September 2010 Grocery Challenge

savingcaz

Hi all

I've completely blown my budget this month and i don't know Why!! Sept & Oct are our tough months and i've gone mad on food! We've now got about £30 to last us till the 28th and next month is going to be even tougher!!

On the plus side we've loads in, chicken, 2 x full chickens, beef, joint, pork, frying steak, casserole steak, mince, etc etc so we should only really need to replace the veg, milk etc

off to search old style now for some mega frugal living for the next 6 weeks effectively however in reality needs to be for foreseeable future!!

adelight

So annoyed with myself! Went to Lidl and spent £5.05 but half of that was completely non-essential! Like brioche and puff pastry(stupid great british bake off!), as well as eggs, jam, celery and water.
I've less than £10 for the rest of the month now, so have done a mini inventory/brain storm on what I have and can eat. I have SO much food in, ie 11 eggs and enough for 8 burgers with buns and salad!!!
I'm finding it so hard to plan what to eat each day, maybe I can just write up some meal ideas to make with what I've got? Brioche french toast for relaxed mornings, make a fish pie with all my frozen fillets eggs and spuds, bulk out my teeny bit of beef mince with quorn & lentils for a spag bol and shepherd's pie, top a bean casserole with puff pastry? Surely some sort of jam tart can be made with the puff pastry too, top it with a blob of quark.
If I behave myself I can have lots of NSD and just spend a few quid on fruit & milk every 4-5 days.

I'm feeling inspired (by this and some DFW diaries) to work out and record how much meals costs me. Lidl porridge oats w/cinammon is definitely my budget breakfast!

guccigoo

~moneysavingnovice~ wrote: »

Grr! Want a bit of a rant...

I'm on a work trip this week and work aren't paying expenses. So, I've been bringing my packed lunches with me which was fine until today at lunch one of my colleagues said to me, "I can buy you a drink at least if money is so bad you have to bring your own food with you". Made me feel so carp, and put a downer on all my good GC savings. I can afford to buy food from the ridiculously overpriced cafe but I choose not to cos there are better things to spend my money on, like my credit card bill!

Stupid people! /rant over!

dont worry about what people say there just ignorant and prob spend there money on the most stupid things

EvieSaver

~moneysavingnovice~ wrote: »

Grr! Want a bit of a rant...

I'm on a work trip this week and work aren't paying expenses. So, I've been bringing my packed lunches with me which was fine until today at lunch one of my colleagues said to me, "I can buy you a drink at least if money is so bad you have to bring your own food with you". Made me feel so carp, and put a downer on all my good GC savings. I can afford to buy food from the ridiculously overpriced cafe but I choose not to cos there are better things to spend my money on, like my credit card bill!

Stupid people! /rant over!

How horrible:mad:, definitely worth the rant but I completely agree with your final comment: 'Stupid people' I would probably also add 'nasty' to their personal description though:). Don't let them get you down, I would be doing exactly the same as you. It's much better to spend money on the things you really want rather than buying overpriced cafe food just to 'fit in' with the 'stupid' people anyway.

Got to add another £4.49 to my total as I'm completely worn out so needed some wine - on a MS note it was half price though!:p

hedgesparrow

moneysavingnovice - how rude of that person. Even if they thought it - they shouldn't have said it. I always assume people who have a packed lunch are organised people - they are obviously duped by marketing if they think that homemade is inferior (when everyone knows it's better!)

I have spent £22.80 on lots of onion sets and a LOT of brassica plants. It is my own fault for not being organised - because the ones I sowed got munched by caterpillars cause I didn't protect them. Learnt my lesson. Also bought milk for £1.56

We have made the desicion that the stuff we buy for the allotment should come from the food budget. It will make it tight for this month but we are confident we can do it!

Long_tall_sally

NSD today for me.

Herbyme

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

My budget is also £40 a week for 2 Adult, a Child, 2 cats and 2 Rabbits! We eat well... we eat healthy!

£150 is stupid amounts of money!! It sounds like a lot of meat... which isn't good for you!! Good for you... be proud of what you do xxx

JG, my budget is £150 a week. I'm not offended but I wish you could come shopping and live with me for a week to show me how I can get it down, I expect it sounds pathetic but this is us trying, we used to spend more (we used to earn more too, a lot more than we do now, we didn't even used to notice or care how much we spent). Ours does include wine which is about £30 - £40 a week but even so. I only have one child more than you to feed and frankly my kids eat like sparrows (makes up for DH who is a gannet)!

thriftmonster

Moneysavingnovice - develop some sort of "food intolerance" that means you need to bring your own food - can have been recently "diagnosed" (by you - in fact an allergy to overspending). MSG or additives is a good one as it's up to you to specify what's ok. I find this usually shuts people up (although I am actually intolerant of MSG - it gives me palpitations)

Herbyme

greent wrote: »

LT Sally

Sausage Casserole - originally for 4 but will stretch to 6 easily

8 sausages
oil (olive, sunflower - whatever)
1 onion (chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic (chopped) or a big squeeze of garlic puree
1 1/2 peppers, chopped (whatever colours you like)
2 handfuls of mushrooms (sliced or chopped according to preference)
2 x tin of chopped tomatoes
big squidge of tomato puree
red wine (small glass/ large splosh) (optional but nice!)
dried chilli or paprika to taste
1/2 tsp mixed herbs/ italian seasoning or whatever you've got around

Chop sausages into bite sized pieces (scissors work well!) About 8 pieces a sausage, I guess. Using a large saucepan, gently fry off until brown (important bit - they look insipid if casseroled without being browned off!) Put to one side and then soften onion and garlic (use same pan with the sausage fat in) Add peppers and mushrooms and cook for about 3-5 mins.
Put sausages back in pan with tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, wine, herbs. Simmer until it's cooked (about 20-30 mins)

Nice made earlier and then re-heated, as chilli/ paprika flavour develops.

Eat with hunks of French stick (or rice or jkts, I guess )

You can bulk it out more with other veg and a handful of lentils in, but I tend to have veg on the side with it instead to bulk it out

btw I got a great recipe from the co-op mag, a bit like this only with lots of brown/puy lentils and it makes soup rather than a casserole, it's fab! Even Dh who is no lentil lover really raves about it!

suzybloo

Struggling a bit but have well stocked cupboards. Spent £34 in Tesco tonight, and spent £12 yesterday rolls and wait for it............. ONIONS! I was walking along our high st, and noticed this chap walking along with lovely bunches of onions, about 40 in the bunch all tied with raffia, ready to hang up, and I thought oh they look lovely wish I could have some of these, about ten steps further I noticed this white van with crates of them, and it had a French number plate so said to my sister I am going to see if he is selling them - she was mortified. along comes the chappy so 'Excuse me sir,are your onions for sale' 'mais oui madame all the way from Brittany' 'how much?' '£6 a bunch' he replies, so bold as brass I asked if he would take a tenner for two bunches and he agreed so I now have about 80 french onions hanging in the garage and they are fantastic!!! He had crates of shallots and garlic but I only had £10 on me. It reminded me of the old fashioned 'Onion Johnnies' who used to come round the doors when we were small selling the bunches of onions from their bikes - did anyone else have these french folk coming round over 35-40 years ago?