December 2012 Grocery Challenge!!!!! REALLLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

GreyhoundAngel

Can't believe I've already spent £50 odd of my budget, and don't seem to have got that much for it

Some of it will last over a longish period (ie herbs etc), but really will need to try to better.

Angel x

flubberyzing

My first spend of the month, £14.70 from Tesco. Spent a £10 of frozen food reward voucher, which I'm not counting. So feel like I got a lot for my money!

Also got a YS quiche and some YS potato croquettes. Will have half today and half tomorrow. Use by date is today, but I don't think any harm will come from going one day over and cooking everything well.

Bluegreen143

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Bluegreen143 That looks really good, very well balanced and interesting - how do you do your satay sauce/marinade?

I spent £42.02 in Azbos and have a £1.69 APG and a £5 off £40 so I'm happy.

Waiting for the rice to have with our curry. Have a good evening everyone

SL

My recipe is adapted from Jamie's 30 minute meals (I haven't got the book, just looked it up online):

1 red pepper, chopped into large pieces
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped into large pieces
1 small courgette, cut into thick rounds
Handful of button mushrooms, halved if big
Good sprinkling of cayenne pepper
Good sprinkling of Thai 7 spice (can use any spice really)
Half bag of mixed salad leaves
Half an onion, grated
Juice of half a lime
4 pitta breads
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks

For the chicken marinade
1 handful fresh coriander
1/2 fresh red chilli, deseeded
1 clove garlic
2 tsp smooth peanut butter (you're supposed to use crunchy but I only had smooth)
Glug of soy sauce to taste
Small piece of fresh ginger, peeled
Zest and juice of 1 lime

Looks like a lot of ingredients but is simple!

Whiz marinade in food processor til combined and marinade the chicken in it for as long as you'd like.

Preheat oven to 200C, toss veggies in vegetable oil, the cayenne pepper and 7 spice, then pop in oven for around 25 minutes. thread the chicken on skewers (or just put on a baking tray).

After about 5 minutes, put the chicken in covered in foil. Take the foil off 5 minutes before the end (I forgot this step).

Meanwhile toss the salad and grated onion in a dressing made of lime juice and olive oil. Pop the pitta breads in the oven for the last 60 seconds to warm through.

Serve the chicken on the bed of veggies with salad and pitta breads. Yum

Serves two - and you get more chicken than the picture shows, I only had one skewer and gave two to OH as I wasn't that hungry and shouldn't eat the same size portions as him anyway!

CRANKY40

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Got a little money coming in at long last in the way of bereavement benefit. Still waiting for hubbys private pension to come through. Going very careful meanwhile.

Keep an eye on this as it's taxable. A few of my friends were surprised to receive a tax bill at the end of the financial year. If you're not earning then you may be OK, but if you are you can ring the tax office and have the extra tax taken from your wages to prevent the tax bill.

Sorry folks, not food related but very definitely budget related.

she_who_can_not_cook

flubberyzing wrote: »

Also got a YS quiche and some YS potato croquettes. Will have half today and half tomorrow. Use by date is today, but I don't think any harm will come from going one day over and cooking everything well.

nah i am working thru my AF and BBFL stock of scone mixes, carrot /farmhouse muffins and pizza swirls and dough ball ect ect

Need2bthrifty

I think I can safely say that I am going to be well over my budget this month and this is only the start of wk 2 of 5, I just popped out to MrT really only to get eggs and bread, but noticed the 2 for £2 offer on Lurpak butter, then in the world foods aisle a 2kg bag of red lentils down to £2 and packs of chapattis down to 59p – so a total spend of £8.47 to declare…….ho hum

mildredalien

Ended up shopping today instead of tomorrow - £46.45 which included kitty food and litter to last at least a month, some toiletries that should last me a while and yellow sticker meat. I've got a pretty well stocked fridge and freezer now so I'm hoping I can stretch this out for over a week! Determined to use up what I have this month!

pinchingpenny

Afternoon all, a few spends to report this weekend. Relatively speaking quite a bit spent in the first few days of the month but it's all things I eat all the time and should last me a while.

The storecupboard items I didn't need at all but it's good to have around- I bought some value pasta even though I have plenty of pasta in already but that's Napolina bought at a good price so it would be nice to save that for any visitors or mix it with the cheaper stuff! I also bought some Rye flour as I've decided to have a bash at making some sourdough bread (picked up many tips already from other threads!) The cheapest proper old fashioned sourdough (i.e. no added nasties!) I've found is £1.85 in waitrose and I think if this works I should be able to do it for 30-40p per loaf. And I do have a fussy tummy so prefer to avoid the usual breads in the supermarkets.

There were also some good YS deals on meat today so I got a couple of packs- I honestly think these can last me most of the month, I'm just a bit concerned about storing them- we only have 1 and a half proper freezer drawers between 4 of us plus the ice compartment in the top and I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to keep meat in there!
Signature updated with the totals

Flat_Eric

I had my first shop of the month today although I can't post any details as no receipt was delivered

I'm intending to limit my visits to the shops and simply have my home delivery shop each week. Ideally I would like to be able to create a basket for each week so that I can add my usual items (bread/milk/fruit) and then add items specific to that week depending on what I'm cooking but I'm not sure how best to do this especially as I tend to start my shopping in my supermarket so that I can get the cashback/can see the offers/see what might be a better buy.

Does anyone have any ideas? thanks in advance

lottie3000

Expensive spend at the butchers but meat looks lovely and I think it'll go quite a long way. Full freezer now. £62.49