I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

recovering_spendaholic

Lynsey - how many are you budgetting for? There are three of us (me and two teenagers who can eat for England and quite often their friends!). I did a breakdown of my budget for last month and I spent:

£42 on milk
£12 on loo rolls (don't get me started on loo roll usage!)
£10 on cleaning stuff and bin liners
£19 on dog food
£10 on butter/spread
£ 5 on cheese
£ 8 on bacon
£ 6 on sausages
£12 on chicken
£ 4 on pizza
£10 on baking ingredients
£60 on other meat/ham etc
£40 on veg and salad
£ 9 on eggs (if I don't go to the farm)
£20 on juice and squash (won't buy fizzies any more)
£25 on storecupboard stuff (tins of beans, tuna, corned beef, ketchup etc)
£30 on frozen stuff
That's £322 just from the receipts I could find and there are more I know!! I have rounded up the figures but it is still loads - I MUST try harder this month!! I make most meals from scratch but still I find that I spend too much! I have joined the grocery challenge and am hoping to come in at £300 or less for this month.

Lynsey

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Lynsey - how many are you budgetting for?

Hi Jane, there's just the two of us and the £100 is solely for food and groceries - it doesn't include soap powder/bleach/toiletries/alcohol etc.
It's just to control the amount of food/milk/coffee etc we used to use. Lot less waste now and obviously looking for reduced offers like the fab Sainsburys bargains. Using coupons/vouchers does help - things like free Spam, £1 off Carte D'Or (already half-price, so only 74p), bulk buying cheap items when available (12p tins of chopped toms/22p Tesco pasta). Lidl Half-price weekend deals were a Godsend, but the offers haven't been as great of late, to suit my needs anyway.
Even the non-groceries have been stocked up (Lenor/Demostos etc, etc) - some of it even free/near free. Well worth a look on the coupons board, you'll save a fortune.
I'm still pretty extravagent (I think), just more frugal.

Good luck Jane and BTW, I love reading your posts - things like "afters" really make me chuckle - thank you.

Lynsey

sock-knitter

beans on toast for lunch, and hm curry and rice for evening meal

beachie

Well I went to Sainsburys and bought some food for my lunches.

Total costs was £5.32 so will update my sig.

Kitty_Ears

Tonight I made salmon with phildelphia pasta with mushrooms... it's from the website! It was a bit scrum but a bit rich, next time I'll half the ingredients! Shopping spend this week has been around £17, Just bought milk, eggs, bread and frozen food for Mr.Kitty.

bramble1

Whoops - wasnt supposed to go shopping again till my food ran out, but i needed some pineapple, burger buns - got the buns reduced and 8 burgers for 1.99 and a kiev for my dinner.

I am now not stepping back into a shop - if we run out of bread i am baking it!

recovering_spendaholic

bramble1 wrote: »

Whoops - wasnt supposed to go shopping again till my food ran out, but i needed some pineapple, burger buns - got the buns reduced and 8 burgers for 1.99 and a kiev for my dinner.

I am now not stepping back into a shop - if we run out of bread i am baking it!

Every time I make bread it is always like a brick - I think I might try using fresh yeast (my Sainsburys will give it to you if you ask).

Kitty - I made the philadelphia, strawberries and merringue mush up thingie which was on the website and it was absolutely lovely!

Went into Sainsburys tonight for milk and spent £17.62 :eek: Got milk and then remembered that tomorrow is back to school so had to get stuff for lunchboxes so ended up getting corned beef, ham, eggs and fruit as well as the milk.

DETERMINED to have a NSD tomorrow! There is plenty in the cupboards and freezer.

Picklepud

NSD for me had lasagne and chips (hubby and boys) and last bit of salad for me. Also made a crumble with blackberries picked and a couple of sorry looking eating apples nice...

Are there any dishes that you make homemade and freeze and then can cook straight from frozen, for when i forget to defrost which is my biggest downfall?

bramble1

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Every time I make bread it is always like a brick - I think I might try using fresh yeast (my Sainsburys will give it to you if you ask).

Kitty - I made the philadelphia, strawberries and merringue mush up thingie which was on the website and it was absolutely lovely!

Went into Sainsburys tonight for milk and spent £17.62 :eek: Got milk and then remembered that tomorrow is back to school so had to get stuff for lunchboxes so ended up getting corned beef, ham, eggs and fruit as well as the milk.

DETERMINED to have a NSD tomorrow! There is plenty in the cupboards and freezer.

I seemed to have mastered the knack of bread making over the last year! It's quite dense, but I know I will never replicate a Hovis loaf - OH loves my bread so i'm quite pleased

OH has his pack lunch all stuff from the stores, I don't know what to have for myself, Maybe a corned beef roll.

I'm out for dinner tonight, but OH has either gammon or burgers for dinner.

Lynsey

Morning.
Popped into Sainsburys a little too late, but managed to "pillage" a few things.

600g back bacon (2 x 300g) for 99p
2 pack Kingsmill buns (5p per pack) for 10p
Pack of Romaine Hearts for 10p
Cucumber for 9p

So into the budget on day 1 and £1.28 spent.

Cooked a pack of bacon last night (froze one pack), so bacon butties for breakfast. Sausages out for bangers and mash for lunch and chicken breasts for a stir fry for tea. Carte D'Or for "afters", sprinkled with muesli.

Need milk today or tomorrow and that's it...................unless there is anything worthwhile to "pillage". Might "splash out" and buy some Yorkshire ham and have a salad tomorrow - could save the budget and just have burgers with a salad though - decisions, decisions. :rotfl:

Lynsey