October 2013 Grocery Challenge

CH27

Welcome to the challenge RomanyLass

sheeppappar

Yes welcome all newbies! RomanyLass.. you are definitely not invisible .. I think people on here tend to use the "thanks" button as the equivalent of "like" on facebook (as well as when actually thanking people.. have a look at your original post and you will see lots of users have "thanked" it.. so hopefully that makes you feel welcome
Hope you are managing ok. Your slowcooker will be so helpful to your GC and you will pick up loads of tips from everyone on here.. everyone has been so kind and helpful and have made a big difference to me.

On another note we spent £25 in 2 farm shops on sat and sun which only provided lunch on both days:eek::eek::eek:
so i am off to add that to the list. (It was lovely though)
x
Have a fab week everyone!

RomanyLass

CH27 wrote: »

Welcome to the challenge RomanyLass

Thanks for that and, over the Weekend, I attempted my first frugal cooking task. I purchased a cooked, whole chicken form Lidl (no oven at mo), breaking my Lidl virginity - yay. We had chicken curry, chicken broth and chicken sandwiches, also made stock :j

Problem with me is, I can't cook so, I'm learning to cook and to be frugal, all at once.

Past disasters include - washing cooked rice with fairy liquid (I really thought that when it said wash the cooked rice to remove the starch, it really meant WASH with soap and water - don't ask), using WD40 in the frying pan to cook bacon when I ran out of oil, burning smiley faces and lying to my Daughter by telling her they were black smiley faces, the list goes on. My friends want me to write down my culinary disasters and send the article to a magazine :rotfl: My excuse is my high IQ of 169, I reckon I just don't do well on the practicalities of life (well that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

RomanyLass

sheeppappar wrote: »

Yes welcome all newbies! RomanyLass.. you are definitely not invisible .. I think people on here tend to use the "thanks" button as the equivalent of "like" on facebook (as well as when actually thanking people.. have a look at your original post and you will see lots of users have "thanked" it.. so hopefully that makes you feel welcome

Ah, yes, I see it now, thank you.

Hope you are managing ok. Your slowcooker will be so helpful to your GC and you will pick up loads of tips from everyone on here.. everyone has been so kind and helpful and have made a big difference to me.

Yes, I've already attempted a few of the recipes I've found on here.

On another note we spent £25 in 2 farm shops on sat and sun which only provided lunch on both days:eek::eek::eek:
so i am off to add that to the list. (It was lovely though)
x
Have a fab week everyone!

I went shopping for the first time in about 2 years last week. I have been very sick and housebound for a while so, Hubby did the grocery shopping for a long time. I must admit, I thought I'd fallen into a 20 year coma and just woken up. I cannot believe the price of food, it has rocketed, I am still in deep shock :eek:

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

WELCOME TO ALL THE NEWBIES:

Studentmidwife, RomanyLass, Ladyluck1, want2Bfrugal, LolaLemon, robberbutton, tootoo, 2childmum, MinnieMousesMummy, couteaux, daizyboo, laura_hoggle, Archer0710, chocoholic_chick, and applecrumble24

Budgets list is finally updated. Sorry that some of you had to post twice - RL is very hectic at the moment and I hadn't had time to post until now.

To help with this, please post budgets in red, bold and large please, which helps when I'm speed reading. Thanks.

Good luck to everyone for October.
Coxy

Pandora_2

Morning all!! First day of the October challenge for me and it's going to be an expensive day as I'm really low on food, but am only going to buy what I really need and get some cooking and baking done so I've got plenty of 'ready meals' to eat as I'm working lots of silly hours this week!

Managed to come under budget by 14p for September (my first month doing the challenge) but didn't really meal plan, just ate what I fancied out of what I had in as the cupboards were rather full. Now the stocks are a bit depleted, I need to get to grips with meal planning or I could end up running to the shops every day for bits and bobs!

Right, better get cracking or I will get nothing done today! Good luck with October everyone

CH27

RomanyLass wrote: »

Thanks for that and, over the Weekend, I attempted my first frugal cooking task. I purchased a cooked, whole chicken form Lidl (no oven at mo), breaking my Lidl virginity - yay. We had chicken curry, chicken broth and chicken sandwiches, also made stock :j

Problem with me is, I can't cook so, I'm learning to cook and to be frugal, all at once.

Past disasters include - washing cooked rice with fairy liquid (I really thought that when it said wash the cooked rice to remove the starch, it really meant WASH with soap and water - don't ask), using WD40 in the frying pan to cook bacon when I ran out of oil, burning smiley faces and lying to my Daughter by telling her they were black smiley faces, the list goes on. My friends want me to write down my culinary disasters and send the article to a magazine :rotfl: My excuse is my high IQ of 169, I reckon I just don't do well on the practicalities of life (well that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

:rotfl: :rotfl:

zafiro1984

Peggybabcot wrote: »

some advice on freezing milk. I've had a clear out of our freezer and finally we do have some room. Can you freeze semi skimmed or does it have to be full fat?

I freeze semi skimmed milk ok. we don't use a lot of milk here so I freeze it in 1 litre quantities so I don't know if the larger sizes freeze well. I've had them in the freezer for up to 3 months without any problems. Just try some and see what happens

downshifted

So here I am for October. I went very slightly over in September, so am sticking at £250. However, I have learned a lot, and also, in my defence I often have visitors to stay (brother in law has been here for about 10 days and no plans to leave yet) or for meals - 5 occasions in September

Freezer is still full - but I have run low on stores, so it's off to Aldi and Sainsbobs to spend my vouchers!

October £250 please

chocoholic_chick

Afternoon all!

First "proper" shop of the month today and very pleased with myself. Sat and did a meal plan yesterday, made a list of what I needed and only bought what was on the list! Went to Aldi first and spent £37.07 in there, got everything I needed except Shallots and Bean Sprouts so popped to Tesco's after and got them from there ( I had my blinkers on and only went to that isle :j ) so £1.50 in there. I also got a couple of things on Friday ( including a bottle of wine ) which came to £14.94 so total spends so far are £53.51.

Meal plan for the week is:

Mon - Spicy sausage pasta with garlic bread
Tues - Beef bourguignon
Weds - Homemade lasagne
Thurs - Chicken stir fry
Fri - Beef goulash

Lunches will be either sandwiches or leftovers from the meal the previous evening. Haven't decided on Saturday yet, I normally do my shopping on Saturdays so start the week then but I think I should have enough left over from one of the meals for dinner. Will see how things pan out