June 2012 Grocery Challenge

cleggie

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

Afternoon all,

Welcome to the newbies:)
Cleggie if they look and smell ok I'd eat them!

Ok my question....do you guys use value/cheap mince or buy the leaner mince? My mum always said that buying cheap mince is false economy, but looking at some price differences I wonder if there's really much difference once the mince is cooked?

Just trying to do my monthly shop ready for Friday at MR S. got a voucher £10 off £50 as a new online customer. It's taking forever on there though! But I'm doing well at sticking to my list so far

I buy morrisons value mince. Its about £2.50 for 800g or 900g, and has so far made a chilli, meatballs and spag bol. Not bad for only £2.50!
Its quite fatty, but i just make sure i drain all the fat once the mince is fried, before adding anything else.

jumblejack

Woohoo. I've just been offered a juicer on freecycle :j


Now I can start juicing all the whoopsied fruit n veg like there's no tomorrow!!!!!

Yay!!!

(gonna sneak in dandelions n nettles too when I get em, shhh!)

angelatgraceland

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

Afternoon all,

Welcome to the newbies:)
Cleggie if they look and smell ok I'd eat them!

Ok my question....do you guys use value/cheap mince or buy the leaner mince? My mum always said that buying cheap mince is false economy, but looking at some price differences I wonder if there's really much difference once the mince is cooked?

Just trying to do my monthly shop ready for Friday at MR S. got a voucher £10 off £50 as a new online customer. It's taking forever on there though! But I'm doing well at sticking to my list so far

Well work it out this way-if it is value mince-about 20% fat then you can knock off 160g of a 800g pack as fat so you are getting 640g for £2.50

If its 10% fat and "whatever price"then you can knock off 80g so you are getting 720g for "whatever price" Work it out at price per kilo after the fat deduction!

Sometimes value is cheaper but sometimes lean is cheaper this way.

Do bear in mind that the cuts and ingredients of meat/quality will be different between the two. It may not simply be added fat-it could be extra liver-less quality cut of meats in the mince. Ultimately put both types to the taste test! I generally buy the "middle one" which is about 12% fat and add a few lentils, oatsor a handful of soya.

sb88_2

Dinner tonight! I made my own home made pasta sauce!

Value Chopped tomatoes, grated carrot, the last of last weeks cherry tomatoes that looked a little sad but still edible! beef stock cube, herbs from the garden i'd picked and frozen. With Spaghetti and Sausages!

Going to do a stock take of everything in the house and meal plan see how long I can make this food last !

Interview tomorrow and another Thursday, looking forward to them.

Midgetgem82

£9.26 spent in MrS, mainly on cereal as they have some on offer for half price so stocking up on it. Sig has been updated.

stinganinga

Meg sorry for your loss. Sending you love and light.

Bluegreen143

Popped into Mr M on the way home to get razors (which were out of stock when Mr A order delivered yesterday) and dried porcini mushrooms (forgot to order).

Didn't pick up anything else so I am pleased! But now I'm doing the GC I do feel a bit miffed at only getting two items for my £5.48 (OH likes expensive razors), even when it was a planned shop! :rotfl: Have updated signature.

Feeling very happy as my job was at risk of redundancy and I found out today that I'm not going to be laid off :j:j:j

Got a real fright though and am serious about beefing up the savings so think I will be aiming for a lower GC target next month!

TheThriftyScrumpers

Bikingbint wrote: »

Hi

I am looking to save money on my food bill, (aren't we all) and I would like some advice.

There are 3 of us me DH and elderly mother, me and DH are pretty much sorted but elderly mother drives me nuts regarding food.:mad:

She has a very limited range of things that she likes and she prefers the cheap manufactured c**p from the supermarket to homemade which she will just move around the plate for half and hour then leave. but she always has room for pudding if there is one. She rarely eats veg (including salad) except potatoes and will not eat anything considered foreign (pasta, rice, noodles etc) or spicy (chilli, curry, etc).

I am hoping to create a meal plan for her with approx 2-3 weeks meals on and just pick from it on a daily basis.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated before I hurt my head banging it on the wall.:D

Here are some of the things i already do

Small tin of spag bol with a jacket potato (dont consider this pasta)
roast dinner
fish and chips
egg and chips
egg and bacon with tomatoes and black pudding
soup (will only eat tomato soup)
individual cheese and onion quiche with tiny bit of salad and jacket.
Could I make a large quiche and portion it up? no one else in the house eats it.

meat pie and potatoes
cottage/shepherds pie
fish pie (usually picks out the fish):whistle:
boiled/poached eggs on toast

Regards

Bikingbint

Hello & Welcome to the thread!

How about Sausages and Mash? You could cook and portioned up into one person meals and then freeze and defrost as needed adding beans or veg and gravy?

I save the containers from takeaways and use those to portion up andfreeze individual meals for my children as they eat earlier than me and DH, shepherds pie, fish pie, meat Pie and potatoes would all work well this way. You could batch cook and freeze to save you effort and time. Once defrosted I pop the meal on a plate and microwave to heat.

How about jackets with sausage and beans or savoury mince?

Toad in the hole can be cooked and frozen

DH has just suggested beef suet roll or liver and bacon.

Hope that helps, good luck! X

savesummore

recurrent-ostrich wrote: »

Hi folks, newbie here. Am interested in this thread, currently we spend £400 a month on our family (2 adults, 3 kids -12,11 and 8- and one dog and two cats). I'd like to get this down but wondered if it's doable as my hubby works shifts and I work fulltime so don't have time to trawl supermarkets for bargains. I guess that batch cooking might be my friend? My kids are also a bit fussy, frankly!

Any helpful tips would be much appreciated. Oh, and i'm a huge lardy!!!!! (:o) and need to lose weight. Thinking of WW.

thanks!

Hi and welcome- you will get loads of friendly advice here but beware there are always loads of lovely cake/biscuit receipes about :eek:
Before you spend on weight watchers why dont you come and join us over on the old style weight loss board- we are very friendly there too just like this thread- id do one of those link things but im rubbish with computers and dont know how
:rotfl:

Another £1.65 spent today!! Needed eggs and eggs is all i brought :T.

My budget is in tatters-cant believe how much we spend :eek:/have spent!! I get paid Friday so my new month will start then-must do better in July

TheThriftyScrumpers

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

Afternoon all,

Welcome to the newbies:)
Cleggie if they look and smell ok I'd eat them!

Ok my question....do you guys use value/cheap mince or buy the leaner mince? My mum always said that buying cheap mince is false economy, but looking at some price differences I wonder if there's really much difference once the mince is cooked?

Just trying to do my monthly shop ready for Friday at MR S. got a voucher £10 off £50 as a new online customer. It's taking forever on there though! But I'm doing well at sticking to my list so far

Hi,

I go for leaner mince and bulk it out. I gt some Donald Russell mince when they had it half price and have made some lovely bolognaise using a tin of tomatoes, onion and garlic (oh and porridge oats ssssshhhh don't tell!)
Hth x