November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Butterfly_Brain

I would buy a chicken (£2.99 in Aldi) and stretch it out
One day roast, then stew rissotto, curry,pies or even sandwiches, plus use the carcass as a base for a nice homely soup

Also in Aldi they have 12 sausages for 72p and if you use four at a time you could make, Sausages with pasta, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes, Sausage toad and a sausage stew.

Aldi super six this week are........ new potatoes 69p, mushrooms 69p, peppers 69p, pears 69p, green apples 69p and kiwis 69p

15 medium eggs are £1.25 = Egg sandwiches, boiled eggs and soldiers, egg and chips, quiches, frittatas
Bake your own cakes, shortbread or twinks hob nobs for lunch boxes for a treat with a piece of fruit.

Roast Beef - Use any leftovers for a cottage pie, plate pie or pasties

Pizza bases - Pizza

Chicken thighs see rubber chicken

Tuna = fishcakes, tuna pasta or use in sandwiches

you could use a bag of apples to make apple sponge, apple pie or a crumble at those prices too

Hope this helps x

squeaky

A few snippets from the Welcome sticky might help you out...

If you've ever said -

"I've got a pantry full of food and nothing to eat"...

Then there are plenty of ideas and inspiration in this older thread store cupboard challenge and more in this recent one Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge... and if those can't help you, you can look up your prospective main ingredient and find a thread (or two) full of recipes each in The Complete Cooking Collection and if you are still stuck then try here:- Cooking by numbers website



And...


There are lots of threads which contain either cheap, or healthy, or both, ideas for recipes. Here's a short list of both:- cheap healthy threads

There are more here:- The Complete Cooking Collection listed under "healthy eating"

Packed lunches for work and school can also be found in that collection listed under "lunch", with thousands of ideas which can be a great money saver. You can also find other lunch based threads (including a lunch challenge) on Debt-Free Wannabe and others (especially for school) on MoneySaving in Marriages, Relationships & Families. And if they don't tickle your taste buds this google search:- google packed lunches comes up with just over 2,000,000 pages. You don't need to read them all - but the first several are very good. Honest



Then from the Indexed Collections sticky there's...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/4098677#Comment_4098677

Which has lots of threads and tips on shopping the frugal way :-)


If you have a good browse around your store cupboard and fridge&freezer it's quite possible that you'll find that you don't need to do quite as much shopping as you thought :-)

valk_scot

Work out how much you'll have to spend on milk and bread till then and it will give you a much better idea of what you've got to spend. I personally would buy a pile of cheaper veg like carrots, greens, cauliflower and some more onions and have at least one roast dinner and a lot of soups and curries. For sweet stuff I'd get a big bag of flour and some caster sugar, a bag of Value dried fruit ,more eggs if necessary and get baking. Apples are cheap atm so have apple crumble or Eve's Pudding. For packed lunches you could have roast beef and egg or tuna mayo for fillings, apple and piece of cake, carrot batons.

£40 for less than a week is a pretty good budget actually, given how much you have in the storecupboard. You can easily afford a bottle of sugar free squash and a bag of own brand sweeties from that, for the kids at the weekend. Or a bottle of inexpensive wine. But they're not necessities after all.

elf06

Moniker wrote: »

Hi everyone

A bit of a shock this morning as I checked my bank balance online and found that there were two mysterious transactions on my credit card - two lots of £15 paid to a mobile company for a top up on Sunday. Fortunately I phoned the bank and they have accepted that I didn't spend it and have stopped the card while they investigate what has happened. I usually check my accounts everyday but was too busy yesterday - I did think I was getting a bit obsessive about it but I am glad I spotted this before they took even more money!


Good luck everyone and keep up the good work.

Moniker

Moniker - this happened to me quite some time ago (when i actually had some money) and the blighters managed to get 5 (yes i know ) transactions of £30 out of me!!! Exact same set up as yourself - to a mobile phone company but thankfully I did get the money back. It made me much more aware of checking my internet banking and stepping up my security at home!!

On a GC note - I had another spend a few days ago for £7.88 taking me to a total so far this month of £56 exactly!! I did get some reasonable bargains for my money though some lovely organic casserole steak for £1.75 and some of those (brand name) sausages that were brought out for bonfire night for £1.05 but those alone will do me at least 4 meals . Got other bits obviously which were needed (and one or 2 bits to make that lovely sounding chicken and nut curry nom nom nom). Also got DS some more long pj's but they come off a different budget so havent been included.

I have also been keeping a complete list of everything bought so nearer the end of the month I shall be totting up the costs for certain areas to see if this will help me cut down

charleybabes

hi all

thank you for the suggestions.. my husband went and did the shop late last night...( didnt find any decent woopsies though fuming!!)
we got it in at £38 and that was including wipes, cleaning cloths and a huge box of crisps. ( i think he felt the need for a potato snack!)

heres our meal plan for the coming week now

tonight - roast beef and yorky puds ( beef in slow cooker as i type!)
friday night - spag boll and garlic bread
satuday - bacon butties for lunch and chicken wraps for dinner
sunday - soup and sandwich for lunch and toad in hole for dinner
monday- chicken thigh curry
tuesday - shepherds pie

SherlockFan85

Hello,

A £5 spend yesterday on the following:

£2 on cheeseburger from BK - craving protein on commute home

£3 in Mr S on loaf thick white, 2 pints milk and two bars of basic choc, even more shame

Have included several added extra amounts which i know have/will go on food this week, about £20 for OH's lunches during his London police training, £10 at the noodle bar which we're going to on Friday. At least we have a voucher for free popcorn and drinks for the cinema! Ah, the power of the written complaint (genuine, mind you) :cool:

Had chicken goujons with cheese/broccoli pasta and green beans yesterday, yum Will probs have the other two leftover beef and onion pies tonight with flavoured rice and spag hoops. They don't really go, but we need to eat from the packets and tins in the cupboard.

Hugs to all :grouphug:

de1amo

my nsd was ruined by my wife ordering delivery turkish pide(pizza) on the way home from work last night--we have lots of cooked food in the fridge that would have been better and cheaper--i am going to confront her with this habit when i estabilish the monthly budget/totals--for 2 it costs 7 pounds when i would have just as happy with reheated cauliflour cheese out of the fridge!! -the total is up to nearly 150quid for just 2 adults who hardly eat at home!

Linda32

Hiya,

I'm trying for £375 this month,
Month started 29th October and finish 26th November

New Total £133.21

Co-op £5.47

Total £138.68

I'm looking at £75.00 per week, so this total shouldn't be more than £150.00 by next Friday. (12th November)

[Deleted User]

Morning chums I managed to do five portions of shep's pie, plus a lasagne for DD yesterday out of the 750 gms of best mince .She popped down to collect them last night and was very grateful for them.She is a good lass and changes my bedding for me every Sunday and takes the sheets and duvet cover home and washes it for me and replaces it the following Sunday.Plus if upstairs need hoovering she will carry the hoover up and do it for me as she knows I can't carry anything heavy anymore .I never mind cooking for her as although she has her OH and two children she loathes cooking and loves Mums HM stuff.NSD todaya as I have enough in my freezer and cupboards to last me .I am hoping to get to at least Sunday or Monday before I have to buy anything Today I am cooking some cakes for the tins and maybe some of Twinks cookies.We are really all doing extremely well this month and focusing on the stuff we will have to buy next month.Well done chums ,we really should have a pat-on-the -back symbol on here :):)

mummygems

I had to go and get some medicine stuff yesterday which left me nearly £20 poorer!!! I have 2 little ones so we buy the calpol and neurofen (together they cost £13). Have tried the supermarket own brand but they just wont take it so annoying. DH has a cold so wanted cold and flu and I also have a stinking cold but can only take paracetamol due to being pregnant. I also got some lemons and honey for me to drink to try and sooth my throat. DD2 has chicken pox poor little thing so also had to get antihistimine and calamine lotion. Always happens at once doesnt it.

I dont plan (nor do I fancy) going to the shops again anytime soon lol. Will probably need some milk at the weekend but DH can get that on his way home from work. Might pop the breadmaker on for some nice HM bread and soup for lunch.

Off to update signature.