March 2011 Grocery Challenge

tigerfeet2006

Yeah! I have started using thinner boxes for my freezer meals and the brood will eat that as a whole meal just as much as the deeper boxes I was using, same with DH when he takes one to work for lunch. So I am getting more out of left overs. It is definatly a matter of perception, I have been using slightly smaller plates as well so it looks like they have the same amount.

debtfreewannabe321

jumblejack wrote: »

Hi folks. Noticed a few of you are mentioning slicing your own ham. What exactly do you buy? (I truly have no idea!!)
Apologies for my ignorance.

I use Gammon, I got a huge joint for less than £8 and made around 10 portions from it (for me and 2 lil ones) wrapped them all seperatly in cling film and freeze them, much cheaper than ham and tastes nicer too. If you're not a fan of it because it is too salty try the unsmoked gammon. I invested in an electric carving knife (argo$ value range!) because i now cook all meat in bulk and slice and freeze in portions, from beef to chicken to the gammon, defrost it on day before i want to eat it and either use it in a meal (curry etc) or sandwiches

jumblejack

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I use Gammon, I got a huge joint for less than £8 and made around 10 portions from it (for me and 2 lil ones) wrapped them all seperatly in cling film and freeze them, much cheaper than ham and tastes nicer too. If you're not a fan of it because it is too salty try the unsmoked gammon. I invested in an electric carving knife (argo$ value range!) because i now cook all meat in bulk and slice and freeze in portions, from beef to chicken to the gammon, defrost it on day before i want to eat it and either use it in a meal (curry etc) or sandwiches

Aha. Just checked and Argos value ones are down to £7.97!!!!

I've already put a wanted on freecycle so if no luck will invest in one of these while the offer is on!

PennyGrabber

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

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

If you go to the Andrew James website, there's one there for £64.95

PennyGrabber

Just checked the argos site - they have that value carver, but it's only on offer at that price til tomorrow. But, they do have a meat slicer for half price at £24.99 instead of £51.05. That offer's valid until July apparently! Also, if anyone is interested, they have a cookworks food mixer thing, reduced from £139.99 to £39.99!! I may have to see if I can squeeze that from this month's budget!

cat_smith

Not sure whether an electric carving knife will work as well as a slicer - can you limit the width of the cuts? That's the biggest advantage of the slicer, you can set it from 1mm up so you can really control slices.

quintwins

evening all i've went very off the rails this month after doing so well, i have another £10 to add for bits i grabed in town today, and theres going to be another £4 on fri i know i'll make it up in the next few months because i now have loads of cheese/tuna/pasta sauce from my dtd, aswell as comfort and pepsi and chocolate and frozen veg i also have a £45 voucher (can't use til april) and a £24 voucher still to use so really i'm quids in, it just doesn't look that way

tigerfeet2006

PennyGrabber wrote: »

If you go to the Andrew James website, there's one there for £64.95

Cheers m'dear :A:kisses3:

Have just had a mooch around to see if I can get cashback at all but I'm drawing a blank so far :rotfl:

Hopefully it will still be on sale later on in the month. Though I am seriously thinking of getting it at that price and adjusting my grocery budget, hmmmmm!!:think:

jumblejack

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Just checked the argos site - they have that value carver, but it's only on offer at that price til tomorrow. But, they do have a meat slicer for half price at £24.99 instead of £51.05. That offer's valid until July apparently! Also, if anyone is interested, they have a cookworks food mixer thing, reduced from £139.99 to £39.99!! I may have to see if I can squeeze that from this month's budget!

And a morphy Richards 6.5 ltr slow cooker at £27 half price! Just got a thermal cooker on it's way otherwise I'd be tempted by that!

muffin_man_7

jumblejack whats a thermal cooker ? sounds interesting