August 2010 Grocery Challenge

Natty68

Morning everyone, I think I totally lost myself when it came to the last thread. I did reach my total of 17 NSD's but me being me forgot to declare it and then I forgot to add myself to this thread..lol. Where does the time go I want to know, you only have to blink and you lose more days than I care to count..lol

Anyway can I be put down for 20 NSD's this month please? So far I have managed 2..oops!! Although I am hoping to be pretty rigid this month as basically I have no money, just enough to pay petrol and the Avon lady. I have managed to pay all my bills, well apart from the added bits on the monthly CC,but I am winging that one this month..lol

Won't be able to have a NSD today unfortunately as for some strange reason I forgot to buy bread and tbags when we went shopping at the weekend I blame it on going to a different Asda, everytime I go to one that is not our usual one I always forget something..lol

ASC

Hmm, finally added up receipts from the last couple of weeks and it's obvious that I haven't been paying attention!

Went over my increased July budget by £6.12 although that did include some August stuff as I did a reasonably big shop on the 31st.

Have already spent £53.80 of August budget helped by £17 on DH razor blades :eek: :eek: :eek: Mr T only had the large pack and he was going away so needed them urgently :mad:

I'm mostly eating from the freezer and storecupboards this week while he's away and have done meal plans for next week too which should leave me only the usual fresh stuff to buy. I think I need to re-cost our common and favourite meals as prices have changed so much and I'm not sure that our most regular meals are particularly good value any more.


Off to update sig, have a good week!


A x

Changingme

Just added up spends for the weekend and changed sig, seem to have spent alot but freezer was nearly empty looking alot better now.Have £25 left in purse for next weeks shop ,I'm using some of shopping money to pay for hair cuts x3 and music lessons.:)

WelshWoofer

Hi all!
Some very useful advice posted over the last day or two!

The only thing that I would add that has helped me is to shop for yourself not for the cupboard.

What I mean is buy want you actually need for the week not three tins of beans because you only have 2 in the cupboard! I used to do this all the time and wondered why my bill was so high. It does work - I think its a throw back to my mum who used to hoard food just in case.:p

Winged_one

I am doing a re-evaluation on my spending habits too at present. I am clearing out the attic ready for a conversion, and finding loads of stuff I had completely forgotten about. And I have loads of materials (fabrics, wool, crafts bits etc) that I bought but never got around to using. If I was at home for a year, I wouldn't get through it all. So I need to start getting rid of excess (I am going to start by bringing a load of stuff to the charity shop, and also considering putting a few things up for sale on ebay) and making use of the things I have (like finally making DD her duvet set, and the pair of Christmas PJs that I have materials for, before she gets too big for the patterns!). And stop buying any new materials for the present.

On the GC challenge front, I am OK this month. I have evrything for this week, and I am planning on avoiding supermarkets next weekend. All I will need is bread, milk, yoghurts and perhaps cooked meat. Oh, and some fruit and veg. But I am on a proper "clearing out the freezer" session too- found a load of older veg from last summer which need to get used up, and little pots of various sauces which are just taking up room. I am using up the soups alright, but I want to get the freezer properly cleared out and sorted before school starts and I need to be able to get dinners on the table fast in the evenings.

And despite the freezer being at capacity, I still managed to use up lots of what I had over the weekend. I cooked DD's pasta and our french beans in chicken stock (which made QUITE a difference), and managed to freeze one portion also. There is one more in the fridge that I will use tomorrow night in the pasta cooking. I have soup for lunches for today and tomorrow, and one portion frozen (and we had some over the weekend, and I left 2 portions with Gran on Sat). I have leftover mash for tonight (with pork chops and either french beans or summer squash or cauliflower - hmm maybe I'll make the cheese sauce tonight for both cauli and the mac-n-cheese tomorrow?), and I may use some of last night's leftover whole potatoes for "home fries" to extend that, if necessary. If not, we'll use those on Wednesday (Chicken Goujons night).

I have to find ways t use up loads of summer squashes (I got about 7 on the plot this week), but otherwise, I am not too bad on gluts this year. DH is really starting to give me grief about giving it up come the winter though. I know I can grow a certain amount of veg at home if I want to (living fence of mange tout, and another of peas, french beans in a pyramid, carrots in pots, some tomatoes in hanging baskets and in a flower bed, a courgette, and some peppers in that bed too), and he is suggesting that his mother would give me a patch in her garden (it's huge and lots of un-used and unseen areas) to grow my onions, garlic, potatoes and perhaps pumpkins. Maybe even some brassicas. We're there about once a month anyway so that would be OK for those crops (I wouldn't do it expecting the IL's to work it for me - only let me do it when there). I don't know - I am torn but I suspect that, even if we aren't going abroad next year, that would be a far more reasonable option and let me have time at home to potter more (when I'd enjoy it more and get more from each plant), and to do my other crafts that I have all those materials for.

Oh well, just another thing to ponder - I need something to distract me from the first morning back at work!!

Dharma_Bunny

Hi there!

I used to do this a few years back, but am desperate to make some savings atm, so here goes!

It's two weeks til Mummy dole goes in so I would like to spend no more than £70 by the 24th!

We are one large adult (me) one veg-avoiding adult (DH) who works away a lot and one 2 year old with a serious yoghurt habit.
Off to do the bulk weekly shop at Morrisons' shortly and will update later.

Winky,_The_House_Elf

I realised yesterday that I shouldn't do a supermarket shop, as we are going away this Thursday camping. I said to DH that we'll have a "freezer week" Which means some interesting experiments!

I need some more fruit for our morning smoothies, I was about to pull in to the Co-op as we drove past yesterday when my DH pointed out that we had enough for this morning. My Aunty gave me some plums, he'd picked free blackberries and even some fruit in the freezer. This meant I can get better value at the greengrocers later today, 'cos its not the same without a banana & apple chucked in! So ended up an NSD!

As for camping, thats a different budget, but I'll take a stuff from home like a frozen HM soup, which can be re-heated when we arrive, and a Spag Bol which will still be half frozen the next day, and double as a cooling block. It's not just MS but tastes 10 times better when ate with crusty bread in the great outdoors!

Off freezer diving to re-jig my meal-plan!


Winky x

weezl74

ChocClare wrote: »

Am feeling quite holy today because I did my first-ever online shop through my supermarket via quidco and actually managed to keep the price down PLUS I went onto Weezl's site and made this recipe for supper using onions from the garden, eggs from the hens, some ancient flour and even more ancient mustard powder and (admittedly quite a lot of) BOGOF cheddar. I don't think I could eat only what's on that site for a whole month, but I shall be dipping back in to pinch recipes as they have nice veggie-looking ones.

Having spent practically the whole day running backwards and forwards to deal with farriers/unwilling horses/husband risking his life with very grumpy bees, I'll update my signature tomorrow - wish I could say I've had some NSDs, but you can't have everything. Investment in the future, that's the word...

Hippeechiq wrote: »

I've made that Onion Tart twice now, and although I know one shouldn't blow ones own trumpet - it's one of the damned finest things I've ever eaten! A fabulous Weezl recipe!

I'd also love to eat more recipes from the site, but my family are too fussy.

I've bought the flour and the yeast to give the No Knead Bread a go, but can't quite build myself up to making it, as I only want to make one loaf which would require quantity adjustments and I'm a bit concerned if wont come out right....still, I suppose I won't know if I don't try

The Carrot Cake is lush by the way - and so very simple.

Hi please excuse the delurk

Thanks for the recipe feedback guys much appreciated.

Hippeeeechiq I think as long as you keep to at least 10g of yeat for a single loaf you should be fine

Clare, can I ask what you feel might help the recipes be sufficient for a family? We have just under 100 recipes now, but I'm wondering what I need to build up more of to make it more usefull for people

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

If it seems off topic here (and if so I'm sorry :))

I have also asked the same question on here.

Love to all, Weezl x

CupOfChai

Gah, moment of weakness yesterday brings me up to £40.73, on an expensive train station chocolate bar. I didn't even need it!

Going to redouble efforts and try downshifting on a few more things as well. I'm a bit nervous of downshifting too far because I feel it's even more a waste of money to buy something then not use it because I think it is disgusting, added to the fact when I've tried value range things in the past I often have found I really could tell the difference and didn't like them. However I'm discovering there are products that actually taste perfectly nice and not of horrors. Also discovered the Food Shopping and Groceries board has some great threads in it where people have already tried things and said what they're like, so I'm using that as a guide too.

greent

CupOfChai wrote: »

Going to redouble efforts and try downshifting on a few more things as well. I'm a bit nervous of downshifting too far because I feel it's even more a waste of money to buy something then not use it because I think it is disgusting, added to the fact when I've tried value range things in the past I often have found I really could tell the difference and didn't like them. However I'm discovering there are products that actually taste perfectly nice and not of horrors. Also discovered the Food Shopping and Groceries board has some great threads in it where people have already tried things and said what they're like, so I'm using that as a guide too.

I did this with the thread about Aldi foods. I used to refuse to get anything from there on principle:o (although I will happily shop in Aldi/ Lidl etc when on holiday abroad.....) I started off small by buying the grandessa jam and some of the f&v. My shops in there used to be about £3-£5. Now they are more likely to be £25. I still don't buy masses of stuff from there, but will give things a go (and can usually cope with eating something once to not waste it if it is not to my taste - or DS1 (human dustbin) will eat it) I now combine Aldi shopping with Mr S and an occasional delivery from Waitrose. Mr T I use as a corner shop (for emergency bread & milk) because I hate it - but will also check for whoopsies and buy any good offers if I'm there.

I hit Aldi & Sainsby yesterday (and Stresco on Fri when I found that we had mouldy bread and were going out for a picnic!!) I now shouldn't need anything until the weekend (and probably only bread/ milk/ yogurts/ apples then) We have loads of f&v & the garden is supplying us with more - and my mum has brought down a box of cooking apples today (and some HUGE chillis) so I'll go blackberrying today/ tomorrow as well. I literally cannot fit anything more in my freezer (it has been re-jigged and re-jigged again!) and have 1/2 loaf that I need to try and squeeze in, so am looking at what I can use from there for tea - but also have stuff in the fridge that needs to be used! Argh!!!

Anyway, total has now shot up to £141.36 (with around another £5 to go on from Sat spends by DH when I find receipt) - but we're at 1/3rd of the month and 1/3 of the budget (both roughly) - with no anticipated spends for a few days (except ice creams on Thurs when we go out for a picnic, I expect) so I'm happy with that.

Might let DH hit the supermarket next weekend, though - he's less impulsive than me (but not much!!)

Making crumble topping, choc courgette cake, choc chip cookies and flapjacks today :-) (although none of that helps my freezer situation!):rotfl: