October 2010 Grocery Challenge

de1amo

i live in Turkey where local shops serve the people--you can daily shop at a reasonable cost.--it avoids stock piling food and eating frozen--also i saw a study about supermarkets in the uk that suggested that your local shops are very competitive taken as a whole --it just takes a lot of energy and time--its just not as convienient!--if local shops are closed when work turns out drives you into supermarkets and doing shopping en bulk thus creating bottomless freezers!--im sure with build ups comes wastage as things go beyond 'safe to eat' time!

NickJW

Sorry - typo last night - was supposed to say 9.5 stone - still I looked ill.

Now, I fluctuate between 11 and 13 stone. BUT I do eat healthily - porridge for breakfast, bagels/salad/pasta for lunch, and then a normal dinner. Life is about balance as far as I see - what's the point in life if you deprive yourself of the things you enjoy. If you do exercise in addition to eating a bacon sarnie now and again then it's hardly the end of the world.

Last night was awful! I quit smoking a long time ago, but ended up smoking to compensate for being so hungry! Did get some sales so at least that's a positive.
This morning I woke up and had a few fried eggs on toast - feels like the best thing in the world.

As for my manager - she just laughs it off and says she is joking. She eats hardly anything and always brags about it - but she is ALWAYS ill! No wonder! A few years ago our company got rid of HR to save money, so if you want to complain you have to go to your manager....
Luckily she doesn't directly look over me that much, and is in a different office. These promotion nights are few and far between as well so I can eat what I want today. :T A

rosieben

de1amo wrote: »

... -im sure with build ups comes wastage as things go beyond 'safe to eat' time!

that's why planning is a help; I do meal planning and I make sure I corporate whatever needs using up this week, into this week's meal plan.

your situation is very different, I would love to be able to shop locally and have a decent range of shops to buy from; we have one over-priced, under-stocked c00p within walking distance, otherwise for me its a 2-hour bus journey to any decent shop

I do a big monthly shop online and try to only use the local c00p for milk, veg (not a good choice or quality)

'safe to eat' time is a whole other discussion which I wont start here

waddy80

Hi!

Can I join for november please? I used to do the GC over a year ago, but things have changed since then. There is me and OH, and DD, although she is only 16 weeks old and exclusivley breastfed, so she costs me nothing for food at the minute! Our food spend is getting out of hand, with the changes in life I have stopped meal planning and really need to get back on it! I am on maternity leave so I'm at home all the time and eating loads!!! I've had a look at our spend for this month and it was around £220, which is huge, I vaguely remember at times managing a spend of £95 per month.

So please can you put me down for £175 which is to include food, toiletries and cleaning products. Nappies will also be included but I do use re-useables apart from nightime and when out and about. I'm hoping to be way under as I am a food hoarder and could probably feed us for a month on what I have in! I'll start properly from nov 1st.

Now I'm off to check on my rubber chicken in my slow cooker and make an apple crumble from the apples got from the back garden of a neighbours house!!!

Chloris

2 Days into my November GC and we are £79.93 lighter:mad:. My fault as a couple of text books errors, i.e. shopping when hungry and stressed. I knew this week would be spend heavy as its my DD birthday tomorrow and her party on Saturday, so entertaining and celebration food.

I need to re-think my meal plans. I like the food we are eating and it is coming in on budget but my meals are time heavy. I am a stay at home mother so that is not too much of a problem. I do need some quick emergency store cupboard meals to go along side some quick planned meals.

Pink.

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that the Grocery Challenge for November is now up and running so I'll unstick this thread in the next couple of days.

November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Thanks as always to MRSMCAWBER and rosieben for all their hard work and good luck to everyone taking part.

Pink

rosieben

Thank you Pink, you're a star :T

Waddy, congrats on your babe

see you all on the new thread

slbhill

Hippeechiq wrote: »

***Rant Alert***
Okay, I've thought about it, and I get that a lot, if not all chickens are corn fed, so because of the wheat shortage the cost of rearing them has risen and so the cost of chickens and eggs will rise, along with a million other wheat related/affected products....but loo rolls?!!
***Rant Over***

I don't blame you at all for your rant - I've been quite shocked at a lot of price rises. The wheat shortage is just one factor of many. One I keep coming across is that fuel prices, vehicle tax (trucks as well as cars) and insurance have been going up and up. That means transporting goods to packaging plants, distribution centres and then on to shops is getting more expensive every time you blink

muffin_man_7 wrote: »

jackie well done on lowering your stock of food.
I'd like to do this too but i have a few problems

1. the kids wont be helpfull or assist 2. it will take forever on my own i'm not a big eater and 3. HOW will i ever be able to restock

I think I must be missing your points , perhaps you can explain.

How do you want your kids to help? do you mean that they won't eat the stuff you have overstocked? Perhaps if you list things you're trying to use up on the storecupboard challenge they can come up with some imaginative uses that your kids might go for.

I am running down the contents of my freezer so I can defrost it! And a lot of people aren't so much running down stocks as using up things they bought that have sat unused. I used to buy a lot of thigns which seemed a good idea at the time but never got used - using them up is a good alternative to throwing them away! hopefully I can put aside the money I save running down stocks, to allow me to restock when the time comes.

I admit I hate having an empty freezer or cupboard - I feel very vulnerable! I prefer to keep a good stock - it allows me to stock up on things I use regularly when they are cheap instead of paying full price because they're not on special when I run out. But there is a limit. I remember helping my mum clear out her freezer - one of those snazzy ones which never need defrosting. Some of the stewed fruit had been in there for 15 years! Sometimes we need to run the stock right down just to see what we have and use it, rather than letting it go to waste like that. (we weren't brave enough to eat it, it went in the bin - and I'm not talking just one or two portions either!)

Sorry I'm not sure that answered anything much

sharronej

Chloris wrote: »

2 Days into my November GC and we are £79.93 lighter:mad:. My fault as a couple of text books errors, i.e. shopping when hungry and stressed. I knew this week would be spend heavy as its my DD birthday tomorrow and her party on Saturday, so entertaining and celebration food.

I need to re-think my meal plans. I like the food we are eating and it is coming in on budget but my meals are time heavy. I am a stay at home mother so that is not too much of a problem. I do need some quick emergency store cupboard meals to go along side some quick planned meals.

I'm kind of a stay at home mum in that I work as a childminder, so I'm home but depending on the day and our Scouting commitments I may or may not have time to cook. I make sure that I always have a couple of quick cook meals in for emergencies. ATM what I'm finding works for me is to throw some meat and a jar of sauce in the slow cooker before I start work (7.30am) so that when I've finished (6pm) all I need to do is cook some rice or pasta etc.

I also find if I set my meal plan in stone, I never want what I've planned that night :rotfl: Am I alone in this?

Hippeechiq

muffin_man_7 wrote: »

Has anyone considered how they would manage their budget if they had next to nothing in the cupboard, fridge or freezer??? which is why we try to build up a reserve in the first place
Any ideas gratefully received thank you

Errrr - speaking for myself - badly,
My cupboards and freezer are pretty much always full.

Store cupboard items are stored with longest use by dates at the back, shortest at the front, and are stored in categorgies, i.e. all tinned chickpeas together, all tinned kidney beans together, all tinned tomatoes together, all coconut milk together, mixed beans, baked beans, soup, tuna and so on, and the same with flour, sugar, rice, pasta and pulses.

Freezer I have a small upright one and half of a fridge/freezer, which have a drawer for bread, garlic bread, naan bread and crumpets, a drawer for frozen veg, a drawer for meat (labelled and dated so oldest gets used first) a drawer for ice cream and frozen fruit, a drawer for chips/hash browns/potato wedges/onion rings, a drawer for home made frozen quiche/lentils loafs and so on, a drawer for half used tins of tomatoes/chick peas/coconut milk/peppers/celery/leek/mushrooms/grated cheese and so on.

I couldn't imagine doing it any other way - nothing stays in my freezer (meat or other) longer than 6 weeks, so I don't store for the sake of it, everything is bought and eaten within a 6 week period. I used to find stuff lurking at the back of them, but I now have a good system that works for me

It would send me into a flat panic to have half empty freezers and store cupboards, but then, it's horses for courses. It's all about finding a system that suits the individual.

NickJW wrote: »

Now the negatives
Anyway - I got to work, and I was going to have my breakfast as usual, when my new boss told me that I wasn't allowed to eat today because I needed to make a good impression on our clients!!! She said that I had 'let myself go'...in public! :mad:

Okay - I'm 5 ft 12 and weigh 11 stone, but I have a limited amount of fat mass. But she is comparing me 5 years ago when I weighed 8.5 stone (i.e. - looking very ill!).

Can't decide whether you're 5ft 1" or 6ft as 5ft 12 is 6ft, but no matter - it's still an outrageous thing to say to someone, and in public is unforgivable :mad:

You don't sound overly annoyed - I would be livid! In fact, I think I might have decked him/her! I can't abide people who feel they have a god given right to humiliate or belittle another, but usually only dare do so because they are in a higher position than you in a company. It's an abuse of power, and you really should make a complaint.

Please don't let it lead to your smoking again. I gave up 4 years ago, and I think only those who have previously smoked can truly appreciate what an immense achievement it is

........kicks soap box into corner

Right then - spends today of £10.28 some of which I shouldn't have bought Brings my total to £264.12. So I've got £10.88 remaining. Will need bread and milk on or before Sunday and I have £2.78 in my purse in cash, which is enough for 4L of milk and 2 Loafs of bread. To buy anything else I would have to use my card (as that's where the remainder of my grocery budget is - the bank that is) and I really don't want to do that. Surely I have more willpower than that- don't I? We'll see