November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

katydo12

Well we did our shop on saturday and was rather impressed that mr T has 12 packs of whiskas on buy one get one free so we've stocked up as never seen this offer before.. thought I'd share with the group!!
Elsewhere we went out for my dads birthday eysterday and didnt spend too much but ended up with a takeaway, not so bad really we allow treats now and again. Fajitas for tea tonight and probably cook a joint of gammon off tomorrow for sarnies as I'm on night shift for two nigths from tomorrow.. OH will sort his own teas out and thats generally noodles or toasties (in other words whatever he wants thats unhealthy!! hehe) Other than that we've more than enough in the freezer to last the week.
Logged onto my clubcard account today and noticed they've given me another £2.50 off voucher, niiice!

Long_tall_sally

November (which obviously doesn't even start until tomorrow!) is continuing in the same horrible way that October was and already I have spent £186 odd and I am to be honest feeling rather panicky about it all.
I have been through the cupboards apart from the baking cupboard as I couldn't face that and have made a list of the contents. I knew that I bought some convenience food, jars of curry sauces etc which I am happy about but I was rather shocked at how much there actually is. I have yet to go through the freezer as well. If you all don't mind, I would like to list the contents of my cupboards as I know from past experience that I will probably lose my hand written list. I have split them between breakfasts, lunches and dinners in terms of how I will probably use them.

Breakfasts
Weetabix x 3 48 packets BB Dec 11
fruit N Fibre - full packet
Porridge - 1/4 of packet left
Co Co pops - 1/4 packet
Crunchy Nut cornflakes - 1/2 packet
Honey Nut Loops - 1/4 packet
G/F - Honey Puffed Rice - full packet BB Oct 11
Gorilla Munch (G/F) - full packet BB Nov 11
Frosted flakes - (G/F) - full packet
Cereal flakes - (G/F) - 1/2 packet

Was wondering if I could use the honey puffed rice to make "rice crispie" cakes but might be too sweet as they have honey in them?

Lunches
5 tins of Heinz tomato soup
1 cream of mushroom soup
Cream of vegetable cup a soups
Hot dog sausages
Chicken flavour instant noodles - never ate these before
9 tins of baked beans
Peanut butter
Jam
Chocolate spread
Marmalade
5 tins of tuna
1 mini pizza (actually in the freezer!)
Rivetas - BB Sept 11
sesame rivestas - BB July 11
Small tin of sardines
Dried yellow split peas x 2. BB June 10 & Nov 10 (Used some in a soup last week.)
Dried broth & soup mix BB Dec 10 (never remember to use in soups as it says it needs soaking before.)

Dinners
Dolmio family size sauce x 2
Creamy tomato pasta bake sauce (Aldi?)
Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce (Napolinia)
Uncle Ben's Sweet n Sour sauce
Discovery Mexican Fajita jar
Discovery Mexican Enchilada
Basics Curry sauce (Sainsburys)
Meena's Risotto al Funghi sauce
Patak's Rogan Josh sauce
Patak's Jalfrezi sauce
Sharwoods Black Bean sauce
Egg noodles
Various rices & Pastas
9 tins of chopped tomatoes
Bottle of Old Speckled Hen strong Fine Ale
Schwartz slow cooker chicken curry sachets - x 3
Mexican Discovery Taco Seasoning Mix
Coleman's white sauce sachet
Coleman's onion sauce mix x 3 (meant to have got bread sauce mix)
Coleman's parsley sauce sachet - BB Dec 11
lamb curry sauce mix BB Dec 11
red lentil
Green lentils
Butter beans tin
Mixed bean salad tin
Soy sauce
Worcester sauce
BBQ seasoning
Tandoori maronade
G/free bread crumbs - BB 8/11/11

It's ridiculous isn't it, all that food and still I buy more!

Anyway, I will now try to use these lists after I have summoned the energy to do an inventory of the freezer and also maybe the baking cupboard.

Many thanks to Rosieben, Zippy & Helen Jelly for running the thread and also to everyone who posts.

Declaring at at an appalling £566 for October & will try again for my usual £450 for November please.

ChasingButterflies

longtallsally

I have made these before http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/873639/squeamish-squares and the kids all liked them - you don't need to add the jelly sweets- I was thinking along the lines of a fridge cake using cereal and this was the closest recipe I could find... You could substitute the crispies for puffs and dried fruit for raisins/currents/apricots, whatever you might have?

There is also a recipie on oldstyle for weetabix brownies - my kids all love them too (I once forgot to put the choc chips in :oso made up some icing and put some smarties on the top) they still loved them, but they did crumble quite a bit...

kixxie

re- reusables our local council offered samples of reusable nappies to anyone wanting to try them. It is a good way of trying out different styles/types before buying.

Better go lurking around on here trying to avoid the overwhelming amount off stuff to be done IRL

mrs_mum_3

Just spent £2.79 today
£1.80 in Mr T for 2 bottles diet coke and 99p (in the 99p shop) on a multipack of pom bears for packed lunches - the same pack is £1.29 in Mr T's
I cashed in the old lottery ticket for a fiver and bought the Halloween Shrek DVD for the kids tonight after T or T'ing

Updated sig - that should be it for the day

Mrs M

Long_tall_sally

Thanks ChasingButterflies. I have book marked the crispie squares. They look nice. I have made the weetabix brownies before but have to admit DD wasn't over keen on them and a few got thrown away.

kixxie

ChasingButterflies:

Thank you. I just re-read what I wrote and I only gave basic info. I have reuasable nappies but not enough have survived for all three kids so have to supplement with disposables. I'm not happy with that!! I should be able to get some within the next couple of weeks. The business we are starting is nappies. After my eBay stuff sells I will put in an order. From that I can buy enough nappies from myself to top up without losing any money. Hope that makes sense! Our council stopped helping with nappies a few years ago.

666paw

Been a while since I last posted.

Not going too well at the moment as the o/h has decided he wanted to eat out rather than have food we have in the house. He went to a beer festival last week which comes out of the funds also. I'm glad he went as he doesn't go out much and enjoys a night with the boys.

90.87 on eating out and beer festival, 23.03 on food and 10.00 on cleaning products.

My total is now 156.77 so leaves 68.23 till 18th Nov. I'm hoping I can do it

prepareathome

Thanks LongTallSally, you have inspired me to do an inventory of my food supplies, then I can really see what I do NOT need to buy in November - will do it tomorrow as son and family having a Halloween party and off to that in a bit.

boultdj

Got another small spend to add £2.01.

westlothianlass

Hi all, Went to T$sco this evening to get some milk and managed to spend another £32 pound so have updated my signature(this did include 2 bottles of wine:o). Need to go off now and do a proper inventory of what is in the stores before I buy anything else.
Good luck all xx:T