January 2011 Grocery Challenge

nickynoo08

Right i need to declare my spends for last month as today is the first day of my next 4week gc budget, and i spent...... your guess is as good as mine:o, totally lost track the last 2weeks. All i do know is we over spent (by around £40-£50 i reckon).
Anyhoo fresh start today so i went to mrT's and stocked up on baby milk and basics - fridge, freezers and cupboards are fully stocked. We SHOULDN'T need to go shopping for anything other than milk, bread and fresh fruit for the next 2 weeks.
Total spent so far - £65

rosieben

jessie18, I've added Cheese and Potato pie to the recipe index; my kids loved it when they were younger and I still have it myself at least once a month, havent done the corned beef version for ages so that's on the menu for next month :T

eta I sprinkle grated cheese on top of mine then put in a hot oven until the cheese is melted and crisping up

eta welcome back katholicos!

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Everyone Could you put me down for £200 a month please. Have been very frugel this month and have only spent £77.63 this month so far.

redkids1972

Had to spent some money today as it was my daughters birthday and I wanted to buy her a cake. She asked me for a choc cake so went to Tesco and there was a cake reduced to £2.38 so grabbed it and she was made up with it. I also bought some cereal bogof for £2.09 so total was £4.47 and sig has been adjusted. I have enough money for milk at the weekend and that is all till the end of the month. I have enough to see me thru Jan (and feb aswell if honest) just need to plan the meals well. I am reducing Febs budget next month and planning in advance how I will bring it in. I have M&S vouchers which on the last day of Jan will use to stock up on 3 for £10 meat offers if I SPEND £50 it will cost only £32 as i have 20% staff discount on top. SO 15 different meats will cost me the £32 I should just need veg fruit and yogs on top. Thats the plan but lets see Jan out first.

Spiggle

Evening All,

Welcome back Katholicos, good to see you again.

Has anyone seen cw? I don't think I've seen her posting for a while either.

Loving the coversation on cheese & potato pie and corned beef hash too, mmmmmm yum yum. :drool: We haven't had c&p pie for a while so may well suggest that to OH soon. So versatile 'cos you can be good and healthy and have with salad and mayo/salad cream or with baked beans or with peas, beans, carrots with a bit of butter on top. My, I'm hungry!

It's quite funny really 'cos I used to absolutely refuse to have onions in my corned beef hash but then OH picked up a tip from somewhere about frying the onions off to being golden (or even crispy if I was doing them! ) before putting them in. I now wouldn't have corned beef hash without them. How does he live with me and provide food to satisfy my finnickity (sp?) ways! :rotfl:

Some lovely asparagus suggestions too. Got to be honest I don't think I have had them this time of year. But as an illustration of my simple food tastes, the best way of eating them for me is cooked and served on a plate with either hollandaise sauce or simply butter and a very light sprinkle of pepper and lovely HM bread. Hmmmm scrumptious. :drool:

I have a strong suspicion I need to eat soon! :rotfl:

Thanks Hippeechiq for the link to soda crystal use. Brilliant! :T

Well done everyone for their achievements so far this month. :T DO NOT knock yourselves out if you've gone over or fallen off the wagon. We're all here to help each other pick ourselves up get back in that saddle and whip the shopping into the shape we want!

Right my sig is all up to date. I think I may just go and find my supper. :cool:

See you all tomorrow and all the best,
Spigs

mrs-moneypenny

today was a NSD but did buy two boxes of washing powder from mrM yesterday as id almost run out and the offer was too good to resist.

hm veggie cottage pie last night and tonight its hm veggie lasagne.

Long_tall_sally

NSD today for me as well. Taking OH's Mum & neighbour to Aldi tomorrow which is opposite Lidl & I do needa few things but I am going to try to be good because I only have a week to go to payday & I might, if will power is strong, just actually make target this month!

Liking the asparagus recipes.

NickJW

Today was a NSD because I had leftover stew from yesterday (or as I had my mum berate me over the phone - CASSEROLE, because she said stew doesn't sound nice! :rotfl:. My mum can't quite understand me - she said I should be interested in going out clubbing rather than cooking at my age. Then again - I grew up eating things like reformed chicken kievs, and pasta with Dolmio, so I've had to learn to 'cook' myself. Any sight of meat on a bone sends my mum into shivers! )

Anyway - off tangent - salad and cheese wraps for lunch, plus leftover stew/casserole with the rest of the potatoes mashed and some frozen peas for dinner.

The next 2 days are my flatmates turns to cook, and I've got salad wraps for lunch as well

Keep up the good work everyone - I'm willing January to be finished already - horrible month!

PennyGrabber

NickJW wrote: »

Today was a NSD because I had leftover stew from yesterday (or as I had my mum berate me over the phone - CASSEROLE, because she said stew doesn't sound nice! :rotfl:.

A stew is done on the hob and a casserole is done in the oven, so you could be right, depending on how you cooked it!

PennyGrabber

Pernicious wrote: »

Good morning everyone, hope you're all well

Yesterday I got Surf concentrated washing liquid for £3 from W!lko's, (will update sig now) & tonight I need to pop to Mr T's for bread, milk, bananas & a pack of stir fry veg...I NEED to stick to this like glue else I will be failing this month's challenge & taking money out of the overdraft which I don't want to do!

I'm hoping the bread I got last time is still on offer, 50p a loaf is so much more agreeable than 75p!

Think that's the washing stuff I have, and I find half a lidful does very nicely on regular dirt, and still makes the clothes smell nice. I find now, that if i use as much as they say, the scent is too strong! Obviously, for really dirty stuff (mud, ketchup and the like) I use a tad more, but even then, not as much as they say! HTH

Not a NSD for me, but my children ran out of their fave cereal this morning so £3.06 spent. As a rule, they don't eat very much in one sitting, but this cereal has been wolfed down by them both, so I don't mind buying it again as I know they'll have eaten enough before going to school. It does however mean that I have about 20 packs of other cereals left on the shelf... AND, I worked out why they aren't being eaten. I've stopped eating breakfast in favour of doing household jobs (shocked intake of breath!). I think I will have to make myself stop and eat breakfast now, if only to use up the mountain of cereal boxes in my pantry!

Maybe that's why stocks have spilled out onto the work surfaces...