October 2010 Grocery Challenge

~moneysavingnovice~

There's been some talk about stocks in freezers etc, my take:

I like to have as empty cupboards as possible. Might sound strange to most of you but my thinking is that for me personally this helps to minimise waste. Each week we only buy what we need. I find that if I buy in bulk, we eat more than we would do normally just because it's there!

Anyway, as has been said, horses for courses. Whatever brings you in under budget!

freakyogre

£1.99 on Pringles in Tesco. They're currently buy one, get two free.

Hippeechiq

Diflower wrote: »

Yesterday I cut it in half, roast one 1/2 in harissa, orange & mint and the other with lemon, thyme, garlic, bay. I fancied the harissa. Roasted some little bits of potato, added a few frozen peppers to the harissa-oily chicken tin for the last 10 mins, and made coleslaw with red & white cabbage, onion, carrot, and a mustardy dressing. Would have had a lettuce-type salad but no lettuce. 'Twas lovely, I enjoyed both cooking and eating it.

Well that sounds totally lush Diflower

Tonight I deviated from my meal plan, but to be fair, I am in the middle of the 4th week of a 5 week meal plan, so I don't think that's too bad. I normally do a 4 week plan, but the last two months I've had enough recipes to do a 5 weeker.

I subbed a home made Veggie Curry tonight for a cheat (as in sauce out of a packet) Garlic & Ginger Chicken Stir Fry with Mediterranean Veg from Icle@nd - works fab in a stir fry - on a bed of egg noodles.
I enjoy cooking from scratch but I just wanted something easy tonight, and also because I just didn't fancy a curry - you don't always, do you?

It is only since being made redundant in January that I realise that we were eating the same old, same old week in week out because I used to be on my feet all day, and was too shattered to spend more than an additional hour on my feet cooking when I got in from work.

Since January it has freed me up to search for new recipes, and I'm really enjoying trying out new tastes and flavours and I can now plan a menu without repeating a meal for 5 weeks, using old, but mainly new recipes that I've discovered.

The novelty may well wear off (although I am constantly searching for new recipes) but for now, I find myself looking at my menu on the fridge in the morning, thinking "oooo - good, we've got that tonight, and because I don't have whatever is on "today's" menu more than once every 4-5 weeks, I don't get bored of any particular meal. What I'm enjoying equally is that there is very, very seldom any food waste in my home anymore....call me sad, but I find that extremely gratifying

It has also, without a doubt, enabled me to budget better, so it's a system that works for me.

I love this thread. I love to see what works for other people and enjoy the way we all bounce off each other

Welcome to todays newcomers by the way :wave:

sharronej

Diflower wrote: »

You're not alone:) The first week, I wrote a plan and stuck to it, and enjoyed it. I quite liked looking on the fridge door each morning and just getting on with it.
The second week, I wrote and re-wrote the plan several times. I did stick to it, but didn't enjoy it, felt I was being made to eat things I didn't want!
This week I tried to do a plan, but only got as far as Tuesday, which was fine. Tuesday night I got the big chicken out of the freezer.

Yesterday I cut it in half, roast one 1/2 in harissa, orange & mint and the other with lemon, thyme, garlic, bay. I fancied the harissa. Roasted some little bits of potato, added a few frozen peppers to the harissa-oily chicken tin for the last 10 mins, and made coleslaw with red & white cabbage, onion, carrot, and a mustardy dressing. Would have had a lettuce-type salad but no lettuce. 'Twas lovely, I enjoyed both cooking and eating it.
Tonight there's enough of that half left for - well, something! Probably a sort-of Spanish chicken, with rice;no chorizo but there are some pepperoni slices. Something like that; final decision when I stick my head in the fridge!

Tomorrow we'll have the other half, maybe as a roast. And maybe I'll have what's left in a sandwich as a treat. I could also have frozen that half for another time.

This suits me far better, just planning roughly for a few days at a time. You do of course have to take account of what you have fresh, so tonight's will have some mushrooms added, and tomorrow's will have the last of a savoy cabbage.

yum it sounds lovely and is more or less the way I do things - there's a range of food in for the week and then I decide on the day what to do with the ingrediants - sometimes by using whats in the cupboard, fridge or freezer we end up with a meal which wasn't on the orginal plan at all

sharronej

Diflower wrote: »

You're not alone:)
Yesterday I cut it in half, roast one 1/2 in harissa, orange & mint and the other with lemon, thyme, garlic, bay. I fancied the harissa. Roasted some little bits of potato, added a few frozen peppers to the harissa-oily chicken tin for the last 10 mins, and made coleslaw with red & white cabbage, onion, carrot, and a mustardy dressing. Would have had a lettuce-type salad but no lettuce. 'Twas lovely, I enjoyed both cooking and eating it.
Tonight there's enough of that half left for - well, something! Probably a sort-of Spanish chicken, with rice;no chorizo but there are some pepperoni slices. Something like that; final decision when I stick my head in the fridge!

Tomorrow we'll have the other half, maybe as a roast. And maybe I'll have what's left in a sandwich as a treat. I could also have frozen that half for another time.

yum it sounds lovely and is more or less the way I do things - there's a range of food in for the week and then I decide on the day what to do with the ingrediants - sometimes by using whats in the cupboard, fridge or freezer we end up with a meal which wasn't on the orginal plan at all

Hippiechic - before I became a childminder I managed an Opticians and worked six days a week. I used to spend one of the weekends bulk/batch cooking and worked off a six week plan - the meals repeated twice over the six weeks and it wasn't bad but I realised that I'm actually quite rubbish at reheating food i still have the book and the plan and toy with the idea every now and again but I haven't really improved on the reheating thing so maybe not :rotfl:

Chloris

Thanks for all the input folks! We do tend to have the same meals often. I like us all to sit and eat as a family and I don't like cooking more than one meal. We are rather restricted by my DS1, he is 6 years old and is a fussy eater. He likes meat/fish and carb and doesn't want it messed with too much! I cook everything from scratch apart from curry sauce! We did try a new recipe on the weekend, pork loin steaks casseroled with apples, parsnips and leeks with a creamy sauce served with mash. DS1 liked it although he only had the meat and mash! It made us consider a slow cooker. My weekly meal plan, atm, goes like this:
Day 1 Roast chicken and veg
Day 2 Chicken curry, poppadoms and rice
Day 3 Pasta, meatballs and focaccia
Day 4 Quiche, salad, beans and jackets
Day 5 HM pizza and wedges
Day 6 Toad-in-the-hole and veg
Day 7 Random hopefully inspired meal!
My son is fussy with veg but then can be completely open to meat and fish. In fact the stranger the better! He ate a big bowl of prawns and mussels in garlic butter with crusty bread for tea yesterday but he then refuses to sit at the table with anyone if they are eating a cheese sandwich!:rotfl:

de1amo

i once lived on 3 repetitive meals for 3 years as a batchelor-all totally unhealthy and not cheap to concocote--wasnt real cooking just throwing sauces over fried meat etc--i think there is real money to be saved 'doing' it as 'mother' intended and cooking from base ingredients--convinence costs pounds!

suzybloo

Hello folks havent posted for over a week as things havent been good however I am really pleased to report that I have come in UNDER budget for October. I had set myself a challenge of £450 but my total is £433.00. The cupboards are quite bare and there has been very little waste, but I am so pleased I reckon I have saved about £150. My budget for November will be £425 and hopefully I will manage that. Many thanks for your support and good luck for next month!

Hippeechiq

I don't batch cook anything sharronej as I really don't care for the taste of reheated food.

The only exception I make to re-heating food is when I make an Onion Tart (eat half and freeze half) and Cheese & Lentil Loaf (sliced into 12 and frozen ) so it's possibly the taste of meat re-heated that I don't like, although that said, I can't abide the taste of re-heated potatoes either _pale_

You're probably not rubbish at re-heating food, you probably just have picky taste buds like me

Chloris I have a 21yr old step son who only eats pizza and chips - I've tried for years to encourage him to eat other things, but he wont, and is old enough now to know it's not healthy, so I've given up....oh, he will eat a roast, but only roast chicken.

My DD has mental illness similar to bi-polar (but without the highs) and her meds change frequently as they endeavour to find something to keep her on an even keel while going through therapy, so due to her meds, her appetite and tastes vary wildly. So I always cook at least two separate meals each evening and often three, although at the moment shes on $limfast due to weight gaining meds and snacks of mainly fruit, yoghurt, toast and pasta, as the thought of anything that remotely resembles a meal, makes her nauseus.

So my menu plan is purely for my OH and I, as SS has his Pizza & Chips every day, and DD has something else, or sometimes nothing at all, depending on her mood and the side effects of her meds. It's not easy, is it, when everyone doesn't eat the same meal?

de1amo You're not wrong about convenience foods costing big bucks!

Sorry to hear things aren't good with you suzybloo, but well done on your achievement :T

becky170

I'm declaring £150.66 for this month so I'm pretty much on budget I've just been watching Rivercottage everyday lunches and now I'm feeling inspired to make my lunches more exciting....well more exciting than alternating been chesse and ham sandwiches anyway!