November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Moniker

Good afternoon all! Sorry to hear that so many of you are having a tough time with family and health problems - I'm sending hugs to all who need them. My baby brother (who is now 53!) suffered from asthma and I used to be terrrified when we were out together in case he had an attack! I used to ply him with peppermints if he started to get wheezy and hope we would get home in time for him to have his ephedrine!

Anyway, have done my last big shop of the month and hope not to run out of too much before next Thursday. I actually went to W8trose today as I had other stuff to do nearby and not much time. I have to say that most stuff there wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. However, I didn't buy any meat which I think is pricey but good quality. The rellies who might have been coming on Sunday aren't now so I am making do with the small piece of beef which is left in my freezer for DH, MIL, and me, and not making a posh pudding - we will have apple pie and ice cream or custard.

I think de1amo was asking what the percentage diffference is in the prices between the 'upmarket' shops like W8trose and so on compared with the rest. It is very hard to say as they have a lot of 'basics' ranges now which they claim are keeping track of prices in T3sco. I think that there's not much difference in own brand stuff but in the better supermarkets there is more choice and a bigger range of quality so that you are more tempted to buy. Just my opinion of course!

By the way, I have very successfully frozen egg whites for years - always make my own custard with egg yolks and freeze the whites to use another day in meringues or cakes etc. Never had a problem with this but haven't tried freezing yolks though I believe that you can do so. HTH.

Have achieved 15 NSD this month (a record for me) and have just over £24 to last till next week - must be able to do it!

Keep up the good work everyone.

Moniker

jintyb

Tiny spend for me today - I was down to my last three teabags! This is the first time I've resisted the temptation to restock until I was totally down to the wire. I used to have a teabag mountain - now it's just a tiny pimple:rotfl::rotfl:
Anyhoo, I succumbed to the marketing ploy of MR A and used my coupon from the vchr book for £1.50 off PG Tip$, which are my favourite and I also got the special pack with the free Christmas monkey.
Is it wrong for a grown woman to be excited by a free monkey? I think it probably is .....slinks off blushing :rotfl::rotfl:

cookie9

Top up at C**p tonight. Should only be a couple of things at weekend then we are eating out of the freezer for the rest of the week. Spent 6.53

Rebekah24

Got a few bits tonite.. oh coming for tea tonite and tomoro

£3 Spend

just about on target for £1 a day

Got in icey land lol
Eggs
Bread
Mature cheese

Should tide me over a while! Theres garlic bread, soup in the freezer and rice pud stacked up! Not eating much solids at the moment so just getting the odd bits in for oh

freakyogre

89p on mayonnaise today.

CupOfChai

Oops .

Heard today (on one of the other MSE boards, in fact!) about a fairly acceptable deal Mr T was doing, so I dropped by after work, and succumbed to his temptations. Spent £9.49 on three bottles of wine and one of my favourite bars of chocolate when I noticed as I passed that it also was on offer. Still think that's a fairly good deal, even if I did only mean to get one bottle and no chocolate! Well, it will definitely get used so I've saved future money.

Hopefully, despite that wicked place and its seductive ways, I am still about on target and with a little bit of jiggling can still finish the month under budget.

katholicos

cw18 wrote: »

You can add my late MIL and late DH to the list of people that fall into the latter category of that comment.

My late MIL had chronic asthma (she had the plug in oxygen machine and a mains operated nebuliser - and my SIL and I lost count of the times someone would go into her bedroom and have to switch off the oxygen machine because she'd sparked up :eek:), but refused point blank to even cut back

My late DH had cancer which (as part of the secondary tumours) riddled his lungs - in fact the coughing up of blood was the first indication that anything was amiss. He kept telling me he was giving up (and kept telling the doctors that he had done), but when he was at home rather than in hospital (towards the end that was only only about 4 days in every 3 weeks) he'd have a smoke whenever his legs would get him to the front door - have to admit he never asked me to relax the 'no smoking in the house' rule, so I guess it could have been worse

Cheryl, thank you for sharing this with me. I am sorry for your loss.
(((hugs)))

katholicos

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Oh Cheryl BIG hugs to you hun :grouphug:

I'm really sorry to hear you're all having such a tough time of it Katholicos :grouphug:

I've been asthmatic all my life - accutely as a child, back in the days before there were such things as inhalers, and you used to have to dissolve a tablet under your tongue, which took 30 minutes to dissolve and another 30 to work, and it's very frightening not to be able to get your breath. It must be so wearing and draining for you all - especially your Dad.

On a positive note, it does sound like it's all coming together on getting him all the right and necessary treatment front and hopefully, once this infection has gone, and he's getting enough oxygen, which will put less pressure on his heart, he'll improve on the whole to how he is now, and he'll regain some quality of life.

I truly hope that the day where you are able to get him out for a while on short trips, comes soon, as I'm sure it would lift all of your spirits no end

And I'm feeling much better hun thanks - just occasionally have days where I'm running on empty, and blurt it all out on here. I'm sure you know the feeling well.

As my Dad has always said to me during tough periods in my life "Keep A Bright Light" hun

Your kind words are very encouraging and i really feel very supported by you and by Frugal, Rosie and everyone who has offered advice and kind words of comfort. God Bless you all!

Ok, must talk groceries....today i haven't spent owt. I had a baking day and baked about 10 loaves and 60 or so muffins for the parish Christmas Fair. I also sorted my freezers and found some braisded red cabbage that i made from this time last yearand some home grown frozen parsnips..we had these with omellete, baked potato and...although it may sound bizarre, some yorkshire pudding.

My daughter put in a request for omellete and yorkshire pudd and parsnips...Thursdays are a very long day for her, she leaves at about 8am for the 1.5 hour commute to uni and then doesn't get home until 7.30pm so i wanted her to have something to look forward to when she got home, even though none of it really goes together

katholicos

wssla00 wrote: »

Oh wow- how many people have crummy breathing/ asthma? Me too- pretty brittle! Have had a sub cut for ages but wasn't working so that's gone and getting the neb for the house and hoping the tabs will start working soon (well.... here's hoping!) or else I'll be back in hospital soon.... still at least I get free food which isn't counted in my GC when I'm in lol

A NSD for me today. Hugs to those who need them!!

Oh dear wssla00 sorry to learn of your breathing difficulties, what a fine lot we are eh? Still, we are all in good company here!

katholicos

rosieben wrote: »

katholicos, Auntie's dr said she must always have a course of antibiotics ready to take if she felt an infection/cold etc starting up; it saved waiting the day or two to see the dr and get the prescription; I'll try and find the company we bought the mobile nebuliser from in case its of use to you, I ordered it on the internet for her

The only problem we had with the concentrator was in a power cut; luckily I moved next door to her so I was able run in and sort out the oxygen bottle. I have to say that the last suppliers (Air Products?), were absolutely brilliant

eta - I think I bought it from Maplins, but they only have one on the website

Rosieben, thanks so much. Dad has those 'rescue' antibiotics and steroids in the house so that he can start them when an infection comes on, with the changes in his breathing the symptoms are a bot tougher for him to recognise when an infection is coming on. Mum keeps saying he needs to get on his steroids and antibiotics and then he says no, leave it a few days, by which time he is in a right state!

Matron visited Dad today and phoned doctors as he has very bad swelling going up his body and the Matron talked to the doctor about it - the upshot is that he is being put on water tablets...they weren;t sure whether to gie them to him up till now because they can cause kidney trouble apparantly. I think he is on a 40mg dose?

I will pick the prescription up first thing tomorrow and go straight to the chemist, as the Matron said he has to have them in the morning.

Air products are the company that are dealing with Dad's oxygen!

Their engineer was out again today to bring a second concentrator unit. Mum and Dad live in a long bungalow and the bedroom is one end the kitchen in the middle and the lounge the other end..the front door situated in the middle of the bungalow, so the tubes were running all by the front entrance and through the kitchen area which wasn't working. Now he has a second unit set up the other end of the bungalow, he can get to any room he wants to and keep his oxygen on.

He still has back up oxygen cylinders, one either end of the bungalow, to use in case of power cuts. The engineer was very good, and told mum and dad that they are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Thanks for the tip about Maplins portable neb, will look into that.

It must have given your aunt such comfort to have you next door