January 2012 Grocery Challenge

JIL

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I have made a lovely chicken pie for tea with l/o chicken but both kids are refusing to eat it and want burgers and chips. I will have some but am not sure what to do with the leftovers as the filling will be reheated once in the pie and I don't know if I can do it again. There 4 good servings of it.....

I feel for you and your children wanting different meals. I suppose I have always just made different meals as the years have gone on with my family as I do not eat meat but husband and two of the 3 children did.

One of my tips for a stress free meal is I buy a pack of 16 tin foil containers £1 from Asda or the £ shop. I then batch cook ie I will do a pot of steak and kidney, or if I have left over chicken, I put the chicken in the tubs and pour over my cooled sauce (usually a creamy mushroom one) put the lids onto an individual portion. Label and freeze.
I have found that the aldi ready rolled pastry cuts into 6 lid sizes. I cut these out separate them and freeze these alongside the pies.
I dont bother to defrost, just get a pie base out of the freezer, pop a pastry lid on top and bake in my small oven. No waste.
I find this really easy to do especially if you have children that dont want the same as you. .

aberdeensaver

Just an update, been reading everyones updates today and some marvellous advice from everyone. As a newbie to the GC I have been working really hard to get into the mindset and make small changes. So I can report two big changes:

1. I was very tempted to go an buy frozen yorkshire puds yesterday (which would have resulted in me picking up lots more than just yorkshire puds) but today with my roast beef I hand made them. WOW... I am NEVER EVER EVER buying frozen again, even the OH commented on how good they were.
2. Rather than being a bit lazy after dinner, I sat and cut up the left over meat and poured all the remaining juices from the meat so I can make a second meal from it tomorrow!

So small very small steps but I am beaming from ear to ear at the small achievements we are making.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

E x

mooomin

I have just over £74 left in my little groceries purse to last us until the 20th. It's do-able, I just need to get my bum in gear and mealplan

helen_jelly

Hi

Budgets done to here

Spiggle - I asked Zippy to include your post at the start of the thread but unfortunately Zippy has been a bit busy and hasn't had time to check it out yet so I'll ask again for the next thread :j Your posts as always are inspiring and spot on - I have asked people to check it out on my opst on the front page :j

Helen x

tessie_bear

hi...been out today but popped into sainsbobs to buy some flowers...they were so dire i didnt bother...have just done an inventory of the freezer...got quite a lot in there so will do some meal planning around what i discovered in the icy depths:eek:

so havent spent a penny this year:p

take care tess

Spiggle

mommyof4 wrote: »

Hi guys, can I just ask what are dtds? Thanks

Hi mommyof4, dtds are double the difference I think. Certain sm MrT and *sd* I believe give you double the difference if an item is cheaper in a competitor store. I think I remember reading that MrS is also doing this now but only in store. Someone else who understands these things better than me will be along soon.

aberdeensaver wrote: »

Just an update, been reading everyones updates today and some marvellous advice from everyone. As a newbie to the GC I have been working really hard to get into the mindset and make small changes. So I can report two big changes:

1. I was very tempted to go an buy frozen yorkshire puds yesterday (which would have resulted in me picking up lots more than just yorkshire puds) but today with my roast beef I hand made them. WOW... I am NEVER EVER EVER buying frozen again, even the OH commented on how good they were.
2. Rather than being a bit lazy after dinner, I sat and cut up the left over meat and poured all the remaining juices from the meat so I can make a second meal from it tomorrow!

So small very small steps but I am beaming from ear to ear at the small achievements we are making.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

E x

Well done aberdeensaver! :T It is the little steps we take to regaining control that make us all smile and I beamed for you when I read your post.

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

... I stayed in by myself last night and was quite happy, however at Midnight I got up to answer the phone and the puppies had wee'd on the laminate and I went flying up the hall and have done my leg in - my knee is like a football and all black and blue - no-one will believe that I hadn't even had a sip of a drink all night!!!! ...

Ooh recovering that sounds really painful, you poor thing. Virtual hugs are being beamed your way. Hope it gets better soon and don't forget the faithful bag of frozen peas to help ease the swelling.

I'm signing off shortly for the night, going to watch the new Sherlock and then I think an earlyish night to help my recovery!

Have a great evening everyone. Welcome to all our newbies and good luck to us all.

See you tomorrow,
Spigs

ETA: Thanks Helen, much appreciated.

rising_from_the_ashes

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I have made a lovely chicken pie for tea with l/o chicken but both kids are refusing to eat it and want burgers and chips. I will have some but am not sure what to do with the leftovers as the filling will be reheated once in the pie and I don't know if I can do it again. There 4 good servings of it.....

Be firm ..... tell them that's what's for tea & if they want burgers and chips, they can go and buy some with their own money ..... sorry I know it's not that easy (((hugs))) - but unfortunately it seems that they're just going to keep doing this until you put your foot down.

Honestly, my pal's son is exactly the same - refused to eat what she'd made for Christmas lunch and expected her to make something else (she didn't!) - when I was young none of us would've dreamt to saying we didn't want what was put in front of us.

Herbyme

Nice tip re the pies and pastry tops JIL, thank you!
Bupster, I find ice cream cartons ideal, esp the round ones like M*ckies (I suspect I buy it mainly for that reason, lol!)

Justamum

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Be firm ..... tell them that's what's for tea & if they want burgers and chips, they can go and buy some with their own money ..... sorry I know it's not that easy (((hugs))) - but unfortunately it seems that they're just going to keep doing this until you put your foot down.

Honestly, my pal's son is exactly the same - refused to eat what she'd made for Christmas lunch and expected her to make something else (she didn't!) - when I was young none of us would've dreamt to saying we didn't want what was put in front of us.

When I was growing up we had the same rule too, even if it was something we didn't particularly like. My own children are brought up the same. When I my third child was due my mum came to stay, and one meal my DS who was 5 at the time refused what he was given. Mum got upset with me because I wouldn't let her go and cook him some pasta instead of what he was given :mad: Anyway, I've stuck to my guns and they get what they are given.

annem38

evening all and a happy new year! thought i would start the new year with a no spend day, so god alone knows how i ended up in coop spending 9.06 but at least we should be well fed for the next few days! but been getting myself into the mse mindset by watching back to back extreme couponing on the tv, wow, wish you could do that here with coupons, i'd be rich!

if nothing else it feels good being back in the money saving groove ( also in the loosing weight groove as well but thats another thread), am almost enjoying myself meal planning, don't like to plan ahead too far as you never know what you might find in the reduced section of the supermarket, waitr*se being my favourite at the moment, the other day they had packs of chicken reduced from £4.28 to 78p, brilliant i thought, til i got home and found that they had a "buy 2 packs get £1.50 off" so yep, got the 2 packs for 6p:j

so have a good evening y'all

anne