September 2011 Grocery Challenge

Need2bthrifty

:idea:

debbiedeejay wrote: »

Evening all,

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 )

Hi debbiedeejay, I'm in the smaller portions brigade. I hate having my plate piled high with food, just looking at it puts me off, but this may have to do with my up-bringing when we were taught not to waste food and didn't get pudding if we couldn't finish our main

I think your portions sound approp, mine on the plate tend to be approx the size of my fist, one third of the plate is protein, one third carbs, one third veg or salad.

It may be my imagination, but are plates getting bigger? I am using a dinner service that was my grandparents and they are a good inch in diameter smaller than the ones I picked up in a supermarket about 3 years ago. So some people may portion food by the size of plate they have - just a thought.

JayJay14

Portion size - I have aquired a collection of 300ml tubs which I use for HM curry, chilli and the like. This is plenty for us (3 adults in the household) The lads were dubious when they saw the size of them but even they agree that it is enough.

ixia

hi everyone- my portion control is awful always make too much.

just back from Mr S went for bread and spent £14.11 that's what I get for taling DD1 with me ended up with popcorn, lucozade etc that I didn't need won't make that mistake again.

Did get some whoopsied fish though.

sparklysaver

My portions are too big and, as a result, so am I.

I will confess to making a meal for 2, with the intention of freezing a portion, but then eating the whole thing. :embarasse This challenge is also going to stop me doing that, fingers crossed anyway!

Have had an NSD today, and a no groceries spend yesterday but went out for a couple of drinks last night so a wee bit of a spend out of the entertainment budget. Will need to pick up some veg, butter & yogurts tomorrow though. Off to the chinese supermarket for the veg I think, see how prices compare to the market.

sproggi

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

So some people may portion food by the size of plate they have - just a thought.

I agree about the size of the plate, my parents plates are absolutly huge and although I tend to serve large portions, it would look nothing on one of their plates.

Another thing that can affect portion size is the colour of the plate.
After reading about it somewhere online, DD1 and I tried an experiment and placed 5 strawberries into a black bowl and then tipped them into a white bowl of the exact same size (I have the same dinner service in black and white because I couldn't choose which I preferred!), I cannot remember which way round it was offhand, but neither of us could believe the difference it made, one bowlfull looked perfect, whilst they appeared nothing in the other !!

Sproggi

Girl_least_likely_to

Hello again!

I've not done the GC for well over a year. DS is starting nursery next week , only for 2 mornings a week but it's going to cost £26 a week :eek: I'm still trying to avoid going back to work, DS is 2 + 4 months so I've 8 months of paying for a bit of nursery he is so ready for. So I really need to stick to my GC budget to help pay for DS nursery!

There's me, OH, DD 6 and DS 2, no pets so I'm hoping £200 will be enough. I've meal planned for the month and I've got Mr T delivering 85% of stuff for meals, cleaning and toiletries. That'll come to about £95 leaving me £105 to buy milk, bread, yogurts, fruit and veg on a weekly basis, need nappies for DS from Aldi too.

I need to keep out of the shops unless necessary and only go in with a list and stick to it. I use to regularly do the GC challenge, if I'm honest for a bit of fun, and use to manage ok with £200 but OH is self employed, times are a bit harder and I can't afford not to stick to my budget now. I cook from scratch, use leftovers and shop around. Fingers crossed I can do it! Good luck to everyone

Need2bthrifty

sproggi wrote: »

I agree about the size of the plate, my parents plates are absolutly huge and although I tend to serve large portions, it would look nothing on one of their plates.

Another thing that can affect portion size is the colour of the plate.
After reading about it somewhere online, DD1 and I tried an experiment and placed 5 strawberries into a black bowl and then tipped them into a white bowl of the exact same size (I have the same dinner service in black and white because I couldn't choose which I preferred!), I cannot remember which way round it was offhand, but neither of us could believe the difference it made, one bowlfull looked perfect, whilst they appeared nothing in the other !!

Sproggi

Hi Sproggi, I hadn't thought about the colour, but I suppose in the same way as the colour you wear can affect your mood it may affect your eating habit's.

My gran's service is a white plate with a blue floral border - very 1920/30's, but very me , (as you may tell I'm all for re-cycling and making do - if it aint broke dont fix it - :money:)

runnerbean17

First spend of the month and only spent 32.99:j was really impressed at finding Quorn Mince for only £1.15 in L*DL so stocked up on a few..

cookiemum

Please can you put me down for £300 for September. Went a bit over in August with a full house of hungry children all of the time!

Decided weekly meal planning and shopping works best for me. Spent £31.50 in Lidl to get me through the first few days so quite positive at them moment. Good luck everyone:)

Puzzledbubbles

Hi All,

Lurking as usual

I have spent £93 of my £160 budget for this month (running from 25th August to 25th September) and we have enough in for all of this weeks meal plan, all of next weeks and i think all of the week after Just freshies to buy and that can be done at Aldi, im determined to come in under budget again this month!!!

Portion sizes we are awful, we both clear our plates no matter how much is on there and we have large plates so we always end up with loads, however, i am being much more strict since we started the meal planning and now i am controlling how much we eat, we have biscuits and crisps etc so its not like we will go hungry if a meal is slightly smaller and OH keeps saying that he looks at the plate and things that isnt enough, but by the time he has eaten it all he is full so that is definately progress.

We could both do with losing a little weight (well, once Elvis arrives anyway) so this has to be a good thing, plus it means those meals i make that should last 2 nights actually do!!

Puzzled