May 2012 Grocery Challenge

jumblejack

Right. Changed my signature as it is getting too long. Just keeping it like this now and resetting every Saturday.

I have done several 'big' shops. I got all the milk for the week though and more besides to make sure I get a lot if NSDs in the week. I bought 10 litres of soya milk, 16 pints of fresh whole milk with a good date on. 8 packs of Lidl minced beef with the weekend offer along with 2 bags of carrots and a white wine vinegar (all half price).
Bought so much stuff at Tesco, I can't remember it all. Lots of kidney beans as silly cheap at the minute. My freezer is looking good with all the Lidl weekend meat. Still got loads of frying steak from last weekend too!

I AM having that kidney bean curry today!!!!!!

*dashes off to empty rest of shopping and clean the kitchen*

fozziebeartoo

Today was going to be a NSD and then DD rang me from Sainsbugs and asked if I needed anything, so 2 tins of beans and some yorkers to add to my spend (my HM yorkers are like divers lead boots so making my own is a false economy in this house)

Had granola and greek yog for brekkie.

Have taken quiche out of freezer for lunch.

Taken sausages out of freezer for tea....

Talking of sausages, I read somewhere (maybe Second Purse thread???) someone simmered sausages for 20 minutes before grilling - anyone else do that???

My friend who is here for tea has problems swallowing, and although I have never cooked sausages like that (or even HEARD of it actually) I am thinking it would make the skins softer and easier to chew and less likely to get stuck in the throat???

Any thoughts on simmering sausages please????

Suffolk_lass

DundeeDoll wrote: »

EWO if you have halved your spenD in one month you are doing brill! My first month was jan i set my GC at (dont laugh) £750 and struggled :eek: since then £600 cos that fits well with our income at the mo (and includes eating out and household goods such as replacing toaster) surplus goes into xmas fund. Last month was the first proper xmas fund injection.

DundeeDoll, EWO, JJ - That's me too. I started in January after a realisation that I was spending close to £700 a month for three of us plus pets. Having gradually got it under £400 I have relaxed and now fear for May - I clearly hit a complacency filter this month (a bit like being on a diet for several months I suddenly find how much I can cheat to stay the same and never actually reach my target). Anyway the smugness in me means I am looking at £100 for the next two weeks.

I did put the cat litter, food and collars in GC so may yet have to take them out (they haven't been in before as DH usually pays) - and I went into the butcher yesterday to avoid the show traffic today (local rural agricultural show this weekend) and bought sausages and sausage meat for the freezer as it was 20% off (and it is very good) but I might have to wait until this evening :shhh: and do Waitflower about 7.30pm and see what I can get.

Need to get going now, or the day will be gone before I take part in it!

Well done to the successful, :Tchin up to the rest of us who continue to work at it. :doh:As I mentioned to someone else this week, only Mary Poppins is "practically perfect in every way" and she is a work of fiction. The rest of us have to keep at it or we slip back.

Keep going team!
SL

jumblejack

Will upload pictures tonight. Curry is yum! Not bad for a thrifty veggie one! Taken a piccie. Parsnips are now in the form of a curried parsnip soup. They are cooking on the thermal cooker. Will blend when I get home and take pics.
Lots of leftover basmati rice from curry which will be turned into my mega yummy leftover rice pudding. It is to die for. I always do extra rice so I have an excuse to make this!

EyesWideOpen

DundeeDoll and Suffolk lass, Thanks for the supportive messages! Glad its not just me who has been spending an awful lot of money in the SM's. Though what on...?! My mind boggles! I presume most of it went on food but I am guessing a lot of other tosh too!

It is a struggle and I sometimes get down by it, wondering if I will ever get out of this cycle of worrying about money (which is the worst part). I am very glad to be doing this and when (or if) the family finances are a bit better I will still follow the OS way of life, no point handing over more money than you must, eh?

By the way, I have been wondering if you all feel you eat better now you're meal planning etc or have you substituted say fresh fish for fish fingers or fresh beef for minced/sausages? I am trying to keep to the healthy food groups, just trading down in quality (so slow cooking meat rather than fry it in the pan) but must admit I am currently having lots more mince than ever before. Not sure if that is terribly healthy as of course I am having the cheapest mince I can get, rather than the leanest etc. Interested to hear your thoughts

WelshWoofer

Just back from the weekly shop at Mr T (to use the CC vouchers), the greengrocers and B&M and spent a total of £20.25. That included a few toiletries that were on offer and 2x 6 packs of diet pepsi for work. So not too bad I suppose.
There's only one more shop to do in May for me and £56 in the budget left so will make it fairly easily this month. Might think about reducing the budget next month.:T

sistercas

EyesWideOpen wrote: »

DundeeDoll and Suffolk lass, Thanks for the supportive messages! Glad its not just me who has been spending an awful lot of money in the SM's. Though what on...?! My mind boggles! I presume most of it went on food but I am guessing a lot of other tosh too!

It is a struggle and I sometimes get down by it, wondering if I will ever get out of this cycle of worrying about money (which is the worst part). I am very glad to be doing this and when (or if) the family finances are a bit better I will still follow the OS way of life, no point handing over more money than you must, eh?

By the way, I have been wondering if you all feel you eat better now you're meal planning etc or have you substituted say fresh fish for fish fingers or fresh beef for minced/sausages? I am trying to keep to the healthy food groups, just trading down in quality (so slow cooking meat rather than fry it in the pan) but must admit I am currently having lots more mince than ever before. Not sure if that is terribly healthy as of course I am having the cheapest mince I can get, rather than the leanest etc. Interested to hear your thoughts

it is definitely not just you, i spent over £200 :eek: in m0rris0ns yesterday , thats for 4 adults , its ridiculous. its only the second time ive been there , but as they are not on my [EMAIL="superm@rket"]superm@rket[/EMAIL] you cant check the offers or best deals , and so i spent far too much ( DD1 and DD2 were with me and that definitely didnt help)
i am going to have to try and make it last 2 weeks as much as possible .

as for cats , mine seems really fussy she likes something for 5 minutes and then wont eat it , at the moment shes on gourmet a la carte :eek: ive tried them all from very basic to really expensive

cattysmum

Afternoon all, Iv just put a batch of iced finger buns in the oven, hope they come out ok, they looked a bit sticky but time will tell. Im going to watch The Witches on ch5 in a minute with grandaughter, I love that film OH will be watching football play off final (yawwn) We've just polished off a couple of home made pizzas as well they were scrummy had to use up some choritzo sausage and peppers and, I made my own pizza base!! for the first time I did it in my breadmaker on the dough programme, it was lovely, a few crusty bits going out to the birdies as well. Only had to buy a tube of tomato puree everything else was in cupboards. Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!!!

sistercas

in the hair dressers today they had a food magazine called 'delicious' june 12 edition , it had some lovely recipes in ( ultimate chilli, chorizo spiked ratatouille, frittata and loads more) so i went to the newsagents and bought it , i havent bought a magazine for years it cost £3.60 :eek: hopefully it will be worth its money.

Florenceem

franby64 wrote: »

Morning

I'm afraid May is running away with me as well...
I think I did a bit too much stocking up at the beginning of the month. But I reckon if I'm careful I won't go too far over:rotfl:

There are some lovely pictures of food being posted - I'll be trying some of the breads despite being a bit wary of producing lots of baking/pastry because I worry about eating too much!

I stopped baking because when following Sl*mming W*orld etc pastry doesn't fit well into their plans (I've finally decided I can't afford SW anymore). So I've started making quiches again because now my focus is more on the £££ as well as on the lbs! The key is for me not to eat more than a reasonable portion and then not eat 1/4 of a quiche as a bedtime snack:(. These foods are only 'dangerous' if I let them be!

Anyway, total is now £344.45/£400. I'm planning a very small shop for Tues from A*da (£25) leaving about £30 for everything else. I'll plan to the end of the month today and we'll see how it goes!

Have a good weekend!

MR F didn't pay out for slimming world - but then he has a bossy wife! :rotfl: Yesterday he came home with apricots - I used a load and he is going to have the rest as fruit. 5 for a break with tea - mid morning or afternoon - found he had got 6 ready on a plate! Reason - they need eating - past their best - shall we say - 1 went back in the fridge! :rotfl: