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

angelatgraceland

forever_saving wrote: »

Nsd here today. I shouldn't need anything for a few days, fingers crossed. I don't know if anyone can help in answering my question. I put a carton of milk in the freezer yesterday morning, sell by date today. When i looked a few minutes ago it is a yellow colour. Is this normal or should i just throw it away? Thanks in advance.
FS

Hi
It does change colour due to some fat separation I am guessing! Perfectly fine-I have had many like this. When I thaw them out I keep shaking them every hour or so if possible.

redbooties

Spent £53 in Sainsbury on Saturday and another £28 today, I need to stay away from the supermarkets as I don't NEED anything but its difficult when I'm also shopping for 3 other households (elderly relatives that I run errands for) and I end up picking up bits and pieces for myself at the same time

Bluegreen143

Hello everyone! I've had a busy weekend putting up my Christmas decorations - definitely getting into the spirit of things now

Got my Mr A delivery today - £49.06 including delivery (£5), but I will be getting £2.99 refunded for some haddock (they substituted smoked haddock) and £1 for a bag of courgettes (one was completely mushy and liquified :mad:).

Meat - 250g casserole beef £2.39, 150g sirloin steak £2.51, 125g ham £1

Fruit & veg - SP peppers £1.25, celery 89p, spring onions 70p, 7 bananas 69p, 6 apples 96p, courgettes (free due to refund), garlic x4 £1, chillies £1, ginger 9p, bean sprouts 50p, salad x2 £1

Dairy - 4 pints milk £1

Bread - SP white loaf 47p

General - discos x6 £1, cashew nuts & almonds £2, SP pasta 24p, basmati rice 1kg £1.48, tuna x4 £2, SP chopped toms x2, 62p, SP kidney beans 27p, pot noodle x4 £3, whole grain mustard 65p, coke x6 £7.50

Cat - SP litter x2 £3.16

Toiletries - shower gel 79p

Made a big batch of carrot, lentil and ginger soup and a loaf of wholemeal bread for my lunches new week (the white bread I bought is for OH, who has tuna or ham sandwiches, Heinz tomato soup or pot noodles - not very healthy but it's what he likes!).

Got a beef casserole in the oven, it's a recipe for Antiguan beef stew on BBc but tweaked to be slow cooked due to the cheapy meat. Not convinced how nice it's going to be but we'll see. Serving with rice and beansprouts and maybe green beans.

tessie_bear

hello....right i have calculated our food spend over the last 12 months...we are a family of 4
i make 7 packups a week
we have take aways as rarely as pigs fly...pizza once in the last year
we take snacks /drinks out on days out
littlest son asd so fussy

drum roll...i have spent £1.36 per person per day....well chuffed with that but am going for a quid a day per person in 2013

i would like to thank everyone on here...your all fab and have helped me so much

all the best tess

meg72

Wow Tessiebear that is a fantastic result.

minicooper272

Went food shopping at A1di yesterday with a strict £10 budget, I added it up as I went round, and was doing really well, but came in £1.29 over budget. Don't even think I bought any real food, only bread, 99p ham, fruit, some pasta, a small block of cheese and some onions. Slightly frustrating, I can't fool myself that it's possible to eat for less than £10 a week anymore.

mossy

Spent £10.65 yesterday in various places, including two mcflurries (oops!!). 11 more days to go till the next food budget, have bought some Christmas things but not the ham or duck....hmm got to get better at this!!

njk2125

Hi I'd like to join in with a yearly budget of £5000 for all groceries, cleaning, pet food and toiletries which sounds really excessive but affordable.
We had a change in lifesyle completly last year which saw us debt free for the first time in ten years and a larger income. Our income is rather silly how it is paid, some weekly some fortnightly some monthly and some three times a year making it really hard to budget, so I've decided to try and do everything yearly.

I will start tomorrow the 10th when we will be needing to do a weekly shop.

A quick question for anyone who uses Iceland as I haven't used the shop in years and I have some vouchers to use. Would it be worth using these to stock up on joints and mince for future use and are there any particular products you would recommend?

Suffolk_lass

forever_saving wrote: »

Nsd here today. I shouldn't need anything for a few days, fingers crossed. I don't know if anyone can help in answering my question. I put a carton of milk in the freezer yesterday morning, sell by date today. When i looked a few minutes ago it is a yellow colour. Is this normal or should i just throw it away? Thanks in advance.
FS

angelatgraceland is right, it's the fat separating (which gets more obvious, the older the milk is) - I always use a strainer after it freezes like this as the cream forms tiny balls, however much I shake it and I don't like it floating in tea - in fact, I always get a "cream slick" with frozen milk (like oil on water but just the fat separated out). It's fine to use though, great for cooking with.

mossy - I bought a fresh Gressingham duck from Azbos yesterday for a tenner and it was excellent - succulent and delicious. I would recommend it. (it was 2K including the giblets)

tessie bear - wow - that is a tremendous record, well done! I shall have to tally mine up at the end of the month as I will have been doing it for the whole year then.

redbooties - you have to find a way of thinking no and sticking to it - be it your list you stick to or not going in, challenging yourself to fiscal fasting or NSD - they make it look lovely so you fall into the trap and buy it. Everyone on here has the same temptations - some give in and some don't. I want to pay my mortgage down so I view the money I save as my mortgage pay-down fund!

My sig is up to date reflecting two weeks' shops out of the four I am planning for December - not too bad so far.

Have a good week everyone
SL

XSpender

I have an unexpected day off today due to no childcare so I am going to make an effort to cook some soup to use veggies up, attempt GF mince pies for the first time with very old mincemeat, choc and banana muffins to use up some past it narnas and a new Aubergine, bacon and chilli pasta sauce recipe I found to use up the one in my veg box this week. I still haven't made my Christmas cakes so will do that today too, or at least make a start.

I will also have a sort out of the cupboards, meal plan for up to Christmas and clean the fridge out.

NSD yesterday but did spend £18 odd in m&s on some ys gf bread and mince pies, bacon and cooking bacon on Saturday.

I will send DH to Mr T this week for milk, eggs, cheese and bread and fruit. I have cancelled this weeks veg box so I am hoping to spend no more than £20 as there will no doubt a couple of other bits I need to add to the list.