May 2011 Grocery Challenge

rachbc

Up to £112/240 which is pretty on track - hoping for 1 more shop this weekend to last til 1st but with hols starting week after next might not manage that!

PennyGrabber

Guccigoo - some things in life aren't worth worrying about when other stuff hits us. Take it easy, and look forward to 'seeing' you in June, or whenever you're ready. Take care. xx

NSD today grocery-wise. I also went through my fridge, and pulled out all the bendy stuff, and turned it into pizza sauce. It's on my kitchen counter as we speak, in those ice cube bags things. I know that's not gc, but i found them lurking in the cupboard, and thought they would be ok for that, as then I won't stain my ice cube trays (people may complain if ! serve red ice cubes with their g and ts!!). It's not that I went over the top, but I had lots of stuff going over, and now I have approx 150 'pizza cubes'!! I reckon an 8" pizza will need 4 or 5, so that will keep me going FOREVER!! Good job I'd just made room in the freezer! May be sick of pizza soon...

Feel quite good though, that I didn't throw that stuff away. And, I'll feel good when the children eat it as it's stuffed full of veg. (Plus pizza is cheap to make!)

Can't decide what to have for dinner tomorrow. Have some pork steaks that have been looking at me from the freezer - any easy ideas?

PG x

dawn060861

Thanks for the spreedy responses to my post, I will look at all the links thanks and will post an average weekly shopping list in my next post. I have an Aldi very near and have been a few times but don't know what is nice and what is not(tinned beans,soup,cook in sauces etc) I am so used to using the premiuim brands.
I think we spend too much in Asda on toiletries,cleaning products etc too. I was thinking the £ shop or Wilkinsons for those as My Sister always says how cheap it is. I am so lazy I know just going once a week to one shop but can't afford to keep this up.

thanks once again Dawn x

MaggieBaking

For me, I have been ever so lightly absorbing bits of information from this thread - and whilst I am absolutely not close to being OS - I am finding myself being more consciencious about what I am buying/throwing away and am reusing ingredients in various meals.

For example:

I might have done a small meal plan and decided to make a chicken salad one night... So iceburg lettuce £1, tomatoes, £1, single garlic bread 65p (making up prices a little bit there), and I'd serve all the lettuce, throw away what wasn't eaten etc. I was spending a lot on the fact that I was not sharing food between breakfast/lunch/dinner, which I am now getting into.

Now I think if I do a chicken salad one night, and make BLTs the next night and split the lettuce and tomatoes, - then I'm halving the costs of the "extras" in a meal. And I might buy 2 for a £1 garlic bread, and serve the spare with another meal.

Now I know true OS is to grow your own lettuce, and make your own garlic bread - but it's baby steps for me and I'm finding this is helping so far!

And try and make some "cheaper" dinners too, rather than aiming for something 'proper' every night.

got-it-spend-it

This site was designed by some very clever people on these forums and contains some great recipes http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/. There are two monthly planners, both of which provide a balanced diet for a family of four for £100 a month. I haven't followed the entire planners, but there are some brilliant, frugal recipes on there.

I try and cut grocery spends by including one or two really cheap meals a week. For example a lentil and vegetable soup one night a week, or jacket potato with beans. I also agree that meal planning is the key.

dawn060861

This is one weeks shop at Asda (already have good selection of herbs/spices/store cupboard stuff)

2 white bread
2 Brown bread
3 pkts scotch pancakes
2 packs part baked baguettes (2 pack)
Flora light
4 cartons skimmed Milk
bag sugar
tea bags
Diet coke
lime and lemon flavoured still water
blackcurrant no sugar squash
Pack Ham
Pack corned beef
pack of cooked chargrill chicken
pack of cheese strings
pack bacon
Microwave sausage
6 eggs
Joint beef
Chicken breasts
Minted lamb steaks
minced beef (2 packs)
Pasta bows
Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce (2) on offer £1 each
Mature cheddar
tin chopped tomatoes
2 tins sweetcorn
Jar Helmans Mayonaise light
Fry light cooking spray
Basmati rice
4 Muller Rice
4 Readymade jelly pots
Pack mixed flavour french fries
Pack cheese and onion crisps
Baking potatoes (big bag)
new potatoes
swede
carrots
lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
red onions
spring onions
mushrooms
bananas
Apples
plums
oranges
strawberries
frozen chips
frozen yorkshire puddings
Ice lollies
frozen cheesecake

toilet Roll
kitchen roll
foil
fabric conditioner
Daz
air freshener


The food varies from week to week as does the toiletries/cleaning products etc but my shopping bill is between £85-£100 a week
any ideas to get this bill down a bit, we have an Aldi,Iceland nearby and has a Morrisons,Asda,tesco etc nearby and also markets.

Dawn x

Winged_one

I got 5 salmon fillets, chicken wings, a quiche, cheese, (and my lunch and the cakes for a farewell tea in the office this afternoon) in M&S today. Another €21 on grocery spends. But it means I now have fish in freezer again and it's fast to prepare fish. I also have a quiche which could well be tomorrow's lunch, or else freezer.

We got pizza tonight, from the entertqinment budget.

I need to use up a lot from the freezer this week. My plans are:
Sat: Salmon tagliatelle
Sun: Mushroom risotto
Mon: Chicken curry
Tues: Lamb chops, mash, cauliflower cheese
Wed: Sausages, pasta and sauce
Thurs: Burgers and oven chips
Fri: I probably will succumb to takeaway again
Wed:

song_of_calliope

A few observations based on your list:

1. Could you make your own rice pudding and jelly instead of buying the packaged stuff? If not, only buy the pre-made stuff when it's on sale and stock up.

2. Try the Value range stuff. This has been a huge savings to me and I really haven't found that many items I dislike the Value equivalent of.

3. Looks like you buy a lot of fruit and veg which is great, but get this at Aldi or Lidl rather than at Asda.

4. You could bake your own bread or else buy bread when it's reduced (go in the evening for the shop and you'll almost always find bread reduced) and pop the loaves you won't use right away into the freezer.

5. Make your own pasta sauce from tinned tomatoes instead of buying the Grossman stuff. You'll find you can make sauce that's even tastier and you'll know what's in it, too.

6. Cut out the crisps - they're not good for you and are expensive, too.

7. Make ice lollies out of own-brand fruit juice - you can get a little plastic kit to do this or use your imagination to make the moulds.

8. Make your own chips and yorkshires. With chips you can cut up and parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes then freeze them. There you go - homemade oven chips.

It may sound like all this making stuff from scratch is too much work. In that case, just try adopting it gradually one thing at a time, and I think you'll find it soon becomes second nature. I've been able to cut my food budget in half so far and I feel like I eat extremely well but that's down to cooking techiniques if I do say so myself!

Diflower

Hi Dawn,
I can see you're getting lots of links and information so will just make one contribution:)
It made a lot of difference to our budget when I realised (from this board) that we were spending too much on sandwich fillings for packed lunches. Like you, we were buying packs of ham etc. Now I buy the meat and cook it myself. For instance a bacon or gammon joint will do a lovely dinner, then 2 or 3 days of sandwiches (or more depending on size).

On your list is a pack of chicken breasts, if you cook 1 extra that will do 2 or 3 sandwiches. Even better though is to buy a whole chicken, either use first for dinner and the rest for sandwiches, or just cook it and take all the meat off. You can freeze it cooked if you don't want the same thing every day, likewise the ham.
Hope that helps.

JIL

Hi Pennygrabber

Something I do with pork chops/steaks is

Butter/grease a square of tin foil one per steak or chop. Then lay some slices of potato and onions on top, place the pork on top of that then finally top with some chopped apple (either cooking or eating) season to taste. Wrap it up to form parcels and bake for about an hourish. Serve with a green veg, or bake some red cabbage in the oven whilst its on. Quick and easy.