March 2011 Grocery Challenge

angelatgraceland

Do you need to do the downshift challenge? Are you sticking to branded products? Maybe shifting to a few value products will help you but of course you may already do this. Do you buy a lot of meat? What is it you are running out of which causes the extraa trips to the shops?
As you meal plan for the week its strange you need to do extra shops-that is what I noticed anyhow.
A lot of us here reduce our meat content by adding oats or lentils to the meat in spag bog,chilli etc. Looking at the spending diary you will eventually see the patterns-it could take a couple of months to find out but you will see them!
9 days and £91 isnt bad at all as its approx £2.50 per person per day on average. What target do you have in mind? Maybe plan your menu around that daily costing. I probably do mine for about £1.50 pp per day.

Gracie_1827

It's going to be a tight squeeze to keep in budget this month, but hopefully it won't be too much over. Went to MrM this morning after a week without shopping and bought more than I bargained for, but still only £20.92...there were so many offers on their fresh fruit and veg. Trays of 4 apples at 30p strawberries at 79p, onions at 40p per kg and bags of pears for 55p.
Yesterday I received 8 weeks supply of Finish dishwasher tablets to try from a survey site, which was bonus, plus Neutrogena dryskin cream...enough to last a few months.:beer:

freakyogre

£3.40 spent today.

£1.00 in Coop on milk.

£2.40 in my local health food shop on dried tarragon, parsley, cayenne pepper and dried chillis.

I need bacon for one meal next week (unless I discover some in the freezer), but have everything else. I will probably need to get fruit as well.

mummyjane

Angel - So glad to hear you've had some positive news x

Rachelww1 - Owch! I've done that before and it bloomin hurts! Hope it's feeling better now x

Spiggle - when do you get your results - keeping everything crossed for you x

Had a NSD today as ds still felling worse for wear. We can't really go out at the moment so we're having a popcorn and a movie afternoon/evening with the kids. Watching Alpha and Omega, very good so far

Pinwheel

Hi
Just popping in to update sig. Another £10.34 spent today, mostly on things we needed but I did get a few treats too. The children wanted an ice cream after seeing an ice cream van so I promised that they could have one after tea tonight. I went into W**trose as we were on our way home and I couldn't face going back to the other shops, and got some vanilla ice cream, cones and chocolate sauce and it only came to £2.17. I thought it was cheap but waited until I was outside to check my receipt and I wasn't charged for the ice cream! My budget is looking very tight DH gets paid on 25th March so 2 weeks to go. I've got a chicken defrosting ready for a roast tomorrow and I intend to make at least another 2 meals out of it, one for Monday night and and a pie for the freezer for next Sunday's lunch.
HM Pizza tonight, the BM has just beeped so the dough is done and the tomato sauce smells lovely. Have a nice evening everyone.
PWx

boultdj

Spent another $20 this week.

esmer

Made a lovely biscuit today, got it from the Great British Bake off... I have put the recipe on my blog. I cant believe how delish they are.



They are called Jam Thumb-Prints

wuvvies

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Do you need to do the downshift challenge? Are you sticking to branded products? Maybe shifting to a few value products will help you but of course you may already do this. Do you buy a lot of meat? What is it you are running out of which causes the extraa trips to the shops?
As you meal plan for the week its strange you need to do extra shops-that is what I noticed anyhow.
A lot of us here reduce our meat content by adding oats or lentils to the meat in spag bog,chilli etc. Looking at the spending diary you will eventually see the patterns-it could take a couple of months to find out but you will see them!
9 days and £91 isnt bad at all as its approx £2.50 per person per day on average. What target do you have in mind? Maybe plan your menu around that daily costing. I probably do mine for about £1.50 pp per day.

i get all my shopping using value and branded and yes i have meat prob 5 days a week. my problem is probably fresh fruit and veg and popping in for lunchbox things. this really leads to big impulse buying the " oh thats cheap" thing.really i would like to stick to 50 pounds a week and that would be everything.

cutiepieabf

cutiepieabf wrote: »

i like grilling pork chops, and topping one side with apple sauce and then cheese on top. mmmmmm
however, as we speak i have cider and honey mustard pork in the SC. it is the first time i have made it and i am following the ingredients from a normal recipe (except i increased the amount of liquid). (4 pork chops, 2 tbsp w.g mustard seed, 2 tbsp honey, 2 shallots/half onion, can of dry cider, tub of creme fraiche (which i will add when i get home, stir and then put on high for a bit to finish it off)).
i am quite excited about what is going to be waiting for me when i get home from work...

Just thought i would report - this was DELICIOUS!! The sauce was awesome, i could've drunk it! The only thing i didnt like was that the bones had broken down into the mixture so i couldnt fish them out and consequently kept biting pieces which wasnt very pleasant. Next time i will have to take the chops off the bone first.

rachelww1

esmer wrote: »

Made a lovely biscuit today, got it from the Great British Bake off... I have put the recipe on my blog. I cant believe how delish they are.



They are called Jam Thumb-Prints

Hey Esmer, great minds must think alike . I made exactly the same this morning (recipe out of one of my kids cookery books!), and DH and DS are tucking into them while watching the footie.