Store cupboard challenge

strawberrypud

Count me in, if I'm not too late! I spent £35 on Friday and another £70 yesterday and I still forgot to buy eggs so was thinking "oh I better pop out again today" but resisted knowing that I'd come home with more than eggs! I really NEED to get a grip on our food spending as we cannot continue like this. I meal plan but I'm making big mistakes somewhere because we are spending too much despite eating very frugal meals so I'm quite confused about it. Sorry if I have gone off on a tangent but I am sure I can feed the four of us for 7 days on what I have in. I need a "meal planning/grocery shopping for idiots" guide though!:rotfl:

Tonight we're having chicken and chick pea tagine with cous cous.

craftycrofty

is it too late to join?

I have been trying to do this since Christmas but have found myself in well known food retail outlets more often than I should!
We are 2 adults and 2 teenagers. They will eat most things but OH doesn't like reheated cooked meat although when I use it without telling him he does like it! We usually spend £75 p/w on food.

I visited Mt Ts yesterday and spent £12ish. We should be able to manage on what we have - there may be a few 'unusual' meals towards the end of the week but its worth a try.

I try to use up leftovers, but sometimes lack inspiration. Joining this challenge will be good it will help me focus!

Bye for now

CC

wendywitch

I have all good intentions when it comes to meal planning but when it comes to the actual day we either don't fancy whatever it said or don't have the time to make it for whatever reason and end up making something else or go out and buy something different :cool:

lucy_lemon

Frugal wrote: »

Can you both (and anyone else who would like to join in) please let me know how much a typical average weekly grocery shop would be for you so we can add up our savings

I think my average weekly spend is about £30, so I'll say that's how much I'll be saving. I'm pleased just thinking about it!

lucy_lemon

Just to say that I am really ashamed of myself - tea tonight is a vegetable chilli, made with some dried cannellini beans I found in the cupboard. So far, so good, except that the handful of beans has been sat in my cupboard since June, when I brought them back from Bulgaria. All because I was too tight to put them in the bin before we came home! And even more shamefully, I've been using canned cannellini beans since then! Oops. Looks like I really need this challenge to make me hunt through the cupboards!

pineapple

I'm 2 weeks from retiring and I'm on a mission to see if I can cut my weekly shopping bill to £20 excluding petrol. Made it at £18 last week! Bear in mind this includes non food items like light bulbs, washing powder etc. It can be done, I think (though I have a separate budget for emergency repairs etc). Plus I am still buying organic where possible. It's just a matter of making meat and fish go further and bulking up with beans, lentils etc. I'm helped by a spell in Africa where there really wasn't much to buy and the locals lived on far less anyway.
The next step is to go to stores where you can bulk buy.
As for spices I already go to Asian supermarkets where you can get a big bag of something for the same price as some tiddly amount in a supermarket.

quintwins

well i managed threw day 1 went to mil for roast chicken dinner, and now were gonna have chips and egg which imo is the best cheap meal ever invented

youngoldlady

Some very yummy sounding recipes on here today! Quick question - I bought some fresh filo pastry which has now gone out of date. I checked the ingredients and it has flour, butter and some preservatives in. Not much of anything really. It says USE BY 6th Jan. I'm not sure why pastry would have a use by date rather than a best before date. Would you risk it and use it up anyway?

Fruball

Day One Sunday 9 Jan

Only 6 days left!



Frugal (approx £55 saving)
Lucy-Lemon (app £30)
Quintwins (£40)
Pineapple (£20)
Pixie1 (approx $80 saving)
Castri09
mummroysof3
diluvsdiscounts (£60)
Wee Pilsbury (£25)
debtmess (£50)
Pitlanepiglet
wendywitch
rozmister (£35)
Strawberrypud (£100)
craftycrofty (£75)

Between 14 of us that is a total saving of well over £470 (not everyone has given a figure) that will not find its way into the hands of the supermarkets Can you imagine if the whole country did a No Shop Week each month!!! I bet nobody would starve as we all buy too much anyway, and the supermarkets would have a price war to tempt us all back in

Pitlanepiglet and everybody else - I think it should be weather dependent for all of us to be honest - so if anybody is forecast snow, then ditch the challenge and stock up with more goods to be sure of not running out.

wendywitch - milk is fair enough but bread tut tut tut - can you make bread with what you have in the storecupboard/scones/muffins/flatbreads/tortillas etc instead?

Strawberrypud - well done on resisting eggs! Thats what I usually do, forget one thing, go back and spend another £20 :mad:

We did well today. We had storecupboard breakfasts and lunches then roast turkey, hm wedges, carrots, peas and gravy and it was all scrummy! DD2 is a meat lover so the breast joint that should serve 4-6 people is gone between me and 2 4yr DDs! Not very moneysaving or stretchy but turkey is very good for them, and we aren't going to run out of protein in the next 6 days.

I also made mini quiches.... hmmmmm... lot of pastry for not much filling, plus the pastry rose up :eek: making them look more like vol a vents :rotfl: But they taste good - I will try using a muffin tin next time rather than bun tin to get a better filling to pastry ratio I trimmed some good bits of a very old piece of brocolli, used the last 3 baby plum toms and a wee bit of frozen cheese plus 3 eggs :eek: which means I only have 1 egg left for the next 6 days... That is not good but I will have to manage

If worst comes to the worst I have some VERY out of date eggs which I could do the sink or swim test, then the sniff test :rotfl:

I was hoping to do quite a lot of baking this week but will not be able to make cakes now but will do flapjacks and shortbread instead - Oooooh I haven't made shortbread in years! Yummmy - I also have some pastry left (the weird rising pastry lol) so might attempt jam tarts with that tomorrow... after Ihave tried to find out why on earth it rose - and no it wasn't sr flour, it was just Plain Flour and Trex (2-1 ratio) and a wee bit of water to combine.

How is everyone else doing? Hope nobody has sneaked out today for top up shopping









PenPen - Sorry, I didn't think of that! Please can we go on Storecupboard Challenge Thanks

wendywitch

Frugal, Make bread??!! :eek:

Don't have the time or the desire to, I am sorry

Don't worry I can be a good girl and just buy milk and bread :A