January 2011 Grocery Challenge

emma-uk

So far spent £4.90 at the market, Grapes were a fifth of the price in the supermarkets! Off to Mr S tonight after scrutanising their offers last night and meal planning so will update my sig when back.

kirsty822001

XSPENDER love that seperate purse for shopping, I think taking cash out for groceries would really help me stick to the challenge. Too easy to get lured into bargains and use my card.

I have been shopping for 2nd time, tried to stick to what we needed but also doubled up on cereal and bought packed lunch stuff, as run out of those and dont want to shop if I dont have to, milk is cheap round local shop and plenty of bread in freezer. I have got meals planned and everything in freezer/fridge/cupboard until monday. I only have to stick to meal plan and hope if i do need anything I only buy what I need.
BUT
I am tempted to place an online order/go into Tesco as I saw some half price offers for items we use regularly,I really dont know if thats a good idea in long run or not,,I could spend £20 on 'stocking up' out of my budget,may have a look online and compare bargains and see what I actually would use.
I usually make cakes/biccys for packed lunch but still feel unwell and I dont want to eat them after all the xmas goodies I have had!

Thankyou to all that post and moderate, It really is a fab inspirational thread :T good luck everyone.

wssla00

jintyb wrote: »

Mine's an upright - not sure about chest freezers. If youre disposing of it just disconnect and put outside and once it's defrosted use a plastic jug to scoop out the water

What I do is:

I usually empty my freezer before I go to bed & let it defrost overnight. I put a big deep baking tray under the bottim to catch the water.
I wrap any food in newspaper or thick towels and put it in a basin or a cool bag. The bags for frozen food you buy at the SM are good too. If its cold enough outside I put it outside my back door. HTH

Thank you will do that this evening! Can't wait for the new one!!!

Another NSD for me today. I was in a&e yesterday then docs today so not feeling in the mood to spend.

Anyway all have a good day, I'm off to mosey through the web!

bramble1

Normally i try to buy fresh chicken, but our budget this month just wont allow it. - plus i buy it then it just gets chucked in the freezer.. so this month i'm going to order 1kg of frozen chicken breasts. Anyone got a guide as to how many you get for a kilo roughly?

zebredy

hex2 wrote: »

zebredy - one tin per cat per day is about right. Mine have unlimited dry food plus one tin of meat for mr fussy between the four of them every day which worked out cheaper for us and less messy.

Thanks, my mum suggested giving them less wet food and more hard food like you do. They do love eating the hard food like there is no tomorrow, so going to try with 1 and half cans in morning and 1 and half in evening with extra small bowl of hard food, should work out a lot cheaper, not sure I could give them any less tins then that as there are four, but we shall see (they do love there wet food lol)..

kippers

Goodness it takes a long time to catch up with this thread every day! Anyway well done to you all for keeping going with the GC.

My month runs to 24th Jan so i have 19 days left to go but cupboards and freezers are full.

Kids go back to school tomorrow so i have had 3 lunches to make....

DH has h/m rolls with ham

DD1 has a bottle of h/m apple juice (apples juice in sept then frozen ready in small bottles for lunch boxes) h/m roll with tuna mayo, olives, h/m mince pie and a h/m cheesey courgette scone which she eats at break as she doesn't have breakfast due to travel sickness on the school bus (i froze my home grown courgettes in summer).

My DD2 has h/m roll with h/m jam (not that healthy but she refuses to eat anything else) h/m choc brownie and an apple


Tonight we are having pasta in a h/m tomato sauce and h/m garlic bread, so it's a no meat day today. The passatta i'm using is from my freezer, i made loads of it when a had a glut of tomatoes from my allotment and i grew my herbs and garlic and onions that i will be using too....so tonight is a really cheap meal.

I do really well when i put my mind to this challenge....but it's when the novelty wears off for me and i get sloppy so i must must keep going.

scotsaver

Managed a NSD today.:j Have decided to start keeping a note of these for myself as it was getting to the stage where I was shopping almost every day.:o

Been up to the Allotment today to tidy up after all the snow we had last month. Managed to dig up some spuds that had been missed and surprised to find they were fine so pulled up some Leeks and have made some more soup for tonight.

Still have 2 lemons to use up so have made a batch of Lemon curd with one of them and will use the last one tomorrow in something else.

Mothership - thanks so much for those recipes - they look fab, I'll be making the Xmas Pudding Scones tomorrow as I still have a HM Xmas pud to use up and have some Brandy butter lurking at the back of the Fridge. Will bind them with Cream as I always have some of that in the Fridge anyway.
Can you please post the Recipe for Mince and Tatties, I'm originally from Scotland, now living near London, my OH is a true Glaswegian and loves Mince and tatties but I don't do anything fancy with it - my Mother was half Scottish, half Welsh and my Father is English so my way of doing things is probably not true to Scottish recipe.:o

Dinner tonight will be Leek & potato soup as mentioned above and then Sausage Casserole that's been in Slow Cooker today. No pudding planned tonight as we still have some Mince Pies to use up.;)

Have a good evening everyone.:D

dink1

Hi Guys!
Went and did a large shop but managed to get some bargains. just got to manage to keep the costs down by baking from scratch.
Dink1

jackieglasgow

Did a small Sainsbugs shop yesterday for packed lunch stuff, milk and some things to make rockyroad for the lunchboxes too - oh and cereal as well! £22.16.

Nicifer_noonoo

We'd like to join please - Could you pop us down for £160 for this month please? Going to be tough going I think, that's for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 newborn (due 20th Jan) - hoping to breastfeed so fingers crossed no formula to buy! We'll see how we go, really determined to get us back in the black this year, and this is as good a place to start as any