January 2012 Grocery Challenge

Ninno820

rachbc wrote: »

£3 on ingredients for ds to make lemon cheesecake in food tech (grrrr - we could make a far nicer one at home I am sure)

£5 on reduced pork in Morrisons - 2 packs f leg steaks whcih will be split for 3 meals, 1 belly joint for a sunday roast (plus neough for a LO meal) and a rack of ribs as a treat for ds sometime - they are his fav but only had one pack plus a 2kg bag of seconds apples

As a cookery teacher I understand how you feel but please be patient - they have to learn how to cook properly otherwise we will be raising a generation of fast food addicts - one of my 11 year olds did not recognise a saucepan - let alone know what it was used for!!!:eek: You would be doubly horrifed by how many parents pay for the ingredients and then throw the food in the bin without even tasting it - even though it leaves school looking really tasty. There's still two fully iced christmas cakes at school awaiting collection!!!!!

sorry - rant over - just popping in to declare another NSD.:j
Today was a milestone - I had a course next to Mr Wait*. Since the sm is an hours drive away I only go in as a treat when I am in the area but I drove past tonight thinking that I would spend more than the £14 I have to last until 23rd January so its better not to be tempted.

Tea tonight is breaded fish (whoopsie from the freezer) and slimming world chips - keep going everyone!

zebbeddee

Evening everyone,

Hope everyone is ok and on track for this month. I am really surprised at how good I have been so far!

Considering we were spending £400 a month before starting the challenge and have decided to spend no more than £250 for the month I think we are doing quite well.

I am literally only buying what we actually need and am also looking much more closely at how much things are and choosing alternatives when I consider the prices to be too high.

I am also doing lots more cooking than I used to and so far have not had any takeaways.

I have made home made burgers tonight and its cost less than a fiver to feed 3 of us, takeaway version would be about £15 and wont taste anywhere near as good as fresh ingredients have been used...

adysmum

Well went to Lid! today and spent £72.51. My GC includes everything that isn't a DD or SO, I take some cash out each week when I do my main shop and that gives me the little I need for extra bread and milk etc. So today I took out £20 and spent £52.51 on shopping.

For me thats amazing as a year ago I was spending £120 on a weekly big shop and picking bits up during the week. Only my second month but aiming for 2/2 under budget, will eventually figure out my reasonable budget but its going down so thats all I care about :rotfl:

Have updated sig, 2 shops down 2 to go for the month!

Rainy-Days

Since last posting there have been NSD and yesterday I spent £29.43 at Sainsbury's - very pleased with that

BohemianCoast

Just put £90 on Ocado for tomorrow night. It's all a bit haywire at the moment; there's still a fair amount of odds and sods in the house but it's stuff like chocolate biscuits and chutneys (we got three or four different jars of chutney for Christmas and apart from mango chutney with curry, nobody really eats the stuff); not actual things you can eat. Made v. nice twice-baked jackets yesterday, filling comprising celery, carrot, bacon, and several half pots of leftover dip from a party we went to Saturday. Off to cook banana bread and perhaps Bottom of the Fridge Soup.

Brassic_Park

Spent £1.80 on lunch today. Have a whopper of a Mr T shop coming tomorrow (£90ish, unless I add anymore tonight lol!). I'm trying to make it last two weeks though so stocking up on everything. Makes me feel better about the delivery charge...

BohemianCoast

Ninno820 wrote: »

As a cookery teacher I understand how you feel but please be patient - they have to learn how to cook properly otherwise we will be raising a generation of fast food addicts - one of my 11 year olds did not recognise a saucepan - let alone know what it was used for!!!:eek: You would be doubly horrifed by how many parents pay for the ingredients and then throw the food in the bin without even tasting it - even though it leaves school looking really tasty. There's still two fully iced christmas cakes at school awaiting collection!!!!!

Sadly, I'm the mum of a year 10 who went through three years of this and came out the other side unable to cook anything at all. She just seems completely unable to transfer what she learnt at school to our home kitchen. Year 7 son is doing a bit better but still everything has been based on a cake dough rather than a bread dough, even the world's most expensive pizza. I know it's not the teachers' fault, and as I recall I learnt nothing useful of cookery in my school cooking classes. How then did I learn to cook? By becoming a *student* with no *money*. No teacher like necessity...

[Deleted User]

have had a few spends, £6 in lidl for large carrier of veg, ham and cream cheese, plus money in pound store for freezer containers for batch cooking, could not really do the plastic bag way freezing, have updated sig.

cheekychipmunk

Just a box of eggs today (£1 from the farm)! Was tempted to pop to the co-op in the village to get a pizza or something for tea, but in the end went and picked two cabbages fromm the allotment and we're having cheesy bubble and squeak with a fried egg on top!

Gorgeestwo

carolinerunner wrote: »

Wow Gorgeestwo, an extra freezer will be fab, well done! Am after one myself but no luck so far. Sounds like you're making huge progress! :beer:

Somewhat peeved last night after careful whoopsie buying to hear DS 'doesn't like' the school shoes I paid £50 for, and which he liked at the time, just before Christmas. :mad: Have said am not buying any more. Grrr!:mad:

Thank you, was very surprised when he emailed to say we could have it if we still wanted :j Hope you get one soon