March grocery challenge

Janeryan

Nicki Iceland have a Meal deal on at the mo of Leg of lamb,Roast Potatoes,Julienne Crrots, Yorkshire Pud and Apple Strudel for £6.00(offer ends 26/03/05)

halloweenqueen_2

I'd be tempted to either get the shopping on the way home and be cooking it when other half gets home or buy online and get it delivered to you. At least it would give you Saturday mornings for a lay in and coffee and croissants! Try selling him those romantic Saturday mornings until the Saturday shopping isn't a habit any more! Its not being devious its looking after you both, its not about winning the argument,its about you and him against comsumerism, a real romeo and juliet - am I stuck on a romantic thread here - must be I'm at a funny age:eek:

nicki_2

OH has decided (since talking to his mum) that we're going to visit them over Easter weekend. Since I have things planned for Thursday and I've promised my nanna we'll see her on Saturday we've provisionally decided to go on the Sunday which would mean his mum cooking the roast and not me :) Still got to see what my family's reaction will be to that but ATM I don't care! I'm hoping to spend some time Good Friday getting some stuff together from my mum to grow our own vegetables this year and getting some compost. The spare money could be used to pay for two lots of take out (with an additional 4 adults to feed I don't think we could stretch 1 of the takeouts we were going to get) for daughters birthday and since she has asked to have this pizza take out for her birthday tea since Christmas I'd feel REALLY awful at changing it now. I'll find the money, I always do, and we'll still have a decent amount of food in.

foreverskint

hi nikki,

my kids love pizza, so now we have our own "takeway".
I buy lots of different things for toppings (lidls do a great range including cheap mozzarella) The kids make their own bread dough, and whilst it rising they chop up all the topings, and draw designs for their pizza faces etc.

they then have lots of fun ( and make loads of mess:eek: ) rolling out the dough and adding their own ingredients to the tops. They all now think that their homemade pizza is better than the takeway as the bases are lighter and they have the choice of toppings. I think for 6 of us with all the toppings that they like it costs us less than a fiver for 6 large pizzas.
For sleepover nights it's a great way to entertain and feed lots of kids and they all seem to love cooking,especially those whos parents seem to live off of convenience foods, and never get a chance to cook at home.

The upside to this is that I have a 12 & 10 year old who can now make lovely bread dough, as they have learnt a good old fashioned skill. The sownside is the mess but we send dp in to clean up;)

Minxz

Have just been reading this thread, and I'm inspired! i am a single mum with three kids, one is a 16yr old skip... eats anything and everything, so costs me a fortune.
My car died a couple of months ago, so my Bfriend has been taking me shopping, always about 6pmish and we pick up lots of 'nice' bread, croissants, bagels etc for the kids pack lunches for about 20p per pack.. nice! he adds the cost up on his mobile as i fill my trolley, and having someone watch me fill it has made me cut back, so much so that in 2 months I have managed to save £210 towards a little runabaout! I have set up a DD from one account to a savings account to put the left over shopping money in, so in a few months time should have enough to buy a car.
One thing he started doing for me, as I'm working and studying with the Ou right now, time's short as well as cash, so he brought lots of cheap meats etc, and had a 'cooking' night, made up enough meals for the week and froze them individually.
i had shepherds pies, pasta meals, spag bol( made with corned beef, cheaper then mince- kids didn't notice!) chilli sausage and bean meals,casseroles and macaroni cheese.
It's been a godsend, as all i do is defrost and microwave them! Handy when you have kids that all want something different for tea too.
The kids may moan that almost everything in the cupboard has posh tesco blue stripes(heh) on it.. but hey.. it means I'm nearer to getting some wheels than i was 2 months ago!
)

Sarahsaver

Well done you! You have been making a great effort and clearly it has paid off! As for the blue stripes on the 'value' stuff, why do you think my kids call me mummy with the outside stripes!?

Glad

Sarahsaver wrote:

Well done you! You have been making a great effort and clearly it has paid off! As for the blue stripes on the 'value' stuff, why do you think my kids call me mummy with the outside stripes!?

LOL at Sarah
I always pictured you wearing a convicts uniform

mum26

wow, went shopping today and sainsburys awful logistics planning has done me proud! they had so much stuff reduced it was great! we have 6 young children and it is like a wildlife programme, there is always a baby bird int he nest with it's mouth open waiitng to be fed!

i bought loads of reduced meat (we'd been careful and used up almost everything in the chest freezer before we shopped, lots of it was on "buy 2 for xyz" offers too which meant that before reductions i had already saved £29.34! and most of the stuff was half price too!

mrsmab59

mum26 wrote:

wow, went shopping today and sainsburys awful logistics planning has done me proud! they had so much stuff reduced it was great! we have 6 young children and it is like a wildlife programme, there is always a baby bird int he nest with it's mouth open waiitng to be fed!

i bought loads of reduced meat (we'd been careful and used up almost everything in the chest freezer before we shopped, lots of it was on "buy 2 for xyz" offers too which meant that before reductions i had already saved £29.34! and most of the stuff was half price too!

Lucky you Mum26, the only reduced things I've ever found that have been worth buying is bakery stuff.

jazzyjustlaw

Sarahsaver wrote:

Well done you! You have been making a great effort and clearly it has paid off! As for the blue stripes on the 'value' stuff, why do you think my kids call me mummy with the outside stripes!?

Duh that hadnt occured to me how funny.