Storecuboard Challenge - New for June!

Cheapskate

I've started the grocery challenge so thought I'd do this as well - they seem to go together!
Tonight's tea was homemade chicken & veg soup - roast chicken left from last night, various veg, bread from freezer - just had to buy some extra veg to finish it off - then fruit salad to use up tinned & fresh fruit, just bought a few grapes. I've made menus for most of the week ahead, most of them will partly use things in the pantry/freezer so will cut the shopping bill. OH away on Monday, so definitely a using-up-stuff tea for me & DS.
Catznine - Re: tinned tuna - cook some pasta, chop & fry lightly garlic, broccoli & drained tuna. Add pasta & mix together, add chopped spring onions. Optional - grated Red Leicester on top. Quick tea & mostly stuff we've all got. It's ok cold, like salad, as long as you didn't put cheese on!

recovering_spendaholic

I'm well up for this!! My cupboards and freezer are bulging and I am always going to the supermarket for stuff because I never know what I have in. I have got a little notebook and tomorrow I am going to do a complete inventory of everything. My biggest problem is bread - I tend to run out every couple of days (no room in freezer to store any!) and when I get in the supermarket I buy all kinds of other stuff I want but don't need. I am toying with the idea of a breadmaker to avoid this but don't know whether or not to go to the expense. I think I probably have enough food in my cupboards to last for weeks!!!

lightatendoftunnel?

This will be of great help to me. One of my aims is to reduce my shopping bill so if i can work with what i have in cupboard this may help. Its my OH i will stuggle with as he is fussy but i dont mind. But i am to reduce bill massively in June!!!

Bellie_2

I am so going to do this, I am always in asda and never have anything to cook , well i do, i just cant be bothered to think. Need to eat better too, so I am going to try and not go to asdas till sun, will do a meal plan for the week on sunday morning. Maybe i wont even have to go to asda at all. Yay. :j

nicki_2

I'm doing the challenge this month. I've spent £80 on a big shop but it was bulk buying of stuff like soap powder (1 months worth), toilet roll ( about 3 months worth - big 24 pack), frozen veg (less waste than fresh) , and a couple of treats.

The other night I mentioned to OH that I wasn't happy with the way the grocery budget had crept up from £120 a month to £160+ since DD's birthday in April He then said "If we can't afford it tell me!" :mad: The fact I then get "We never have any coke/actimel/biccies in" apparently doesn't come into it :rolleyes::mad: He has suggested that I implentent the storecupboard challenge (blimey..maybe he has been listening to me these past few months after all :rotfl: ) and only buy fruit, milk & bread for the rest of the month :shocked: This is what I do to some degree everymonth anyway but for it to come out of OH's mouth...I nearly fainted :rotfl: So, I have a rough inventory of my cupboards/fridge/freezer so I'm determined to do it this month...how long to pay day? :rotfl:

northern_star

Count me in too! I need to do an inventory of my cupboards & freezer and will try to spend as little as poss this month. It's gonna take a different mind-set and a change of habits 'cos I'm a sucker for being drawn into shops .

A change in circumstances means I now have more time for meal planning and careful shopping - so no excuses really!

Just one question - do we post our progress as we go along or wait 'til the end of the month and give the result?

Good Luck everyone!

luckylukey

northern_star wrote:

Just one question - do we post our progress as we go along or wait 'til the end of the month and give the result?

QUOTE]

Perhaps we could post our progress weekly? That way if we start slipping up we will notice before the end of the month! LOL

CosmoCat

i'll be watching this thread folks! i'm already in the grocery challenge. but will be using all my stuff in my cupboard before i hit the shops again i tell you.

hope it all goes well

nicki_2

Just been for my "weekly shop" and bought NOTHING for my cupboards except some SP potatos as I used the last of them up last night as wedges :j

So far in my challenge I've managed to make :

• Pasta with Pesto sauce (tomato ketchup for DD as she doesn't like pesto )
• Stew (leftovers from the freezer)
• Salad (okay, so this was bought fresh, but I buy fresh salad every other week anyway, but less so now that my lettuce is growing) with Tuna Mayonnaise.
• Pasta Carbonara (carbonara sauce, frozen reduced from Co-op)
• Fish pie with HM wedges (packet of prawns, salmon fillets & white fish fillets all from the freezer)
• Sausage with HM wedges

Planned from what I have left :

1. Pasta with chickpeas & tuna (with a drizzle of olive oil or salad dressing, not decided yet, to add moisture) x 2
2. Tuna Tomato Pasta
3. Baked beans on toast
4. Lasagne
5. Risotto of some form
6. Beef in ale (packet mix) with potatoes, veg
7. Macaroni Cheese
8. Egg fried rice
9. Chicken & stuffing pie with potatoes & veg
10. Cornbeef hash
11. Fish Pie
12. Bacon pancake (like toad in the hole but with bacon pieces instead of sausage)
13. Risotto

Left in cupboards/freezer/fridge (after above meals taken out)

• Tuna Chunks x 7 tins
• Baked Beans x 1
• Spaghetti
• Rice
• Risotto Rice
• Macaroni
• Lasagne sheets
• Gravy granules
• Powdered milk
• Thickening granules
• Pasta
• Veg Oil / olive oil / frylight
• Atora
• Tom puree
• Parmesan (cheap version!)
• Bacon x 2 packets
• Salmon Fillets x 2
• White Fish Fillets x 3
• Pastry x1 pack
• Veg soup - pureed (usually used in stews etc as the sauce.... extra veg )
• Various bags of frozen veg.

I think I shouldn't have any problems this month except motivation! :rotfl::rotfl:

scottishspendaholic

Hey everyone,

I'm well up for this! Can I join please?

After being so good for such a long time, my OH and I spent £76 :eek: between the farm shop (£20 on fresh fruit, salad stuff and veg) and Tescos (£56) so I need to pull the reigns in to be able to survive for the rest of the month!

I am going to pull everything out and work out what to do with lentils and lots of brown rice!

Please keep posting ideas everyone - I'm very unimaginative in the kitchen so need lots of help!

I had a yummy O/S tea last night.

Put on 6 handfuls of pasta.
Chopped an onion, fried with a clove of garlic, chopped toms, bacon, tom puree and mixed herbs with frying pan lid off so liquid evaporated for about 20 mins on a low heat.
Mixed with half the pasta.

The other half of the pasta I left to go cold, then mixed with mayonnaise, chopped ham, spring onions, cucumber, pepper and cherry toms and had for lunch today - yummy!

So, how does this work then - do we all have a small budget for fresh fruit and veg and bread/yogurts every week or is that not the idea? I've never done a store cupboard challenge before!

scottishspendaholic x