July 2010 Grocery Challenge

highland_fling_2

Sunnyday: thankyou very much for recipe. It looks delicious and I will certainly try it. Think I have all the ingredients even the cummin and paprika. Another miserable day here so this hm soup will go down a treat.

recovering_spendaholic

I have a quick question about the GC. How many of you keep big stocks of "staples" like pasta, rice, pulses, cereals, flour etc? I seem to make the same sort of meals as you all but I don't keep such things "on stock" as it were and it made me wonder if that is why my spends are always higher? If you do keep stocks where do you store them? I had big plans to convert my under the stairs cupboard into a pantry - I cleaned it all out but then realised that I would have nowhere to put any of my household stuff like ironing board and iron, hoover etc. Hope you don't mind me asking.

tessie_bear

hi....just finished putting away veg and fruit got from the coop...iv filled up the fridge but im sure it will go quickly...our fridge is full of pop and suashe and fizzy water at the moment so hardly any room for proper food

going to make a pie for tea and something with gooseberries for pudding...not sure what yet....still doing ok with the budget but its early days yet...i tend to rush and spend it at the start of the month and then try and make £5 last 3 weeks

have a nice day
tessa

highland_fling_2

KitchenBunny: thankyou very much for the soup recipe. I will certainly try it. Have never used sweet potatoes before so this will be something new.

cw18

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I have a quick question about the GC. How many of you keep big stocks of "staples" like pasta, rice, pulses, cereals, flour etc? I seem to make the same sort of meals as you all but I don't keep such things "on stock" as it were and it made me wonder if that is why my spends are always higher? If you do keep stocks where do you store them?

I guess I do, as I buy 3kg/5kg bags of pasta/rice - and there's only 2 of us so they last ages I also tend to buy breakfast cereals (mainly for DS) several boxes at a time, as the ones he likes come from Mr A and I don't get to one of their stores very often.

As to where I keep them - that's been a case of anywhere in the house I can find space But this is starting to back-fire on me, as during the major dejunk/spring-clean I've started, I've discovered I have more flour (plain, self raising and strong) than I'm likely to use this year (and probably next)!!!

greent

I buy basmati rice 5 or 10kg at a time and have been known to have as much as 18kg of pasta in the house (currently only about 3kg) - I keep it all in my kitchen cupboards (although some of the 18kg of pasta was stored down the side of a cupboard) - but I also don't see the amounts as massively large stocks for us, given that there are 6 of us . If I buy 10kg of rice (like I did in June) the whole cost goes in that month's GC (I don't spread it out, even though it will last say 3-4 months)

I try and keep all my food stocks in the kitchen! (Beer and wine being the exception - they go in the garage - along with any mass cleaning purchases (Extremely rare to have those, though)) If I don't keep them in the kitchen I'd forget about them and wouldn't use stuff in date order (which I don't always manage to do anyway!) etc (not that I'm fussy on using stuff OOD - good job, really, seeing as I have several bags of bread flour OOD which I'm using up for pizza bases (gave up making bread, but might get back into it over summer hols)) (I also have OOD dried fruits and muesli base and couscous - they are all gradually going...)

Have been to A!di today.... spent far too much! Need to meal plan for rest of week and then be good!! French beans are ready to pick from the garden - shame only OH likes them and we have 24 plants!!! (the guinea pigs like them too, though)

Moniker

Morning everyone

I don't know, I got up to date on Saturday night reading all the posts so far and then yesterday I had visitors and didn't get to the computer and now I am behind again! Oh well, never mind. I have updated my sig as I had to buy a few things on Saturday and I am now about half way through my budget for the month! This high protein diet is expensive - mind you it does work as DH has lost nearly 4lbs in the first week. He only needs to lose about half a stone so I am hoping that we can ease off and introduce a few cheaper carbs by the end of the week!

Have been busy painting DD1's bedroom ready for her return from Austria on 20th and have just finished the last coat of paint - I will have a whole tin to take back to the shed, so £18-99 refund coming my way. Have to go and clean up the brushes now and so on - my favourite job(not!).

Have a good day everyone.

Moniker

honeybun16

we have started to stock pile things when they are on a good deal, Mr A seems to be good for things, i managed to get a years worth of washing powder for £20 a few weeks ago and my OH has turned the cupboard under the stairs into a storage area for me, it's great, we have found in the last few weeks alone we have saved quite abit as not popping to the shops for staples, as we have them in stock and therefore not picking up lots of other bits as well.

We did a Costco shop on Friday which cost us abit as we brought meat but what we brought will cover us for the rest of the month so only bread, milk and eggs to buy to get through, I can't wait til we get our new freezer so i can start to store bread and milk too,

Kadeeae

Adding £23 to the sig today. Over the weekend we bought a bit of meat at the butcher, and milk and some veg at Mr. T. More milk & veg will be needed this week but we'll be fine for meats into the end of next week, longer if I clear the freezer out a bit

Our tiny bit of veg that we're growing is starting to come into it's own now, picked a few peas - just to test mind you, and they were absolutely delish! We're by no means growing enough for any sort of glut, but it's only year one.

Hope everyone's doing well on their budgets, really need to get in and have a read through the last few days of posts. Maybe this afternoon with a coffee

Take care~

Purpleclutterbuck

Please can I try for a budget of £280 again mrs M? Thanks!

I've already spent £53 and its only July 5th, so I'm off to investigate the fridge and store cupboards for things as I feel a month of weird but tasty concoctions is on the cards :rotfl: