February 2010 Grocery Challenge

Long_tall_sally

Another spend of £21.50 today on milk, toilet rolls, chocolates for Valentines, beer, eggs, flowers, pizza & biscuits. Signature updated, now off to catch up on all the postings. Happy Valentines Day everyone!

elizabunny

:eek:

slowlyfading wrote: »

just want to say, this is my first GC and I've only spent £15.65 so far! but only coz I've been using some stuff up and am now at home for a week so I feel like I'm cheating! :eek: maybe I should bow out and try again next month...

slowlyfading Why ever would you think you were cheating? some of us grow veggies to supplement our GC. Often I use up whatever is in the cupboards so that I don't have to spend anything. If I get store vouchers I count them as an extra bonus on top of my challenge budget and if I am on holiday and the meals are included, I don't knock any cost from my GC. I really don't think you should worry that you are saving money by being at home -it's not cheating -it's a bonus and we all need as many of those as we can get:)

2 NSDs for me in a row. I wrecked today's pudding by putting it in the microwave and cremating it:eek: Totally inedible.......what a waste! Things are getting a bit tight this month so have got to watch myself.

Have a good Valentine's evening everyone!

superflygal

Another £5 spent at Co-op, but £3 of that was vouchers.

Got 15p rolls and 25p loaf!! I love it!

SFG x

fabforty

slowlyfading Why ever would you think you were cheating? some of us grow veggies to supplement our GC. Often I use up whatever is in the cupboards so that I don't have to spend anything. If I get store vouchers I count them as an extra bonus on top of my challenge budget and if I am on holiday and the meals are included, I don't knock any cost from my GC. I really don't think you should worry that you are saving money by being at home -it's not cheating -it's a bonus and we all need as many of those as we can get:)

[/QUOTE]

I agree. For me the GC is about controlling my spending, planning ahead and only buying what I need. Making good use of the things that you already have in cupboard/freezer or and other freebies that come your way, is a valid part of that. It's not cheating, so carry on.
It's amazing how much money you save just by being aware of what you are buying.

My newest revelation is portion control. I had already started to reduce the amount of leftovers, simply by measuring out portions of food properly - especially things like rice, beans and pasta. But I am now thinking more about the amount that I am eating and working out how much do I need to feel full/satisfied instead of my usual 'how much food can I get down?'

banwa

Oh dear - dangerously close to my budget! Big shop on Friday at A*da, probaby bought too many Valentine 'treat' foods (crisps, posh Italian meat, olives, all yummy but quite extravagent:p). Hubband wasn't happy with the bread I bought so went to the shop to buy rolls and came out £4.20 lighter, naughty boy.

Have ordered a slow cooker though after hearing all the good stuff you have all been saying, and am ridiculously (and quite pitifully) excited about it. Going to make some stifado as my first dish, I'd imagine it will work well. I'm wondering if it will work with a jar of pickled onions instead of shallots.

ikkleosu

I'm just posting to say I'm NOT counting todays spend. Just incase y'all are spying on me and SAW me in the shops and are wondering when I'm mentioning it. :rotfl:

DH and I had an argument over which of us was least ill at lunchtime. I won (I think) and had to go to the corner shop. I had no cash, so hubby gave me £10 from his personal budget to get bread and marg.

I came back having spent about £7!! :eek: Had to go to 3 shops as all were out of bread. Ended up with, a bottle of coke for myself, a bar of chocolate each and a pack of Hobnobs. But I feel we deserve it from feeling so rubbish all week (the Hobnobs did pick us up).

I'm thinking of it as that is normally the amount DH would spend on his publunch and snacky bits on a normal Sunday. So I'm actually up cos I've got 1kg of marg and a loaf of bread out of it towards the grocery!

loulou0327

I found this recipe today for tomato paste at the following site;
http://www.ehow.com/how_2213822_make-tomato-paste.html
I thought it might be useful to anyone who grows to many tomatoes to eat this year as it freezes. I know my dad always goes over board with the tomatoes and has given me a plot of his large allotment this year, so hopefully i will be able to save loads as we are huge fruit and veg eaters.
The seeds and juice left over you could use up in veg soups etc

bargainhunterss

mikeD wrote: »

Hi Everybody. Haven't been here for quite a while. you're still very busy little bees, 34 pages in 14 days :eek:. It was one of the reasons that I packed this thread in, just could not keep up. anyway it's nice to see you all, lots of new people too I see.

The reason I'm posting is that over the last couple of years my "Groceries" seem to have gone up by about 30% (ie from around £240 to about £320 per month. I don't buy any more than I used to, and food prices don't seem to have gone up that much because of the competition so what's going on. I always try to get the best value for money, but I'm still spending far too much. Any ideas. All contributions gratefully received.

I know it wont make a massive difference, but it might be something to do with VAT going back up? Ideas for saving money.....Farmfoods does milk at 2 x 4pt bottles for £1.50 and 2 loaves of hovis bread (brown and white) for £1. Bargain! Also, I always try and get my cleaning stuff from pound shops and Wilkinsons. Much cheaper than supermarkets!

SunnyGirl

fabforty wrote: »

My newest revelation is portion control. I had already started to reduce the amount of leftovers, simply by measuring out portions of food properly - especially things like rice, beans and pasta. But I am now thinking more about the amount that I am eating and working out how much do I need to feel full/satisfied instead of my usual 'how much food can I get down?'

I am looking at portion control too this month. I am ok with rice & pasta as I weigh it and I can guess by eye how many potatoes to serve if I'm baking or roasting them (A lot!! The eldest two boys have 9 each :eek:) but I'm not very good with things like mash potatoes and always end up serving too much and either giving the leftovers to the dogs or trying to come up with ideas to use it up. As there usually isn't enough to make a meal for all of us, and I hate cooking seperate meals for everyone, it gets annoying.

Yesterday lunch time I peeled a third less than I usually would and used the ice cream scoop to serve the mash. DH, DS1 & DS2 had 3 scoops each and the rest of us has 2 and it was plenty :T

All this rambling is to say that any ideas are welcome

Winged_one

I had a big shop at the weekend, so spent €128. But also got a good bit off that between various offers (all on things that we use anyway, and funnily enough, a lot on things that were already on the list for this week). I think I knocked over €10 off the total bill.

And I did spend €11 on fillet steak for DH and I for Sat night (our Valentines meal) - I got garlic miushrooms whoopsied to go with it, and we made HM wedges, and I bought a packet of pepper sauce. Our "special" wine is Faustino and we have tended to buy V in recent years (with the VERY odd I for really special occasions), but we went back to just VII this time - which was still very lovely!!

We also had a proper Chinese Feast last night. Sticky ribs, spring rolls, wontons, special fried rice and a pork fillet stirfry. DH experiemented with fried rice - which was very tasty. The pork was in the freezer from an offer a few weeks ago (and there's enough leftover for sambos for 2 days - I boiled it first and then used slices in the stirfry). And I added the last handful of HG mangetout from last summer, as well as using up a tin of beansprouts which had been in the cupboard FOREVER!!

As DD had a playdate on Sat, and I thought the mum might stay, I baked a victoria sponge on Saturday morning (well, the oven was on anyway, as we had done our usual and run out of bread, so DH had popped a couple of part-baked rolls in to tide us over until we were going out). The mum also brought a cake, so when collecting DD from a neighbours last night (gone over to play with friends), I brought a large wedge of cake (both cakes had fresh cream) for the parents there. Who reciprocated with 3 tubs of the curry sauce from the company one of them works for - fresh and delish!! And we love those sauces anyway!! So dinner for tonight sorted and a sauce for the freezer!!

Menu has changed for the week based on various things, so now it looks like:
Tonight - chicken tikka massala (yum!!)
Tomorrow - pancakes (of course!)
Wed - Shepherd's pie (from freezer)
Thurs - Chicken or prawns, pasta and a tomato sauce (I think)
Fri - Possibly nasi goreng with rice from freezer
Sat - haven't a clue yet, possibly a mushroom risotto
Sun - Baked ham (at lunchtime as IL's will be here and heading off in early afternoon)
Mon - probably macaroni cheese with bacon leftovers