February grocery challenge

chrisico

For packet lunches for the family I always make a batch of flapjacks topped with a little melted cooking chocolate. Changing the mix slightly each week so they don't get bored, they are filling and good for you. This is the recipe I use
4 oz block marg.melted with 4 tsp sugar 1 tblsp golden syrup. Add 7 oz oats, 1 oz sr flour 1 tsp baking powder + some sesame seeds or dried fruit or 1 tblsp peanut butter ,sunflower seeds or chopped dates etc
Press into a square tin cook for about 20 mns at 180C. put 3 or 4 squares of cooking chocolate on top and return to the turned off oven for a minute or 2 until melted then spread it out . cool and cut into fingers. makes about 18.
Fills them up a treat .

jazzyjustlaw

Spidy - how did you get coupons from Quorn? Actually, in relation to that type of food, sainsbury and asda to their own frozen chicken type pieces and mince and neither are meat and are cheaper. Have you tried those?

Have you tried things like Stuffed mushrooms?
Justine

loafer_2

shrek101 wrote:

Do you have a frozen food shop like Heron, they are really cheap? I think they are based mainly in North of England. Its a cheap version of Iceland.

We spent yesterday about £8 and got 3 shopping backs of food. Including 2X6(includes 6 free so thats 12 in a bag, so 24 in total) of McCoys Spice crisps @ £1. I thought that was a real bargain but my wife always in there couple times a week and you can get some really cheap stuff all in date.

Farm foods are like that "daan saaaf" IIRC - Have to say that I normaly go to Tesco for frozen Veg unless I have an iceland voucher or 5.

spidystrider

Justine - it's been so long since I posted a web link I can't remember how to!
To get the Quorn vouchers I went to https://www.quorn.co.uk, you the click on 'contact us', fill in your details and when you come to 'purpose of contact', click on Consumer recipes/leaflets request. They should then send you a recipe booklet and £1 in coupons. Good luck!

tara28

i tell you what i think im going to follow this plan cause we must spend a futune on our weekly shop.my bf usaully does the shopping on the way home from work 4+ a week and roughly spends 40 each time but thats for everything.i keep telling him we should do one big shop a week and when non essential food ran out wed av to wait til next weeks shop but he likes the kids to have nice stuff.i work for supermarket and get 10% off anyway well last year i got a statement thing of how much money wed spent and saved with my discount my discount had saved £600 for the year bout £5000 odd worth of shopping for the year that seems far too much so im going to start bulk buying food and eating proper dinners so i will follow this thread with interest.

debs626

tiff wrote:

Here goes, didnt quite make my target but total bill for the week is £46.13.

Orange squash 3L 0.48
Domestos 1.03
Fresh milk 1.03
Valpolicella 2.96
Value tomatoes 0.17
Value tomatoes 0.17
Value tomato soup 0.23
Value chicken soup 0.23
Peppermint tea 1.53
Value baked beans 0.15
Value baked beans 0.15
Value apple juice 0.45
Value apple juice 0.45
Custard powder 1.09
Noodles 0.62
batter mix 0.34
Turkey mince 1.20
weetabix 1.38
noodles 0.62
weetabix 1.38
Value onions 0.74
Value bacon 0.92
Shower gel 1.98
malt loaf 0.63
malt loaf 0.63
togurt 1.95
deodorant 1.98
yogurt 1.95
wholemeal bread 0.44
wholemeal bread 0.44
wholemeal bread 0.44
value long grain rice 0.54
value long grain rice 0.54
square crisps 1.59
square crisps 1.59
square crisps 1.59
poppadoms 1.20
hot cross buns x 2 1.32
frozen chips 1.56
value biscuits 0.73
value kitchen towel 1.05
fresh whole chicken 3.49
fresh whole chicken 3.49

sub total 47.50

MULTIBUY SAVINGS
hot x buns 2 for £1 -0.32
vitality yog 6pk bogof -1.95
physio sport 2 for £3 - 0.96
snacks 10pk 3 for £3 -1.77
noodles 250g 2for 99p -0.25
weetabix bars/minis 2for£2 -0.76
whole chicken 2 for £6 -0.98

total savings -6.99

Total to pay 40.51
coupons 1.50
coupon 1.00
coupon 0.35
coupon 0.30

Total 37.36

Then went to the fruit and veg shop

Savoy cabbage 0.47
Leeks 0.43
Cooking apples 0.76
Sprouts 0.36
cucumber 0.36
cox apples 0.70
granny smiths 0.45
satsumas 1.13
pears 0.59
reduced pepper 0.20
reduced toms 0.40
bag toms 0.69
bananas 1.78
lettuce 0.45

Total 8.77

Didnt need any cleaning materials today and still have some veg in the fridge plus eggs/flora etc. Always buy milk every couple of days as nowhere to store it. Have some meat in the freezer too, so didnt buy much meat.

Try to buy shops own brand instead of named brands, Im sure you will not see much differance ie :-

Domestoes, try the shops own brand, I dont see any differance and still get the same results.

Try shops own weetabix, if its tesco's where you shopped then there own brand is exelent.

On your next shop try the shops own shower gell and deodrant. If u wash as often as me you will be suprised at the results, also the Tesco's own brand shampoo is exelent and very cheep too 66p per bottle.

batter mix 0.34 - I think we all know how to make a batter, i bet if u look in the cupboards u already have the ingredients in, I buy the value batter mix 11p form tesco's as I seem to waste a bag of flour as I dont use that much.

Trying the value or shops own products just for one week may benefit you and you may be suprised, I know I was and not my shopping bill seems to be nearly halved.

My shopping bill yesterday (delivered from Tesco's) was £16 thats just a top up shop as I did have some things left over in the freezer. Which feeds me, my daughter, two cats and a dog :-) This did include the £10 voucher too. My avarage shop never realy comes above £20 and once a month I buy in special treat
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Edit, sorry, i read a few pages on and someone already mentioned most of the above.

As for the orange squash I buy Tesco's own brand Whole orange squash (58p), my daughter is very fussy and only likes robinsons too, I pour it into the robinsons bottle, she noticed the differance and said, robinsons must have changed the recipie, its much nicer ............ I found it very hard to keep a straight face ..........LOL. I have done this with a few other products too .......... Cornflakes is another one but the box is starting to get a bit tatty now :-(

Spendless

Tiff - noticed you'd got 3 bags of crisps (multi-packs i assume). How long will they last. In my house i don't buy them often cos if they are in they eat them all!!

Don't know if they were to go in packed lunches etc.Tip i saw on here was to ration to one bag a day. Also if your children are old enough to give them 7 bags to keep in their room, if they eat them all at one sitting , tough!! No more till the following week. My own children are too young to try this though.

tiff

Hi Debs and Spendless, thanks for your tips. Dont know why I didnt think of buying Tesco's own weetabix, next time I will. The crisps are for my husband and the kids packed lunches but I dont let them have a packet every day, we still have about half the crisps left so I wont buy any this week. The kids are 7 and 4, theres no way I'm letting them loose with crisps in their bedroom but it is a good point for when they're older. I think its hard to get out of your usual shopping habits, sometimes you pick up your usual item without looking for a cheaper alternative. I must be more switched on next time!

With the batter, that was a box of 2 packets of Tescos own make, I've tried the value ones and didnt like them. At 17p a packet I dont mind splashing out as I am really lazy (yes I do have the ingredients in the cupboard!)

Now that you've said Tescos own brand shampoo is ok, I will try it and see how I get on.

Shopping day tomorrow, I've done a shopping list on Tesco.com and its around £30 but I'm going to take a good look over it to see if I can cut back anywhere.

Thanks for your tips, why am I the only one doing this??

System

I too limit the amount of niceties i buy for the family. I buy a 24 pack of Walkers crisps every week, and i normally get some left (why is it always the salt and vinegar ones?)
I also buy a 27 pack of KitKats a week. Then i split it into 3 (3 children), and what is left goes in the freezer to stop the little blighters from eating them too. Every so often i dont have to buy any cause the stockpile in the freezer is mounting up.
I dont buy cakes or buscuits and if they want sweets they buy their own. I do buy ice cream bars just three packs a week, which is enough for one each for Friday and Saturday, and normally make my own fruit crumble/sponge for Sunday.

These items are probably the only branded items i buy, i dont think any cheaper brand comes close in quality.

Bogof_Babe

jazzyjustlaw wrote:

Spidy - how did you get coupons from Quorn? Actually, in relation to that type of food, sainsbury and asda to their own frozen chicken type pieces and mince and neither are meat and are cheaper. Have you tried those?

Have you tried things like Stuffed mushrooms?
Justine

Don't be caught out like I was in Sainsburys - the frozen Swedish Style Vegetarian Meatballs are 99p a pack, but the identical pack except it's Chicken-type is £1.99. I checked on Sainsbury's website and this isn't a mistake, although in the ingredients list the only difference is the Chicken ones have black pepper! . Also the instructions are to stir-fry those, whereas the Meatball ones you just cook in the oven. Big disappointment - and a rip-off I think . (The Meatball ones are great though.)