November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Rowan9

Been for a sains top up and getting some things to cook for dd's birthday meal tomorrow night. Spent £13.42 so have added to sig. Spent more on alcohol but that doesn't come out of this budget whoop whoop:T. Will be over this month but interested to see what it turns out at so am determined not to 'bow out' as i've done before.
Sorry you are having such a run of it Hippeechiq - thinking of you.
W

XSpender

Been to Mr S and spent £15.87 but £8.99 was on a book for a birthday present. Bought P1lgrims mature cheddar half price, shampoo and conditioner on offer, sweets and some cornflake and value choc to make cornflake cakes:D

Will be visiting Mr M this evening and I am hoping not to spend much more than the £40 needed to qualify for the Christmas voucher. Dh is coming too so it will be a challenge!

nattyt

Ok so my month ends on 27th November and i'm at £187.66!! But I may come in on budget as really shouldn't need much between now and then. Only the usual things such as friut veg milk etc. I'm so determined. Also have no kids this weekend so not alot will get eaten then!!:rotfl:
Maybe i'm not so bad at this as i thought!!

Spiggle

Evening All,

And happy Eid!

I didn't go shopping after work as I didn't leave until late and hate going into shops once it's already dark. My hibernating gene kicks in and I just want to get home!

OH got the Ri**na today though so I'll need to add £2.99 to my spreadsheet and sig in a minute. Even though it means another spend day, it makes more sense for me to go from work on Thursday as I can then get the milk, etc for the weekend. And I can get a list together as I now 'fear' going in the sm without one!

Hippeechiq I hope you're feeling a bit better today. It's such a pain when the appliances start playing up. And for us on here when we plan our spends and menus it really is a kick in the teeth when we can't get things done accordingly. Still sending you hugs. :grouphug:

I'm off to mooch the boards and then have my supper. Have a great evening and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Take care,
Spigs

Long_tall_sally

Spent another £4.52 today at the Co op on some whoopsied veg for our new guineapig plus other bits but still managed to forget one of the things that I forgot yesterday plus I wasn't able to get something I needed so still need to do some more shopping.

If I could just make next Friday come really quick, I might even hit target this month!

Hippeechiq - thinking of you & wishing I could send you some good luck vibes.

freakyogre

£2.48 spent today. £1.62 in Tesco on some cherry tomatoes reduced to 45p and a big bag of grapes reduced to £1.17.

Popped into Coop on my way home as forgot to get milk - 86p.

guccigoo

just popping in to report a NSD :j
someone mentioned the value toilet tissue going up in mr t, i always buy that one but really annoyed now its gone up :mad:

Hippeechiq

Thank you so much everyone for all your hugs and positive vibes - you're a lovely bunch of people :T

I've had a much better day today thanks

You can still break your teeth on my pastry, and my oven is still not regulating properly, but the casserole that wouldn't cook yesterday - and that we didn't have for tea last night because OH was feeling rough and I was having a hissy fit - turned out to be lush when re-heated for 45 mins for our tea tonight :j

The downside is, that it means it took almost 3 hours to cook :eek:, and it said the recipe should feed four, but OH and I ate the lot. The upside is, that it tasted so awful half way through cooking, I had thought I was going to have to bin it. It was so lovely, that I really want to make it again next month, but I can't warrant 3hrs electricity on one dish! All I can think of to do, is to buy double the stewing steak (when it's on offer again) and cook two lots at once.

Does anyone know if sealing the beef first reduces cooking time by much?

On the GC front more spends today and yesterday on milk, sausages, fruit, bread and a couple of other bits bringing my total so far to £212.29, leaving me with £62.71, which I was a bit appalled at until I looked at how much I had spent last month by the 16th Oct, and I'd spent £213.38 - and I came in under budget last month, so there's still hope

Moniker

Evening folks!

I was determined not to go shopping at all this week and have been scratching around to make meals with what I have in. So Sunday's roast chicken was eaten cold with jackets and salad yesterday and tonight I made chicken and mushroom pies with shop bought puff pastry (I divided a big pack into four and froze the rest for another time). I made the pies in ramekins so there's only pastry on the top (for our health!) and there was enough for four - so two have gone in the freezer. Then I made a quiche with hm shortcrust pastry as I had the oven on, and used two slices of ham from the packet I opened for our packups tomorrow and some leftover frozen spinach for the filling. I had three eggs left in the fridge and need two for our breakfast tomorrow, but I had a search in the depths of the freezer and came up with two frozen egg whites which I used with the one whole egg and some milk. So I have a smallish quiche half of which will do for dinner on Thursday and the rest will go in the freezer for another day.

DH had to go out for a meeting today (he works from home as a rule) and so I made him his lunch a usual and put it in a tupperware box. He didn't notice that I had put a banana in there and so took another one from the fruit bowl and ate both of them! Result is that we only have one banana for our packups tomorrow! I am determined not to go near a shop till Thursday though and will have to make do with a biscuit from the stash at work for my elevenses tomorrow(poor me!)

I think this is the longest I have ever gone between food shops - I nearly alway have to pick up something in the week, so I am very pleased with that. I have family visiting at the weekend so will need to buy another joint as the piece of beef I have left in the freezer won't be big enough - so being careful this week will help off-set that.

Well that's all. Keep up the good work everyone.

Moniker

Hippeechiq

muffin_man_7 wrote: »

Hippichiq may i ask where you got the oven thermometor from mine is a gas oven 14 years old and is starting to be temperamental when i'm in a hurry mostly typical as it is still insured the repair man came out last year and said the control knobs had melted and as aresult i wasn't turning the dial to the right setting it still burns stuff even now but i can't find an oven thermometor any where hope you get sorted soon

Hi muffin man
You can get them from most independent stores that sell cookware, or AMAZ0N SELL THEM HERE

Mine is made by Tala and they're available usually from between £4 to £6 in shops. Prices vary more online, but they're not usually more than around £6 tops.

Hth