January 2011 Grocery Challenge

guccigoo

these pages ave moved fast since last night :eek:
A very small spend in mr s today £1.50 on orange squash.
Have got a mr t delivery coming tomorrow so will update then.
Everybody is doing really well atm :D

Lola76

Hello Everyone!


Thank you for all your tips and notes!!!

After setting a challenge for this month i seem to be thinking twice before going close to the supermarkets. usually i shop on Saturdays but then i pop in to Mr. W or Mr. C op a few time a week for bits and bobs.
things that started me off:

1.did a stock take of my cupboards, i seem to have amongst other things 12 packs of pasta, 19 cans of all sorts of peas and beans, around 4 kilos of different sorts of rice,and had to get rid of an out-of-date meringue nests and vacuum packed beetroot today! this shows that i had a little idea of what is in my cupboards...

2. stock take of my freezer - it had, 12 breasts of chiken, 2packs of mince, 2 bags of prawns, 3 packs of sausages, 8 (!) tuna steaks, Ham and 2 huggises (not sure what to do with them) they have been brought to us as a gift. large bag of freshly frozen bluckcurrants. 2 packs of tortilla wraps. a loaf of bread

3. wrote out a menu for this week. all food is based on the contents of my cupboard and fridge. i will find it not as hard to stick to my 40 pounds.

i have a slow cooker and use it a lot for the last few years. Bread machine however does not get used as much, is it really cheaper to make my own bread rather than buy a loaf from the shop? if so is it still cheaper to use ready bread mix?

tiredwithtwins

hi everyone,
im going to have to revise my initial plan of £40/week - and up it to £50. I dont have enough stock in to manage (and forgot to add my planned spend included toiletries/washing stuff too) so have to buy extras - like meat! ... cos i didnt have anything in the freezer after all

madras79

ran out of milk today so that was a £1.50 spend at farm foods. staying strong at the moment, first spend for 6 days
.so temting to buy food, i swear i am addicted to food buying its like having withdrawel symtems stop buying so much food.i need this thread like therepy any one else like this.

Rebelle

Hey guys!

Still not spent anything yet today, but my Dad is popping over soon and will run me to Asda to get the few bits mentioned last post (milk, bread etc), should be about £4, will update sig with exact amount when I get back.

Well chuffed tonight, friend of OH's came round and fancied ordering Dominos Pizza for tea - so he got their "Two for Tuesday" BOGOF deal and very kindly wouldn't take any money for the 'free' pizza, which OH and I shared. :A

They also unfortunately messed up the toppings on our friend's pizza, so he rang them and got a replacement sent (along with 6 mini slices of cheesecake for free! :drool:) but by the time it arrived he'd stuffed himself with wedges as a starter and only had a couple of slices, so he left it here for us to have for lunch tomorrow. Tried to persuade him to take it but he's not keen on reheated food and doesn't like it cold, so he insisted. So ended up with an unexpected two free meals - it will have to be our treat next time, after payday of course!

Right, Dad's just arrived so off to Asda I go! xxx

Mothership

230g Mashed potato (with milk & Butter)
50g Flour either will do.
Salt & Pepper if liked.

Method
Put your frying pan or griddle (Flat based) on low heat and dust with flour (No oil or fat).
Mix ingredients with your hands.
Divide mix into six pieces about the size of an egg, flour your hands and roll into balls, flatten mix between your palms to about the size of the top of a cup, drop into pan, cook on either side for about 5 min, or until the scones start to have brown speckles on them, put them on a piece of kitchen paper.

You can serve them with a little butter or fry them in a little sunflower oil and have with a cooked breakfast, or poached eggs yumdiddlyumptious! Thats if your family don't get them first LOL.
I made six half an hour ago and three are gone already.

pipkin71

With the last Asda shop I bought their value bubble bath - 18p, if I recall.

Anyway, have just used it to fill up the three hand washes at each sink in the house - normally cost £3 in Poundland, instead cost 18p

I wish I could bring myself to use it in the bath, but I like Dove

angelatgraceland

Lola76 wrote: »

Hello Everyone!

3. wrote out a menu for this week. all food is based on the contents of my cupboard and fridge. i will find it not as hard to stick to my 40 pounds.

i have a slow cooker and use it a lot for the last few years. Bread machine however does not get used as much, is it really cheaper to make my own bread rather than buy a loaf from the shop? if so is it still cheaper to use ready bread mix?

Well I think it works outt the same price more or less as shop bought but that does depend what you normally pay for shop bread. I normally only ever buy whoopsies plus some kingsmill @ 2 for £1.50. If you normally pay about £1.20 a loaf tho then homemade if def cheaper-again it depends where you buy your flour. Best buy for my bread is lidls strong white bread flour-about 59p-enough for say 3 loaves. Add to this some yeast and butter the approx£1 for 3 small loaves. So yes-looking at it that way its cheaper to make your own. However-if like me you are buying loaves of short dated bread for say 19p for a hovis wholemeal 800g(I got 4 on my last stockup)then its cheaper to buy it. Homemade has a flavour all of its own tho which you cannot match with bought. The best results Ive had is to prepare it in the BM and bake it in the oven.

Had a NS day today-used some rice from the freezer, yesterdays cooked chicken and a tin of value s/s sauce(not my fave)for a quick tea. Cooked some more rice and will freeze later for another day-its nice to have it ready cooked in the freezer!

pixiedust09

Unfortunately back to work today , but in between shifts I did prepare all veg for tonight's dinner, so we had Gammon again :doh: (that's it gone now, thank god:j) Roast Potatoes, parsnips, cabbage and carrots, and a small amount of hm cauliflower cheese I made for lunch, was very scrummy. Last night I made a very tasty baked rice pudding and two Victoria sponge cakes for OH's lunch box. One is in the freezer the other I spread with my HM blackcurrant jam and is in the cake tin, in fact its calling to me now but I will resist. Had a nsd today so that's 3 out of 4 for January, I hope it lasts.

Tracey2609

I had 3 open bags of onions in the fridge when I looked tonight - DH had opened the "new" pack that I brought on Friday! The other two bags were out of date (Christmas week), but instead of shock horror throwing them out (which is what I would normally do), I made scrummy French Onion Soup for dinner, I've got some left over so I'm going to freeze that for another day. Feeling quite pleased with myself