January 2011 Grocery Challenge

seductivesmile

Hi All,
Just popping in - been reading in earnest, but not posting much, not spending much either, this weekend spent a grand total of £1.69 - milk and squash. Rather annoyed as i've had to give food away, i had defrosted a lovely chilli, some curry and spicy accompanyments for friday and sat, and threw thursdays dinner in the bin, as i had hideous heartburn, which has actually turned out to be a grossly inflamed stomach wall due to a virus, other people get D&V, and i get this where i can't eat spicy food, can barely move and have to eat very small amounts every hour... so my meal plan went out the window, may be a costly week, but dad said he'll swap some plain fish / chicken out of his freezer for the meals i gave him the other day, but if i am honest, he's fed me toast for the past couple of days so prob cost as much in bread. lol

My weekly tea time meals -
Mon - Chicken Goujons and Mash
Tues - Spag bol
Wed - Turkey, Mash and Veg
Thurs - Pepper risotto
Fri - Dinner out - Dad's Bday
Sat - Gammon Egg and Wedges
Sun - Roast Beef (left over from xmas and is delish) with veg and roasties.

Have a good week ppl xxx

gdyr1945

Have decided I MUST get some of my excess weight off. I am hopeful that now, thanks to all the encouragement on these pages, I am more in control and organised with food spending and shopping that I can be more selective with my eating. Although I think I really need to move more:eek: as I don't eat that much, no really I don't':rotfl:just more than I obviously need. I am commiting to 30 mins walking a day. There I've said it! Doesn't sound so much.

Getting delivery of meat from D.Russell on Tuesday. Which doesn't work out too expensive as we have cut right back on the amount of meat we eat. Whereas we used to eat one pack of beef rib trim between us it now does 2 x 2 dinners plus a (very) small meal for my mother. No I'm not starving her , she just likes very small amounts of meat but plenty of veggies.

Going to make the chewy, soft flour tortillas (from recipe list) tomorrow as I found a cooked chicken thigh in the freezer and with lots of salad and salsa will make a tasty dinner. Tortillas freeze well incase anyone is interested.

Good luck - the month will end! I always feel January goes from 27th December. Which makes it a really long month.

buddiebabe

Hey

Not updating or reading as much as i would like have a £4.36 spend to declare!

Got some bread, diet irn bru and some barbeque sauce

So have £45.13 remaining and still 15 days to go but plenty of stuff in to make dinners with!

Buddiebabe x

Pernicious

Winchelsea wrote: »

Pernicious , for less than a pound you can buy washing soda, which on its own will wash clothes quite satisfactorily. You only need a tablespoonful for a load. I don't use it all the time, but do the odd load with it to save the pennies.

You can also add it to ordinary washing powder if you have a particularly dirty load. Put soda and washing powder in the drawer or straight in the drum, shut the door, and let the water run in. Switch off and leave to soak for a while before switching back on to your usual wash program.

I did not know this...thank you :T I will try to find this tomorrow!

Pernicious

minnie2 wrote: »

soda crystals - 85p a kg co-op or 92p a kg in tesco i use them to wash clothes, they also keep limescale at bay and you can use them for many other things too!!

What else can you use them for? I have 1001 different products for different things & am interested to know if I could swap at least some of them out for just one product!

Pernicious

martafdz wrote: »

Pernicious, Idk how you could cut the liquid ones lol. Maybe if you put the liquid in the drawer instead of inside the drum and save the other half in a small measuring glass? I had the same problem you mention when I had the liquitabs and I added two. Now I think about it, once the liquitabs broke in the tub and I ended up with the bottom full of liquid and empty satchets floating. I just used the liquid in the drawer and it was ok.
I think all that nosense of number of washes and required number of tabs is all a plain lie to make us spend! Lol Clothing is clean with either 2, 1 or even half of the recommended dosage. At least when the laundry is for adults working in offices/places where you don't get that dirty. I will see what happens when I have kids and they come back home with chocolate and mud stained shirts, but at the moment I am fine with just one.

I was thinking if I made a small incision in the packet over a small glass like you said, & put squeeze half out but I wasn't sure if it would work from the drawer as it looks fairly thick, like a gel rather then liquid...can't hurt to try right??

Haha I don't have children yet so I don't need to worry about stained clothing generally - the worst we get is if we've missed our mouths when eating :rotfl:

Pernicious

Ok gonna have a stab at this multiquote thing...never done it before so I hope this works else I'll end up having even more than 3 posts in a row! Sorry if this doesn't work

PennyGrabber wrote: »

ps - for washing, I buy whatever's on offer at the time, then use 1/4 to 1/2 of what they say to use. At the moment, I'm using surf(?) liquid, and using just under a half of a capful. A big bottle has lasted me ages and is still half full,think I bought it at the beginning of the summer!!!

I think I am going to buy this from now on, we usually buy the liquitabs as they as just so quick & easy but at the end of the day they're quite pricey, even when on offer. Thanks for the tip.

SilverBird wrote: »

Don't know when this offer started but it was available yesterday. I've just checked on the M&S website and it's still listed

As to value... I bought 3 chickens (2 x £4.81 and 1 x £4.67), 20 butcher's sausages 1.1 kg (£4.49), 4 quarterpounder Angus beefburgers (£3.99) and 500 gm braising steak (£4.99) for £20 and would consider any of these packs to be suitable for a family of 4. Will be buying at least one more 3 for £10 deal if the offer is still on at the end of the week for the freezer - it all depends on what else is needed to keep within the budget of £23.25 that's left from the M&S voucher and £2.02 cash.

Thank you I will check this out tomorrow - their meat will definitely be of better quality than Tesco's standard brand & if it's enough for a family of four I'm sure me & my OH with a bottomless pit for a stomach can manage :rotfl:

rosieben

SilverCo, I've added your bolognaise recipe too, thank you

good grief! just seen the time .....

Candy_Belle

Morning! Argh Monday comes round way too quick!!

Just a small spend from yesterday to report, DH went to Sainsbugs for bread but come back with more than bread!!!:mad:

So a spend of £6.07 which included Bread, Garlic Bread, 2 x Fresh pasta sauce's, Nice & RichTea Biccies!!!! then last night he couldn't find his bank card so hoping someone has handed it in at sainsbugs!:mad: Oh well at least he can't spend anything!!!

Have a good day everyone x

minnie2

martafdz wrote: »

wow, your dinner sounds amazing!! How do you make bread? I have never done it, does it taste like the baguettes in the supermarket? I love baguettes How easy is it to make?



What do you do with the soda crystals? Do you put them in the drawer? How much do you put? Do they leave any smell? What can you use them for beside this?

Sorry, too many questions! Lol

thats ok!! you just put them in the drawer. I tend to just judge the amount and pour it in - but there are instructions on the bags, from memory i think it says 50gs. They dont leave a smell and they dont smell of anything in 1st place.Plus you dont ever need to use limescale stuff in your washing machine as soda crystals do that too.