January 2011 Grocery Challenge

Catslovelycats

buddiebabe wrote: »

Haven't really had the chance to update or catch up on most of the posts... i can't get my head around meal planning at all I work 2 jobs and my OH works shifts so one week we are both at home for dinner all week and the next its only 4 nights out the week we are both in.

If i do decide to plan what we are having by the time i get home i don't want what im supposed to be eating and neither does he How do you all manage it??


:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Buddiebabe x

I'm the same buddiebabe
I work very long hours
I just make what I can be bothered to make at the time
often by the time I get home I'm not interested in eating much at all

but I've done an inventory, know what food I've got in and am in better control of it than I was before - that's where my success lies, rather than in planning :T

Jolaaled

Mothership wrote: »

If the bowl is buttered and you mix fresh breadcrumbs with cheese, lay the bowl on its side and turn as you go, they should stick ok, then do the bottom.

Thanks...will give this another go, as the recipe sounds just tooo lovely!.

adelight

Just did a big shop and went quite a bit over for the month, spent £7.67 in Lidl on pears, spuds, sweet spuds, broccoli, yogs, mayo, peanut butter, peas and two packs of 99p 500g beef mince(bargain!)

I feel a bit of a flop for going over, but relying on the freezer didn't work out so well when the freezer copped it at the start of the month and I had to throw away all the meat/fish! Next month I'll aim for £35, still £5 less than my £40 of 2010, and do a bit of monthly meal planning(ie, a week where I use up a pack of the mince and freeze some meals, a week where I use up a pack of chicken drumsticks I got two weeks ago, just so I have a rough idea of what I need).

Catslovelycats

Desperately want to keep within my budget this month
This is my 1st month on here and I want to feel like I can succeed
I reckon I can just about get by with only buying a loaf of bread, some reduced veg for the guinea pigs and bananas for my brekky for the week
fingers crossed!

Mothership

So my husband just told me.

Next door neighbour just had his main drain cleared the cause 'FAT' .

We had to have our 'shared drain' cleared twice last year. The cause 'FAT'. But not ours.

I let him rant on for about half an hour, then held up my hand and said stop right there, "I DONT put ANY fat down the drain", I showed him the bowl of FAT I'd collected from our food since last Sunday. All 1.4 kilos of it, all from supermarket meat.

For some strange reason I've been collecting and weighing it every Sunday since the beginning of December. I was just curious to see what the monthly tally was. There was 2.1 kilos in December, so thats 3 1/2 kilo's in less than two months.

The funniest thing was we've been together 33 years and he never ever noticed me taking fat off our food before cooking and during cooking.

He took the bowl next door to show our neighbours. They were horrified.

I go to great lengths to remove any fat, one method I use...I put a whole tray of ice cubes in gravy/soups swirl them for a few seconds let the fat stick to them then fish them out quick.
Just imagine what all that fat would do to your insides, now he knows why his cholesterol is only 4.2 LOL.

The Dynorod man told him that 90% of blocked drains are caused by fat, even if it is mixed with washing up liquid that appears to dissolve it, as soon as it hits the drains it sticks to the cold pipes, City Councils spend millions clearing it every year. I didn't know that myself, I just put it in the bin, but it made me think, me and my husband didn't know , neither did my neighbours. So thought it would be good to share.
Food for thought eh?

rosieben

Mothership, I've added your Mock Lasagne and Individual Potato Pie recipes to the index, thank you

like you, I pour fat off into a dish or cup, let it cool and then I put it in the bin, horrified to think how much there is of it! if I were able to feed the birds I would use it in bird pudding

Catslovelycats

adelight wrote: »

Just did a big shop and went quite a bit over for the month, spent £7.67 in Lidl on pears, spuds, sweet spuds, broccoli, yogs, mayo, peanut butter, peas and two packs of 99p 500g beef mince(bargain!)

I feel a bit of a flop for going over, but relying on the freezer didn't work out so well when the freezer copped it at the start of the month and I had to throw away all the meat/fish! Next month I'll aim for £35, still £5 less than my £40 of 2010, and do a bit of monthly meal planning(ie, a week where I use up a pack of the mince and freeze some meals, a week where I use up a pack of chicken drumsticks I got two weeks ago, just so I have a rough idea of what I need).

sorry to hear abut your freezer
I guess you would have been within budget if it hadn't died on you ??

NickJW

Yesterday was a NSD - One of my new years resolutions was to do different things, so I went on an art tour in East London. It was great, but 3.5 hours was quite a long time! I went with some friends and one is a manager of a restaurant in town so she got a meal for us on the house (I said I would pay but she wouldn't accept, so I said I would buy her a meal next time we're out). So a lovely day out for no money - beats sitting at home!

Today I spent £1.20 in Mr S for some coriander for a curry using leftover pork from the freezer from Xmas, and store cupboard spices, onions etc

Gracie_1827

Nipped to MrM's and was good and bad. They had Little gem lettuces at 2 for 25p so bough a couple of packs. Last week in As@a they were £1:eek: also got apples for 90p and a few other bits. But was tempted by Activia yogs at 8 for £2.....didn't really need them but a little of what you fancy . Needs some coffee but will get that next week at MrS...and use Nectar points for that. I've got a MrT £10 gift voucher (from survey) might have to use that to stay under budget

adelight

catslovelycats wrote: »

sorry to hear abut your freezer
I guess you would have been within budget if it hadn't died on you ??

I think so but nothing I can do about it now! Thesr things happen, eh?