January 2012 Grocery Challenge

dumpling

Hi, first spend of the year of £11.46 at Mr T's. I bought some fruit and veg, bread and skimmed milk ready to go back to Weight watchers on Wednesday. I know I have gained a lot over the Christmas period but I am aiming to lose between 5lb and 7lb a month this year.

I am going to try really hard to keep to my budget this year and hopefully reduce it as the months go on. Using up some stirfry veg and prawns for lunch. I really don't want to waste food either this year.:)

rosieben

PennyGrabber wrote: »

...One of my new year resolutions is to keep a 'little book of positives', which is just a notebook I write in at the end of the day, listing the good things that have happened that day. I, like so many people, have in the past suffered with depression, so my aim is to keep on the sunny side this year! ...

brilliant idea :T I'm dealing with depression and aiming to be more positive this year so I'm stealing this one, thanks

123budget wrote: »

I notice a lot of people say about using lentils to make meat dishes go a bit further. Is this red lentils? I've only ever used them in soup before so how would you use them in bolognese/shepherds pie? Do you just add the dried lentils to all the other ingredients when the meat has been browned? About how much lentils would you add in proportion to meat? Can they also be used in a chilli? ...

I throw a handful of red lentils into nearly all my slow cooker recipes - bolognaise, chilli, shepherd pie, lamb shank and other casserole, stews - I just add them with the vegetables and they disappear

tigerfeet, your Gluten-free Ginger Biscuits now in the recipe index :T

Spigs I totally agree with everyone about your posts, they're full of so much useful info :A I like the idea of getting them added into the first page but tbh I'm not sure newbies always read through the front page so it may be useful to repost now and again through the thread, particularly when we have a lot of newbies as this month?

WelshWoofer

Just back from a quick trip to B&M and managed to get 3 more packs of ham reduced to 20p - brilliant for the dog.
So that's 60p added to the total - just over £16 now.
I have a big bowl of bean chilli for tea leftover from Saturday and will do a jacket spud and beans to take to work tomorrow, stopping me spending more money on food.

My budget is £150 - could I manage £100 this month if I tried really really hard? Hmmmm- worth a try.

elly2

Afternoon all and happy new year to you all (a bit late sorry) my new years eve was spent nursing our female degu so basically i was sat nursing her in a tea towel sobbing my heart out sadly we lost her on new years day along with another 2 of her babies. The other 4 remaining babies are coping well with daddy degu taking over the care of them...........lets hope 2012 improves.

I have so far spent £30.50 of my budget and plan on buying nothing else till at least thurs (new week starts on weds) so my question is what do other people do with any left over pennies ? do you save them or keep them for bulk buy offers (not sure which way to go as i have my £10 a week pot for savings so dont want to confuse myself with another pot).

rising_from_the_ashes

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Hedgehogs are basically dollops of mash in the centre of the plate, body-shaped, with sausages (either tinned or lo cooked, or fresh cooked!), carrot sticks, cuc sticks, etc stuck into it to look like the spines. Then, peas/green beans/tinned spaghetti around the outside to be grass/nest! Sometimes I also put two raisins in for eyes too!

That's brilliant!:D

Right, really must get my butt into gear .....

recovering_spendaholic

Wow! How fast does this thread go?!!! - Meg72 - so sorry to hear about your Mum - hope she improves soon but I know how distressing it is when a parent is in hospital like that - somehow we are so used to them being the coping ones that it seems weird when they are depending on us doesn't it?

Tigerfeet - thanks for the idea about the favourite meals thing - I am going to sit down with them later with my inventory and ask them what meals they will eat and then if they don't eat THOSE I will not offer any alternative.

Welcome to all the newbies today!! Hope you get as much out of the challenge as I have. The only thing is that you become a bit obsessed with reduced stuff if you are anything like me!! It is a compulsion with me now to only go to the Supermarket when I think there will be whoopsies!

slept in so just juice for breakfast, lunch will be corned beef and salad for me and bagels with corned beef salad for kids. Dinner tonight will be roast using the turkey crown I got yesterday in Sainsbobs reduced. When I was in sainsburys yesterday they had frozen finely chopped veg - it was celery, onions and carrot mixture and there was 1.5kg in the bag - it was two bags for £1.50 but I reckon that is quite good because I am always throwing out l/o celery and I HATE chopping up veg and can't get it as fine as they have done!

Have a good Bank Holiday everyone!

rosieben

Cheryl, I've listed your downloadable spreadsheet on the front page under Useful OS threads

Spiggle

piggeh wrote: »

How long does hard cheese keep for? Not an everyday foodstuff for me.

Thanks for the others, will use them instead

We buy a lot of hard cheese piggeh and if I was going to keep it a while I would use the freezing method advised above or our way is to remove the cheese from the plastic packaging and wrap in clean greaseproof paper. Store in a cool place, either larder or fridge if needs be. Grana padano is usually the cheaper option of the three with parmesan and pecorino and works just as well as the others.

If you definitely won't need more than the recipe requires, it may be cheaper for you to buy a small suitable piece from the deli counter (or independent deli if you have one) rather than the prepacked size. Do get it out of plastic wrapping/bags asap though.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

... Having a bit of a debate with myself atm - going for a walk to the woods & need liquid gold so I'll be in the vicinity of the sm (18 mile round trip).

I need the odd thing or two for going back to work but I've £9 off a £40 spend ... only I don't really need that much atm. ...

Hi rising, so now I'm confused, what is 'liquid gold' when its at home?!?!?

If you don't need £40 worth of food don't buy it! Keep the voucher for when you need it or if it expires then be glad that there's £31 (assuming your basket comes to exactly £40) you haven't spent needlessly!

Meg72 I feel for you. My Mum was in hospital over Christmas and New Year six years ago and it is so painful to see them debilitated when the rest of the world is partying and gorging to its hearts content. Warm thoughts and tight hugs being sent your way.

Welcome all the newbies joining us. Remember to do a stocktake at the start, only shop with a list and, especially if it's your first time budgetting/monitoring spends, keep receipts and list them either in a spending diary or on a spreadsheet so you always know how much you've spent and how much you have left for the rest of the month. As was said earlier, taking the money out of the bank and having it in a separate purse really helps at the start too. The effect of seeing money reducing is more powerful than you'd imagine! :cool:

Finally welcome back all our returners, great to see you again.

Can't see us spending anything today so two NSD so far (though the sig has the £12 in it from the bulk buy of loo rolls in December).

See you all later,
Spigs

ETA: Thanks rosieben, a good idea some are filched above. Newbies a list of tips is in post number #345.

cw18

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi rising, so now I'm confused, what is 'liquid gold' when its at home?!?!?

That would be petrol/diesel - it's got soooo expensive it gained a nickname that seems well suited

rosieben

and there's me thinking liquid gold would be whisky! :rotfl:

Cheryl just been reading through your frugal challenge, think I will sign up :T