December 2009 Grocery Challenge

highland_fling_2

Good morning everyone,

well found a couple of recipes which I am going to try. Much the same ingredients as we normally use to be honest, but just kind of rearranged.:rotfl:

Will be very late home from work tonight so plan to just have a "something on toast" night. Going out for first of Christmas nights out tomorrow so wont be cooking then either. Plan to start baking Christmas treats on Saturday afternoon. Wonder if they will reach the freezer!!!

Have a frugal day everyone.

cookiedough38

My first shop of the month £37.14

thisismoneysaving

Right, I've spent £3 on groceries so far on 2 jars of dolmio... I know that I should have made the sauce, but I was in a rush last night & didn't really have the time as I was going out.
Well... today should be a NSD - actually I'm going to MAKE myself have a NSD!

Sorry to hear about the dog food situation Eliza bunny. I hope your pooch gets better

*off to update signature*

xx

SunnyGirl

thisismoneysaving I used to regulartly do this until I hit in the idea of making a huge batch of tomato pasta sauce at once, when I had the time, & freezing it in meal sized portions. I use 8 cans of toms which I chop up with scissors in the can, 5 chopped onions, 2 Tablespoons of garlic or chopped fresh garlic to taste, 2 Tablespoons of mixed herbs, a stock cube, salt, pepper & a couple of teaspoons of sugar to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. Fry the onions then add the rest of the ingredients & let it simmer gently for 45 mins giving the odd stir. Then blitz if you like a smooth sauce or just pour into freezer bag lined tubs and close the tops. Once it's frozen lift the bag out of the tub so that you have a convenient 'brick' shape to freeze.

When I use it for a recipe I add chopped bacon, ham, peppers, courgettes, carrots, celery or any other veg thats around depending on which dish I'm doing Hope this helps. Play around with the sugar as if you're used to jars of Dolmio as they can be sweet. I weaned us off extra sweetness slowly HTH

x_raphael_xx

Dog food to buy today, so another £10.99 onto my total. That should last her the month thou

Long_tall_sally

I have spent £141.19 inthe last couple of days which is a bit scary seeing as a) a few days ago I was saying that I only needed a few things and b) it is a fair size chunk out of my £720pm target and we are not even at the end of week one yet! the only thing that I can console myself with is that apart from the turkey and veg and maybe some more alcohol, it does include all my xmas extras. Still, I think I am gonna have to take it very carefully for the rest of the month if I am to achieve my target again! Plus i have just realised that I have no milk so another visit to somewhere required.

Flat_Eric

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

I have spent £141.19 inthe last couple of days which is a bit scary seeing as a) a few days ago I was saying that I only needed a few things and b) it is a fair size chunk out of my £720pm target and we are not even at the end of week one yet! the only thing that I can console myself with is that apart from the turkey and veg and maybe some more alcohol, it does include all my xmas extras. Still, I think I am gonna have to take it very carefully for the rest of the month if I am to achieve my target again! Plus i have just realised that I have no milk so another visit to somewhere required.

I have a home delivery shop coming on Sat. and I have been very restrained in what I have been adding to my basket yet as of a few mins ago it was totalling £85 odd ? :eek:This might include delivery (never sure) and doesnt include the offers that will be applied. It also includes aprox £25 worth of chocs/bubble bath for xmas gifts (separate budget).

its scary how just buying a few items can cost a small fortune and I think for all the lovely offers our beloved supermarkets are doing this time of year to try to make us spend our money with them, they are sneaking the prices up elsewhere and will no doubt be doing this with a vengenace in January.

I really fancy doing the souvlaki recipe featured in my slimming world mag served with a huge pile of roasted misc. veg but I have plenty of veg in my freezer so it seems silly to buy (fresh) stuff especially as I need room for the christmas baking my mum does for me. The recipe also calls for lamb leg steaks but I have lamb neck fillets in my freezer, i guess I could use these in substitution.

If Im to come under budget this month, I need to rein in and rather than eat what I fancy, need to eat what I have!!

helen_jelly

Afternoon everyone
Right, headaches have now gone [new glasses got] what a difference, I didn't realise how bad my old ones had got.

Budgets all done up to here so if I've missed you out please shout at me and sorry.

More new people joining us - welcome and hi, its great to have you here. Please feel free to ask any questions as there are some lovely helpful people on here. Don't forget to check out the recipes posted on page 1 by the wonderful Rosieben. Good luck with your budgets and please remember that we don't fail on here we just look, learn and move onwards.

Helen x

ellemm

Flat_Eric wrote: »

If Im to come under budget this month, I need to rein in and rather than eat what I fancy, need to eat what I have!!

Think that just about sums up how to get somewhere with this challenge Flat Eric although as we all know, easier said than done

As I have posted on the Storecupboard thread, I decided to use up 5 lemons and some frozen berries by making Lemon Cream with a Berry Compote from economy Gastronomy.......but that meant I had to buy cream:o. I did, however, only buy the cream and resisted everything else.

triticale

Had to get some fruit for DD(8) and DD(5)'s lunchboxes tomorrow, so spent 84p on a punnet of plums (half price!) and also got a jar of pesto (£1.19) for their tea tonight - I was going to do chicken (from rubber chicken) in gravy with mash and veg, but when I told them this morning they replied, 'oh, we're always having that - Daddy's always making it' (!) :rotfl:

So I had a rethink, as they love pasta, pesto and tuna, but I hate it (mainly the hot tuna aspect, but also not so keen on pesto) I decided to compromise and do pasta, pesto and chicken, with some par-baked petit pains that I have, made into garlic pains.

Also got DD(8) some lockets (45p) as she is still suffering with a nasty cough.

Did also get a single gala apple, but the checkout lady didn't charge for it! Think as I put it on top of the punnet, she mustn't have noticed it. So a free apple, lol.

Total spent = £2.48.

Oh and had to buy baccy this morning (:o yes, tobacco comes out of my food budget, in an effort to make me smoke less! Have already cut down loads, hence running out caught me by surprise). £2.65 for that.

So £5.13 today, sig updated.