June 2013 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143

Small spends today - £1.39 on 6 eggs, 31.49 on caster sugar, £2 on strawberries and £1.05 on whipping cream - all to make a birthday cake for my boss tomorrow.

This brings my total to £151.98 :eek:

We also have OH's mum coming to stay for Sat/Sun/Mon night. I'm away on Sat night at my parents', so OH and his mum are fending for themselves (i.e. may well get a takeaway or sometimes his mum brings some food down, bless her), but I wanted to do something nice on Sun/Mon, including pudding as she has a real sweet tooth and hasn't been too well lately.

I've done a mealplan for next week (a bit early but I panicked about the state of the budget ) that hopefully has us spending under £30 and feeds us until Sat 22, as it's all based on what we have in. But my new month doesn't start until Tues 25 so will need to think up 2 more main meals that involve spending very little. Wish me luck

My meal plan is as follows (meals from now to Sat already in/planned):

Breakfasts - bran flakes for me, value rice crispies for OH, banana milkshake for me at the weekend and bacon rolls on Sunday for OH and his mum

Lunches - split pea or lentil & veg soup for me with bread, tuna or ham sandwiches for OH, leftovers if any

Snacks - crisps for OH (not brilliant but can't get him to quit them), bananas, nuts and tinned peaches & natural yoghurt for me

• Sun 16 - mushroom soup, spaghetti bolognaise with rosemary foccacia, microwave syrup pudding with icecream (all homemade except the ice cream which we have in)
• Mon 17 – hummus, garlic dip, pittas, couscous, roasted veg & carrot salad, followed by the rest of the syrup sponge (all homemade)
• Tues 18 - chicken, courgette & cheese lasagne w/ salad
• Wed 19 - HM pizzas with salad
• Thurs - vegetable & bean chilli (from freezer), rice & cheese
• Fri - veggie shepherd's pie w/ peas (made with lentils & beans, not veggie mince)
• Sat - dhal, spicy veg curry & chapattis

My shopping list should be as follows as I literally do have most of the ingredients in for the dinners:

Bacon
Tuna x2
Bread
Bananas
Natural yoghurt
Crisps
Mushrooms
Mince
Chopped tomatoes x2
Milk
Onions
Salad x3
Mozzarella
Swede
Gravy granules
Cauliflower
Coffee
Butter
Tampons
Hair gel

Fingers crossed it all plays out as I hope over the next 2 weeks and we stay in budget lol. Amazed at how much i can make with what we have in as I don't feel I tend to have too many stocks in! Glad I mealplanned to the end of the month as I feel a bit more secure we can make it if we're good

lynneee

89p on milk and 19p on a ys loaf of bread brings my total to £87.24 so far. Very pleased with this, for 2 adults and 3 kids! Not bad for 12 days in! Going to try out my 'new' breadmaker tomorrow (donated to me from a friend when mine broke as she never uses it) will be the first time in about a year of having homemade bread! Also made an attempt to start potty training my youngest son, but think he might not be ready yet, which is a shame as nappies are so expensive!

Coxy11

Morning all,

Budgets done to here

Welcome:
Bartelmy, money maker mummy and Saversal

Meg72 - Glad the op went well xx

Small spend of £3 on fruit on Monday in Sains, NSD yesterday. Today I need milk, oven chips (DS2 has a friend for tea), salad, and veg.

We are having scampi, chips and veg tonight. Tomorrow will be beef and ale casserole - well it is June :rotfl:Friday will be ys turkey escalopes with wedges and veg.

Off to a gardening client this morning - need to wrap up!

Coxy

Bluegreen143

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Do you think the hot and sour could be thickened up to make a sauce also? I had this out of a packet made by Pataks the other day, and really enjoyed it. I wouldn't normally buy it, but wanted to just try it first. I hate sweet and sour so thought if it is anything like that, i didn't want to waste ingredients trying it myself.

I keep forgetting to check your blog. I had it bookmarked on my laptop and it conked, just as i got the desktop fixed. So all my bookmarks are on the wrong appliance! I will bookmark now, and try and remember to actually check in from time to time

Oooh I'm not sure, you could try it? Just using a wee bit of the soup and thickening with more cornflour I'd imagine... I had a small bit of soup and a small bit of stirfry leftover, so mixed them together and popped in the fridge. Having them for lunch today so I'll let you know if it's nice lol!

Meant to say yesterday Meg, glad your op went ok - bet you're so happy it's over with

WantToBeSE

Morning all.

Meg-Glad to hear the op went OK

Meg and She Who Cannot Cook-I feel your pain in regards to dieting. I used to be a size 8, but then i gave up smoking 3 years ago and i am now a 14. My downfall is snacks. I eat/cook healthy meals, but snacks are a killer. I must do better


I have a very small budget this week. I have had to shave a bit of this weeks £65 grocery budget, as the money is needed elsewhere, so i have £50 for the week instead. Not too bad.

My meal plan:

Wed (Today)-Chicken goujons, lemon rice, veg
Thur-Chicken fajhitas
Fri-Sausage casserole with cous cous
Sat-Lemon and herb chicken
Sun-Roast gammon and all the trimmings
Mon-Leftover gammon, with egg and chips
Tues-Veggie burgers, rice, garlic bread
Wed-Veggie curry, nann bread
Thur-Mini toad in the hole, roast potatoes, veg
Fri- (veggie) Mexican Lasagna (possibly my most favourite meal EVER! )

So thats 10 days worth of meal plans, and i dont need to buy much for it:

Carrots (fresh)
Frozen peppers
Potatoes
Chicken drumsticks
Rice
Plain flour
Cheese
Milk (6pts).

Going to use the last of the meat sausages up, and then switch over to veggie ones. Does anyone have any particular brand favourites for veggie sausages?

Sligo

JackieO wrote: »

Sligo I'd put it down as entertainment as its not a regular thing./QUOTE]

Thanks JackieO!!

I've deducted €100 and put it to entertainment. Still running slightly ahead of budget but I'll try and make it a frugal 2 weeks to the end of June. Freezer and fridge are full - there has to be something to eat in there!!! Must get DDs on a bit of baking today as they have eaten all the biccies!

Florenceem

I am still unpacking and sorting my new kitchen.
Previously we had food/stocks in the kitchen, under stairs cupboard and garage. :eek:
Now I want to have everything in the kitchen - well that is the plan. I can see that if I saw a really good offer say - for Branston Baked Beans - I may get too many to fit in the kitchen cupboard.
My aim is to use what stocks I have to feed us - thereby saving GC cash - which I can use for house renovations.
I am going to do a complete stock take of food when I have unearthed it all.
Lets see if I can reduce my GC spending.
Planning a NSD today.

jedi82

Morning all, another £10 to add for chicken breasts. I picked them up at the butchers at the market and got 11 decent sized breasts for a tenner. Is this a bargain? I can't work it out. It seemed like a deal at the time but when I started batching it up for the freezer it didn't seem as good. Oh well, at least I have enough chicken for the month .

Having slow cooked gammon cooked in apple juice with chips and eggs from the chickens. Then off to work tonight.

Have a nice day

Jedi
ps glad the op went well meg72 xx

tessie_bear

hi i am in the process of making a lasagne and wondering if i could squeeze the meat sauce in to a cheeky chilli for tea tomorrow...otherwise need to have a think about what is going to form tomorrows tea

plan to do a bit of baking for fathers day gifts but will leave it until sat afternoon i have been to hb this morning and got to thinking about the hidden expense of running a home...washing up liquid/washing powder/floor cloths/weed killer/mop/bucket..i suppose you just need to look in value shops

have a nice day tess

sefilby

jedi82 wrote: »

Morning all, another £10 to add for chicken breasts. I picked them up at the butchers at the market and got 11 decent sized breasts for a tenner. Is this a bargain? I can't work it out. It seemed like a deal at the time but when I started batching it up for the freezer it didn't seem as good. Oh well, at least I have enough chicken for the month .

Mr T everyday value is currently £7.70/kg thats like 4 breasts. I think you've bagged yourself a good deal on yours