Grocery Challenge - February 2012

tigerfeet2006

Just thought I would pop up the link to the Rubber Chicken thread as it might help a few people.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3375668

PennyGrabber

Morning!

Children had cereal and apple juice before I packed them off to school. My boss told me not to work today, but will prob try and go back tom.

Thought I would do some laundry today as my thing-of-the-day, but my washing machine is frozen up at the mo... I'm on my third machine in four years, as it lives in an outhouse (no space/plumbing in kitchen). Going to put a heater on out there for a couple of hours and see if that wakes it up...

Menu for today - not sure yet! I'll be having lo potato bake for lunch and dinner (ch didn't really like it yest. They like most things, and ate it but really didn't enjoy it yest), and I'll have to have a think on what the ch will have.

QUESTION - what can I do with some creme fraiche? Use by of tom, and it says do not freeze. Suggestions please!

Have a good day all,

PG x

catznine

Just as well I put my budget up as had more dentisry and needed more soft foods in! Spent a total of £39.11 and this included yogurts, oats (porridge) milk and root veg for soups, stews etc., also plenty of dog food so I don't have to go out for a while! I did add some bird food as I feel so sorry for them in this weather!

Trying to use what we have, so I will make a huge batch of chicken stew and dumplings and freeze portions away! Also some vegetable and country soup mix soup! Yesterday we had a salmon stir fry which was lovely and used up the veg I had hanging around, leftovers from that for lunch today!

Creme Fraiche is lovely on a jacket potato with some chopped up ham and mushrooms -I got the idea from a nutritionalist to control blood sugar levels!

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Morning!

Children had cereal and apple juice before I packed them off to school. My boss told me not to work today, but will prob try and go back tom.

Thought I would do some laundry today as my thing-of-the-day, but my washing machine is frozen up at the mo... I'm on my third machine in four years, as it lives in an outhouse (no space/plumbing in kitchen). Going to put a heater on out there for a couple of hours and see if that wakes it up...

Menu for today - not sure yet! I'll be having lo potato bake for lunch and dinner (ch didn't really like it yest. They like most things, and ate it but really didn't enjoy it yest), and I'll have to have a think on what the ch will have.

QUESTION - what can I do with some creme fraiche? Use by of tom, and it says do not freeze. Suggestions please!

Have a good day all,

PG x

You could cook jacket potatoes then scoop out potato, mix with creme fraiche, spring onions and cheese, put mixture back in potato skins and cook for about 15 mins - then serve with whatever else you have in stock e.g tuna and salad. Or you could mix creme fraiche with cooked pasta, ham, cheese and veg like peppers/onions and heat before serving.

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

So far I'm within my budget this month as I have spent £171 out of £360 and we're half way through the month .

Thanks to everyone on this thread for recipe ideas, especially the cheap recipe threads at the front - I'm now making sure at least two meals a week are super cheap and this, as well as shopping mainly at Lid1, is meaning I'm having money leftover at the end of the week. I always used to go over my budget before. Now I've reduced my budget and am so far managing to keep to that - result!:T

rosieben

tigerfeet, I've added your Turkey Burgers (GF and DF) and Melt in the mouth (GF and DF) Chocolate cake recipes to the index :beer:

that's as far as I've got at the moment, I'm having some computer probs at the moment but will catch up with the thread asap

quintwins

i freeze creme fraiche all the time then use it in soups and sauces, we've never got ill from it

mh2361

hi thank you all for being so friendly and helpful. I've just been into wilko and been totally shocked at the difference in washing up liquid prices. got one for 33p and dead pleased with myself.......small steps!!!! I've started shopping online cos then I'm not tempted and I've started leaving my credit cards at home, crumbs it's hard isn't it?!! I'll be so pleased with myself if I can do this... thanks for the support.

elsiepac

Hi everyone!

I still don't need to buy anything!

Breakfast was a whoopsied bread roll toasted with butter and Marmite (*drools*), lunch is honeyed carrot soup (2 WW points!) and dinner is roasted vegetable cous cous. All batch cooked. If I need snacks I have Weetabix Brownies and Malt Loaf left still. I also have yoghurts etc.

I've just realised that I'm being a bit silly by keeping myself so very stocked up while living at parents.

I have for storage:
- 1 wall cupboard (3 small shelves - grains/pasta top, herbs etc middle, coffee, tea, salt, stock etc bottom)
- 1 half of a unit cupboard (one biggish shelf on the bottom for heavy stuff so all tins and jarred sauces)
- 1 small fridge shelf anf 1 small fridge drawer
- 1 small freezer shelf

I have so much in the way of tins etc and while living here there's just no need. I'm not struggling for money so I'm in no danger of running out of food or anything like that. I do want to stock up on bargains, but half the time I just buy multiples of things for the sake of it.

I could post an excerpt from my stock spreadsheet, but it may scare people just how much I am cramming into not a lot of storage.

Should I focus on trying to use up stocks? I'm beginning to feel I should.

When I move out I can build up more stocks as I'll have the room, but I'm struggling for space, particularly with the freezer at the mo!

LC

Feb GC: £55.31/£98
Week 1: £13.38/£14
Week 2: £17.69/£18
Week 3: £0/£13
Week 4: £0/£14
Week 5: £0/£14
Stores: £24.24/£25

NickJW

CompBunny wrote: »

You will get there You have done sooo well to get to this point, the worst of it is over! Plus, its still early days since quitting and its understandable wanting to spend on other things, going to the cigarette counter is a habit in itself You probably used to buy all sorts of other things whilst you just "popped in". For a while if we felt the need to spend in a cig-buying manner we would buy some chewing gum or some fruit, still spending that we wouldn't have done otherwise but much better than an expensive pack of cigs!

Grocery shopping can still be fun and frugal! But the fun has to come from getting as much value as you can for your money! Its a game, you VS the supermarket. And part of that game becomes avoiding those unwanted spends. Theres nothing quite like feeling all smug walking out of a shop with a loaf of bread and nothing else! You have won at that point! Going to the supermarket can still feel like a treat, after all its a trip out of the house I love supermarket shopping, just in a different way than before

Thanks CompBunny - I remembered this when I went to Mr W yesterday evening. Had a list, went straight in, got what I needed, got out. Helps knowing that my inside freezer is fit to burst at the moment so I can't fit much more in. The garage freezer is pretty empty, but unless there is an AMAZING YS offer I'll resist filling that up. £6.96 added to signature

Lunches for today and tomorrow are sorted, and tonight will be quiche from the freezer with a salad made from baby gem lettuce, tomotoes , feta and olives l/o from Monday. Not sure if it's really the weather for it, but it needs using up so that's what I'm having! Tomorrow will be Beef with chilli and basil with rice - I have everything already in the freezer/fridge/cupboard already for this meal.

This should be the last spend of the week now. I'm going back to my parents this weekend, and have everything I need for today and tomorrow so I can't see how it will be possible to step into a supermarket........:p