January 2011 Grocery Challenge

Pixie_Fairydust

Hi all, you all seem very organised and on the ball!

I really need some help and inspiration. I am a mum to 2 teenagers (one is diabetic), I have a husband and 2 cats.

I shop online with A*da, I find it the cheapest, but am still struggling to get my weekly shop below about £80! This does include all cleaning stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc as well as food.

I don't eat meat (but have done so recently just to eat up what we have!) I have 2 jobs so don't have much spare time, but could batch cook if I knew what to do!

My children are quite fussy, but seem to eat loads! I do buy crisps, choc, biscuits etc.

Please could any kind soul help me with my weekly shop and some easy/quick recipes.

A bit thank you to you all. :T

SilverCo

Pixie_Fairydust wrote: »

Hi all, you all seem very organised and on the ball!

I really need some help and inspiration. I am a mum to 2 teenagers (one is diabetic), I have a husband and 2 cats.

I shop online with A*da, I find it the cheapest, but am still struggling to get my weekly shop below about £80! This does include all cleaning stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc as well as food.

I don't eat meat (but have done so recently just to eat up what we have!) I have 2 jobs so don't have much spare time, but could batch cook if I knew what to do!

My children are quite fussy, but seem to eat loads! I do buy crisps, choc, biscuits etc.

Please could any kind soul help me with my weekly shop and some easy/quick recipes.

A bit thank you to you all. :T

Hi Pixie Fairydust!

You'll find some great recipes on the first few posts of this thread, thanks to all the lovely ladies and rosieben.

Could you think about making some healthier and cheaper snacks yourself? Doesn't have to be fancy, just things like biscuits, muffins, gingerbread etc. Also, fruit in season is always a cheaper buy than chocolate!

I'm sure others will help you loads more than I can, but wish you lots of luck in your quest to cut down the grocery bill - you've come to the right place!

Silver x

Moniker

Evening all! A NSD for me today. I spent most of the day 'doing out' my kitchen cupboards. I feel quite virtuous as now they are clean and tidy and I feel ready to tackle the year ahead! I didn't actually find much out of date stuff so no real waste - but there was a tin of evaporated milk dated Apr 2010 - do you think it will still be ok to use it?

Have made a chicken and broccoli bake for tonight with yesterday's roast chicken and the carcass is in the sc making stock as I write. There's enough meat for chicken pies tomorrow and a round of sandwiches for lunch each too, so good value I think (8 meals and 2 packups from a FR chicken which cost £5-80).

Better get off and dish up or DH will be complaining(!) - not really - he's quite appreciative and knows he would starve if I wasn't here to cook for him (or more likely he'd go home to his mum!).

One more thing - I have noticed that not many people are putting their location in their posts - I find it both interesting and helpful to know where people are writing from as not all bargains etc are available across the whole country.

Right, dinnertime!
Have a good evening folks

Moniker

Mothership

Got a great deal at M&S
3 small chickens
2 Shoulder of Lamb (Lamb & Chicken all cooking in oven now)
1 Smkd Gammon
1 pack Lorn Sausage
2 Packs Pork links (Left 4 in fridge, freezing 12 singly)
1 Pack of leeks
2 £1 steak pies (having them for dinner tonight with mash and peas.)
Total £35.08 I used one of my £5 off vouchers and the total spend was £20.92 +
Farmfoods 6 jugs of milk from and 2 loafs £4.25
Sainsburys 3 reduced xmas puddings 1 tin Marvel SR Flour. @ packs of 18 Blue ribands for OH, Total spend £7.20

Total spent £32.37

When the chickens are cooked and stripped 2 will be frozen 1 for eating this week. I pull the breasts off whole and use for roast chicken dinners, with a few of the sausages wrapped in bacon with a little stuffing. The other meat I use for chicken and bacon pasta, curries etc.
Both lamb shoulders will be stripped and frozen.

I will then boil the lamb bones and chicken carcasses to make my own stock cubes, I remove all the fat, reduce, strain and pour into ice cube trays, freeze then label and bag.

When the meat is cooked I will be baking scones etc. Will post the recipes later.

With a wee bit of luck I wont need to cook much for about a week :T:T:T

pension-newbie

First shop at Mr T today for the new year - some staples for the house mostly BOGOF or half price, no woopsies

Mrs P-N went to Mr S for food till Friday. Total £41+£37 = £78

pipkin71

SuziQ1962 wrote: »

Me again-have to add to my total as the loo roll eating monster had finished all of ours- unbeknownst to me- so DH had to get some from petrol station £2.30 for 4!!! :-@
Am thinking of giving everyone their own personal one and seeing who can make it last the longest!

Sometimes I'm pretty sure the toilet roll eating monster visits our house, too, Suzi

I :rotfl:at the idea of seeing who could make one last the longest

lisamckinney wrote: »

Thanks so much for your help angelatgraceland! Will definitely try some home cooking as it seems to cost so little! Need to get out of the "if I spend loads in Sainsburys I'll get more Nectar points!" attitude - most stupid excuse ever!

Definitely try cooking some stuff at home, Lisa. There are some lovely recipe links on the first page of this thread

.............................................

Another NSD today as we didn't go out.

DD2 isn't feeling too good and came into my room in the early hours, so neither of us got much sleep, then the dreaded neighbour next door decided to blast out his 'music' I can't wait for us to move

Anyway, we had chicken kiev and jacket potatoes for dinner tonight [baked beans for DD1 as she won't eat potatoes], along with salad, which was really nice, and I've been making up a jelly for afters, as we are all cutting down on sweet treats.

Will hopefully be going out tomorrow, so will pick up some items from town, which we need. I just have to avoid the 'ooh, that would be useful' as I go round the £1 shop, otherwise the couple of ££s I'm intending to spend, could treble :eek::D

bramble1

SilverCo wrote: »

Hi everyone :hello:

Had a great scoop of whoopsied bargains in M&S lunchtime :T,

• Whole chicken £3 (was £5.12)
• Cajun chicken fillets £1.50 (was £3.69)
• Pork loin chops £2 (was £4.46)
• Venison sausages £1.50 (was £2.99)
• Chorizo sausages x 2 £3 (was £5.98)

Now just need to find a slow cooker recipe for the chorizo sausages, any ideas anyone?

Off to update siggy, have a great evening all!

Silver x

if it doesn't need to be in the slow cooker can i recommend chorizo carbonara??

or a chorizo and bean hot pot if it is essential is inthe SC?

pavlovs_dog

£3.47 spent today - onions @ 59p, yoghurts @99p and microfibre cloths @1.89 after hearing good things about them on the dusting thread.

been a right suzy homemaker this evening. Got a big vat of spag bol in SC, although half will be turned in chilli for chilli enchilladas later in week. Also made a tom and lentil soup. Used up lots of the sorry looking veggies in the fridge.

happycrafter_2

Pixie_Fairydust wrote: »

Hi all, you all seem very organised and on the ball!

I really need some help and inspiration. I am a mum to 2 teenagers (one is diabetic), I have a husband and 2 cats.

I shop online with A*da, I find it the cheapest, but am still struggling to get my weekly shop below about £80! This does include all cleaning stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc as well as food.

I don't eat meat (but have done so recently just to eat up what we have!) I have 2 jobs so don't have much spare time, but could batch cook if I knew what to do!

My children are quite fussy, but seem to eat loads! I do buy crisps, choc, biscuits etc.

Please could any kind soul help me with my weekly shop and some easy/quick recipes.

A bit thank you to you all. :T

I have a 15 and 11 year old and they eat and eat all day (well it seemed like it over Christmas) what I do is buy french loaves if they are reduced and slightly stale the better. I half them length ways and chop the large ones in to thirds (6 in total) then I get a cheap tin of tomatoes cook with pizza style herbs and garlic blend until smooth then spread over the bread. cover with grated cheese and wrap in foil and stick in the freezer. The kids are trusted (with an electric grill) to unwrap pizzas add ham and more cheese if needed and grill till cooked.

if the boys eat meat:
I am also lucky to have a great butchers near me that supplies me with short ribs (aka as flat ribs) these are slow cooked and the meat shredded off the bone I freeze this in portion bags to reheat in the microwave so the boys can fill a batch with it. hot beef and gravy batch does fill them up and the short ribs cost me £5-7 and you get tons of meat off them.

I am going to see if my butchers have any pork hocks in soon (he charged me £1.25 each last time) to slow cook and shred the meat for the boys for pork batches.

hope this helps I plan for a month of meals my last 2 months my shopping has been under £200 each month for 4 of us plus animals I shop at asda and aldis.

freakyogre

£3.08 spent since yesterday.

£1.83 yesterday on milk, wraps and some reduced basil. Also got some christmas cards, but they're not included.
£1.25 spent today on lipbalm - I have dropped a brand! I usually always get Nivea but the price keeps creeping up and is now around £1.50 for one :eek: I got 3 for £1.25 and they seem to be quite similar.