May 2012 Grocery Challenge

JIL

sistercas wrote: »

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.

They do the recipes online, but sometimes its nice to curl up with a cup of tea and read a proper magazine.

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes

Florenceem, they have a whole section on apricots!!
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/articles/apricot-recipes

Florenceem

Soworried wrote: »

Florenceem are the figures in your signature right? They work out at less than £14 a week. :j

Yes they are right - I joined the GC thread with big stocks of food - two freezers full, tins/bottles/jars in garage and dry goods in cupboard under the stairs. That is apart from what I had in the food cupboards in the kitchen. Must have a siege mentality!
I have spent more this month as I ran out of some basics - cheese, toilet rolls, toilet blocks, panti liners, bleach, dog chews etc. I expect I will run out of other basics during the next GC. I have stocks of pasta in - I don't like it so never cook it. When I go away Mr F eats it.
I had a family of 8 to feed in the 1980s while on benefits - my then hb was seriously ill and not fit to work for a few years. You learn how to live economically but well in that situation.
I popped to our local out of town shopping centre this morning - using my free bus pass - we don't have a car. I started to feel peckish while shopping but waited until I got home for something to eat. When I had unpacked my shopping - I sat down with a cup of tea and a slice of HM syrup cake - bliss! Cheap to run - me!

Florenceem

happy_chick wrote: »

I'm the same with quiche too! Make one for dinner thinking the leftovers will do for lunch the next day but slice by slice the whole thing goes in one night!!!

Naughty! The quiche I make - feeds MR F and I for dinner and 2 more day's dinners go in the freezer. I have got MR F down from 22+ stone to 14 stone and he is NOT going back there! Apart from the weight issue - not MSE to eat it all and not spread the cost over 3 dinners.

MunniMuncha

Oh Flo you are such an inspiration - wish I was like you:(

I look at all these wonderful recipes (and piccies) that everyone is putting on here and I am full of good intentions, but somehow never get round to making any:mad:

I am spending today catching up on doing my business accounts (have 9 months to catch up on :eek:so it has now become my priority). Won't get up to date in one go, but hoping to finish tomorrow and will also have a go at baking in between (she says with her fingers crossed):rotfl::rotfl:

Florenceem

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

Can't understand why you are having lots of mince - unless shepherd's pie/spag bol etc are weekly meals. I try to vary menus - I never bought fish fingers or ready meals. I saw Mackerel reduced to a really good price in Mr S today but no room in my freezers! :mad:
When I was cooking for 8 + each night - we had a lot of fresh fish. Boys came round the street selling fish which they got as part of their wages - for unloading the fishing boats that came into the harbour. This was in the 1980s. They made a beeline for my door - used to buy all they had. I had 2 of the largest size available chest freezers. We had a huge garden plus two allotments - so plenty of produce to freeze.
I used to get lovely rig/cod/herrings and crabs - carrier bags full. The boys came round in the early evening - so after dinner was cleared away - I stood in the kitchen gutting and cutting up fish. One part then hb had to do - skin dog fish - you need pliers to pull it off!

Florenceem

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Oh Flo you are such an inspiration - wish I was like you:(

I look at all these wonderful recipes (and piccies) that everyone is putting on here and I am full of good intentions, but somehow never get round to making any:mad:

I am spending today catching up on doing my business accounts (have 9 months to catch up on :eek:so it has now become my priority). Won't get up to date in one go, but hoping to finish tomorrow and will also have a go at baking in between (she says with her fingers crossed):rotfl::rotfl:

Whatever you get done - accounts wise is done - one step starts a journey - likewise baking.
I have always been OS MSE - won't change now - nor do I want to. Live wisely so that others may live.

craigywv

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!

hi, just a thought i too also went to s...world bit decided it was too expensive so myself ,my aunt and cousin got a 1.00 moneybox out of pound shop and a notebook weighed ourselves and evey week we "weighed in" and paid a fiver into the tin it gave us something to strive for each trying to outdo each other we did this from june last year to christmas then opened the tin we then got all our money back about 130 quid anls we had all lost near 2 stone each....this time we doing january to dec so christmas present money is sorted and WE get the money not SW!!! i honestly dont think i would have lost anymore had i stayed at SW!!!:)

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi all - not managed to catch up yet (and doubt I'll manage now as around 30 pages behind ) hope all are OK & (((hugs))) for those in need.

Anyway, still on track (by some miracle!) and sitting at £79.97 / £130 (but hoping for £100) - managed to free up some space in the freezer :j at last so hopefully I'll be able to try some new batch cooking soon!:D

Florenceem

craigywv wrote: »

hi, just a thought i too also went to s...world bit decided it was too expensive so myself ,my aunt and cousin got a 1.00 moneybox out of pound shop and a notebook weighed ourselves and evey week we "weighed in" and paid a fiver into the tin it gave us something to strive for each trying to outdo each other we did this from june last year to christmas then opened the tin we then got all our money back about 130 quid anls we had all lost near 2 stone each....this time we doing january to dec so christmas present money is sorted and WE get the money not SW!!! i honestly dont think i would have lost anymore had i stayed at SW!!!:)

Well done!

meg72

craigywv wrote: »

hi, just a thought i too also went to s...world bit decided it was too expensive so myself ,my aunt and cousin got a 1.00 moneybox out of pound shop and a notebook weighed ourselves and evey week we "weighed in" and paid a fiver into the tin it gave us something to strive for each trying to outdo each other we did this from june last year to christmas then opened the tin we then got all our money back about 130 quid anls we had all lost near 2 stone each....this time we doing january to dec so christmas present money is sorted and WE get the money not SW!!! i honestly dont think i would have lost anymore had i stayed at SW!!!:)

Brilliant idea.