September 2011 Grocery Challenge

westlothianlass

Hi all,
Spent £79.52 between 3 different shops over the last few days. I'm certainly finding it interesting trying to only buy what we need, but so far not doing too badly, but hey it's only the beginning of the month so who knows what may happen. Fingers crossed we will manage.
Good luck to all x:j

rej-c

Thanks to everyone who's tending to the thread this month.

We've got off to a much better start than I expected - 3 NSDs so far, and a spend of £10.65 today. If I can keep anything like that ratio of NSDs to SDs [and that level of spending on the spendy days], I'll be over the moon - and very surprised :rotfl:

emmad5689

Well not a NSD today as I planned but only because i realised the frube offer finished today and although we have some in the freezer and plenty yoghurts for the next fortnight I decided it was too good an offer to pass up, our local only had three boxes left so they are now tucked away in my freezer. I also got two bottles of the Pepsi max at 79p a bottle as a little treat and OH insisted on a small bottle of pop for the car so managed to get b1g1f on small bottles of pepsi max. Just realised I am going to need mushrooms before wednesday as the meal plan needs them!! but will get them on tuesday when I will already be spending. First car passed the MOT yesterday so just the other one to go in a couple of weeks fingers crossed but we are pretty sure it is going to fail

ThrivingOnThrift

There is an article in Zest magazine this month about losing weight for £10...basically it is a menu that costs £10/week for one person, breakfast lunch and dinner. There are some things not counted such as dried pasta but I thought it might be good to work from to do my menu plan for the coming week. I had a £36 spend in Mr S yesterday, for a special dinner party and included stuff like rack of lamb...but I had planned for that so am still confident of coming in on budget this month! Good luck everyone. If my take on the Zest menu plan works out well I will share!

debbiedeejay

Evening all,

Just had a lovely half hour catching up on all the posts from this weekend.

Ok I managed to survive Mr mozzys - and spent £43.16 on normal weekly shopping. Bought extra baking stuff so I can get back into the normal "Sunday night is baking night" routine.

Was very good yesterday - pulled out of freezer on Friday a small half shoulder of lamb (yep mine was from Xmas too reduced to £2.20 from £6) and a huge piece of braising steak.
So I batch cooked a beef bourguignon in slow cooker with the dying mushrooms and onions found in fridge.
The lamb was a bit difficult - I am the only one that really likes it so I decided that I would make a curry with it (again its only me that likes it hot:)) so it took me ages to de-bone it but I did and the curry came out fine.

So now back in the freezer (but taking up less space) are 5 portions of lamb curry and 5 portions of the stew ( plus an extra 3 portions were eaten last night)

My question to all though is this - what do you count as a single adult portion for your family as I know we all have different ideas.
I have been told by colleagues my portions are small (I use a plastic bag inside a normal sized tea cup to measure - and for my family needs its fine. But what do others use/think?

I did go to friends house once for a curry and when I was passed this plate of food I thought it was for the four of us but no it was just mine! I nearly died!And that was her normal portion size!:eek:Honeslty I couldn't see the edges of the plate it was stacked high with rice and hm curry (which was delish and I did try to eat as much as I could )

busylizzie76

3rd NSD of Sept :T I am pleased at the way I am going so far (ok I know it is seriously early days!!). Been very industrious today: made fish pies for the freezer, 3 litres of apple juice (2 in freezer), homemade fish fingers for lunch and mini roast for tea (1 chicken breast with potatoes/carrots and onions from the garden) followed by hm apple pie and custard - yummmmy. Plus picked 2lbs of blackberries and raspberries for Jam and Jelly. Back to work full time tomorrow (for the first time in almost 6 years!) and am still in denial about how much it will take out of me - plus the kids start at a new school this week too......arghhh - wish me luck!:eek:

FoxFace

debbiedeejay wrote: »

Evening all,

Just had a lovely half hour catching up on all the posts from this weekend.

Ok I managed to survive Mr mozzys - and spent £43.16 on normal weekly shopping. Bought extra baking stuff so I can get back into the normal "Sunday night is baking night" routine.

Was very good yesterday - pulled out of freezer on Friday a small half shoulder of lamb (yep mine was from Xmas too reduced to £2.20 from £6) and a huge piece of braising steak.
So I batch cooked a beef bourguignon in slow cooker with the dying mushrooms and onions found in fridge.
The lamb was a bit difficult - I am the only one that really likes it so I decided that I would make a curry with it (again its only me that likes it hot:)) so it took me ages to de-bone it but I did and the curry came out fine.

So now back in the freezer (but taking up less space) are 5 portions of lamb curry and 5 portions of the stew ( plus an extra 3 portions were eaten last night)

My question to all though is this - what do you count as a single adult portion for your family as I know we all have different ideas.
I have been told by colleagues my portions are small (I use a plastic bag inside a normal sized tea cup to measure - and for my family needs its fine. But what do others use/think?

I did go to friends house once for a curry and when I was passed this plate of food I thought it was for the four of us but no it was just mine! I nearly died!And that was her normal portion size!:eek:Honeslty I couldn't see the edges of the plate it was stacked high with rice and hm curry (which was delish and I did try to eat as much as I could )

I'm another one who seems to serve small portions. When we have a chicken curry, a pack of two chicken breasts will easily feed our family's 2 adults and 2 children, alongside a tablespoon or two of rice We are very happy with that, yet a lady I used to work with would use 6 chicken breasts to feed her family of 4, and an entire bag of rice :eek:

For something like stew, I would say a mugful is plenty... an extra half a cup if I was particularly hungry

busylizzie76

We do smallish portions too - as I said above - 1 chicken breast was our roast for me and 2 little kids - obviously plus veg and gravy and stuffing.
I feel ill if there is too much on a plate in front of me.

sproggi

I am afraid I am one of those that serves mountains of rice/pasta/mash, I tend to use them as a filler, so I would cooked something like 2 chicken breasts in a big pan of HM cheese sauce and then serve it with a plate full of rice, that would feed 3 adults and 2 children
I am getting better at sensible size portions, but I still tend to worry that I am going to leave everyone feeling hungry.

Sproggi

poppy-glos

debbiedeejay wrote: »

My question to all though is this - what do you count as a single adult portion for your family as I know we all have different ideas.
I have been told by colleagues my portions are small (I use a plastic bag inside a normal sized tea cup to measure - and for my family needs its fine. But what do others use/think?

hi, for things like curry and bolognaise i do a 500g marg tub full for me and dd (9) to share. With rice i do a large ramakin (full/dry rice) as the measure for cooking it for the two of us.