Grocery Challenge - February 2012

xxlouisexx56

£30 in tesco yesterday

forever_saving

Have spent £74.21 this week. I'm having to stretch the pennies a bit as we have to pay out a fair bit this month. There will be alot of veg and to fill the plates up with less meat than usual.
Living Proof, what awful news. Hugs to you x
FS

elly2

Morning all epic fail at asda yesterday went about £20 over budget :eek::eek: and am still needing more (half term here so need to sort lunches out for kids), will also need to update meal plan to include sat meals as ex is being a pain re contact with kids so sat visits will stop (he has stopped them again) till he realises he is being an idiot :mad: hasn't realised it yet and it's been 7 yrs so not holding out much hope. Am still trying to do the tesco online shop it's proving to be a big headache but the £17.50 off is so tempting i WILL get there . Have a night out planned tonight and i am not looking forwards to it (has been planned since mid Dec) so cant really get out of it, its freezing here today and imagine it will only get colder tonight. Hugs to everyone who needs them and hope you all manage to keep warm today. x

Living_proof

Thank you for all your hugs and concern - it really does mean a huge amount to me and I will try and get stronger week by week.

I ventured to Al*i and *idl this morning and stocked up on fresh fruit and veg, milk, etc. I normally make my own bread but have opted for a Hovis wholemeal for this week but I will have to use up my stocks of Wrights mixes soon. It just seems a bit pathetic cooking a small loaf and having to freeze half, somehow. I find buying a good variety of fruit and veg a real challenge now, as it is always cheaper to buy in bulk but then there's the dilemma of waste. I can see now why busy singles shop for convenience at M&S etc.

I recall when my strapping 17 year old son went off to uni a few years back just how difficult it was to adjust to a smaller household and he still does eat twice as much as I do. This is another step down the scale but a bit more drastic somehow.

I am now going to venture to the big freezer and bring in some home-cooked meals for the week. It will be a long time before I will be cooking anything from scratch and I have been used to batch cooking for years now. So a little rest is due!

ixia

Livingproof- sorry to hear your news

Update for the weekend went to Lid! and ALd!(used £5 off voucher), HB's and FF's so £50.60 spent in total add to other spends thru the week leaves me a total of £179.56 until the end of the month.

Hopefully be ok freezer full just have to resist urge to go to shops.

Ninno820

Hugs LivingProof - I have been on my own for several years now and you do have to force yourself to cook properly. I get round it by often having the same meal two days running and freezing any left overs into "lunch pots" to save money at work.

Have ventured out in the big freeze (the local veg shop says that it was -17 :eek:here when they opened up this morning). Its risen to -4.5 according to the car and the back roads are still sheets of ice, in some places, from last weekend so I have bought fruit, veg and eggs for me and dog chews for the pooches who are missing their walks and having to make do with the garden for a while. Total spend - £6.31. I'm limping along to the 23rd (my end of month) and hoping to curb the overspend.
Keep warm everyone.

Suffolk_lass

Hi Everyone, I used to run a restaurant and I have varied (and reduced) the recipe we had there to make some Low calorie spicy coleslaw - Just as nice with or without the chilli. Uses low calorie dressing instead of mayonnaise.

One third of a white cabbage,
One small onion,
One large carrot, all chopped finely or shredded and mixed together (food processor is brilliant) - your preference how chunky or fine.
One green chilli, chopped as small as you can and mixed through the other veg

Add a fine drizzled zig zag of Pizza Expre** low calorie (original, not caesar) salad dressing, a little lemon juice (no more then half a lemon or 4 shakes of a bottle) and about half a dozen twists of freshly ground black pepper. Mix it all together. If it is too dry add a tiny bit more dressing (but it can always be added, it can't be removed).

This is tangy with a bit of bite from the chilli (optional) and is plenty for 3-4 good veg portions and I love it with Jacket Potato and a little soured cream (not so slimming).

Those of you doing SW will want to measure the dressing as this is the only part with syn count.

Cool_Nanna

Just popping in for a quick visit. I went to Mr T's yesterday and I could tell that I didn't have enough in my trolley to be able to use my £5 voucher so I bought a jumper to bump my total up which I will take back next week.

Sshh don't tell anyone.:o

redkids1972

Well I am over my target for the month of Feb and its only the 11th oops
I have 3x £15 M and S vouchers to use which i got from living social and which has been included in the total so going to do my shopping there this week. I also purchased the boots mascara glitch products which cost £20 but got £15 worth of points which I will use throughout the year but the funds need to be accounted so have come from this budget.
Two of my three kids are off on school trips so less to feed this week and my son will be spending most of his half term hols with his grandmother as both me and OH are working so he will be mostly fed there this week.
I still have lots of meat in the freezer but need bits to go with them to make meals will also nip to Aldi for the fruit for the week. So all though over budget will be hoping to get to the 23rd (end of feb challenge for me) with not much more spends.

mh2361

livingproof - lots of hugs to you. i've been through it, it gets better. take one day at a time and be kind to yourself. I know they're cliches but they can help. take care xx

tried to find cheap wash powder, but crowds defeated me, will go in the week. gutted that i didn't get the one in mrT last week.