos at the moment ,fingers crossed .Hope you all have a great and frugal week-end chums .

JayJay14

Keiss_21 wrote: »

DH and DS2 are off in search of 18" school shirts (they'll be lucky!). I have said all summer long that new ones would be needed...and as I am stuck at home it is up to the men in my house to sort it out...so no new shirts or trousers yet and school starts next Monday! Hey hoh,

My DS needed 18" white shirts and we got them at Asda (smartprice) When he was at school I always got him smartprice shirts - they lasted the year but if they hadn't at least I didn't spend much on them.

Flat_Eric

Sat down last night with a rather large glass of wine and meal planned until 30 September .

So I have something to follow and I made sure when I planned that i consulted the list I wrote of everything I have in my freezer. (Previously I made lists of everything I owned food wise and never referred to it!!)

Some things might change or need a spend. For example, saturday has been pencilled in each week for home made curry so near the end of september, I might have run out of steak/chicken and thus might need to buy although I can always forget the meat and just add lots of veg / chickpeas. I am also not sure how many portions of casserole I have, so I might run out of that too!

Will be interesting to see how I get on.

helen_jelly

Spent £19 yesterday. Went to Ald!s and MrS but I got some whoopsied stuff and also more packed lunch things so am nearly there now and shouldn't have to buy much more except to top up [fateful last words!!]

Just need Milk today

Have a nice day everyone [thinking of putting heating on for half an hour in the mornings as theres a real nip in the air now]

Helen x

CRANKY40

cw18 wrote: »

It's easy to have side veg with mine, but DS is very resistant to fruit and veg, and won't eat a curry containing either -- and as he's 18 it's getting harder to force it down him.

I would start small if I were you. I have a 4 year old who won't eat fruit or veg. I'm not too bothered about the fruit, but I make sure that he has veg by pureeing it and adding it to his gravy. Ds is used to the taste of it as I've always done it, but if you haven't done it before I'd try one veg item at a time. Butternut squash would be a good one to start with I reckon.

pixie1

Well its day 4 and so far i have spent $31.60. I forgot to include some plastic food containers to my list yesterday hense my total has gone up BUT Ive had my first NSD of the month today which is great

Miss-spent_2

1st Sep NDN (groceries) 2nd NSD (except I left a £1 behind by mistake in a locker, does that count?) 3rd NSD 4th Need to pick up a perscription and pay don't know whether to count that as groceries or not.

scotsaver

Morning everyone - last night's Corned Beef Hash was lovely and reserved the Stock on the first stage to make a Soup for tonight. Also had loads left as I used up what Veg I had lingering at the bottom of the Fridge so will make a Pie for Tonight's Dinner.;)

Should be a NSD today but will need to go shopping tomorrow for some more Veg and some milk. Also need to spend some time over the weekend getting some SERIOUS baking done as the kids are back at School Monday so will need plenty of Lunchbox stuff. Planning to make some sausage rolls, hobnobs and chocolate brownies.:D

Welcome back mummy2mygirls and congrats on the new arrival and also the new baby due in April.;)

cw18 - I know what you mean about reorganising the Freezer, always seem to have space left and also good as you always find something you forgot was in there. Well done on meal planning up to October, I love reading your Posts as you always seem so organised and your always lucky at finding Whoopsies.;)

Hope you all have a good day.:D

BigMummaF

Beth86 wrote: »

£1.22 on snack raisins for the little man's lunch box

It is so very much cheaper to buy a bag of fruit from the baking aisle & put a handful into a little bag or plastic pot..just a suggestion of course.

jackiegibbo wrote: »

yes you can do it make sure you stick to your shopping list and eat something before you go. DO NOT GO FOOD SHOPPING ON AN EMPTY STOMACH:D

If I'm not hungry--then no-one gets fed :rotfl:I desperately want to be organised with meal plans & know what I need in the shops, but Guess at my age, this getting-on-a-bit doggie is finding the new tricks a bit harder to learn Having said that, I'm not hugely tempted by stuff I don't need, but can't resist a real bargain!

ktpie wrote: »

I had exactly the same problem in Tesco the other day trying to work out whether loose apples were better value than a bag. The bag or price label didn't have a weight or price per kg, just the number of apples which wasn't very helpful. Next time I will weigh a bag. Me muvva has started asking me to do this for her now, where she used to pretend she didn't know me
Also I've moaned about it before but I'm fed up of buying supermarket fruit which goes straight from rock hard to mouldy, it must be ripe for all of 2 seconds. :mad: on that too!
I had a little disaster today, made the famous hobnob recipe, tried one and it was horrible, idiot here had forgotten the sugar! Have sprinkled some demerara on and they are slightly better. My first thought was to ice them, or dip in chocolate :drool:I'm blaming mushy pregnancy brain, it gets blamed for a lot these days! Luckily 14 month old DS seems to like the sugar free hobnobs!May try this intentionally for my diabetic mum--thanks!
Not spent anything today, I'm great at NSD but then I make up for it by spending loads when I do go shopping. Again--guilty as charged :embarasse

I got all carried away trying out the multi-post function that I've left off cw18 so many apologies m'dear! No1--the middle offspring was just like your son re:veg up until about a year ago but now actively requests salad & chooses veg, so don't despair just yet :grouphug::D And No2--the first few times I tried adding lentils to mince, they were easily noticable but now I give them a good cook first. I put the red lentils &/or pearl barley in the pan I'm using to cook the mince along with a generous amount of water & set in to boil. Once the scum appears, I scoop that off with a spoon & leave the pan to simmer rapidly while chop up the veg etc & by the time I've dry-fried the mince, the lentils have had a good cook & it all goes in the pan together. Somehow or other, the lentils 'disappear' this way & the pearl barley looks like bits of sweetcorn so the brood are none the wiser :j
Before I go, No2 chose Toad in the Hole for Birthday dinner yesterday & No3 asked for stuffing balls in it too. Anyhooz! I made up the stuffing @ spread it over the bottom of the dish, cut each sausage into three & laid them on top, in the oven to brown. Put the yorkie mix on as usual & yumyumyum!

Fire_Fox

cw18 wrote: »

no, yes, yes, no and no in that order.
tried padding with lentils, but he was very suspicious of the 'bits'. I now pad almost 50/50 with reconstituted soya mince instead
he's not interested. he'll grill sausages and make B@tchelors savoury rice.... or cheese on toast..... or reheat a portion of the curry and make his own rice..... that's about as much as I've seen him do.
He's looking at Uni next September, but hoping for one close to home. And, to be honest, I'm not pushing him to look further afield - mainly as I'll only have even half a chance of not having to sell the house if he's contributing to the running costs, and it would give me another 3 years to find a job/alternative income
I hide quite a bit in some dishes, but curry is the one meal that he never has ANY veg with!! And with him wanting it on a much more regular basis (which I can't argue about as he knows it's cheap and that I'm watching the pennies) I'm not as happy about this anymore.

Definitely a hardcore veggie phobic then! I have managed to get red lentils past Mr. Fire Fox (a chef!) by cooking them to death. However I do put grated carrot, tomatoes and onion in with most mince dishes so I guess that makes it easier to disguise. Jamie Oliver was successful in hiding veg in pasta sauce on the School Dinners programme, not sure if the same recipe is in one of his books? Do you have a library near by?

On a different tack, does your DS have much dairy, nuts and wholegrains or does he hate brown stuff too? You can get many of your vitamins and minerals from these sources. Maybe feed him baked beans more often as this is one to two portions of fruit and veg in half a tin? :T The Heinz hidden veg definitely claims to be two, and is sometimes available on the cheap from Home Bargains etc. If I buy very cheap beans I add a squirt of tomato puree/ ketchup.