February 2011 Grocery Challenge

AlwaysHappy

Hello there, as my month ends on the 20th, would like to declare at £224.79/£200 which disappoints me, but we have eaten really well and still have a freezer full to busting, so am hoping to be on track next month. Good luck everyone with your personal challenges.

martafdz

Hi I.M.Hart, I also think it should last for over two weeks. We are two here and I do not usually put cereal or lentils but they last quite a bit more. I use 250g mince meat (0.55 lb) for both of us, I used to put the 500g (1lb) box but once I bought the small packet by mistake and I realized we were eating that much just because it was in the plate, a few more vegetables in the mix and OH never noticed the change.

With 3lb mince meat I would make 6 meals: spagetti bolognese (add more pasta, onion, fresh tomatoes), cottage pie (more carrot, onion, mash...), chili (more kidney beans, onions, pepper...), maybe meatballs (add more breadcrumbs, a bit of onion...), another one with burritos/fajitas (it would fill about 6 with salad and cheese) and maybe a lasagne.

With 3lb pork chops, mmm... how many porkchops are in 3lb? lol Idk, I usually give him 2 small ones and I have one, 3 in a meal if I grill them. However, if I cut them in small chunks and I battered them for sweet & sour pork I only use 2 small for a meal. Also 2 for kebabs, just add vegetables in between. I would also use 2 for a pie. So if you get 10, that would make about 4 meals.

With 3lb boneless joint I would make 2 or 3 meals. I think it is all in how thin or thick you cut the piece, as I think that in my house we eat whatever it is in the plate and the stomach gets filled also with the eyes and how much it looks in the plate, iykwim. If I put the same meat sliced my OH feels he is eating more, maybe because he also chews more or cut more pieces, idk. But if I put a chunk of the same meat, it goes quickly and does not feel the same! I have it proven with chicken breasts. If I wrap the chicken breast with some bacon and then sliced once cooked in "rings", one breast is all I need. If I just put it in the plate whole my OH says it is not enough... and it is the same ammount with one slice of bacon around!! Buy an electric knife, £10 well spent as you will be able to slice thiner portions and get more from your meals.

Same with the topside. However, beef is easier to cut than pork (I think), so you can always cut the topside in 3 pieces as soon as you get it, and freeze them for different roasts. If you get leftovers from any, great, another meal from it! I try now not to cook the whole thing if I can avoid it and freeze things in individual portions or two portions per bag maximum, that way I only take out of the freezer what I know it is going to be eaten. If we are hungry there is always cake for dessert lol

With a whole chicken I would make probably 2 or 3. A quarter of a chicken each works out 2 meals, plus carcass for soup with any left over chicken shreded and added to it, that makes 3 meals.

Lamb chops 2-3 meals. I only have them grilled but if you know how to make curry then a couple of lambchops can make a meal. Also can be made in kebabs and that way you need less.

Chicken breasts: one each, filled with cheese and wrapped with bacon. Also one if sliced thinly and breaded, or battered and made into sweet and sour sauce. Or cut in pieces and made in a pasta bake. Or cut in stripes and stir fried with vegetables. I think the trick here is to take a good knife and "open the breast". Imagine the chicken breast as having 3 layers. so you start in the top 1/3 and slice from right to left slowly, without cutting it completely or going to the very end. Then, from there, you cut the second layer and now go from left to right, withougt going to the end either. You should get a big chicken fillet now made of one breast. I feel that way it is more maneagable and you get more "visual meat". My old butcher used to do that with all the chicken breasts by default before wrapping them and give them out. Apparently this is called "to butterfly" a chicken breast, Maybe you know all this and I am just repeating the obvious, though!! Lol Anyway, if I use the chicken breast like that, one breast is enough for a stir fry for two or even the pasta bake. So if you get 8 breasts that would make me 5-6 meals.

Basically, all you have said would make me 27-28 meals. I also have pizzas or fish some days, so all that meat would last me for at least a month, for sure over 4 weeks, probably about 5 weeks.

(Sorry long post, you let me speak and I just go on and on and on...)

tessie_bear

hi...hope everyone is well...best wishes to all who are up against it

we are spent up gc wise but as dh said the kitchen looked like that of a catering establishment with all thefood on the work tops i think it is time to to stop shopping for a bit

got mince out to make a chilli also big thanks to mrs m....i tried the baguette recipe and tortilla...both fab

tata tessa

never_too_old

Mothership wrote: »

We had a really lovely day today, I massaged DD2's head today and sat and cuddled her, she just soaked it all up, the poor wee soul. I think thats the first day I haven't cried.

glad it all went well and thanks for the support and recipes:D

never_too_old

martafdz

wow thankyou, i have saved your reply, many many thanks:D

laineyc_2

I spent £2.10 at Lidl's today. No shopping on the agenda for tomorrow and my month ends on Monday. Totally over budget but now I have my menus planned for the next month and shopping lists sorted. I think I should do much better in March. I will not be shopping without a list.
We had HM pizzas for lunch and steak and chips for dinner. I didn't get any baking done but I will tomorrow. Planning to make scones and Twinks.
The house is so cold apart from the livingroom and the room the boys are playing in. We went over to my bil's this evening to have a shower. The boys are going tomorrow. The boiler is being replaced next week when we are in Scotland so we have to last until Wednesday. I certainly realise how much we take hot water and warmth for granted. The large bill for the boiler is not the best start to the New Year and I will definitely have to reduce the food budget to top up our savings.

rosieben

Mothership, glad all went well today

I know you have a lot on your plate just now, and not sure if you've seen it but eveie189 asked about the 2-purse system, maybe when you feel up to it you would respond

hope things are on the up for you now, I'll be thinking of you

cha97michelle

The posts about meat portions makes me realise how far i have come in cutting our portions down.

I'm not quite sure on the conversion of pounds to kilos, but think it is about 2.2Ib per kilo.

Chicken breasts - i would use one for a meal for myself, DH, and our two boys aged nearly 3 and 4. Mostly though now i have gone to using chicken thighs. I buy them boned as i don't like faffing with them too much.

Mince - i buy a pack 2200g to 2400g from costco. I then split it up into portions of about 350g and these then do us for 4 family meals. I add 50g of dry soya mince to it, and then rehydrate that with 150g of boiled water. If i am making shepherds pie i will also add 1 or 2 grated carrots. If i do spag bol i add a pepper to the mix, and garlic, onions, tinned toms. If i am doing chilli, i take half of the above mix and then add the tin of kidney beans.

I think we have quite huge portions here. I have been recently weighing out the carbohydrate content as i was using a lot of rice and pasta, and hence overweight. DH keeps encouraging me to further reduce the portions as he is full. That surprised me most as he has a huge appetite usually and i can't fill him.

Maybe there is not much more cutting back that i can do really. Especially as the kids get bigger and bring friends home for tea or just have bigger appetites themselves.

blue_cat_4

Thanks for the suggestions Martafdz- lots to look into especially the Salford ones as I need to go there anyway next week so could combine the two and save on fuel. We live about 40 miles from Manchester so it would be worthwhile to make a day of it if we go there and combine a free museum with something else.
DH is a teacher and is really struggling to find anything at the moment, hardly any jobs advertised and the ones that are tend to go to newly qualified teachers as they are cheaper to employ. There is also very little supply work as a lot of schools are using teaching assistants to cover if teachers are off. Still try to keep positive, we are just about covering our bills and eating pretty well, things could be a whole lot worse as I'm sure they are for lots of people. Thanks again for suggestions

martafdz

eveie, I am sure Mothership can elaborate better as it was her idea and I am not following it, I am only attempting to explain it because I just read m's posts and thought that maybe she has been a bit worried and busy and has not seen eveie's post yet. I hope you don't mind!

As I understood it, it goes like this:

1) Put your GC money into your purse, this is your normal/first purse.
2) Put £10 or £20 in one purse for stocking up, this is your second purse.
3) Add a little pen and a pad/paper into this second purse too.
4) When you see an amazing offer on something and you think "hey, I might buy 6 of these and stock up", buy this with the money in your second purse. Write down the name of the item, the price you paid AND the original non-reduced price. Imagine now that whatever you have bought from that 2nd purse goes to a "virtual store" in your cupboard.
5) When you need to use anything from that list, you "pay" for the item at the original non-reduced price. The money goes to the 2nd purse. So you end up adding more money into the purse than you actually had spent from it because you buy offers with it and you pay back full price. This means every now and then you can move any excess to a possible "3rd purse" for treats. Like a savings account purse for whatever you want. This 3rd purse is optional.

As I understood it, it would work like this:
Let's say you have £10 into your 2nd purse. You see bags of 1Kg rice at 50p reduced from £1 and you decide to buy 12 to last for the whole year. After paying, you will have spent £6 from the second purse, since these are items to stock up and not for this month's GC, and have now £4 left. Ok, so now you have 12 bags of rice. You bought them for 50p but in a way you have put them in a "store inside your cupboard". Next time you need rice you have to go to that store and buy it from there but you will have to pay full price (£1). After using all the bags of rice you will have paid £12 into the purse, so you will have £16 in total in there. It's almost like putting away all the money saved by offers and using it to buy more offers plus treats, but a bit more organized than that. The second purse is like a wholesaler who buy everything in bulk at good prices but sells at normal retail prices.

Please correct me if I am wrong and I hope you do not mind I have replied this. I just read all that m is going through and thought I could try to explain this. I hope tears become less frequent unless they are of joy, m.