Grocery Challenge - February 2012

123budget

FrugalLina wrote: »

I don't know if this is a help or not, but up here in East Central Scotland, we have rain, not snow as predicted - I hope that is all you get down there!

Ahh thanks - I guess we will just have to wait and see - predicted snow round about tea time today.

quintwins

havent posted in a few days, spent £2.07 on thur on sweets for ds3 and some tonned ornages at 25p each, spent £16.90 last night on chinese and bread, today will be a nsd , making pizza and chips for tea

hex2

£17.43 to the milkman - milk, cream and the bargain F&V box.

Soaked a bag of butter beans and a bag of chickpeas last night which are now on and cooking, will freeze them n 300g portions later. Needed to play freezer tetris to make room so had a good tidy up in there as well. No happy suprises other than a reminder that I need to do something with the neck of lamb (bones and all) that has been lurking there for ever.

I have so far resisted a £6 off a £60 (MrS) and a £20 off a £60 (Oca) - the supermarket is NOT my friend!

raphanius

hex2 wrote: »

Soaked a bag of butter beans and a bag of chickpeas last night which are now on and cooking, will freeze them n 300g portions later.

are dried beans cheaper than tinned? i looked on my supermarket and butter beans are 71p for 500g dried and 59p for 410g tinned at Mr S but is that just the weight of the beans or the water as well?

hex2

raphanius wrote: »

are dried beans cheaper than tinned? i looked on my supermarket and butter beans are 71p for 500g dried and 59p for 410g tinned at Mr S but is that just the weight of the beans or the water as well?

According to the Rose Elliot Veggi cookbook you should get five 300g portions out of a 500g packet of dried beans. A 410g tin, drained is 300g apparently. If she is right then it is 14p a tin against 59p for the vague hassle of soaking overnight. I have priced it up before for chick peas which was worth it, and kidney beans which was not if you buy value ones.

ETA I have weighed mine, 125g of dried butter beans is 300g cooked.18p a tin, still worth it if you use a lot or your budget is tight like mine atm. Cheapest supermarket price appears to be Asda at 38p a tin.

raphanius

thanks hex i think i'll give dried a go

DundeeDoll

After long illness, FIL died this morning in nursing home. OH had gone down again Thursday knowing death was imminent. Left me a bit numb. MIL not eating properly so OH buying food for her. Don't know when the funeral is. Will try to keep to budget this month.

Going to Lidl later with mum as OH has car (getting perilously low on cat food and bread - will dust down bread maker maybe next month but I think cooking cat food would turn out more expensive!). Menu for week planned (lots of fish cos OH not so keen on fish), freezer audited, very last of the Christmas turkey to be finished this lunch time. At last am getting to the end of UFOs - unidentified frying objects - you know, those bits of meat in unlabeled plastic bags whose identity only becomes clear on defrosting (and sometimes not even then lol). Love you all, you're the best xxx

tracey12_2

Barbeduk wrote: »

Wow! Thank you for the tips on freezing chopped onions (never thought of that) and freezing cream in ice cube trays. It's amazing the tips you pick up on this thread! :T

I freeze all sorts into ice cube trays and then when frozen I bag up cubes so that I can use the tray for something else. I freeze pesto, cream, chopped herbs with some water, wine, passata, tomato puree and probably some more but can't think of at the moment.

This way nothing is wasted and you can just get out as many cubes as you need

Tracey

bupster

Spent £6.95 in Aldi, but got bread, four pints of milk, yoghurt, a cauliflower (for soup), broccoli (for a pasta bake), half a dozen real eggs, three cadbury's creme eggs, and a big bag of clementines. So that's the basic ingredients for at least four (single portion) meals and the partial ingredients for another four, with stuff I've got kicking around in the store cupboard. Also took a pack of chicken legs out of the freezer which is another six portions. Once I've made up some granola from store cupboard stuff, that's a week's worth of food - and some cadbury's creme eggs - for a pound a day!

Unfortunately I met some friends for drinks earlier in the week and I spent a big chunk both of my grocery budget (i.e. cash in purse) and my bank budget, meaning I only have £40 left for the rest of the month. On the other hand I don't need to buy food for a week!

WelshWoofer

Just started snowing in South Manchester - not really heavy yet but definitely snow!

Decided to do the shopping locally today at the greengrocers, butcher and Spar instead of trekking round Mr T's and spending a fortune on stuff I don't need.
On the whole it went well - £5 exactly on F&V, 90p in the butcher on ox liver for the dog, and £13.50 in Spar - just checked the receipt and they've over charged me on 2 things to the tune of about £1.50:mad:

Oh well, total for today is £19.40.