May 2013 Grocery Challenge

Rachel021967

I spent £21.84 at Tesco Express. Total Spend to date £157.02. Need to be a little bit tighter.

WantToBeSE

Apologies for not replying sooner, i have been really busy, but i really appreciate your advice.

Florenceem wrote: »

Breakfast and lunch are sorted. I had 3 boys with hollow legs and 3 girls who were good eaters. When they got home from school - they had home baked cakes and biscuits plus a HM yogurt and a drink. You could also prepare a tub of carrot /celery/cucumber sticks for nibbles.
Then they did their homework while the dinner cooked.
I had no problems filling them up with dinner - lots of veggies + Yorkshire Puddings/stuffing - to offset small helping of meat. Then a HM pudding - crumble with custard or HM trifle or fruit flan/pie with ice cream. If your boys are not pudding fans - HM soup with HM crusty bread.

Thanks Florenceem, i will definitely do the carrot/cucumber sticks, they'd love that, especially withh some salsa and hummus to dip it in

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Can you post up your mealplan and we can see if there's any obvious ways you could save cash?

Re snacks, Flo's ideas were all really good, and when she mentioned HM veg soup I had a thought - could you not make up a big pot each week and give them a cup when they come home from school with a slice of HM bread (my HM brown bread only costs 5p a slice and white is even cheaper). This with maybe some fruit or a value/HM biscuit ought to fill them up til dinnertime?

There's no reason an afterschool snack needs to be crisps & biscuits as opposed to a 'mini meal', as imho crisps aren't actually that filling for how much they cost, and you could still get some in for treats but once they're gone, they're gone until the next shop. Obviously only you know if your boys would go for this though.

EDIT I don't have kids so I'm just guessing with this and I can't stop my OH eating crisps so I can't really talk! But I only buy him a 6 pack a week and if he eats them all, tough.

Thanks bluegreen, i love the idea of soup and bread for snacks, but they both hate soup. Although i reckon the bread or breadrolls are a great idea!

meg72 wrote: »

Do the school meals have to come out of your budget,? can see why you are finding it hard if so,

Hi Meg. No, they get FSM at the moment, so its just snacks, breakfasts, dinners, and lunches on weekends.

sugarwalsh

After an exhausting day on Friday I asked my husband to pick up a curry from the shop for tea. £44 lighter I learnt 2 lessons. #1 don't send him shopping without a strict list.
#2 prepare and freeze homemade meals for this exact reason!
Signature updated, serious clawback required this week!

lizalloareds

spends from Fri-Sun
Ald* £2.86
Lid* £7.16
Mr M£10.30
Asd* £3.59
HB £1.79
Co o* £4.86
£stcher £1.78
FF 39p
sig updated

Billie-jo

NSD No 2 for May

For lunch today we had some roasted ham with cauliflower cheese and some roasted potatoes in goose fat that DH managed to slip into the trolley the other day - No idea why as we have potatoes and goose fat and tbh these were not half as nice and found them far to dry.:( Mum & DH had peas as well but none for me. the ham was lovely tasting. Then to follow there was rhubarb and apple crumble with custard. Two small ones have gone home with mum for in the week along with enough ham for a meal and a sandwich.
Probably enough ham left for another four meals as well so not bad for £4

lbnblbnb

I have made a dent in the dill mountain.
We have had:
Zuchini cakes with feta and dill
Tzatziki
Dill, spinach and feta quiche (with a grated potato crust - not as nice, but I have been listening to some weight loss audio books for motivation and one said "Look at pastry as fat". Mm.)

All lovely and mostly using stores or veg and herbs I have been given.
Meal plan (days flexible):
Falafel and yogurt-dill sauce with salads and pitta
Pizza with roast veg and parsley-garlic goo (better than it sounds!)
Minestrone (celery, carrots, leeks and more parsley)
Vegetable dahl (cauli, aubergine) with raita (cucumber and mint)

Lots of mediteranean style meals - I think I am dreaming of holidays! No holiday for us this year, but happier to be building for the future for the moment.

I am within budget, which makes me think I have forgotten something but leaves me with £78.64 until the 18th. Two shops of just under £40 make it totally doable. Off to update my signature.
Good luck everyone, I find your posts very motivating!
x

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Just spent £21.39 on a AF order.I have halved this to around £10.70 and will add other half to June, as probably won't touch most of it until then. I will also add to sig once on laptop, as i'm off out later with Dad so might be more spends to add on.

A few more spends in Mr A. I have deducted £2.00 for a YS Bayliss and Harding gift that was reduced from £6.00. Also got some YS Tropicana juice which was pomegranate and blueberry or similar. I thought it was cordial but turned out it was already diluted :rotfl:, good job was only 50p. Final YS was two bottles of conditioner (40p each) which have olive oil as ingredient and promote detangling (bargain)!!

Full price stuff was mostly fruit, veg, Vegetarian bits, dog food (24 cans for £9) and a few promotions i was after incl Lenor (85 washes for £3) ... i know, i know :cool:.

Total to add to sig is £32.69.Need to go easy now as got enough to feed the 5,000 literally.

Will add tea photo shortly Sorry it's a bit dark.

Veggie roast

CherryPie

Florenceem wrote: »

Spend of £3.79 on a large pack of Yorkshire tea bags from poundstret....
For dinner we had some pie again this evening - no room in the freezers.
We had HM pie with roasted butternut squash + roasted - beetroot/red onions/pepper/tomatoes.
First time I haven't peeled the squash.

Look delicious as usual! Can I ask about not peeling the squash, can you eat the peel? I saw this on a cookery programme the other day and thought what a great idea. Love squash, but hate peeling it!

:rotfl:

Bluegreen143

Some spends to report! £1.29 on 4 pints of milk at local mini Mr T's. And I am so happy that the milk is the ONLY thing we have bought all week in between the 'big shops'

Spent £30.45 in a mini adventure to the big Mr T's today :rotfl: (it's not nearby which is why I get deliveries or shop in Mr M normally) which I'm very happy with as it gets us back on track following last week's blow-out.

Fruit & veg £12.22
Baking potatoes 2.5kg £2.18
Green cabbage 80p
E'day Value grapes 500g £1.45
E'day Value mixed peppers 4pk £1.41
Corn on the cob 2pk £1.70
E'day Value mushrooms 350g 75p
Bananas x6 84p
Ginger 45g 9p
Courgette 3pk £1
Mixed salad leaves x2 £2

Meat & fish £3.87
E'day Value ham 400g £1.65
Sirloin steak 185g £2.22

Dairy & eggs £1.74
E'day value natural yoghurt 45p
Whole milk 4pnts £1.29

General £8.71
E'day Value bran flakes 89p
E'day Value kidney beans x2 42p
E'day Value chopped tomatoes 31p
E'day Value passata 29p
E'day Value vegetable stock cubes 15p
Maldon sea salt £1.65
Turmeric powder 100g 99p
Tabasco £1.19
E'day value frozen sweetcorn 98p
Paprika 39g 95p
Walkers crisps x6 89p

Household £5.32
E'day Value washing up liquid 33p
Springforce kitchen rolls 4pk £1.99
Radox bath salts £1
Imperial leather shower gel x2 £2

Had have such a productive day in the kitchen - made carrot, lentil and ginger soup (which I costed as 12p per portion ), a small loaf of crusty bread, chicken wings for dinner and eight bread rolls which are in the oven just now. Debating even doing some scones tonight if I can be bothered

The chicken wings were so good, it's a bit of a treat meal for us as I cut the wings off each whole chicken we buy and freeze, and as we only have meat a couple of times a week, it takes months to get enough wings! I wait til we have eight winsg (which cut into 16 pieces) before making - I have 4-5, OH has 8-10 and hopefully some left for lunch the next day (we have three in the fridge this time).

Florenceem

CherryPie wrote: »

Look delicious as usual! Can I ask about not peeling the squash, can you eat the peel? I saw this on a cookery programme the other day and thought what a great idea. Love squash, but hate peeling it!

:rotfl:

We ate the peel - it was soft enough to easily chew. I too dislike peeling butternut squash.