Grocery Challenge - February 2012

tigerfeet2006

sistercas wrote: »

off to @sd@ later , for more bits and bobs , it means im way over budget percentage wise but hopefully as the month goes on it will even out

tea tonight will be bbq chicken breast and HM oven chips

DD2 announced this morning she was cooking at school today :eek: cue panic recipe finding , anyhoo sorted out stuff for her to make a chocolate swiss roll without resorting to going to the shops for any ingredients :j
this is her last cooking session i think ( gcse) so that should save on buying weird ingredients

PLEASE EVERYONE IN THIS COLD WEATHER , COULD YOU PUT SOME FOOD AND WATER OUT FOR THE BIRDS

Good point Sister Cas. I always put fresh water out. I can't put food out as we get rats and if we are not careful they make a home under the shed and are a bogger to get rid of.

DundeeDoll wrote: »

Feeling positive for February. We were spending over £100 at Mr T each week (sometimes well over ahem). Started grocery challenge 1/1/12. Just looking at my spreadsheet. 1st week £86.19; 2nd week £95.31; 3rd week £73.41; 4th week £64.76; 5th week £68.37 so feeling rather encouraged by all that. Have set challenge this month at £580 as I am including all consumable and we will be eating out a bit this month. However, when one friend said when fixing date for meal out 'I'll have to check with S cos of the puppies' (newly acquired bassett hounds) I suggested rather than a Friday meal out (£££) we have a Saturday lunch at hers as a bring and share and come adore the puppies (and save money I thought to myself). I am thinking MSE. Also OH took large flask of coffee, cans of coke and Lidl snack bars for long journey down south rather than stopping off at motorway services so also learning the MSE ways Looking forward to my update end of Feb.

:T Well done both of you. It's amazing what pleasure you get out of little savings and those little savings add up to big savings

JackieO wrote: »

Morning everyone and a chilly one this morning.NSD for me but DD wants me to pick up 4 loaves of bread for her for the weekend as her and her OH are busy decorating DGS bedroom on Saturday.With 6/7 in the house they go through at least a loaf and a half a day,She works full time as does her OH so baking her own isn't an option.But I am still working my way through the freezer.next week out will come the large Ham hock to be cooked in the Sc for sandwiches and probably pea and ham soup with the stock I bought some dried peas yeasterday.
keep up the good work everyone its a short month this month so it will go quickly I think

Would a bread maker not be an option? She could put it on when she got home to make a big loaf and then on overnight to make another. It only takes 5 minutes to put the ingredients in. Cheap, fresh bread whenever she needs it.

tigerfeet2006

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Xspender, when I forget to take bread out of the freezer, I take it out when I am making the sandwiches and take out however many slices I need, separate them and leave them on the side for about 10 minutes, by that time they have defrosted enough to make the sandwich and by the time they are being eaten, they are fresh as new

I'm another who does this. Very quick and easy. I usually get the lunch boxes packed up while I am waitng for the bread, then I do the sandwiches and put those in the lunch boxes last.

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Btw, does anyone know how you can mark what you last post was that you read as I have spent the last 10 minutes trying to find out where I left it last? Thank you
Helen x

I just thank everyone and look at where I last did. Though I know there is an easier way of doing it where it goes to where you last were automatically but I use up to three computers a day so it is easier for me.

Hopefully some one will explain how to do it later.

jencolescott

Hey could I join in this challenge please.

Never did it before but could I be put down for £200 for the month. My month runs from the 28th Jan - 28th Feb.

So far a spenditure of £55 leaving me with £145 for the reminder of the month. Should be do able i think.

Just me, hubbie and DS1 (15 MONTHS)

We normally spend loads of food so I will soon see if this target is realistic enough.

Thanks

ms_night_ryder

Morning all

Spent £6.96 on 3 bottles of the persil using coupons and 1 bear strawberry roll thingy, this was yesterday in co op, will get 3 more bottles, but this will come out of another budget as i am bulk buying for a reason. also thinking of buying some ken hom meals, which are in mr t's for £5 2 mains and 2 sides, loving their spring rolls and the crispy beef is just lush!" saw somebody mention that the ribs were lovely, so i tried them, they were alright, nothing special, certainly wont get them again, but i will get 2 crispy beefs, to chuck in freezer for when i fancy a takeaway day

Deffo going shopping tomorrow, but going to set myself a budget of £20 and only take that out with me, got some mystery shops to do tomorrow and have a massage booked for the evening, then hime to the warmth, may cook something in my slow cooker since i willo be out most of the day.

tracey12_2

123budget wrote: »

-120g plain flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Taken from the book 'The Takeaway Secret' by Kenny McGovern

I love this book, takeaway food for a fraction of the price

XSpender wrote: »

Off to find out how you bake potatoes in the SC as mentioned by a previous poster.

I have cooked potatoes in the slow cooker. I just pricked them all over, put some oil and salt onto each one, put in the slow cooker on high for 6 hours. The skins don't go crispy and they do taste different then if cooked in the oven but the insides are soft and fluffy.

HTH

Tracey

rumblytum

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Does it "have" to be cold? In February-our worst month pf the year you may well be glad of something hot. how about getting a food flask and filling it with hot soup or stew-either home made or tinned it will be a welcome change from chilly salads. How about some baked potatoes with a nice homemade filling, wrapped in foil? You could also have things like a pasta salad which could be warm or cold and is filling. Things like this are good for using up the fridge contents I find-every time-they are a little different!

Hi Angela,

Thank you for the suggestions :T

You are quite right - last night was just too cold for salad, we both looked miserably at each other while we looked at the salad selection, and then my DD said McDonald's? hopefully - and off we went. I was grateful for something warm, so you're quite right.

Have got a smallish stainless steel flask, so I'll have a think about what I can do with that for next week. Not sure about the spuds - I leave the house at 7am, pick her up straight from London at 5.30pm, so I don't know how I would keep things heated. Leave work at 4.00pm, so could microwave stuff before I left - would the heat retain for an hour and a half? It is making me think outside the box a bit, though - I'm sure she's got a common room at school, so if it's still open at that time, they might have a microwave we can use to zap things with .... Hmmm - plenty of food for thought - thank you

x

Spiggle

Morning All,

Well that was a marathon catch up!

Sorry about duplicating posts yesterday but every time I submitted the post IE got shut down! :mad:

Welcome all the newbies joining us. :hello:

Helen Jelly, :A I don't mind whatever you decide to do. As many others have said, I'm just glad of the thread and the fantastic work you do to keep us in check. :T

You did make me laugh Redouble and as 007 has also been claimed I'll go for 666! :rotfl:

I'm sorry your circumsatances have become so tough prepareathome :grouphug: and hope the links given will help you in some way.

I can't quite believe how cold it is here today. It was minus 5 this morning at 8.20am and my handbrake had frozen on so had a lovely smell of burning rubber by the time I picked DD up from the garage where her car is being repaired! And I live on the coast FGS, we just don't normally have it this low. :eek:

OH got a few bits in the Coop on the first and that has been added to the sig. Today is the day for him to get the meat and veg from town so will update the sig again this evening or tomorrow. Actually, I just checked the moc for coop and it expires today so may give him a ring and go get the persil. Oh, b*m just remembered I don't have my car. Oh well.

I got OH to do something yesterday that I really have problems with, we bought The S*n :shhh: to get the MrM £6 wys £40 coupon. I figure that we can probably do a list for about that much and pop to MrM on the weekend as I also have a £5 MrM's Miles voucher in my purse that I've had since before Christmas so may as well use them both and get stocked up. (Don't know on what yet but going to MrM site in a minute to see what's good and then to kitchen to see what we need.) If bread flour is reasonable will get quite a bit of that as OH spent £1.43 on one bag in coop the other day, :doh:I nearly died!

Right I'll stop waffling and get on, need to have a look at some holidays too as we're going to the sun at Easter come hell or high water!

See you later and take care in the cold,
Spigs

cw18

Spiggle wrote: »

If bread flour is reasonable will get quite a bit of that as OH spent £1.43 on one bag in coop the other day, :doh:I nearly died!

Own label strong white is 60p for 1.5kg - I checked it out on Wednesday when I was in there, as I've been getting through a fair bit this year. That's the same price as at Mr T & Mr A (where I've bought it in the past).

Suffolk_lass

debbiedeejay wrote: »

- rest of it was partially needed-painkillers,ST's,bread,ham but rest was just"stuff" because I felt so naff I couldn't say no to DD2 & 3 just to keep peace in the house:(

I've noticed quite a lot of us buy painkillers regularly and I wondered what you buy and from where?

I'm aware that there are lots of counterfeit (ineffective fake) medicines coming into the UK and following a really bad chest infection (ended up as pleurisy) and a course of steroids and anti-biotics that just did not work at the beginning of 2011, I'm really cautious now.

I now buy B**ts own brand paracetamol 500mg caplets at 16p for 16 (red and white packet) as our regular painkillers and Syndol (pharmacy counter not sm shelves) only for stress headaches or after a night drinking. These are the over the counter things. I won't start on prescriptions as that is not grocery budget whereas medicine chest over-the-counters are.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi All Just got a few bits for next week. Trying to us up what I have in. So a very good spend of £12.99. Got most of it in Iceland some chicken to make a nice curry for tomorrow to help keep us warm. Good luck everyone.