October 2010 Grocery Challenge

XLucky_PennyX

Ok quick update on my sig, £75.84 spent and £54.16 still in the pot with 11 days to go but hey who's counting!

At the weekend I was given a big bag of veg from my boss, her son had bought it for her at the farmers market but she said it was too much for her and oh - big bag of potatoes, 3 leeks, 2 florets of brocoli, 8 large carrots, turnip and a tangerine?

This has been an absolute God send as I have been able to make 3 batches of soup (lentil dd fav), brocoli and carrot with every meal, mashed turnip is in the freezer, so far we've had boiled potatoes, mashed and tonight roasted.

After such generousity I am not prepared to waste a single thing!!! there is still loads of potatoes and carrots left I think cottage pie is on the cards yum

xx

adelight

Hippeechiq wrote: »

The only two big shops I'm near enough to walk to are £idl and Te$co. I've never seen a whoopsie in £idls and Te$cos are sooooooo miniscule that they're insulting.

Lidl put stickers on saying "30% cheaper" "50% cheaper" which didn't make much sense until I noticed they put lots of those in a cardboard box next to the cheese with a tiny sign saying "these items are reduced"! I thought it was just like "hey we're cheaper!".
I got a gammon joint from lidl for ~£2 today because it had a sticker on it but it still has two weeks on the date!


Spent £5.02 on my weekly lidl trip today, gammon, oats, worcester sauce, pepper, soup, pasta and some peppers to freeze(couldn't resist 3 for 79p when it's often that much for one!).
Definitely going to be over by at least £5 this month as I'll do fruit/veg shop at Lidl this time next week Cutting down meat and no sneaky treats of cans of pop or nut bars should get me under budget next month.

*for anyone after bread flour, Lidl's fabulous 1.5kg bags are 50p atm!

EvieSaver

Done my weekly SM shop, had to have it delivered as my 2 yr old little boy has chicken pox. I am quite miffed that I had to pay £3.50 delivery charge but I think it was the best thing to do, especially as the night before we didn't get to sleep until 4:30am because he was 'itchy'. Anyway, total (incl delivery) was £59.88 so quite pleased over all. I forgot leeks though which I needed for today's stew so I had to quickly pop to a local shop to buy those so that was an extra 95p.

I'm feeling good as I'm under my £70 target for the week but I've been invited to a friend's tomorrow night so will need to buy some wine, but hopefully still on target.

Good luck everyone, it looks like hard times are ahead - with these cuts affecting us from April next year with CTC and NI. I hope to keep hitting my targets and I'm wondering if I could reduce them a little - I would like to try doing a monthly SM shop and pick up fruit and veg from my local greengrocers as their prices are similar/cheaper. My only problem with this is milk. We currently buy 24 pints a week and our local shop charges double the SM price so would cost a lot more than I would be saving in petrol. Need to do a local search for cheap milk before I can give this idea a try.

adelight

EvieSaver wrote: »

My only problem with this is milk. We currently buy 24 pints a week and our local shop charges double the SM price so would cost a lot more than I would be saving in petrol. Need to do a local search for cheap milk before I can give this idea a try.

Is soy milk an option? Own brand is ~60p for a litre and doesn't need to be kept in the fridge until opened.

Sue14

Spent £14.89 in A1di today, getting very close to target and still got 11 days to go :eek:, but the freezer is full and we have plenty in the cupboards, so we won't starve, lol!

Chloris

EvieSaver wrote: »

Done my weekly SM shop, had to have it delivered as my 2 yr old little boy has chicken pox. I am quite miffed that I had to pay £3.50 delivery charge but I think it was the best thing to do, especially as the night before we didn't get to sleep until 4:30am because he was 'itchy'.

OS chickenpox soother: put a couple of tablespoons of porridge oats/rolled oats into a pair of tights/handkerchief/muslin, tie with elastic band and put into a warmish bath with patient. You can squeeze the glop out on the spots to soothe them. My children liked this. Autumn is chickenpox season .

Diflower

Updated sig - eek!
I had a lovely time though, a treat for me as I had the car for the day. Sadly I call being able to go to the farm shop & MrM a treat:rotfl:

So, £9.01 in f/shop included loads of veg, plus a dozen eggs, and bird seeds (they're worth it for the entertainment value - I don't get out much!). Oh and just 4 sausages, I'm sure that will be plenty for a Jamie-type ragu for pasta for four. They're pork & garlic so will add a lot of flavour.
Then £7.97 in MrM. More veg - pots, reduced red & white cabbage (25p), mushrooms, liver, chicken wings, odds and ends like flour - and thankfully frozen peppers, they're all about 70p each round here. Oh and reduced muffins for when I find some pork mince to make mcmuffins:)

Been thinking about the spend vs target though. It's my first month so the target was a guess. Apart from that, I hadn't planned ahead, so it's been hard to come up with meal plans without buying more. Now I'm getting used to it, I think next month will be easier (famous last words!)

XSpender

Managed a NSD day again today. Was a close thing though as DH suggested fish and chips for tea so I had to review the meal plan off the top off my head and juggle things around to offer a tasty alternative so gammon, egg, HM potato scallops and beans it is. Phew!:D

Also found out our new kitchen is getting fitted next week, not the week after, so I will use up some of my stock making cake for the fitters but will need to buy extra milk and will need a takeaway one night as I will have no cooker or sink and it will save trying to wash the pots in the bath. I think I have some paper plates some where.

Winged_one

The oven got turned off on Monday morning by accident, so it was stone cold when we got home (I had set the timer so it would be hot so could cook pizza fast when we got in). So Im made the chicken and mushroom sauce for dinner Mon, with mash and made enough to make the pie for Tues with a pastry top. Worked fine, and we have the pizza for one night next week instead. And I reckoned the pizza would have taken as long by the time the oven heated up.

I have changed from Tikka to Korma for tomorrow, to use up a sauce from freezer (I will use the yoghurt for dessert instead) as I really really need to make space there. I used up the older chick carcass too and made a really good (really chickeny) batch of stock on Sunday in the crockpot - used 2.5 tubs in the Mon/Tues dinners, and then I froze 2 tubs and have a half one to throw into the Korma (possibly - it might be gone over by then) tomorrow. I also used up half a pack of puff pastry, and I am using the 2 rolls of cookie dough tonight. But there is not a lot of room there at the moment....

katholicos

£5.41 spent in Aldi this evening...baking potatoes, red seedless grapes, coleslaw, fresh beetroot, 6 free range eggs, 1 pkt paracetamol, 1 packet ibuprofen, onions. Have updated my siggy. Currently baking the potatoes with cheddar cheese and onions, will serve it with beetroot and coleslaw and some home made bread my mum made for us.