Grocery Challenge - February 2012

Ninno820

Sorry if this is an indelicate question but what is a living social voucher?

NickJW

Ninno820 wrote: »

Sorry if this is an indelicate question but what is a living social voucher?

Hi Ninno820

LivingSocial is like a discount site. Usually they offer things such as a manicure for £15 instead of £60, a hotel break for £100 instead of £300 etc. Recently they did a deal where you got a £15 M+S voucher for £7, which I along with others purchased. You usually get a time limit to buy the deal or until it sells out. . Google LivingSocial and you'll find the website to see what I mean.

Managed to stay away from the supermarket until today when I need to report damage of £8.23. Using the sage and parsley in a pasta dish. I miss pasta - I've had too many potatoes recently!

LavenderBees

Evening All

well, I'm declaring myself bust for this month. Oh Dear..:(

Tonight, I've been to Lidl and Mr M's, and was really pleased with my shop - all very frugal, but Mr M's had just stocked up the reduced section, so I got whoopsied brisket, mince, beef skirt and lamb neck.

Although I'm bust (might as well keep rubbing it in to myself :rotfl:), I'm really pleased that the challenge is making me scrutinise prices across a number of shops, and I'm pretty sure I'm managing to get the cheapest deals I can in my wee market town.

I still have a fair amount in my store cupboard and freezer so am hoping to be fairly frugal again next month. I'm going to do an inventory tomorrow and a meal plan, and decide what next month's target is.

Hope all is going well for the rest of you. I'm hoping I'll manage to read the thread every day...one month. I'm sure I'm missing out on lots of tips by not being able to keep up. I also still haven't managed to read the recipes at the beginning of the challenge yet, but hope to do this this weekend. They'll be a great help with the meal planning.

xx

tessie_bear

thankyou for the feedback on pataks...think ill avoid the chutney...dh might like it....thanks also for the idea of wearing headphones while shopping....very good idea
tess

PennyGrabber

cleggie wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/51118511#Comment_51118511

The link to my new DFD! Come on over and have a read if you like, the support and encouragement woud be really appreciated!!

Well done you - of course you'll be supported!!

tessie_bear wrote: »

thankyou for the feedback on pataks...think ill avoid the chutney...dh might like it....thanks also for the idea of wearing headphones while shopping....very good idea
tess

Also, if you chew minty gum, it goes a little way towards counteracting the bread-baking smell they have...

Florenceem

I made Tuna fish cakes with home made wedges and salad. Two fish cakes left to go in freezer. The can of Tuna was dated - March 2011 - did the look/smell test - let you know if I am still in the land of the living tomorrow. :rotfl:



Tomorrow's dinner will be gammon from the freezer with roast potatoes/roast parsnip/sprouts/cauliflour and gravy - need to rehydrate the meat - not sure how long it has lurked in the freezer!

Suffolk_lass

NickJW wrote: »

Using the sage and parsley in a pasta dish. I miss pasta - I've had too many potatoes recently!

NickJW I knew I was becoming MS obsessed when I found myself standing in front of the fresh herbs in Waitflower wondering what you were going to use the sage and parsley for!! lol

Having confidently despatched DH to the butchers when he ran the remains of our old shower up to the dump (minus the aluminium glass cabinet that some travellers asked to take away), I took DS to his gig and went on to Waitflower.

Bought too many things (eg Moroccan Houmus and tortilla chips for a treat tonight) including replacement batteries for all the house phones OMG £28 - thank goodnes they are not grocery budget. Second time this month something I bought because it was labelled on offer has not gone through with the offer so may need to have a word but the girl on CS was a dweeb tonight.

Totals all done but the only way I am going to hit my challenge target is if I end the month next Friday (DH's payday) instead of 29th which feels like a big fat cheat.

Dinner out on Sunday (village fund-raiser for the church) so not even a roast to show for the spend and also taking DS to Uni interview so away Tues night.

There's been a fair bit of curry sauce discussion today - we really like the LG sauces esp Jalfrezi (we add extra garlic and chillis!) - they are all on offer in Waitflower - normal price £2.09 down to 2 for £2

Have a good one peeps
SL

tigerfeet2006

whmf00001 wrote: »

Hello all, I have popped over from the freezer/food cupboards challenge (both bulging) and noticed the Approved foods and Bargain Foods mentioned so have had a quick look, compared some prices - only on food, have that compulsion to buy and stockpile food, and just wondered if others have used and been satisfied. Some of the products work out well cheap but have to take delivery into account which is not easy to find, £5.99 on one but cannot find on the other.
Best of luck to any one just starting to budget, I found YS, then use slow cooker, seems to increase a small amount of meat into huge portions, most of which, in my house, end up in freezer.
Wendy

Appr0ved Foods are great. Not had a problem with them at all. In fact I am sat here slurping on Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice and munching on a Fudge bar courtesy of them.

Haven't tried Bargain F00ds at all.

Rationing_Revisited

Hubbie and I (+3kiddies) are experimenting with a 1940s ration diet for the next 2 years. weird intro i know... i get to the point... eventually lol.
We used to spend £100+ per week on groceries and then still went back to the stores for top ups... Now we spend £30 -£40 per week for ALL of us NOT PER PERSON.

This came about when hubbie and i asked the question would a modern people benefit from the 40s ration diet that their parents/ grandparent became so healthy and fit on.

Well we're about 2 months in... in the first 1.5 months i lost 1stone... we can now afford to save 1/4 of our income (which, over the 2 year experiment will = £7800) in an online saver and we lack for nothing.

Our site (rationing revisited) charts our progress, shopping comparisons (quality and price) and logs all the recipes / tips we use.

Lovethenight

Oh pants-a-rama:mad:

Was heading for a nsd today and dh offered to cook instead of getting a take-away. All was going well until the smell of melting plastic hit me! Turns out the salmon and sauce dh was microwaving had burnt so bad the plastic container had melted!:eek::eek::eek:
There was actually a hole in the corner of the tupperware box where sauce was leaking out and kitchen smelt awful!!!:(
So much melted plastic we had to throw the entire thing out and go to the chip shop instead!!:rotfl:

Oh well - £5.90 spent - could have been worse!:o

Just to add to the curry discussion - I tend to use pataks pastes - they're about £2 a jar, but make 3-4 curries. I just add meat/qu0rn, chick peas to stretch it, tin of value tomatoes and a quarter or third of the jar. Works out cheaper than buying ready-made ones and there's usually enough lo for my lunch the next day too.

Have a great, kitchen disaster-free weekend everyone!!:wave: