Grocery Challenge - February 2012

caroline504

After Spending 2 hours last nite making a meal plan for next week and making the list to go with it my DH came shopping with me and my spend less than £40 plan was shot.
Spent nearly £70 :mad:

Although my freezer looks alot more healthier and will probably mean I'll be way under budget next week

NickJW

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

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

Haha! You had some very good ideas. I have the pork chops with the herb crust topping suggestion in my 'recipe binder' ( saved as a tab on my browser). I very often have half a pack of herbs leftover from one recipe so this is perfect for me.

It's a good job I like my food. This challenge wouldn't be quite as fun if I treated food as fuel rather than something to be enjoyed.
Making sure that food doesn't get wasted and having to find new recipes for things that need using up, results in me trying loads of different meals.

Herbyme

Lovethenight, I use the curry pastes too and I agree, they're better value, esp as you don't need as much as it says on the jar (I don't think you do anyway!)

Pennygrabber, 2 thoughts for The List:
DF: darling father or darling fiance?!
OP: original poster

Best I can do!

DS just came in and asked how long it has been Friday. turns out he thought it was Thursday.:rotfl:

Lovethenight

carolinerunner wrote: »

Lovethenight, I use the curry pastes too and I agree, they're better value, esp as you don't need as much as it says on the jar (I don't think you do anyway)

I agree - dh likes strong curry, so I tend to buy the hotter ones and use less paste. ( Same principle as cheese - if you buy a stronger flavoured one, you can get away with using a bit less ):)

Adding a fried onion or bits of leftover veg like carrots and peas from the Sunday dinner to the curry also stretches it! :rotfl:

123budget

Rationing_Revisited wrote: »

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.

Just visited your site - really interesting.
Can I ask - do you work or are you a stay at home mum - Just wondering how much extra time it takes to prepare all the bread etc and make sure you are organised.
Also it must help that you hubby is totally involved with it - My Dh doesn't even go food shopping with me or look at the bank accounts - I do it all. He is happy as long as there is food on the table (or in lunchbox, he works shifts), and that the accounts don't go overdrawn - although he wouldn't know unless I told him (good job I'm honest!)
He has a set amount from his wages that go into his 'spending account' which he uses for diesel, and extras - the rest is left for me to deal with. -
Think I might have a look at some of the recipes tho to see if I can bring food budget down further

Ninno820

Morning all - thanks for the advice re Living Social vouches - I'll take a look

Yesterday, as hoped, was a NSD. Today should be, grocery wise. I'm at an all day embroidery class which is great for no distractions - but is sooooo tempting as she puts a whole range of goodies out for the class - and, well, you just gotta have them!

Take care everyone. xx

cleggie

Morning all!
ONLY buying bread & milk this morning..ONLY buying bread & milk this morning....repeat as needed!!
Thanks to so many of you who have popped over to look and post on my DFD, its lovely to have the support!

Rationing Revisited, your challenge sounds very interesting, i will go and have a look at it in a bit. I am also wondering if you are a SAHM or if this is something that could be done whilst working?

Another fan of curry paste here! I always have a few in the house to knock together a chicken or veggie curry. I have a Q though: instead of using single cream with it, would coconut milk do the same job do you think? I have no single cream but 3 tins of coconut milk!!!

Have a great day all!

Barbeduk

Cleggie, I'd give the coconut milk a go. Might just make it taste a bit sweeter so maybe add half the tin and taste? DH makes all our curries with pataks pastes but doesn't add liquid just the meat/quorn/chickpeas and loads of onion, leek, pepper and veg. They're always lush!:D

Rationing revisited, that's quite a challenge you've set yourself :T. I made the pearl barley broth with lamb bones off the recipe thread last night and DH and I were just saying that's what rationing must have been like! Also made peanut butter cookies instead of nipping to horrorsons for a bar of chocolate as didn't want to add to my GC spends. This is a new, and very good, way of thinking!:D

abitofhelp

morning, not long till the 24th so i can join this challenge for real. cleggie i always use coconut milk when making a curry. i use the tins of pataks curry paste i think they are 49p in b&m & home bargains. it can be expensive to buy so i stock up when i see it for a £ or less.

cleggie

Excellent, thanks you guys, i'll give it a go for tomorrows dinner