May 2011 Grocery Challenge

rachbc

dawn060861 wrote: »

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

2 white bread 4 loaves a week sound like a lot for 2.5 people - - do you use it all or does it get wasted? Aldi bread is great and much cheaper - hm is even better!
2 Brown bread
3 pkts scotch pancakes make you or for pennies
2 packs part baked baguettes (2 pack)
Flora light
4 cartons skimmed Milk
bag sugar
tea bags
Diet coke go down a brand or just ditch - its really not essential
lime and lemon flavoured still water ditto
blackcurrant no sugar squash
Pack Ham i buy gammon roast and slice myself
Pack corned beef
pack of cooked chargrill chicken cheaper to roast and slice a whole chicken
pack of cheese strings - more per kg than really lovely cheese and horribly processed!
pack bacon
Microwave sausage
6 eggs aldi 89p for fr eggs - think they are about £1.50 in asda
Joint beef
Chicken breasts - swap for thighs or a whole bird
Minted lamb steaks
minced beef (2 packs)
Pasta bows
Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce (2) on offer £1 each - still more expensive than making your own
Mature cheddar
tin chopped tomatoes
2 tins sweetcorn
Jar Helmans Mayonaise light - drop a brand?
Fry light cooking spray
Basmati rice - by big sacks from asian stores
4 Muller Rice - make yr own
4 Readymade jelly pots - how hard is it to make u jelly at 36p a pack for a pint?
Pack mixed flavour french fries - don't buy - better for your purse and your wiastline and heart!
Pack cheese and onion crisps - ditto
Baking potatoes (big bag)
new potatoes
swede
carrots
lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
red onions
spring onions
mushrooms
bananas
Apples
plums
oranges
strawberries
frozen chips - make yr own wedges
frozen yorkshire puddings - make your own
Ice lollies - make your own
frozen cheesecake - make your own

toilet Roll
kitchen roll - use reuseable cloths - better for the plant too!
foil
fabric conditioner -use vinegar
Daz
air freshener - totally unneccessary


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

There does seem to be quite alot of processed stuff there and stuff I would class as 'junk' to be honest- pots of rice and jelly and expensive, have loads of wasteful packaging and are so easy to make! Pop, crisps and cheese strings don't need to play any part in anyones diet and are imho a waste of money!

Lots of veg but aldi will be cheaper - especially super six and make sure you are buying in season.

Apologies if my comments seem harsh just rattling off some ideas!

midnightraven3

i just looked in asda to see how much (scottish) pancakes were a packet, 90p:eek:, buying 3 of those, £2.70

this is the recipe i use, and you will make 24 ish from this, for less than your 90p for 6, and they freeze brilliantly, and they are very quick to make, just dont make the mistake of buttering while its still hot, or there will be NONE left:rotfl:

its a blog, but the recipe is from the book i use, and this blog has good pictures (buts in NOT my blog, i dont have one:():D

http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/05/scotch-pancakes.html

VJsmum

Some great suggestions that i don't have much to add to.

You have said about batch cooking - a really good investment is a slow cooker if you don't have one. They are around £15 - £20 from various supermarkets or cataglogue shops. You can buy cheaper cuts of meat (stewing steak, for ex.) make loads and freeze some. THey also burn the same amount of electricity as a lightbulb. I freeze any leftovers - even a tiny portion of beef stew - because then at some point i get them all out of the freezer and have a perfectly good dinner. Make sure you label tho as we have had some "surprise combinations" :rotfl:

If we have a roast , i will shove extra tatties on and veg and plate up whole dinners to freeze. Comes in handy on busy days and might be nice for the little one if you want to have something he doesn't like i.e. something spicy perhaps.

Meatless meals are definitely a way forward. Lentils can be a great meat substitute - i make a lovely meatless shepherds pie with brown lentils.

Cheaper cuts of chicken - legs and thighs, for me taste much nicer than the breast.

Aldi is great and there is little I haven't liked - baked beans etc are fine, and they do some great lines in frozen fish. Their breakfast cereal is better than branded, i think. Personally i don't like the pasta sauce but generally make my own from a tin of toms added to garlic and onion with some oregano, or basil thrown in. Takes moments.

I buy value brand biscuits because i don't really care if people like them or not:rotfl:, but actually no-one has noticed.

Sambucus_Nigra

Get one bag of spuds - 25kg for £7-8 from a farm shop. Get a few bags of flour for bread. That will kick off your savings. Cut the junk as mentioned, and the meat and see what happens. You are buying the most expensive potatoes [baking and new] when a bag of Wilja* will do you for most uses and for the same money will last 2-3 months.

Or

Cut your budget by 25% for a month, just take the cash with you and add up as you go. You'd be surprised how many crisps you don't really need when you have only the cash in your hand to spend.

*Other big bags of spuds are available

Also - get a box of washing tabs and just use half a tab per wash. I buy one big box when it's on offer and it lasts a year. Each pack of 2 tabs lasts for 4 washes not the one that they want you to use.

missychrissy

I've managed to keep my supermarket shop down to £10 per week for the last 3 years. I live on my own with visiting sons/wives/girlfriends/grandchildren. I think my biggest money saver is my slow cooker. I have the Cookworks slowcooker now which is much better than my previous Lakeland one that was just too slow. I use cheap, but lean, cuts of meat together with lots of pulses and veg. I'm a big fan of one pot cookery with the addition of potaoes/noodles/rice/pasta/bread.

I gave up 'rubbish' years ago - we don't need biscuits/cakes/crisps/fizzy drinks etc that provide empty calories. It is much better to spend your money on nutricious foods. My extravagance is wine but I do make my own at between 16p and 70p per bottle.

I think that you have to take small steps and gradually make the changes that improve your diet and cut your expenditure.

WelshWoofer

Just back from Mr T and used the Mr M £5 off £40 voucher from the NOTW without a problem - I didn't even buy the paper, just printed it out from the website. Also had a 49p DTD voucher so the shop came down by £5.49 to £44.79 , just inside my £45 budget for the week.

I have bought half a ton of fruit and veg for my SW diet and plenty of dog food and this week I'd run out of all of the laundry and cleaning bits and pieces so overall I'm quite pleased with the eventual cost after vouchers.

rosieben

:hello: sorry been mia lately

Welcome to our newbies, good luck with your challenge

hugs to Spigs, Hippeechiq, guccigoo and anyone else struggling with health or other issues; please take care of yourselves

I've added a link to zippychicks new Complete Vegetarian Collection, to our index; thanks Jackieglasgow for the suggestion :beer:

I've also added links to the Complete Cookery Collection and to Squeaky's Old Style Indexed Collection - apologies I thought I'd added these 2 ages ago Its definitely worth checking out Squeaky's index - for instance post #14 has links to other useful collections;

there's a whole heap of useful information on this forum which isn't necessarily easy to find

quintwins

i have to say i'm guilty of buying crisps and biscuits, however if there not on offer then it's value all the way and value custard creams are soooo much nicer and creamier than any others i've ever had, i also buy packets of ham for picnics as i find it's easier and gammon never lasts more than an hr in this house

i 2nd buying a big bag of spuds i get a 20kg bag of maris pipers for £6 and that lasts 5 of us 2 weeks, and there only just strating to sprout by the time i finish the bag, you could buy a big bag and cook up some mash/roasties/wedges/chips/fishcakes and freeze them

it will def save you money buying cheaper cuts of meat like chicken thights, stewing steak or beef shin, i havent bought a beef joint for full price in years once i relised a pork shoulder joint was alot cheaper, and are also often on offer (half price in tesco til tomorrow) i also buy cooking bacon, you could buy frozen lamb chops and make your own marinade/sauce

buy cheese on offer or acually look at the price per weight, it can be alot cheaper to buy pre sliced or grated cheese if there are no blocks on offer


and what on earth are microwave sausages? are they like those processed hotdogs? i only every buy reduced sausages and only pay over £1 a packet if there pork and leek/apple (my fav) yet i have a freezer full of sausages

i also make all my own sauces and packet mixes (except for sausage casarole it's yummy)

seductivesmile

Hi All,
After another week of NSD's - i did my weekly shop today (think i'm getting the hang of not popping to the SM on my way home from work)
It was quite an interesting shop (took mum with me) and first went to Ald!, spent £7.77 - on Sol Beer, Strawberries, Grapes, Satsuma's, Courgettes & Green Beans, Then we went down to Mr M, where i spent another £14.97, for that got 2 x 4pk tuna (two for £5 or £5.39 each??) 3 x tinned toms (3 for £1 or 99p each) British tata's 30p, Bananas, bacon (2 for £2 or £1.79 each), Pork steaks (half price) Pear tray of 4 (30p) Gala apples (£1) some jam covers and a milkshake to drink.! saved so much money on things that can be incorporated into a healthy weeks meal plan.
Then when i got home i swapped one of the multipack tuna with mum for some peppers, jersey royals, half a cucumber, 2 toms, some green grapes to go with my red, and an onion.
I've put the offers in bold in the hope someone can make use of them!

Meal plan
Sat - with parents
Sun - pork in apple and cider with mash & veg
Mon - Cous cous stuffed courgette
Tue - Chicken in black bean sauce with green beans and broccoli
Wed - Ratatuille
Thurs - Sausage and bacon casserole
Fri - Veggie Chilli

Lots of healthy stuff!
Have a good week all! xx

69chick

Hi all, just back from town as ds is off on his first ever school trip so needed to get some bits and pieces for him (thank heaven for poundland!!)

While I was in there I picked up some coffee and drinks so thats another £2 spend but worth doing whilst I was there (dh likes their red mountain coffee for £1)...

I do need to have a good look at the cheap meal options on here as I do find I am in a bit of a rut meals wise...One meal I would recommend that I got from here is Cowboy Hash, which is basically fry an onion and add mince a tin of baked beans a tin of oxtail soup and (the recipe calls for sweetcorn but we prefer it with frozen peas so just chuck them in) its really really tasty especially with potatoes or chips...you could throw in otehr veg too maybe peppers/grated carrot etc.....the kids love it and it is pretty cheap and seems to go a long way as you don't need loads of it...

anyway might need to spend a few more pennies today when dh decides what he is cooking tonight, but am hoping to keep it a low spend...

Have a great weekend all