March 2011 Grocery Challenge

debtfreewannabe321

Have been for my weekly shop, i was going to go tomorrow as still had a bit left in , but had to go to post office to send off ebay stuff so thought i would get all my spends in on one day so i can get an extra NSD tomorrow lol

I have plenty in the freezer dinner wise so just needed fresh fruit/veg/salad stuff. & fridge and cupboard items for snacks etc, Spent £40.23 which was more than i was hoping for...but i got the offer on on buy one get 2 easter eggs free (Mr T) and also toilet rolls 18 for £6 ..i was also naughty and picked up lots of snacks at least £5 worth (for munching in front of t.v in evenings) oh well i deserve a treat every now and then

One thing i noted though was that shopping was £51.79 and with all the offers went down to £40.23 so saved £11.56 :T:T so am going to save half of that in my sealed jar

cat_smith

slbhill If I'm doing 'finger food' Buy a large brie and a baguette. Shove some rosemary and garlic into slits in brie. Wrap in tin foil and bake for 20min or so. Serve with a spoon for people to scoop out goopy brie and baguette to dip in.

tigerfeet2006

slbhill, also get some loaves of tiger bread or similar and get some decent ham or buy a joint and cook it yourself, will be lots cheaper. Put on the table for people to cut their own bread and ham and eat with some butter.

cat_smith

tigerfeet2006 I agree - buy your own slbhill and cook it. Depending on your budget, investing in a slicer might be well worth the cost. I'm now finding I get about 3 times as many meals out of a joint than when hand carved. No-one complaining of portion sizes so far.

M0neysav3r

lotti379 wrote: »

Wednesday - honey and lemon chicken (or turkey), with cous cous. Can anyone suggest a good flavour for the cous cous? Mr L isn't a big fan of it un-flavoured. I would normally do a lemon and chilli flavouring, but it might be too much lemon with the chicken?

I use a little bit of stock to give it some flavour, usually a 1/4 of a veg stock cube (depending on amount of cous cous) and add lots peppers, onions, courgette, garlic, tomatoes etc Yummmmm

Wow to the 5kg of Cheese - Is it a cheddar? I'm impressed I purchased 800g of cheese from Sainsbugs today for £3.88 (seriously strong BOGOF 400g) but your bargain beats that :T Can you freeze cheese?

On that note - I'm here to report a small spend of £6.36 my pre-weekly shop but it was only for reduced stuff and cheese so dont feel too bad - I think i've also got enough left for my weekly shop which should only be £20 or so I hope! :eek:

cutiepieabf

M0neysav3r wrote: »

Can you freeze cheese?

Of course!!!

tigerfeet2006

cat_smith wrote: »

tigerfeet2006 I agree - buy your own slbhill and cook it. Depending on your budget, investing in a slicer might be well worth the cost. I'm now finding I get about 3 times as many meals out of a joint than when hand carved. No-one complaining of portion sizes so far.

M0neysav3r wrote: »

I use a little bit of stock to give it some flavour, usually a 1/4 of a veg stock cube (depending on amount of cous cous) and add lots peppers, onions, courgette, garlic, tomatoes etc Yummmmm

Wow to the 5kg of Cheese - Is it a cheddar? I'm impressed I purchased 800g of cheese from Sainsbugs today for £3.88 (seriously strong BOGOF 400g) but your bargain beats that :T Can you freeze cheese?

On that note - I'm here to report a small spend of £6.36 my pre-weekly shop but it was only for reduced stuff and cheese so dont feel too bad - I think i've also got enough left for my weekly shop which should only be £20 or so I hope! :eek:

Cat, where did you get your slicer from? Can you do bread with it as well?

Moneysaver, If I have a surplus of cheese I usually grate it in the food processor and put in tupperware boxes and then use it in cooking straight from the freezer, saves a lot of time

cat_smith

tigerfeet2006 yes you can do bread with it. I use it on my BM bread and manage to get about twice as much out of it as a normal loaf. I got mine from Amazon. An Andrew James. Bit more expensive than some but came with a 2nd blade. Can do anything from 1mm up so HM bread can go a lot further than with the normal doorstops. Also brilliant for chorizo, ham, cheese etc. Also, leftover roasts for sandwiches. Brilliant.

tigerfeet2006

cat_smith wrote: »

tigerfeet2006 yes you can do bread with it. I use it on my BM bread and manage to get about twice as much out of it as a normal loaf. I got mine from Amazon. An Andrew James. Bit more expensive than some but came with a 2nd blade. Can do anything from 1mm up so HM bread can go a lot further than with the normal doorstops. Also brilliant for chorizo, ham, cheese etc. Also, leftover roasts for sandwiches. Brilliant.

I've just had a look on Amazon and it's £79.99. So the challenge of the month is to save £80 on my groceries to buy it

Though I think I am going to have a Google and see if it is cheaper elsewhere

cat_smith

Ah yes. I'd forgotten I bought it with Xmas Amazon voucher so it only cost me £20. But I think its already paid for itself,