January 2012 Grocery Challenge

meg72

Byatt wrote: »

Just wondered if people take out their monthly budget from the bank and use cash? I think I will need to do this as taking a card makes me spend more than I need, especially if I see "baragains!"

Cash definitely for me, and in a separate purse for grocery.

superduperloop

I do some food shopping online, but I also have a separate purse for grocery money :0)

Anything left at the end of the month is mine :j

meg72

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Happy New Year and hope all your hangovers are starting to feel better by now. 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!!!!

Hobbled into Sainsburys before to get loo rolls and ended up spending £30 but got a good haul - TTD smoked salmon for £1, a big turkey for £6 ,Cif half price (I love cif kitchen cleaner but never buy it unless it's on offer as it's too dear), Clover and bakery bagels half price (got loads and froze) and milk and loo rolls. I also treated myself to BOGOF Appletiser as I love it and almost never have it.

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.....

Will put the bm on later but I am getting fed up with all the crumbs that cutting the bread causes - I am a bit of a kitchen neat freak and it is really getting me down!! The bread is lovely but the mess not so much....

Off to do an inventory and make a meal plan for the coming month.

Oh so sorry about your leg,hope its better soon.

Regarding Kids and Chicken Pie, serve it cold (as cannot be reheated) tommorow. Thats what my Mum would have done.If we had dared to refuse,which we didnt.

Agree about the crumbs from bread. I cut mine on a wooden board
and tip the crumbs into a container to use when I need breadcrumbs. Only takes a few seconds and no messy unit to clean.

Look after yourself.

adysmum

Happy New Year everyone. I had a NSD as we had the in-laws down for Christmas Day part 2. We had a turkey I picked up at Mr T's on xmas eve for £4. Have cut up all the leftovers, and have loads left so any suggestions welcome. Have a curry sauce in the cupboard so going to use that but we have at least 2 more meals - the thing was huge!

We were very spoiled and got a meal voucher (inc babysitters :j) and money on a Mr A's card which will give me a free shop this week :j. They were great gifts and will really help us save more pennies - just wanted to give my MIL some love!

The sun £9.50 holidays start next weekend so that'll be another expense but the kids love the caravan holidays and they are so good moneywise . DH and I are heading to the cinema on tuesday for a wee night out before he heads back to work. Using a living social voucher I bought in August and had forgotten about. It was £7 and when I booked it said it should have been £8 odd each :eek:. Can't remember the last time we went that wasn't kids am :rotfl:

Sorry for the ramble xx

destroyerofdebt2011

Big Thank you's to Zippychick, Helen Jelly & Rosieben for setting up and running such a gread thread... I'm back after a bit of a break allbeit was still budgetting behind the scenes. So welcome to the newbies and some of the other returners 2012 is going to be a gd year we are over 23 pages long and only on the 1st of Jan! OMG!

Very lean budget for me in Jan of £25 i have milk bread and meals in the freezer and cupboards for at least a month and partly out of necessity too. I havent spent a dime since 24th of December and my hands aint trembling yet!:rotfl:

Will possibly need to get loo rolls and a small box of soap powder this month to tide me over, will get overtime payment in Jan's Salary to replenish stocks.

Good Luck everyone! And Happy New Year! :beer:
D.O.D

DebtFree2012

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Question time...

I was just cleaning my kitchen, and I came across my pressure cooker, which is a permanent fixture on top of my stove. However, I never use it! (I have used it once since buying!!!)

I want to start experimenting with it, but have no idea what to cook! I want something easy, cheap, not too bad for you, tasty, quick to prepare, pref one pot!! I know that's a lot to ask, but if you don't ask, you don't get! PLEASE, give me some inspiration!

PG x

Don't they just cook anything you would normally cook in a pan quicker? :think: I am not sure now..... Hmm!

bupster wrote: »

Two litres of cauliflower cheese soup made and cooling. What's the best container for freezing soup in? I'm never going to manage 6 servings in the next few days!

I freeze in bags which are inside plastic cartons from the chinese etc then when froze, remove the bags, label and stack like books on bookshelf. This was, I think, thriftlady's idea originally and there's a thread on a similar topic which I think is here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/571339

JIL wrote: »

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. .

What a fabulous idea!!!! I shall definitely be using this - Thank you!!!! Ou of interest, what pastry do you use? Thanks again :T

From my £60 budget I have done the first shop of the new year which was for lunch box items for the coming week (booo!) and spent £17.73. This is for items which would have cost me < £15 in 2011 - I don't know why but everything I buy has literally jumped up in price?? I noticed baby wipes from £1.05 to £1.20 - i don't actually buy those, I get the cheaper ones which also went from 75p to 97p! They come out of my bi monthly shop which is already tight so 2012 will be interesting!

Gorgeestwo

NSD today :j Had roast chicken for tea, made DH strip the poor thing bare have got enough for chicken, bacon and leek pie tomorrow and something else, though not sure what yet, was very tempted to try to make my own stock using the carcass, but have got absolutely no room in my freezer for anything else :mad: so wouldn't have any where to put it, I really need to invest in another under counter freezer I think.
Might pop into Mr S or Mr T tomorrow to get a couple of bits, they aren't totally essential right now, but as DH is off work still it'll be easier in the car

Hope all the hangovers are improving, recovering spendaholic hope your leg is better soon.

bupster

Thanks for sharing building block idea, Debtfree2012, genius! I'm trying that tonight.

TheThriftyScrumpers

Mommyof4
If you get overcharged at mr t they give you double the difference of the amount overcharged. It has only happened to me twice, the first time they scanned a bag of bread flour twice which cost £1.70 so customer services gave me £3.40 back and the second time yesterday when I bought four items from a finest meal deal. They should have cost me £10 but the multibuy discount didn't kick in so I was charged £22. They gave me (£22 - £10 = £12 x 2) £24 back.

Hope this makes sense.

skilly

A small spend today of £4.70 bread, milk and eggs still got loads of veg left from Xmas so I have cancelled my veg box this week so a small saving ,it all helps .