February 2010 Grocery Challenge

mollythewestie

Please can you put me down for £330 for february please.
This is for me, DH and 7 month old DD for all food, toiletries, nappies and household goods (toilet rolls, cleaning products etc) . But not including the dog this month as we buy her food in bulk every few months, so it messes with my budget!

I managed to keep under my rather healthy budget last month, so I am going to start gradually chipping away at my budget each month to get it down to a more reasonable level.

This month, to save money I intend to:
- Make more of my own baby food, rather than using jars of ready made puree that are so expensive.
- Walk to my local supermarkets once a week and only buy meat and fish that are "yellow stickered" or on offer. Or use the butchers for any cheap cuts for slow cooking.
- Use the greengrocers for fruit and veg, as it is much cheaper, better quality and (mostly) from local growers.
And most importantly - ONLY BUYING WHAT I NEED!! If I only need 1 pepper, or 2 oranges buy only those, not a huge bag that gets put in the bin at the end of the month.

ifonlyitwaseasier

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

I know that you can apparently freeze bananas but having never done this before, I don't know if you freeze them with the skin on or off! Also can you just eat them as normal after they have defrosted or are they then only good for banana cake etc?
Also got 2 huge bags of tomatoes for a pound at the market. I'm guessing that they can't be frozen or can they? If not, better make some tomato soup with them soon.

Sorry to quote myself but still looking for the answers to my queries about freezing bananas and tomatoes - anyone know? (Sorry for being a pain!)

Long tall sally

freeze the bananas skin off, they are a nightmare to peel from frozen (speaks from experience!)

Helen1965

Can I set my budget for february to £300 please.

Thanks

Helen

ChocClare

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

I know that you can apparently freeze bananas but having never done this before, I don't know if you freeze them with the skin on or off! Also can you just eat them as normal after they have defrosted or are they then only good for banana cake etc?
Also got 2 huge bags of tomatoes for a pound at the market. I'm guessing that they can't be frozen or can they? If not, better make some tomato soup with them soon.
Long tall sally

I usually freeze them with the skin ON, but I know you can do both. If you get them out and eat them while still at least partially frozen, then they taste like banana icecream - really weird, you'd think there was definitely some cream in there! So that's a good thing to give the kids - a banana "lolly". I've only ever used them for cooking apart from that - but TBH, they only go in the freezer when they're looking a bit black-skinned, so maybe I'm not the best person to say!!!

Tomatoes - yep, you can freeze them just as they are - when they defrost, the skins come right off. Of course, you can then only use them for making passata or tomato sauce! I also do as someone else suggested and roast them with their skins on first - this then makes the most incredible sauce as well (if you don't want them as is).

HTH

hex2

Declaring for January at £489.97 against a target of £450 .

Mrs M Please put me down for £450 again in February. I need to actually meet my target before I try to reduce it again.

dazzle21

I fell off the wagon last month, could i rejoin this month please, £200 saving towards our holiday in May so need to be good this month!

Winged_one

I am going to aim for €500 again this month please. I am going to aim for €6,000 for the year, but will track that through my sig (it might be too scary to track that on the GC thread).

I am not too badly set for Feb, as I have bought everything for this week in Jan (I work on calendar month basis), and was still well under. And I am not counting food this coming weekend, as we are away and that comes from hols budget. Although I may end up going to a market or two - and that will be counted. But I know I will be entertaining the IL's (staying in a hotel near us for their anniversary) one weekend, and hosting a dinner party another. So I reckon €500 is safe but not overly ambitious.

annieb30

Done one big shop so far this month - but had £60 of A*da vouchers and got £5 off voucher out of paper.

Now have a full freezer and am determined to come in under budget this month! :-)

poohbear59

We have £76 to last us until 24th of the month. (For 4-5 adults) This month is going to be the most difficult ever for us, but we do have a lot of random things in the freezer to use up, and friends with veggies in their gardens who will share with us.

Another NSD today

MrsBsBlog

Thanks MrsM for popping me onto the list, will need to try extra hard this month as OH wages have gone down. Anyway quick question if anybody can help.
I made some breadrolls but added too much salt, by mistake. The rolls are now really too salty, so was wondering what to do with the rolls now. I really do not want to waste these, but wondered if I could make them into something else. Many thanks if anybody can help.