June 2011 Grocery Challenge

tessie_bear

hi...we are having a use it up day today....chicken in a pie...peeper and a bit of bacon in a quiche...a couple of tablespoons of mince meat in sweet mince pies...browning bananas in a loaf...cant stand waste...i hate throwing food away....sometimes it leads to strange combos

i have decidied to go down the one shop a week route...if we run out tough....i am sick of going out for milk and spending £40....so cold turkey it is...thats no shop visits not the filling of a leftovers pie

regards tessa

bargainhunterss

finally had a NSD yesterday (not that I've been religiously watching them!) It makes you realise how much and how often you do just "pop down to the shop" when you dont do it for once! eep! were going on hol on saturday so trying to use up freezer and fridge stuff and had a lovely "pub grub" meal last night of bangers (found in the freezer) and mash! yums!

hope everyone's doing better than me at this GC malarky!

ps. on the subject of hols would you guys include the money spent on food on hol in the GC or would you keep it separate as 'leisure'? if I do include it i'm going to be WAY over!

bargainhunterss

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi all
I am not doing well at all this month. Only have about £25 left but shoudl be able to (just) get by on that.

Today I am totally disorganised with lunches and dinners as I have been ill over the past few days. Back at work today and have gone to the co-op to get a sandwich for my lunch. Couldn't believe the price - £2.65 for a chicken wrap thing. I have got to get organised - could easily have made similar for alot less than that.
Allie

I know! bought sandwiches these days are ridiculous! I think you can let yourself off though, esp if your ill! I did that a couple of days ago when our ceiling by the kitchen caved in and I just couldnt face making anything *guily as charged*!

CherryPie

Just opened a can of the T3sco value curry sauce @ 8p. Wasn't expecting much, but it's really rather nice. More sweet than spicy, so I might add some curry powder to it for my veggie curry tonight.

No spends for a few days, I agree that just staying out of the shop helps. I was going to go in to pick up more of the 20p (now 38p) pasta sauce, but I don't actually need it! Just wanted to stock up. But I'll do that when I actually need something.

:beer:

TheThriftyScrumpers

NSD today :j We are having left over chilli tonight. It always tastes better the next day. I managed to hide loads of veggies in the kids spag bol last night - little did they know but they were happily munching away on celery, carrot and brocolli that I whizzed up small in the food processor. Felt very MSE as it made it go further and used up all the sad veg in the fridge and contributed to their 5 a day!!

Half way through a list of what's in the freezer and will put off SM visit until Sunday in an effort to use what I have before I buy new.

TheThriftyScrumpers

Seductive Smile - This is a really nice mince meal :-

Chilli-Lime Meatballs

Sauce

240g Teriyaki Sauce
2 Tbsp Lime Juice
2 Tsp Curry Paste (either Thai Red or Any Patak's type)

Meatballs

500g Mince of your choice
25g breadcrumbs or porridge oats
1 egg
1 clove garlic
2 tsp fresh ginger (optional)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp Curry Paste of your choice
1-2 Spring Onions thinly sliced

Combine Mince, breadcrumbs (or oats), egg, garlic, cayenne, ginger (if using) and curry paste. Mix Well. Make about 40 Meatballs. You can then either Pan fry (for about 10 - 15 mins) or Oven cook (about 20 - 30 mins) on an oiled tray at about 180.

Pour sauce into a microwaveable jug, add lime juice and curry paste and mix. Heat in Microwave.

I usually serve this on a bed of spaghetti with meatballs and sauce on top and then sprinkled with spring onions. Also nice with a salad.

The meatballs freeze well. I usually mix everything but the curry paste and spices and make some plain for the kids, then add the curry paste for OH and I.

sistercas

CRANKY40 wrote: »

I made Millie's cookies today with a recipe from somewhere off the MSE site. They're lovely.

they are lovely arnt they , i make them for the kids regularly

done my weekly shop , spent far more than i intended ( havent totted it up yet) i went to a!di and the super 6 were quite good for me , i picked the cherry toms , mango , little gems, kiwi and onions

also went to sainsbobs and t3sco , its time consuming but does save me .( except when DH wants £10 worth of beer :cool:)

quintwins

i still have 20 jars of the 20p pasta sauce, we acually having in in our spag bol tonight it smells yummy but i'm finding it very watery so only using half for all of us, i'm tempted to make a few mini pizzas with the rest but my freezers to full to fit them in, so i might just freeze the rest of the sauce and use it next week, i'm also gonna freeze half my spag bol because i've made far too much so thats another meal

Living_proof

I see from the news that what we are all doing is having some effect on food buying in general - it is down over 3% on the year, and was described in the Independent as a food 'slump'. Not good for anyone who works in the food and retail industry, but my only suprise is that it took such a long time filtering through to the figures. I'm sure some of us have been cutting back for years.

MILLYMOLLY

Hi I've just remembered I've got some gammon in the fridge from sunday, do you think it will be ok, and any ideas what to make with it thanks. Or should I just give it the dog