May Grocery Challenge

moggins

Don't know about Nicki's area but our local Roosters does 8 pieces of chicken, 4 fries, coleslaw, barbecue beans and a large bottle of Pepsi for £9.99.

This is a great family treat for us if we've all been doing DIY at the weekend and no one feels like cooking

Mrs_Thrift

As Lillibet says, as long as you're planning your spending and staying within budget, nicki, then you're doing really well.

But I can't imagine spending any MORE than £10, max £12 on a takeaway - what do you usually have? That would be one meat dish each and one rice each, sometimes samosas and naan bread if it's an Indian.

Although, having said that, the last time we had one meat and one rice each from the Chinese it was too much for us, so last weekend we had a "treat" of a Chinese, but just one meal between us, and we STILL couldn't finish it! We enjoyed it but it left us both feeling bloated and quite ill, I even got the shakes for a few minutes!

It's certainly opened our eyes to what the rubbish we used to eat was doing to us, and we're much more enjoying our old style meals now. And we must be eating less, too. Don't think I've lost any weight, but I do eat quite a lot of food in a day, and I never have that uncomfortably full feeling now.

(That's reminded me of a thread I was going to start....watch this space......)

rchddap1

If we have a chinese we tend to have one main dish each (generally 5 or 6 people), 2 servings of rice, some chips (tradition I'm afraid), and a couple of starters. We usually spend around £30 - £40 in total....meaning a spend of around £8 each.

spendaholic

rchddap1 wrote:

If we have a chinese we tend to have one main dish each (generally 5 or 6 people), 2 servings of rice, some chips (tradition I'm afraid), and a couple of starters. We usually spend around £30 - £40 in total....meaning a spend of around £8 each.

When we have Chinese - and there are only 2 of us - Misterholic has a curry, I have something like chicken & pineapple or chicken & mushroom, and we share a boiled rice (waist watching). He will struggle to the end of his curry, but I save half of mine and freeze it in the little container it comes in once it's gone cold. The full meal costs about £8 I suppose, but we must save about £3 of that when he goes to get the next one cos I've still got mine from the freezer - now defrosting, of course. So long as we think ahead and remember to get it out the day before. (I can't get my head around too much defrosting in the microwave.) As a special treat I will sometimes have banana fritters. Well, he's had a whole portion of a meal.

When we cleared the freezer out the last time we found 2 half portions I'd previously frozen and half a portion of prawn fried rice. So we had a sort of free Chinese once it defrosted the next day. :j

rchddap1

I never have any left. My other half has a rather large appetite. If he sees food that no-one else is eating, and he still has a bit of room in his stomach...he'll eat it. Wish I could freeze some. That's a rather good idea.

spendaholic

rchddap1 wrote:

Wish I could freeze some. That's a rather good idea.

We never, ever thought of doing that until we spent time at my brother's in Canada. (He's married to a Blackfoot.) They do it all the time over there cos for the first 5 years he was over there he had to really scrimp and scrape to get his credit score up so he could have a mortgage, and money was always tight.

You could suggest to other half that saving half of your portion will save both money and the waistline, not to mention the cholesterol and all the other things Mrs Thrift mentioned. (It was Mrs Thrift, wasn't it? Wish you could scroll up in proper reply like you can in quick reply ... ah, it's scroll down ... )

Misterholic didn't like doing it at first, but when he started to put the pounds on he was easier to convince that he didn't need to finish off my meals when he'd already finished his own.

rchddap1

Worth a try I suppose. But he'd look at with with puppy dog eyes and say, but I'm hungry. Strength.... courage...

Mrs_Thrift

I'm convinced that we were eating a lot more than we actually needed purely out of habit. We used to eat almsot twice as much as we do now, :eek: and just struggle on to the end of the meal, rather than being nicely full like now, since we made a conscious effort to cut our serving sizes.

Also, I used to eat my breakfast at work at 10am, but for the last couple of weeks I've been having breakfast at 8am at home. For the first week or so I was still feeling hungry at 10am every day, but I know I couldn't really be, it's just a Pavlov's Dog type reaction (not the MSE Pavlov's Dog, you understand! ) I just ignored the false hunger at 10am and now I'm not hungry again until midday, which seems about right to me, and I have my lunch then.

Another point about being hungry / full is that it apparently takes 15 minutes for your stomach to register what it's just received, so Mr Thrift and I always make a point of waiting after a meal to see if we actually have got room for seconds, or pudding, or if our eyes are bigger then our bellies! (OK, we almost always do it, hehe! )

Could you convinve hubby to have a rest first???

Curry_Queen

But eating Chinese fills you up quickly and then you're hungry again an hour later :eek: Am I the only one that goes back to eat the leftovers later on

Curry_Queen

Mrs_Thrift wrote:

Another point about being hungry / full is that it apparently takes 15 minutes for your stomach to register what it's just received,

So that's why they keep telling you to eat meals slowly :doh: ... I'm a bit of a gobbler I'm afraid and then I wonder why I feel so full after I've finished