April 2013 Grocery Challenge

meg72

Wentthedaywell? wrote: »

I'm getting into this parcimony now! Instead of throwing out a couple of ancient spuds, a soft tomato and a wizened leek found in the bottom of the fridge, I made a lovely rosti with a fresh fried egg atop.

Had too much potato left over so have saved it; I will keep a bit of smoked haddock and king prawn back from a planned kedgeree, and make a luxury fishcake. And I'll do a bit extra kedgeree and roll it into balls and fry, like Italian risotto balls.

So four meals out of a piece of haddock and a couple of eggs, basically!

Impressive creative cooking there.I love the idea of keepig a bit back to make a another meal. This was a tip given to me by my dear Nan 50 years ago when I first got married. She said pretend you have an unexpected guest and stretch the meal to feed 3 instead of 2, worked a treat.

meg72

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Hi Meg, yes i already use cash, as i thought it may help to keep within budget. Thanks for the suggestion though.



Hi Florenceem- yes i already have done a stock take (i tend to every week), and also meal plan (but admit i have fallen off the meal plan several times over the last 2-3 weeks, so maybe thats not helping).
i always make a list, and stick to it. Thanks for the ideas.



Thanks bluegreen. This is my major problem-We only have 1 supermarket here, and they don't always stock what's online. So if I made a 'list' online, I wouldn't be able to guarantee getting the same stuff in there store.
I think it's the 'top up shops' that get me into trouble. ...like sweets, milk, bread etc...so I think I am going to limit the sweets to once a week for the kids, and also buy some UHT milk to stock up on.
I really want to keep to the £60 a week, as i think it should (is!) possible for me and 2 children-even if they do both eat loads-but will reconsider next month if i can't manage it this month.

Thanks for the help guys, it's really appreciated.

I can see that ony having the one sm makes things difficult,tend to forget that not everyone has access to different ones.

I think you are right about the top up shps though. I used to shop daily and spent a fortune on couldnt resist items, now I ony shop once a week or longer theres not the temptation.

K9sandFelines

Spend of £7.98 this morning in the C*-*p. Admittedly some of the things we didn't desperately need but as we are now in April, and i have held back from buying the offers in there at the end of March, i picked them up before they change. Chocs weren't needed but got coerced by DD as it's her birthday (even though she has Easter eggs) and some J20. Also portioned up a three-pack of garlic bread into nine for DD. There were loads of stuff on YS; so decided to go back this aft to see if i could bag some bargains (in particular YS bread), but there were only strawberries and mushrooms, so another £1.79 spend. I'm going to try and take advantage of the reductions whilst DD is off by heading there late afternoon.

Mr A delivery came today too, and taking out dog food and a few items that were missing, this totaled £64.23; incl £2.50 delivery. Nearly £15 was Quorn products; then some frozen veg/fresh veg offers, dairy, some chicken thighs (which turned out minute) and a SW friendly Gammon joint (which went straight into SC for tonight's and Wed's tea) and store cupboard bits to try Szechuan chicken (postponed for weeks due to not having right ingredients).

I will have a Mr T shop to do for items missing from Mr A, and to take advantage of the £5 off voucher (which will be on Thursday); so i can get candles for Dd's cake and a top up of fruit and veg and non-perishables. Then i am hoping alot of NSD will be ahead, and the next few Mr T shops will be £40 max.

So this should leave me £90 - to do any top ups of milk/bread (though will try and bake the majority)/buy birthday cake and any unexpected visits to Al*is. Though i really want to come in well under budget this time to make up for being so over on last month's first challenge. Desperately need to try and get rid of o/d and a million and one things to save up for!!!

Inventory of freezer done, i have mentally made note of store cupboard/fridge list and already meal planned up til DD going back to school. Sig updated.

Wow, it got long ....!

ruby_eskimo

Hi everyone, I'd like to join in again for April with a target of £200 once more. Spent £19.96 today in Mr S just stocking up on a few "perishables". Off to make some stir fry for dinner!

[Deleted User]

Well hopefully i will stay in my £40 budget this month. I spent another £5.95 today on Aussie conditioners (with coupons), washing up liquid (with coupons) and ladies things lol (again with coupons) and a large jar of Carte Noire coffee, no coupons but it was on offer. As i had spent over £40 on food and non food items(the things that werent for my shopping budget came out of my social spends budget) i used my £5 off £40 spend. so i think i done well as the food budget items without coupons etc would have cost £23.00 so a saving of £17.05 :j

lalapalooza

Hi folks, can I join in? I have, up to now, never budgeted but, due to me resigning from a well paid job this week, finishing at the end of April, I am going to have to be a miracle worker I think! I tend to buy joints so I can slice and freeze (& then cook in gravy) to get best value, but I spend currently £500 - £600 per month for two of us and 5 cats
:-(... so a long way to go.

On the positive, I have a full medium chest freezer, so am hoping I can reduce my costs, and I like baking (although dieting at present). We do like freerange eggs/chicken - Lidl and S are in the village and Lidl do f/r at good price.

I have already spent £133 in S and £52 in Aldi = £185 (my month starts on 25th when I get paid usually) I guess I will start with £350 for my first challenge? All help gratefully recieved!

MissE001

Thanks for all the helpful tips about leftover cooking....I'm having leftover fish roast from yesterday with potatoes and veg tonight. I've got a vague meal plan in my head but must write it down...

Spent in A*da, Mr T and Poundworld today - total of £12.17 + £20 petrol. I've decided not to fill up a couple of times a month as apparently the extra weight of a full tank makes the car less efficient...

So £32.17 / £180

Kitchenbunny

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

No spend day so far today. I've the day off work and have been spending it baking bread, making soup, cleaning the kitchen and ok, slightly lazing about. Going to the gym in a wee bit so feel justified lol.

Thought I'd share this week's mealplan below :

• Sun 31 – Roast chicken and all the trimmings (had guests over - leftover cooked chicken frozen along with bones for stock, leftover veg made into bubble and squeak for lunch today!)
• Mon 1st – HM gnocchi with roasted squash, walnuts and sage butter with salad
• Tues 2nd – vegetable chilli enchiladas with salad (made with veg chilli from the freezer, will make the wraps today)
• Wed 3rd – Spaghetti bolognaise (sauce from the freezer along with value spaghetti)
• Thurs 4th – Lentil, mushroom and spinach lasagne with salad (lasagne from the freezer)
• Fri 5th – Mushroom stroganoff with rice and cabbage (stroganoff from the freezer)
• Sat 6th – HM hummous, HM pittas and salads

Bluegreen your mealplan sounds lovely Particularly the gnocchi with roasted squash and sage butter ... I am drooling here! I don't suppose I could get the recipe, could I, pretty please?

Meals here are going to be:

Sweet Chilli Chicken with Noodles
Leftover Pie & Chips
Freezer Surprise
Jambalaya
and Meatball Sub Sandwiches. I mealplan at the end of the week so I'll do a bit more planning later in the week.

KB xx

agreenmess

Back of holiday now, so back into the game, looking at cutting down our shopping quite alot, though this month is going to be getting the store cupboard sorted and finding out what we do eat, so my total this month is £300. Hoping not to get even close but done first shop today and spent £62.10 :eek: tut!! Ahh well fingers crossed we do ok for the rest of the month.

rogue999

Called in Ald* today for Coffee, milk, tuna and fruit - spent £10 exactly (how often does that happen!). Kids are away at my parents this week so just me and DH and we have a couple of evenings out with Tesco Pizza Express rewards and a Groupon to use so should be fine for shopping until Saturday.