February 2011 Grocery Challenge

bertiebots

2nd to last shop of the month and it came in at £29.13 so am on budget! Will pop off now to update my sig.

tessie_bear

hi...had a busy morning making a rice pudding cookies and pastry ...also prepping veg for soup

no spends planned for today...thank goodness as i have had a few spends this week...going out for lunch tomorrow that will hopefully be nice....also need to get some milk...must remember that

got chicken curry for tea and rice as need to make an indent in my costco rice

have a great day
tessa

XSpender

Nipped to Mr T this morning and bought what was on my list (well, apart from £1 on some sweeties for me as I am full of cold and needed a treat:o). I am now £4 over my target with enough of everything to last until the 28th when we are next paid. If I need to buy anything else it will just be a small amount of fruit and a tub of formula for DS ad maybe a small block of cheese. I will be happy if I am no more than £15 over as I had to give DH money for lunches a few times last week as my BM ept conking out and this money has been included in my total. If I took it off I would be under so I am not going to get bent out of shape about it as it is very rare that we need to buy lunch.

DBIL coming for tea tonight so stew, leftover from boxing day, defrosting for him and DH tonight to have with mash. I will have omlette and chips. I am using up all my sprouty spuds and they are absoloutley fine. I would have chucked them out previously.

I bought some tom puree today as I had run out so I am planning to do a big batch of bolognaise using the last tin of value toms and 1 and a 1/2 jars of d0lmio sauce I have lurking from a b1gtf offer ages ago. Will also make fish creole for DS and make a ginger cake. Not sure how I will get it all in the freezer:eek:

One of my egg had broke in the box by the time I got home but almost all there so I am going to make DS eggy bread for lunch.:D

Sparklyfairy

I haven't posted much this month but I've updated my signature...I had to take my dd (5) to the hospital for a checkup yesterday as she had surgery in Nov & they may have to operate again! Not a happy mummy here! The Drs & nurses have been fab, just the way her scar is healing that's the prob. So I spent £12 at Aldi yesterday to tide us over as I didn't want to spend out on McD's so we had sandwiches, fruit, snacks & pizza for tea - much better than what I would have spent on junk food out. I have £29 left for the month & I'm sure I can do it no problem. Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

seductivesmile

Hi All,
Been reading but not posting!
thought i was failing miserably with a few weeks spends in the high £20+ region, against my £2.50 a day hope for 2011, i have just totted up my total grocery spend, and on day 48, i have spent £101.45, so £18.55 under my target to date! woohoo!
I've gone through my freezer and decided on having a use up week or so, have loads of portions of batch cooked food, so many that if i took some meat from the bottom draw, batch cooked it, i wouldnt have space in the top draw to pop it into. . . so this weeks menu:
Fri - Lunch - Bolognese Bake
Dinner - Sausage and bean casserole and rice
Sat - Lunch - With Parents
Dinner - Chicken and Veg stirfry (chicken left over from a roast ages ago, and fresh frozen veg)
Sun - Lunch - With Parents
Dinner - Pork and Apple Casserole and Mash
Mon- Lunch - Pork Meatballs and Veg
Dinner - Gammon, Potato Wedges, Egg and Veg (need to use my last 2 eggs up before thurs)
Tue - Lunch - Bolognese with Garlic Naan bread
Dinner - Salmon Fillet and Veg Risotto (frozen)
Wed - Lunch - Cheese and Crackers
Dinner - Sausage and Bean Casserole with Jacket potato
Thur- Lunch - Cheese and Crackers
Dinner - Spaghetti Bolognese and Garlic Bread
Fri - Lunch - Tuna and Sweetcorn with Crackers
Dinner - Pork Meatballs, Mash and Veg
Sat - With family all day - having a cup cake bake- a -thon
Sun - Lunch - Cup-a-soup
Dinner - Roast Beef, yorky, roasties and veg
Mon -Lunch - Roast Beef and Crackers
Dinner - Toad in the hole and veg

So... using up lots from the freezer, and then some of storecupboard bits.
I have 2 x 2 pints of milk in the freezer, so dont need milk, lots and lots of crackers (hence no bread- but also have bread mix for the BM), plenty of tins of fruit, and absolutely loads of frozen veg from dads garden, so i don't think i need to go grocery shopping for at least 10days.

My hope is that i can save as many pennies as i can by the end of feb, then take the money i didnt spend on groceries (or the equivilent to what is spent in Mr T vouchers) out of the bank, and put it in my piggy bank towards the gift for my parents 30th wedding anniversary during march, hoping to have enough for a hot air balloon ride for them, currently have £190 in piggy and 5p's.

All for now - keep it up guys!

SS xx

nickynoo08

martafdz wrote: »

5 min late and they gave you a £10 off voucher? :eek: Where do you shop? Last time I ordered online (Asd4) they never turned up, twice in a row!! No voucher, no apologies and no groceries. Service is appalling in my local one (can't speak for the rest).

I received an A&C delivery, so I have to update sig. Total was £12.48, which makes my current Feb total utd £220.52, so a bit over.

I use sainsburys online and they have always been v good. They rang to say they were going to be late as the drivers van had a puncture then when the driver arrived he couldnt appologise enough. He said its policy to give out a complimentary £10 off your next online shop if they are late. Asda are pants i have to agree, used them twice and both times they sent wrong quantities of products ie 1 apple instead of 1 bag of apples! and 4kg bags of carrots when i wanted 4 carrots:rotfl:

Linda32

Hello all,

I'm going for £260.00 for this month, came in at about £266.00 last month, so here goes.....

New total £161.67

Asda £15.56
Co-op £1.40

New Total £178.63

Month will run until after shopping on 25th February 2011.

supersally01

Just checking in to update siggi. Went to AL$I and spent £18 on their veg, fruit, milk, pizzas, chips. Then went to CO-*P and spent another £18, but that included the £5 toilet roll offer, and the I@MS has 1/3 off, making it £6 for 3kgs which is like the 3 for 2 at MR T's but without the large spend. Only got whats left in my purse, or I will be over, not bad as I had dropped my total from last month.
Making HM sausage rolls, chips and beans for tea, needed a change from the norm!!!! Had to go into MrT's as that is where I collect my prescription, but come out having spent nowt!!! RESULT!!!!

karmachilovething

Hello, my name is KarmaChi and I can't waste food!

OK there is a reason for the melodrama - last week my housemate made some lovely chocolate (& cougette!) cupcakes. And they lasted really well (I think because of the vegetable content) but then by this week they were a little dry, but we had a dozen left.

As I say, can't stand waste. Actually it's getting a little out of control - my housemates constantly over buy, so I go around hoovering up their abandoned fridge items! They haven't said anything, so I think they either don't mind or haven't even noticed!

So I came up with the idea of making tiramisu with the stale cake (I asked my housemate about this one, it wouldn't go unnoticed!)- had everything but the mascapone, so ended up spending £2.80 to rescue some cake that I hadn't paid for or made! And lost a NSD to it! I felt very conflicted over that one! :rotfl:

Ah well, it's not completely crazy, I have friends coming to stay tonight so now I have a lovely desert to serve them!

Also picked up some whoopsies when buying the mascapone, so another £3.55 to add to the total . . . off to update sig.

rosieben

martafdz wrote: »

How do you do that?! I can only mean plan for a week maximum, I run out of ideas! Could you please and if you do not mind just post a few meals so I can get inspiration? ...

not sure if you've seen it marta but we have a weekly menu plan thread on OS where you might find some inspiration - here is the latest one

might also be worth a look at 10 Tips for Meal Planning to get you started

karmachilovething wrote: »

Hello, my name is KarmaChi and I can't waste food! ... So I came up with the idea of making tiramisu with the stale cake

you're far more imaginitive than me; my dd (aged 42) still tells everyone that I made them eat stale cake and custard when they were little .... I did!