November 2012 Grocery Challenge

sneakyspender

Further spend £25 in butcher (mince was 10lbs for 12.99) also bought sausages and a chicken. Going shopping tomorrow, need to do it for £20 to come in on budget

Make-it-3

Very inspiring CompBunny. I think OH would be more forgiving of the scrimping if I could only find the time to do this (she says with her feet up, coffee and somebody else's HM fudge cake in her hands!)

CompBunny

Make-it-3 wrote: »

Very inspiring CompBunny. I think OH would be more forgiving of the scrimping if I could only find the time to do this (she says with her feet up, coffee and somebody else's HM fudge cake in her hands!)

Somebody else's HM cake is always more satisfying Easier to eat without looking for flaws or worrying about the resultant washing up!
I only had time to try these as I don't work or have kids (just a dog and a messy OH) and spend most of my time hardcore resting due to illness. I can't imagine how some of the ladies on here manage to be domestic goddesses with kids and/or jobs and all the other million plates they seem to spin!

postcode

I'm afraid I will be overbudget this month. While I do have enough in the cupboards and freezer to eat till the end of the month, having had to go to the dentist and not being able to eat what I had planned to for the past few days has made a change. I'm aware that some of the things I've included in my grocery spend are not necessarily groceries (a photo frame bought for my granny is not edible in any way ) but my motto is that if I spent it whilst grocery shopping, it goes in the grocery budget.

I don't need many more things. Mostly I need fresh veggies for soups - onions, garlic, carrots, leeks. Going to see what I can get at whoopsie time tonight, but most likely will have to pay full price. Then there's things I want but don't necessarily need - those are getting hard to resist right now.

franby64

Hi

Angelatgraceland - I was very sorry to hear your news, take care.

Just a few spends today on milk, bananas, broccoli, pots, eggs and bread. My total is now up to £251.04 and I've just reached that uh-oh moment when I can clearly see that the month is running away with me!
On the plus side I do have a meal plan for the rest of Nov and if I can stick to it and not get too many extras I might make it. I've pretty well stopped buying sweet stuff now - my budget has stayed the same but I buy less stuff - sign of the times!
Hope everybody is doing OK.

meg72

mummyyof5 wrote: »

Managed not to part with any money today despite buying 2 4pt milk..satsumas and 1 Pepsi max..my mum gave me her £3.50 Tesco voucher...never uses them apparently(insert confused smilie???)...handed over the 45p and she wouldnt take it:T..so thats a NSD for me xx

God Bless Mum`s Where would we be without them.

liz-paul

Just going to share my meal plans as some others are - not sure how inspiring mine is though!!!!

Last week:
Chilli – Mon
Fresh pasta – Tues
Cheese & bacon bake - Weds
Fish & chips – Thurs
Pasta and smoked salmon – Fri
Meatballs & spaghetti – Sat
Pasta & prawns – Sun

This week:
Chicken & noodles – Mon
Chicken ready meal & rice – Tues
Cannelloni – Weds
Toad in the Hole – Thurs
Not sure about friday as it's only OH & I eating

Burgers – Sat
Beef casserole & apple crumble – Sun



In no particular order for the rest of the month:

Spaghetti bolognaise
Shepherds pie
Fish pie
Chilli
Macaroni cheese
Sauasage & bean casserole
Pizza
Enchiladas
Thanksgiving – traditional turkey or finger food buffet
Baked potatoes
Buffalo chicken

Think I'm a couple of dinners short but will think of something....

Billie-jo

Small spend of £3.77 on T. Rolls, a loaf and some sauce all from B+M The load was 89p and in A!di its 99p and in Te$co is £1.30 proof that it makes sense to shop around if you can. Don’t go B+M that often but will certainly remember bread when we do go. Totals looking good so far this month :j

Have kept to the meal plan this week and will be doing one later tonight for the next week coming and again try to use a few things from the freezer ready for stocking up again. Then once meals are thought of will do shopping list for Friday. Will need quite a bit of fruit & veg as everything seems to have been used up except for a few carrots, onions, and a couple of apples. We get through so much especially veg but its better than what we could be eating I suppose.

Nice to see a some people having NSD - all good for the bank balance.:)

Bluegreen143

katholicos wrote: »

Could you please let us have the recipe for this, it looks yummy!?

Thank you

Hi! I've actually shared this before, it's in the index and here. If you;re making it for four, this time I used two tins of beans, a whole onion and green pepper, but kept the other ingredients the same and it made four portions. Nice served with rice, plain yoghurt or the raita recipe in the link, and also some greens or something.

For the marinaded cucumbers, chop a cucumber portion into sticks, pop in a jar and add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of salt and a finely chopped red chilli. Leave in the fridge for a few hours minimum to marinade and it keeps for a week, so you can just keep snacking on them.

[BCompBunny[/B] Lovely pictures looks tasty!

Well I've had no spend days since I did the shopping on Sunday, yay! My meal plan has fallen apart though as I was invited to my friends' for dinner on the spur of the moment so didn't have my planned risotto yesterday - OH did eat his steak though.

Today we were meant to have tuna baked potatoes but OH has gone out and he had a takeaway (his own money so not GC) so there was no point in heating up the oven for one - I had some leftover pie from Sunday which would have been tomorrow's lunch otherwise with asparagus and salad. Bit random but they were the veggie most needing used up and I wasn't that hungry as got a free massive lunch at a work do so no need for potatoes.

GreenFairy

HM lasagne out of the freezer for dinner, along with a few oven chips. Trying to figure out what we can have tomorrow without having to go to the shops. Have loads in but with a full belly I can't bring myself to think about more cooking