November 2012 Grocery Challenge

peony40

After having a large shop last week I didn't need to spend much this week, so I am still on track with a spend of £4.25. This leaves me with £17.29 to last me until the 29th November :eek:

I need to update my freezer/pantry contents xls so that I can menu plan for the next 3 weeks, as they are bursting at the seams so it should be doable to come in on budget for the very first time.

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Budgets done to here If I've missed anyone please let me know, thanks.

Sorry to cause such a debate about my xmas job It's the well known chemist who does 3for2 at Christmas I went to see a friend today and popped into the branch where I work to get some presents. Just a few more bits to get then I'm done bar the food

Spent £1.89 in Waitflower today on some roasted cashews. The friend I was with was randomly adding bits and pieces to her trolley - total of £74 :eek: Our DH's earn roughly the same, but I prefer to make our money go further (eg. overpaying on the mortgage) rather than buying finest brand goodies, especially from that shop

Have a good day everyone.
Coxy

Billie-jo

Small shop in A!di this morning and it came to £15.58 so on target so far. The only deviation from list was a bottle of wine for tonight. Also got a christmas present and 3 bottles for Christmas but thats a different budget.
Lasagne for tea and it just needs to go in the oven, had a courgette sulking lonely in the fridge so grated this and also added to the meat along with a handful of oats, grated carrots and some reduced mushrooms. Its made a large dish so hopefully some will get frozen and also a small dish - minus the bechamel sauce as none left - which has already been put in the freezer. While the oven is on I will also be roasting some tomatoes and peppers which will make yet more soup. Yes we love soup thank goodness :rotfl:
Have ordered some Staffordshire oatcakes for tomorrow and probably will get some more cheese that should be it.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Suffolk_lass

Coxy11 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Budgets done to here If I've missed anyone please let me know, thanks.

Sorry to cause such a debate about my xmas job It's the well known chemist who does 3for2 at Christmas I went to see a friend today and popped into the branch where I work to get some presents. Just a few more bits to get then I'm done bar the food

:rotfl:I was thinking Heal's :rotfl:

There's some really interesting meal plans being posted. NickJW your Prawn, celery and cashew stir fry sounds yum.

We've got to have the boiler man out (again) - third time for "episodes" with our new (ish) boiler. It is still under warranty as is is less than two years old so it won't cost. The guy who installed it popped in and diagnosed the problem so we know we aren't wasting his time - bits are actually broken. Putting a positive spin on things it means we are using lots less oil than if the heating was on and we did get the chimney swept last month so we can light the woodburning stove (just got to chop some of the gargantuan logs in the garage first) - perhaps we'll live in the dining room for the weekend where the range is!

Have a great weekend everyone and remember, write your list then cross off the bits you can live without or you already have!

SL

DanielleNic87

1st spend of the month. I got £76 worth of food for a total of £6.35 thanks to T's double up frozen food vouhers. Have stocked up on lots of meat. Off to update my sig.

Hope everyone is having a lovely day.

pinkypig

Just done our weekly shop in Ald* and Mr M. Just needed fruit, veg, coffee, milk, cheese, yogurts, eggs, squash and loo roll but it still came to over £16:eek: However did stock up on Super six stuff before they change on Sunday and so we will easily have enough fresh stuff to last us a week.
Two weeks to go for us this month and things are looking very tight although I guess that is the whole point otherwise it wouldn't be a challenge! Not sure if we'll make but I have certainly not given up hope as the freezer and cupboards are still pretty full.

Have a good week everyone

PP xx

Bluegreen143

Suffolk lass why do boilers always break when it gets cold?!

elly2 Congrats on the new job!!! :j

NickJW wrote: »

Meals this week have been:

Monday - KFC
Tuesday - Roast beef with roasted parsnips, carrots and broccoli with gravy (housemate cooked)
Wednesday - Prawn, celery, and cashew nut stir fry with rice wine/garlic/ginger/soy/sesame oil/chilli + rice
Thursday (y'day) - Chicken, carrot and parsnip tagine with couscous (found this to be a very average recipe)
Friday (today), Burgers with wraps, hummus and salad
Saturday - housemate cooks something
Sunday - housemate cooks Chicken Jambalaya

Your meal plans always make me drool NickJW. Shame about the tagine as it sounds tasty!

Small spend of £3.50 today as OH popped into Mr M and bought coke and orange juice.

Making spicy chicken wings with sweetcorn and wedges and salad for dinner. Never made this before so fingers crossed it's OK. Didn't have time to post yesterday (which was a NSD) but I made a very lovely salmon & roasted squash salad with an asian-type dressing (chilli, honey, soy sauce, Japanese vinegar). Spicy but amazing. OH doesn't like salmon so I told him to fend for himself, he then made a Fray Bentos pie with oven chips then looked mournfully over at mine and asked if he could swap! :rotfl:

NickJW

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

There's some really interesting meal plans being posted. NickJW your Prawn, celery and cashew stir fry sounds yum.

Thanks - I can't take total credit, but I adjusted it to what I had in:

Prawn, Cashew and Celery stir fry


> Mix 1 tbspn soy sauce, 1 tbspm sesame oil and 1 tbspn rice wine or mirin in a bowl - set aside.
> Finely chop 3 - 5 cloves of garlic (I like garlic), about an inch of ginger, and half a red chilli deseeded (less/more depending on how hot you want it) - set aside
> Thinly slice around 4 stalks of celery and half a bunch spring onions (green and white bits) - set aside separately. Also use half a pack of babycorn if hanging around
> Heat a wok with some oil and fry the celery (+ babycorn if using) + 50g cashew nuts until cooked (about 5 mins). Place aside on a plate
> Then in the same work put in a pack of defrosted raw tiger prawns (I had 225g) - fry for 2 mins, then add the ginger/garlic/chilli mix for 1 min. Add the celery, cashews and spring onions back in along with the soy sauce mixture for a couple of mins the sauce is cooked.
> Serve with rice.

Writing it down sounds quite complicated, but it really isn't - it took max 15 mins

ETA: SuffolkLass - just make sure you don't get the flu if your boiler is playing up! :-(

NickJW

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Suffolk lass why do boilers always break when it gets cold?!

elly2 Congrats on the new job!!! :j



Your meal plans always make me drool NickJW. Shame about the tagine as it sounds tasty!

Small spend of £3.50 today as OH popped into Mr M and bought coke and orange juice.

Making spicy chicken wings with sweetcorn and wedges and salad for dinner. Never made this before so fingers crossed it's OK. Didn't have time to post yesterday (which was a NSD) but I made a very lovely salmon & roasted squash salad with an asian-type dressing (chilli, honey, soy sauce, Japanese vinegar). Spicy but amazing. OH doesn't like salmon so I told him to fend for himself, he then made a Fray Bentos pie with oven chips then looked mournfully over at mine and asked if he could swap! :rotfl:

Do you mind posting that Salmon recipe? Looks gorgeous (and uses my favourite ingredients!)!!!

Suffolk_lass

NickJW wrote: »

Thanks - I can't take total credit, but I adjusted it to what I had in:

Prawn, Cashew and Celery stir fry


> Mix 1 tbspn soy sauce, 1 tbspm sesame oil and 1 tbspn rice wine or mirin in a bowl - set aside.
> Finely chop 3 - 5 cloves of garlic (I like garlic), about an inch of ginger, and half a red chilli deseeded (less/more depending on how hot you want it) - set aside
> Thinly slice around 4 stalks of celery and half a bunch spring onions (green and white bits) - set aside separately. Also use half a pack of babycorn if hanging around
> Heat a wok with some oil and fry the celery (+ babycorn if using) + 50g cashew nuts until cooked (about 5 mins). Place aside on a plate
> Then in the same work put in a pack of defrosted raw tiger prawns (I had 225g) - fry for 2 mins, then add the ginger/garlic/chilli mix for 1 min. Add the celery, cashews and spring onions back in along with the soy sauce mixture for a couple of mins the sauce is cooked.
> Serve with rice.

Writing it down sounds quite complicated, but it really isn't - it took max 15 mins

ETA: SuffolkLass - just make sure you don't get the flu if your boiler is playing up! :-(

Thank you so much. I only need spring onions and fresh ginger (might stretch to minin too) to give that a go tomorrow. I've got half a bag of queen scallops in the freeer I might add a few of these too).

Do you ever feel it doesn't just drizzle, it pours... my washing machine :mad: had the light flashing when I just went to empty it. There was I dreading yet another call out but I looked up the manual online and this error (E20) means it isn't draining and there's a really useful emergency drain. Unfortunately if your machine is on the floor (mine is) it has no effect as the tap bit obviously needs to be below the water in order for the gravity pull to work. So nothing for it but to get loads of rags out from under the sink to soak up the "planned" flood and undo the main drain thing. It was like sticking your thumb over the end of the hose. Went blooming everywhere :eek:- cold water, lovely with the heating off... Anyway there was a mass of solid lint, pen bits and sticks in there :embarasse:shocked::doh::whistle: Not sure routine mainenance is my strong suit! :think: Might have to do that more regularly in future. Anyway it's re-doing the wash cycle to see it that fixed it and it's on here because if I've fixed it that's saved a call out.

I may have to sit quietly somewhere after all the excitement!