November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Gintotmelinda

Sunnyday tell me how you feed your pets-do you have cats? Dolly has *ams dry food and *elix pouches but I do worry about the nutritional content. She is 16 months old and very much a family member! I have a slow cooker.

Thanks

gintot

schrodie

I've already given my hopeful total for this month but can I just ask is there anywhere which explains what all the abbreviations one sees mean. Being new to this money saving thing I've come across so many abbreviations which don't mean much to me as a newbie. Some are fairly obvious but there are some that are fairly cryptic, to me anyway, for example does "syn" mean in the above excellent recipes

Thanks

cw18

schrodie wrote: »

I've already given my hopeful total for this month but can I just ask is there anywhere which explains what all the abbreviations one sees mean. Being new to this money saving thing I've come across so many abbreviations which don't mean much to me as a newbie. Some are fairly obvious but there are some that are fairly cryptic, to me anyway, for example does "syn" mean in the above excellent recipes

Thanks

Syn is a Weight-W@tchers thing - they don't calorie count, but have allowed/"free" foods on certain days, which are/can be topped up by a certain number of "syns" (these aren't "free" foods for that day)

Supermarkets we tend to doctor, so that posts don't come up in seach engines - hence Mr T, Mr A, Mr S, Mr W, A!di (or similar), Nett0 (or similar) etc

DS, DD, DGS, DGD, DH, OH etc are family members (son, daughter, grand-son, grand-daughter, hubby, other half). There are more which can normally be worked out - the only one I regularly struggle with being SIL (sister-in-law or son-in-law)

And, in case you've not yet twigged, a Whoopsie is a 'reduced to clear' item (something I catch the scent off several hundred paces away it seems )

Shysarah

Hello All,

Thanks to the GC bods for keeping this going it has made a big difference not only to my bank balance, but also my food waste has shrunk to next to nothing and I think I am eating healthier overall for it. :T

I haven't finished my last month yet as I run by the calendar as it makes sense to me. I have done two months now at £80 so I would like to try and aim for £75 this month for me and my cat.

His special diet food is not included in this but his litter is and the normal food which he has interspersed with his vet recommended one. I also include cleaning agents, toiletries (both of which I should not need as I have loads). Meals out are not included as they are so rare.:rotfl:

I also have a voucher from Aldi for £10 due to dodgy meat last month but I won't count this as its a refund.

Good luck all
Sarah x

Sunnyday

Gintotmelinda wrote: »

Sunnyday tell me how you feed your pets-do you have cats? Dolly has *ams dry food and *elix pouches but I do worry about the nutritional content. She is 16 months old and very much a family member! I have a slow cooker.

Thanks

gintot

Hi Gintotmelinda :wave:

I have two big hungry hounds and one cat atm, we may end up aquiring another cat soon.

The dog food recipe is measured in mugfulls and goes into my 6.5 litre slow cooker.

Minced chicken (from the local market or butcher)
Red lentils
Brown rice
Sliced carrots
Pearl barley.
I pour a kettle of boiling water over it and leave it overnight. I do try to stir it and occasionally add more water as it swells a lot. The sc method makes the juices from the chicken be slowly absorbed into the grains which the dogs adore. I portion it up and freeze it and reheat until boiling and allow to cool before feeding it just warm. I mix it with various dry food and i shop around to see whats on offer, we are currently half way through a bag of Pero organic dry food which they love. If funds are tight i mix it with Supadog chicken. I did try them on the BARF diet but they wern`t keen, i didn`t try them for too long on this though as one doggie has a heart condition and i was concerned that he wasn`t getting all his nutrients.

The rather large cat used to have much the same diet as your kittie but after reading about *ams i stopped feeding it and replaced it with Applaws, its more expensive but lasts longer as it has a very high meat content so her appetite seems to be satisfied quicker. I used the dried Applaws and her favourite is the fish flavour. I started on the smaller bags and now buy the larger ones. She also loves the tinned applaws but its really expensive so i tend to only buy when offers are on. She also has the odd tin of tuna, skin from a cooked chicken and the odd bits that i take off the bone for her. She also likes the chicken mince that i buy for the dogs but not with the barley etc.

When she has pouches i buy the Feline Fayre ones which are on offer quite a lot on MrM and MrA, these have a high meat content. I would like to have changed her diet to a more natural one but she wasn`t interested. My main concern was finding an even balance as cats need taurine but the FF and Applaws contain this so it works out well.

At first it was expensive to switch and as they loved their new food they were eating lots of it, over a couple of months i managed to get a stock in by shopping around and buying in bulk when offers were on and now i have a full store, i only need to top up each month and now it works out well as its not much more expensive than what they were eating before.
Getting organised was the key. I did wonder whether or not i could keep it up at first as it seemed very expensive but now i`m pleased that i made the changes.

Some interesting information here http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/hummingbird/198/id2.htmabout brands and animal testing which are some things that i try to avoid

Here is a link to a site which has information about better petfoods which avoid animal testing which i found incredibly useful http://www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood.htm The naturesdiet brand are available in pets @ home and so are some others too.

Crikey i`m rambling now Hope that some of this is useful to you.

HTH

SD

hitatotatus

Hi all. Am committing to this challenge for the first time as I suspect I could make savings if I actually spent some time to plan more and to think about what I buy each week. I already cook most things from scratch and also bulk cook and freeze, but I am sure there is more room to save - so, here goes. Will set a limit of £400 this month and try to keep track of my receipts.
Am inspired by you all and will check in regularly to keep myself on track.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Schrodie
Sorry -just ignore the "syn" bit of the recipe -Im doing Slimming world so I added those as I know Im not the only one on here doing it .. they are still really yummy and not at all "diet" -they are actually my adaptations of standard recipes.


Well folks I spent a couple of days last week sorting out my freezer/cupboards and all I can say is "anyone like to come for dinner?" :rotfl:-I have posted it in smaller print to try and save space ... and don't get me started on my cupboards -16 kinds of pasta anyone?


kitchen freezer:-only a small one above the fridge

1. 600g braising steak
2. 600g beef joint
3. 500g minced steak
4. 325g steaks
5. 700g pork joint
6. 325g pork escalopes
7. 400g " "
8. 500g pork joint
9. 3 pork escalopes
10. 2 pork steaks
11. 2 marinated pork steaks
    
12. 600g chicken fillets
13. 2 bacon wraped chicken breasts
14. [STRIKE]400g chicken fillets[/STRIKE]
15. [STRIKE]400g chicken fillets[/STRIKE]
16. 400g chicken fillets
17. 500g turkey steaks X 2
18. 2 turkey steaks
19. [STRIKE]2 packs breaded ham[/STRIKE]
20. 1 pack peppered ham
21. 1 pack smoked ham
22. 200g quorn mince
23. [STRIKE]2 quorn burgers[/STRIKE]
24. 800g raw king prawns
25. 400g mixed seafood
26. 200g prawns
27. 2 white fish fillets
28. 1 breaded haddock
29. 1battered haddock
30. peppers
31. mushrooms
32. peas
33. sweetcorn
34. parsnips
35. cherries
36. raspberries
37. blueberries
38. strawberries
39. 1 pizza dough
40. 3 tortilla dough
41. 16 crumpets -must get hubby to eat these

basement freezer -ickle chest thing

1. ox liver X2
2. 260g chargrill steaks X2
3. 300g marinated beef steak
4. 4 steaks
5. 500g chinese ribs X3
6. 500g BBQ ribs X2
7. 700g pork fillet
8. 2 pork chops
9. 18 tesco finest pork n leek sausage
10. 36 tesco finest pork n herb sausage
11. 420g wiltshire dry cure bacon X4
12. 110g breaded ham X4
13. 300g smoked ham
14. 2 gammon steaks
15. 3 pork fillet pieces
16. 400g gyros meat
17. 400g lamb steak
18. 4 lamb leg steaks
19. 2 lamb shanks
20. 2 chicken breast mini roasts
21. 600g chicken breasts
22. 200g thai chicken
23. 250g piri piri chicken X2
24. 8 chicken breasts
25. 200g popcorn chicken
26. 320g marinated turkey
27. 750g smoked haddock X2
28. 340g prawns X2
29. prawn ring
30. 250g white fish
31. raspberries
32. mixed berries X2
33. blackberries X10
34. sweetcorn
35. [STRIKE]1 block cheshire[/STRIKE]
36. [STRIKE]1 block lancashire[/STRIKE]

now in my defence *where have we heard that before* I have sat this week and gone through all my cookery magazines and I now have a list of 200 recipes with the syns/healthy extras worked out so I can meal plan my bum off -so I WILL be using up as much as I can -honest ... I do love meal planning.. and list making...
Right -thats far too much waffle from me... have a good day everyone ...

rosieben

de1amo wrote: »

would declarations not make more sense if people said how many lived in the household??--sorry i am a newbie here.--i am aiming for 175 pounds for 3 hungry humans!

Some people do give that information but its optional; I don't give mine because comparing my one-person budget with that of someone living in a town with a car and lots of shops to choose from just doesn't make sense; our different circumstances, likes and dislikes, health and other things make a huge difference; in the end this is your own personal challenge, we aren't in competition with each other

forgot to say re the separating pet food, many of us do a break down of our spends - toiletries, laundry, cleaning, pet food, alcohol etc as its very useful to see where we might make savings; its possible that some people don't include pet food at all in their GC budget because they buy in bulk or for some other reason that we're not aware of. It isn't necessary to tow any particular line here, as I said its a personal challenge so we each do what suits us.

waddy80

Well Mrs M you have just inspired me to do a stocktake. I don't think I will have quite as much as you though!

I have also just remembered that I have a coupon from Mr S valid for next week for £12 off £60. My plan was not to shop next week as I have loads in, but I think I will do an online order and get 'essentials' identified after the stocktake. I may even try and meal plan for the week after, not that I've finished this weeks yet!!

catznine

Please can you put me down for £200 for November trying to keep to £100 or less by using up the stores. That way I will have £100 for a shop at Costco!