January 2012 Grocery Challenge

SueP19

stardrops42 wrote: »

Hi everyone

Decided to sit down last night and really look at how much we've been spending on food over the last year. Turns out we were spending approx £500 a month for 3 of us:eek::eek: I can't believe it:eek:
I'm so glad I joined this thread, it has really made me think about how much we're wasting:mad:

You are not alone stardrop, my spend from last year was over £5000 I was so shocked.

I think that like me you look at it after you have spent it, when it's too late. This thread is making me think about it before I spend it :A

SueP19

Save_Dosh wrote: »

Well spent £6.29 more, so added to sig. Thought I would add my first ever recipe, not one i have done myself, but got from Nigella. I must add that Nigella uses nothing but the finest, organic, etc. but this is the cheapie MSE friendly version, feel free to upgrade if you wish.

Digestives - Tesco value x 1/2 pack 25p
2 x value cream cheese £1.00p
Value lemon curd 22p
Butter ????

Ok, so you mix the digestives and butter (sorry don't know how much) together to form a base, this is either done by hand by melting the butter and adding to digestives, or in a food processer by adding solid butter, then line a dish, pressing the crumbs into place, put into fridge for a while to set somewhat. you then mix together the lemon curd and cream cheese and layer on top of the digestive base. At this stage, you may leave plain, or cover, if you so wish with fruits, etc, maybe meringue, or banana, Nigella did fruits, but let your mind go wild. I am gonna do this this next week when i get the ingredients.

Sounds yummy, whats it called

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Save_Dosh wrote: »

Well spent £6.29 more, so added to sig. Thought I would add my first ever recipe, not one i have done myself, but got from Nigella. I must add that Nigella uses nothing but the finest, organic, etc. but this is the cheapie MSE friendly version, feel free to upgrade if you wish.

Digestives - Tesco value x 1/2 pack 25p
2 x value cream cheese £1.00p
Value lemon curd 22p
Butter ????

Ok, so you mix the digestives and butter (sorry don't know how much) together to form a base, this is either done by hand by melting the butter and adding to digestives, or in a food processer by adding solid butter, then line a dish, pressing the crumbs into place, put into fridge for a while to set somewhat. you then mix together the lemon curd and cream cheese and layer on top of the digestive base. At this stage, you may leave plain, or cover, if you so wish with fruits, etc, maybe meringue, or banana, Nigella did fruits, but let your mind go wild. I am gonna do this this next week when i get the ingredients.

Thanks Save Dosh for that, I have an almost full jar of lemon curd, that only I will eat, so just need biscuits and cream cheese (value of course:D), when I next go shopping. Have updated sig and got doz eggs for £1.25 from the local greengrocers, as they were going out of date on the 10th, but I know they last well after the best before date.

123budget

SAVEDOSH thanks for your cheesecake recipe - I have a jar of lemon curd in cupboard which I usually use for the lemon curd cake in recipe section. Sounds really good - will give it a go I think.
Did my main shops in Aldi and MrT yesterday but am going to L*dl today as I know they have mince and tinned salmon at half price for this weekend and want to stock up on those if I can as it will save me money later in the month.
Have a good day everyone
Yippeeeeeeee!! its the weekend :)

jedi82

Good morning everyone, online shop came last night from MrTs and came in at £99.98 - was determined to get it under £100 and don't think I could have got much closer :rotfl:

So total so far is 207.77 but freezer and larder are looking full and so think I will be able to ease off for the rest of the month...

Thanks for the tip about H0me Bargains for my toilet rolls, we live in the middle of nowhere so will wait til we go to the big smoke and then stock up

Have a lovely day. i have a jar of black treacle and so am going to try and bean goulash recipe i found online. not sure if it'll work but we'll see!

Jedi x

artypaws

I am so glad I joined this challenge - I had simply no idea how much i was spending but at least now I feel as though I have some control over it. My guesstimate was for £400 in January as there are 5 Saturdays I allocated myself £80 per week - I now have a separate purse for this and this has really got me focussed on what I spend. At the end of this first week I have spent £51.84 - we have eaten well and I have now put the remaining £28.16 split into little pots for use later in the month when i need to buy laundry/toiletries or pet food.

there have been some great hints and tips in the thread so I have learned lots as well - I was hoping to get a couple of nsd but didn't quite manage it as I hadn't thought ahead as much as I should have done but I now have a great start with a couple of batch cooks meals so have some meals in the freezer so hope to get a couple of nsds next week.

Was wondering what people use to freeze batch cooked meals in - freezers bags - foil dishes or plastic boxes - I have not freezed many items before so not sure if one way is better than another

cw18

dreamerbea wrote: »

Was wondering what people use to freeze batch cooked meals in - freezers bags - foil dishes or plastic boxes - I have not freezed many items before so not sure if one way is better than another

The only batched cooked meals I tend to freeze at the moment are

stews, casseroles, bolognese, chille - these I put a portion of the meat part into an empty rectangular 500g margarine tub and into the freezer. once frozen I tip the contents into a freezer bag. some people line the tub with a bag first, but I find the food freezes around wrinkles in the bag which means I can't heat it from frozen if I forget to pull it out/plans change (and putting it into the bag once frozen means I can tip it into the pan to defrost, which also means the bags are cleaner for washing/reusing)

soups - same as above

sliced roast meat - as I live on my own I will sometimes cook a (normally Whoopsied) joint, then slice it all up. I then put individual portions into freezer bags. when I next fancy a roast I lift it out to defrost, and the put the meat in the top layer of my steamer (which is already in use for the veg) for the last 5-10 mins.... heats it through wonderfully

raphanius

updated signature with todays veg box and 'a couple of bits' from lidl yesterday.

pixiedust09

I'd love to start as a mean to go on for 2012, so really would love to join the Grocery challenge and stick to it this year. I'm aiming for £360 for January for two adults, 2 dogs, 1 cat and 1 bird .

I started a diary at the beginning of the year and so have kept all our receipts and written down spends etc. So far this year we've spent £68.37. I will probably need to pop out over the weekend for bread and milk though.

Have nice bit of brisket to do in the slow cooker in a bit that should do 2-3 meals each. Was super chuffed at Mr T's this week as they had the ready rolled shortcrust pastry reduced to 99p was also on a Bogof so got two for 99p .

moonflower_2

Hi I think I may be doing well I havnt been shopping since 28th Dec!!

However today I need milk and sugar .I stick with the nsd if possible and only take the money i need so that i wont be tempted.

Any one else nsd ?