October 2013 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143

Hi everyone, hope you had a frugal weekend

Made proper yoghurt for the first ever time last night! The simplest way ever, just heated milk up to pretty much boiling then let cool down again, mixed with the end of a savers natural yoghurt tub (which had passed its use by date but smelled and tasted fine :cool:) and stuck it in the my e*syyo maker, made up the usual way with hot water in the bottom. (Side note - it was a gift, I used it once with the sachets, hated it and thought it was really 'processed tasting' and it's lived in a cupboard ever since - so pleased I can use it to make yoghurt the old fashioned way )

I left the yoghurt all night and in the morning I had thin yoghurt! Which I strained to thicken through kitchen roll as I don't have any muslin atm :cool: and it worked!! AND I used the whey that came out in my bread today. So.... do I get a frugal gold star??? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I've had a grocery delivery yesterday so will get my spends totted up and post them plus mealplan after I have.

PS welcome to all the newbies, you'll do great just wait til you get addicted to the grocery challenge like the rest of us

PPS I think it was K9 who was saying about getting sparkling wine by mistake - just to let you know you can cook with this, it works just as well as white wine and is rather nice in fact. I use white wine, cider or sparkling wine interchangeably in cooking depending what I have left. BUT I wouldn't want to make you feel guilty about drinking it so feel free to ignore me if you'd rather do that

SilverBird_2

GC budget will be £250 for October.

StarryNight

I'm new to the boards (been lurking for a while though and reading all the excellent advice). I'm a lazy shopper and spend way too much on food, so this is my month to rein it in! Can you put me down for £300 please, and I'll do my best.

We're a family of 4 (two youngsters) and I've got a meal plan that I'm going to follow. I'm going to raid the cupboards later and see what I can do from them over the coming weeks.

I'm on holiday during half term and I'm not going to include that food spend in this budget as I have a separate holiday budget (and it gives me a bit of leeway on the £300, as it is my first month!)

MissRikkiC

RomanyLass wrote: »

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).

This cracked me up laughing so much. Ive had a few of these occasions but yours have brightened up my day. Sorry to laugh at these mishaps.... Well sort of :rotfl:

2childmum

Coxy11 wrote: »

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

I have tried the red bold thing but can't seem to get it to work.:embarasse.

I went to Lidl this morning - doing a practice run for when October starts for me on Saturday. Spent £28.30 on 3 lots of flour, some chicken legs, some fruit and veg, some stuff for the fridge and cupboard and a dead cheap bottle of red wine - if DH won't drink it it will have to go in a casserole. Also some toiletries. I can only park for an hour in their free car park and it took my a while to find what I needed and think about prices so I only just did it in time. Then had to drive over the road to Mr S's car park to buy bits I couldn't get in Lidl. Spent another £24.64, but that included some bargain bits for the cupboard which will last for a bit. Almost another hour gone, so less money spent that usual but rather a lot more time! Can't believe how expensive my lactose free milk is getting - and I have to use it in custard, white sauce etc for everyone so that I can eat what I cook.

Meal plan for this week -
Mon - prawn, pea and rocket risotto - prawns out of the freezer from when they were half price a while ago.
Tues - spicy pork stir-fry - pork made up of 2 pork loins left over from some other meal, and 2 value chops bought by mistake during a late night on-line shop. Again out of the freezer.
Weds - sweet and sour chicken in the slow cooker, with jacket pots - odd combo but needs must on a Weds
Thurs - light chicken korma - frozen chicken breasts - want to see if they are as good as fresh
Fri - bacon steaks and HM roast pots - both from the freezer
Sat - out at in-laws golden wedding do
Sun - sweetcorn and tuna bake - tackling the tuna mountain

I will need to buy more fruit/veg and milk on Thurs but I have plenty of flour to make bread (in the bread maker). So actually I think I will have come in on budget, but the freezer will be almost empty so it will cost more to fill it next month.

Looking forward to the challenge - my aim is that none of the family notice!


PS - just noticed my sig has appeared! Not totally useless on the technology front then!

RomanyLass

As a few of you find the rice incident of 1992 amusing, I thought I would relate the whole sorry story.

I returned home from the Supermarket in a state of excitement. !At the age of 19, I had just moved in with my then Husband to be and was planning on a celebratory meal for our first evening together in our new home.

My Husband was at work and wouldn't be home for a few hours so, I decided to get a head start with the prep, because I hadn't actually cooked anything before.

I was well aware that my experience in the kitchen was pretty non existent, however, I had purchased a pre made curry that just needed to be reheated and a packet of dried rice, how could I fail?

I unpacked the shopping and put it away, had a quick drink and set about my task. !This rice was going to be the fluffiest, whitest rice ever.

I followed the packet instructions to the letter. !I boiled the required amount of water, threw in the rice, waited the required amount of time and drained the rice using a sieve. !

I had read on the packaging that the rice needed to be washed in order to rid it of the starchy residue so, I ran it under the hot water tap, picked up the washing up liquid and gave it a good squirt. !As I was foaming the rice/washing up liquid concoction with my hands, it did occur to me that maybe I had used too much liquid, it didn't seem to be rinsing away.

When Hubby returned home, I served up the curry and rice. !He was trying not to hurt my feelings and was proclaiming how delicious it all was whilst the foamy suds were escaping from the corners of his mouth.

In my defence, the washing up liquid was lemon scented.....

Take pity on me

Bookworm42

Hi,

Another newbie here. I've been trying to keep track of my spending for a couple of months and am horrified to find it's about £120 per week (sometimes more). That's for 2 adults, 1 DS (teenager with very hollow legs) and 1 dog.
I've decided to follow the advice not to try to cut my budget too fast so this month I'll stick to £600 for a 5 week month.

I've had a look at the stuff in my cupboards and freezer and will be trying some better meal-planning.
I've been to Mr S and Mr T today and spent £88.25. Forgot to get a few bits but will make a list and try to stick to it tomorrow.
Really enjoy reading everyone's posts and hoping I'll be inspired to come in under budget this month.

WantToBeSE

Hiya!

So my GC for October (!!! Whaaaat, October!?!?) is £340. I didn't manage to stick to it in September, but am knuckling down this month and NEED to make sure i stick to it!

WantToBeSE

RomanyLass wrote: »

As a few of you find the rice incident of 1992 amusing, I thought I would relate the whole sorry story.

I returned home from the Supermarket in a state of excitement. !At the age of 19, I had just moved in with my then Husband to be and was planning on a celebratory meal for our first evening together in our new home.

My Husband was at work and wouldn't be home for a few hours so, I decided to get a head start with the prep, because I hadn't actually cooked anything before.

I was well aware that my experience in the kitchen was pretty non existent, however, I had purchased a pre made curry that just needed to be reheated and a packet of dried rice, how could I fail?

I unpacked the shopping and put it away, had a quick drink and set about my task. !This rice was going to be the fluffiest, whitest rice ever.

I followed the packet instructions to the letter. !I boiled the required amount of water, threw in the rice, waited the required amount of time and drained the rice using a sieve. !

I had read on the packaging that the rice needed to be washed in order to rid it of the starchy residue so, I ran it under the hot water tap, picked up the washing up liquid and gave it a good squirt. !As I was foaming the rice/washing up liquid concoction with my hands, it did occur to me that maybe I had used too much liquid, it didn't seem to be rinsing away.

When Hubby returned home, I served up the curry and rice. !He was trying not to hurt my feelings and was proclaiming how delicious it all was whilst the foamy suds were escaping from the corners of his mouth.

In my defence, the washing up liquid was lemon scented.....

Take pity on me

:rotfl: :rotfl: :T That is sooo funny, Romany
I have had several mishaps in the kitchen too.

mam_of_five

Hi, another newbie here,
need to drastically cut my food budget down. it will be for 5 children and 2 adults. 4 of the children have special needs and can be very fussy eaters, am getting better at feeding everyone but end up making a buffet style dinner to please everyone.
Could u please put me down for £600 and will see how i do with that by the end of the month