October 2010 Grocery Challenge

Izzle

Hello, hope you don't mind me joining in! Please put me down for £250 for October. That includes the veg box I get delivered as well as everything I need to supplement it. Eeek it's the first time I've ever done this so it will be hard remembering to write everything down!

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Welcome to all the newbies. Hope you have a successful first Grocery Challenge.

Thanks to Rosieben for the info on meal planning. I will take a look when I have time later.

Had to buy lunch yesterday as finished work late and have to be at school early on a Thursday as it's the 'afterschool activities day from hell'. Spent $4.36in C**p on a pasta salad, which wasn't all that nice and some small choc treats for the kids.

Just off out to lunch with my best buddie - different budget luckily!

Have a good day all.
Coxy
xx

Spiggle

Hippeechiq wrote: »

I've been meaning to ask......I think I'm probably alone in this, but am I the only one who doesn't batch cook main meals?

... but to me, meat never tastes right when it's been re-heated. I just wondered if I was alone in this?

Hi Hippeechiq,

I know others have answered but we don't bartch cook and freeze. Very occasionally OH will bung just one portion of something, bol, cauli cheese, etc., into the freezer but its never deliberate. I can usually tell when a meat dish has come out of the freezer. Not sure what it is but there is a difference.

And as I've said before, my capacity for eating the same thing in a variety of ways over many days is huge. For instance, we bought a lovely big chicken from the butcher last weekend and it has fed us both (including my sarnies for work) for the week up until yesterday evening when I had cauli cheese. So £8 on a huge bird fed two people for four and a half days. And of course we have the stock for soup too. Adding in veg, gravy, bread sauce, etc works out at probably around £1.30 per day per person which is fine by me. I do however accept that not many would be able to eat the same thing everyday but I'm a bit of a saddo!

Welcome to the many newbies joining us, :wave: you've come to the right place for advice, support, hugs and inspiration. Please don't ever be afraid to ask a question - someone will have an answer.

Snowdonlily, I second all the supportive comments made so far and am sending you hugs. :grouphug:

I've declared over on September and came in just under with £5 odd to spare. Thanks for putting me on the list MrsMcCawber, :A thanks for the recipe list rosieben :A and thanks to pinkwinged for getting us started for the new month. :A

OH is off to the doc again this afternoon so we're going to get the few things we need at the local S*m**f***d/C**p as can't be bothered to go out of town in this torrential rain. (I'd prefer not to be going out full stop but needs must and all that ) And I've got a £2 off £20 shop so will probably just about hit that.

I had a £10 off £50 from MrM in the post the other day so that's in my bag for when we need a bigger shop later in the month.

OK, I'm off to update spreadsheet as loads of payments gone out today - including first OP on the mortgage for about two years :j - so I'll be back later to update on the spend and debt.

Take care,
Spigs

LannyLee

Spiggle wrote: »

I had a £10 off £50 from MrM in the post the other day so that's in my bag for when we need a bigger shop later in the month.

Take care,
Spigs

Spigs, where did you get the voucher from, as I shop in there all the time & I've never had one

Spiggle

LannyLee wrote: »

Spigs, where did you get the voucher from, as I shop in there all the time & I've never had one

Hi LannyLee,

It just came in the post unsolicited. Sorry I can't help any further.

All the best,
Spigs

sewprettymoo

hi

can i put myself down for £30 this month please? got plenty in the freezer and cupboards!

thanks!

moo:p

jackie_w

Well £2 spent on Sweets for DS. he was going to get his flu jag this morning, and he usually gets into such a state, but, today, he was really brave (he has a terrible fear of jags), so, I treated him to some sweets.

Hopefully I wont need to buy anything else today, and my shopping can wait until the weekend. Will definetly check out L*dl and A*di this weekend. Have checked them before, but, find they dont stock alot of the things I would normally buy.

Alot of you are mentioning about batch cooking. Whenever I cook anything, and theres leftovers, DH will go and have second helpings, ie beef casserole, I make that with 1.5lb of meat and veggies, (this is for 2 adults and 2 children), and hope that I can at least put by 1 portion for the freezer, but he just eats it! He also eats all the biscuits, sweets and crisps, and whenever I complain, he says thats what they are there for, but, if I dont buy them, he complains theres nothing for eating :mad::mad::mad:. He has admitted to eating because hes bored or fed up, so this is a battle I have to try to win.

I want to try to use my slow cooker a bit more during the winter. Whenever I use it, I usually find my gravy is very watery. I know to thicken this up I can add cornflour, so, would I add the cornflour halfway through cooking, or at the beginning?

I also see alot of you get vouchers from the supermarkets. Where do you get them from? Are they only for online shopping?

adelight

sewprettymoo wrote: »

hi

can i put myself down for £30 this month please? got plenty in the freezer and cupboards!

thanks!

moo:p

That's impressive! Are you just feeding yourself? Hopefully I'll manage a month that low soon as I'm gradually stocking up!

kirsty822001

OH DEAR!!
Lost control of spending in Sept,went back to work after summer of not much work and went a bit mad buying lots of food!! The bargains/1/2 price deals/offers seemed to become very important to me!
I havent even added my receipts up I may do when feeling braver!

So I need to make better choices and use what we have and meal plan again, one month off certainly meant everything went a bit wayward! Started slimming world (again) lost 5.5lb in last 3 weeks but do tend to have a mild panic if no fruit/veg/yogs/cheese in fridge!!

please put me down for £400 for Oct,me dh,ds,dd,ds should easily do that again if I can stay out of Sainsburys unless I really need stuff and have a list and a mealplan!!

Kids bugging me to go spend £30 in there today so they can give me £20 towards a £25 ps3 game,,I am resisting,,they can save for it a bit longer

Hippeechiq

I would also be interested to hear how so many people get £2 off this shop or a £10 of that one, or £5 off another, as I've never received any vouchers of any kind either online or via the post.

We've got 3 days of very heavy rain forecast for today and all weekend down here in the South - it's chucking it down as I type.

Based on that, I bought 4 packs of Kenc0 coffee and 3 packs of noodles that were on offer and finish this weekend, some red and white onions, salsa (on offer in £idl) and a tin of $limfast for DD yesterday, knowing I wouldn't be up for a 1½ mile trek in torrential rain during the next 3 days, but which are in fact part of Octobers budget.

So, spends so far for October of £20.94

I will have to go out tomorrow for the obligatory milk and also bread as Icel@nd didn't have any bread yeasterday at 4pm when I went in can you believe?!