June 2012 Grocery Challenge

jumblejack

Dipndo wrote: »

We are a family of four Dh and two sons aged 23 and 17 and me.I have been doing the GC for almost a month and have spent £50 a week,so it can be done.I was very sceptical before I tried it.

It is possible for the average family. You have shown this by your own budget and I also manage on £30 a week, household items etc included! (It is a big challenge though to drop it as low as this but I am a well seasoned MSEr now!).

Anyhow, good morning peeps
Another NSD for me.

I am gonna use the rest of the cheap beef n bean curry today.
Dinner will be fresh elderflower fritters. I will forage some when I walk the dog (will only cost the price of an egg!).

I cannot believe how pleasant the elderflower drink is already! It is nice enough to drink now as a soft drink.

I think I will gather some more just to make a cordial from whilst they are so plentiful.

The only thing not MSE is that I am having to use bottles of unopened still value water for bottling it up. I have a few in the shed as emergency supplies (well, you never know!). We don't drink much soft drinks unless we have guests over so I'd never be able to save enough.

I am really into this side of self sufficiency now so will look into making nettle beer etc too. If any demijohns come up on freecycle, I'm nabbing them!!!

All the best, peeps n have a fab n frugaltastic day :j

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

In_it - my DH uses milk in curries instead of either cream or yoghurt. He tried yoghurt but it kept curdling. Milk seems to make the curries taste less heavy which I prefer but obviously it's down to personal taste. Very impressed with your meat percentages - I've never thought of looking at what we eat like that. I think I might do that calculation out of curiosity.

Samantha22 - I'm tracking my meat expenditure this month, although I'm buying YS items when I can to save money.


I made carrot and coriander soup yesterday as I had some carrots beginning to show their age and had frozen coriander. Not sure how it'll taste as I had to guess the recipe but I'll let you know. Got fish pie tonight with YS fish, reduced from £3.29 to 89p :j. Also managed to get massive pack of chicken joints yesterday reduced to £2.99 - should make at least two meals for the 4 of us and we can boil up the bones for stock.

fozziebeartoo

I am very close to my GC budget this month, but I have had a lot of unexpected taxis to pay for with the various family issues going on.....I suppose I should have a seperate travel budget, but right now I want to include every penny I have to hand over to anyone else......so that needs to include bus and taxi drivers!

I have DGS staying till Thursday morning this week, so just been out to little Co*p, T*sco Exp and Lidl - signature updated.

Now have enough milk, cheese, fruit, fromage frais etc to last the little fella till he goes home with hopefully a bit lasting till next week.

Yesterday I warmed up some rather tough YS pork that I had cooked on Sunday, did it in SC with gravy and it was much easier to chew after that :rotfl: also had LO roasties that tasted just as good when reheated.

Today I am making HM bolognaise pasta bake and may add a YS flat bread doodah-thingy I picked up in the C*op. I have a friend to feed as well as DGS but there may be some LO, in which case I will have it tomorrow or freeze it.

Still no news on DD's biopsy (hoping desperately that is a good sign) and her suspect mole was removed yesterday and the results will take 3 to 4 weeks :eek:

Welcome to all the new people joining the challenge!! :T

Possession

Fozziebeartoo I do hope you hear about DD soon. The waiting must be awful. My dad had a long wait re. prostate cancer checks as Christmas and New Year got in the way, so I really sympathise.
A NSD today, the last day of my June budget. I came in practically at target which i'm pleased about but I was on hols for a week so it isn't a true month really. Still, good practice for July.

mummyyof5

Hope the results come through quickly fozziebear..the waiting is always the worst

A small shop yesterday in MrTs...cereal,ham,new potatoes...came to £7.50

Chicken Kiev with rosemary potatoes,sweetcorn and peas for tea....sausage and mash tomorrow...everything in so tomorrow and today will be NSDs:j:j

XSpender

I was hoping for another NSD yesterday but had a very rare chocolate bar at work that I will include in my total.

Made chicken, leek and bacon pie x 2 last night. Had one for tea and have froze the other half (well the inards) to make another one at a later date. I used the other half of the GF pastry to make a quiche lorraine and it was the best one I have ever made!:D For once the pastry case didn't leak:D

DH is away from tonight so I have having easy, veggie teas for ther rest of the week as he will be back late Friday so lots of jacket spuds, omlettes and beans and egg on toast. Might finish the bacon though;)

I have done a meal plan for next week and my shopping list is still £50 including dog food and loo roll:( I would love to come in lower as I need to find another £100 from somewhere this month to cover some other bills.

My 6 loaves of GF prescription bread arrived yesterday. It's not great as it is in uncut loaves but works out much cheaper on an annual prescription card than buying it in the shop so I am sure I will get used to it.

bossymoo

I had thought I might sneak to Ald! today but have changed my mind. I don't have a list so would end up getting all sorts. Need to meal plan first and list, then I can go tomorrow.

So today will be a NSD.

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Hi all!

Was hoping for NSD today but have almost run out of bananas have the hospital this pm which is opposite @sda so will pop in. I'll have OH with me so hopefully I can steer him just to the fruit and out again!

Got curry tonight, have the paste I made yday and have ground the spices. The chicken is lo so is all cooked and the squash is ready for action. So hopefully can just chuck it together when we get home.

Not much excitement to report. Am eagerly looking out for the July thread and trying to meet my target this month

Hugs to all that need/want one

NickJW

NSD yesterday and today

The pack of mince defrosted for yesterday, was smaller than I thought (usually I make chilli so I guess the beans bulk it out). Anyway - I cooked up some onions, a carrot and some celery to bulk the bolognaise out and it was very nice! Will be making it this way from now on I think.

Today I grabbed the last 3 small potatoes from the cupboard and a tin of baked beans. Used half the can of beans with baked potatoes for lunch. I'll use the rest of the beans on a few slices of bread defrosted and then toasted at work for lunch tomorrow.

It's my housemates turn to cook dinner today and tomorrow so no spends for dinners. Breakfast is toast with peanut butter at the moment since the cereal stocks are getting quite low.

Having limited food in is certainly making me use my imagination. I am still under my budget but I'm quite enjoying using up things that have been needing to be used for ages!

Sue14

Went to the doctor's last Wednesday about my sciatica, and she signed me off work for a week, and gave me co-codamol and diclofenac, which has been great for easing the pain but has made me feel dizzy, sick and tired most of the time (not to mention giving me the runs, lol!), so we have had a few takeaways in the past week or so, as OH can't cook, but I don't include these in my GC budget.

Went to Mr T's on the way home from the docs, (well OH did, I sat in the car) and spent £4.85, then managed to hobble round a1di on Saturday with OH to spend another £16.47. Looks like we'll come in way under budget this month, so 1 plus to not being well, lol!

ETA: Not doing quite as well as I thought, as I've just found another receipt from a1di that I hadn't added for £13.32, but still under budget so far.