January 2012 Grocery Challenge

moonflower_2

I went to Lidl today for the first time and bought milk £1 and sugar 89p (£1.25) in Tesco Local.

Bought "T" own brand of coffee £1.60 tastes OK.However then surcumbed to a bottle of tonic and a lime!! (90p)

Total spend £4.39

First shop this year,should have enough meat and other stuff to last until weekend.

£4.39/£150

Justamum

98jdougl wrote: »

However... I overcooked the rice - I have a problem with rice, for some reason I can NEVER get it right

It often depends on the type of rice you use - I only use basmati now because I can't cook normal long grain properly (I end up with a pan of stodge) and the value rice is the worst.

I put the amount of rice I'm going to cook into a pan, add salt then cover with water (don't bother measuring the water). Bring it up to the boil, then boil it for 5 minutes. I then tip it into a steamer (the type which sits over a pan) then put it over a pan of boiling water and steam it - it takes about another 10 minutes. Run a fork through it then serve. Lovely separate grains of rice every time.

AlwaysHappy

Hello there - I'm a little late, but could I join please. Over the last couple of weeks I have been having a serious look at our finances and aims for the year and have decided to up our food budget to a realistic level (for us), so that I am not always beating myself up that I haven't achieved. We are a family of 3. My starting budget is therefore going to be £65 per week, so this month being 5 weeks will be £325 for this month. I hope that over the coming months this can be substantially improved upon, and I am starting from Monday going to withdraw the cash!!!! - This is a big thing for me - I usually only use my credit card, but having had it stolen just before christmas and being without it for a couple of weeks I began to see how empowering cash was - it really made me ask myself - do I need it? which can only be a good thing. Anyway, enough of a ramble - I will be following the thread closely and hope i can contribute as appropriate. I am usually more of a watcher but am hoping there's going to be lots of good changes this year. Good luck everyone.

destroyerofdebt2011

For those with problem rice .... i was the same it was constant stuck togethor stodge in a saucepan on the hob, but i now do mine in a steamer (just place a bowl in the steamer with the rice in and a bit of water to cover) Comes out light and fluffy every time.

HTH

D.O.D

NickJW

Hi All

Today was a nice day - my auntie came to visit and insisted on treating me for lunch. This is because I managed to get free matinee theatre tickets (the joys of having a friend who works in theatre, who often needs to offload tickets, to fill the seats up, to make them look busier )

Dinner when she went back home was just cheese and crackers. Was too full from lunch!

Anyway - there were a few spends today in preparation for meals next week.

Waitrose: £5.06
M+S: £1.50
Market: 50p
Then an online Boots order: £73.22!!!! :eek: HOWEVER, most of this was stocking up on Nicotine patches for the next 3 months. Only £3.05 is included as grocery spends for mouthwash on BOGOF.

Total: £10.11

angelatgraceland

aberdeensaver wrote: »

Hi All,

Just back from A**a to buy food for the week. Thought I was going to spend £30 ish, but ended up spending £50 so a bit annoyed however the silver lining is I found the dry food woopsie section of the supermarket and got a box of OvenPride cleaner for £1.50! My oven desperately needs cleaned, and I dont care that the box was dog eared!
E x

When you have used up your oven pride-keep the big bag which you put your oven racks in and use it in the future with a Mr Muscle spray. Little difference!!! The bag will last half a dozen uses if used carefully and rinsed out. I put the racks in, give a good spray while in the bag and seal it. Half an hour or so later I turn it over to soak the other side a bit as the foam turns to liquid. You can get about 4 cleans from one spray so very cheap. You could of course use any good large bag/binliner to clean your oven racks this way.:money:

hazzie123

I'm joining the challenge this year properly as I usually start out but drop off very quickly. My budget is £3300 for the whole of the year.We are a family of 5,2 adults,an 8 year old fuss pot,an 18 month old and a 4 month old.Both babies are in Nappies but only the littlest has formula milk.
In the budget I'm including nappies,formula milk,alcohol,toiletries,cleaning products.

At the moment my freezers and cupboards are pretty full so won't be starting until pay day which is in the last week of this month.

Vegbox

Could I join please?

My downfall is my husband who adores food shopping! If there is a new supermarket he always wants to visit. He's a good cook so buys tasty stuff.
I had decided that my only New Year's resolution for 2012 was that I didn't want to shop at Tesco and preferably not at Sainsbury, Morrisons or Asda either. His response was that he was quite happy for me to do it but that he liked Tesco!
So after a shopping trip on his own three days ago where he spent an eye watering £120 + on groceries when he only had a dozen things on the list but saw "interesting" extras, I think he is convinced.

Today we went to explore Aldi and bought muesli and cheeses etc and spent £11 ish and I'm going to do the food shopping for a bit. This should be fine, I just have to make sure it's done before we "need" to do it, so it stops being a social occasion.

So, £120 + £11, about £140 I think so far. I'm going to aim to spend no more than a further £140 this month. There are three adults in the house.

Wish me luck.

ETA That's £140 for everything, toiletries, loo rolls etc.

lula_moneybaggins

Hello!

I know, not only am I new (though I have been lurking around for a while), but I'm late too! Can I join, pretty please!

Let me plead my case. We're just 7 days into the new year, and I've already spent:
Tesco: £31.79
Waitrose: £40.39

I am out of control!!! Plus, I have a freezer full of food! Can you please put me down for £120 and I'll have to learn some self-control for the rest of the month... Honestly, there's no excuse, there's only me to feed, after all! But I'm such a foodie and I walk around the supermarkets and get seduced by all the things I could make...

Be gentle...

lemmings1986

NickJW wrote: »

Hi All

Today was a nice day - my auntie came to visit and insisted on treating me for lunch. This is because I managed to get free matinee theatre tickets (the joys of having a friend who works in theatre, who often needs to offload tickets, to fill the seats up, to make them look busier )

Dinner when she went back home was just cheese and crackers. Was too full from lunch!

Anyway - there were a few spends today in preparation for meals next week.

Waitrose: £5.06
M+S: £1.50
Market: 50p
Then an online Boots order: £73.22!!!! :eek: HOWEVER, most of this was stocking up on Nicotine patches for the next 3 months. Only £3.05 is included as grocery spends for mouthwash on BOGOF.

Total: £10.11

hi nick you can get patches for free and also gum inhalers etc heres the link http://smokefree.nhs.uk/ and if you ring the number at the top they'll tell you where the nearest one to where you live is hope this helps