January 2014 Grocery Challenge

physicsgirl

One of my New Year's resolutions is to actually keep up with the GC throughout the month - the last 3 months I've started enthusiastically then petered out

It's partly because I don't always have the receipts to hand when I have time to write a post, but this year I'm going to write the post anyway with approximate amounts and edit it later when I find the receipts!

I'm also going to start putting my meal plans on here as I find it so useful looking at what other people do for ideas, and it will hopefully help me cost them so I can see how much of the food spending is going on the evening meals.

ALSO (I'm very ambitious!) I really want to reduce the food we waste - it's tough since our freezer is tiny and there's no space for a chest freezer, but I'm going to cost up how much we put in the bin/compost each month.

SO big plans, here's hoping I can stick to it!

2childmum

Hi everyone. i haven't had a chance to get onto the forum for ages so still have to declare for December. The December thread is so far down the board I think I will do it here! So I have a £92.47 underspend! I did have Sainsbury points and a Tesco voucher which I used, but even so I am rather pleased with myself - I did manage to get some reduced stuff after Christmas, including a very yummy gammon for less than half price,and a variety of Christmas puddings - one put away for next year, and the others to eat at some point soon (my son loves them!)

So flush with success I would like a budget of £425.00please. This is only a small reduction, but I would rather go downwards slowly rather than crash and burn.

Meal plan this week -

Mon - sweet and sour pork (YS pork from the freezer) I made my own sauce but to be honest I don't think it worked out much cheaper than buying a jar, and as we decided we needed more sauce I think the jar is our best option, especially as stir fry is one of my 'I have to get a meal on the table in no time at all' meals
Tues - easy chicken curry - new recipe for me so we shall see how it goes.
Weds - fish pie - the base part is in the freezer ready in its dish so I just have to boil some pots/sweet pots to top it and hope DS remembers to put it in the oven!
Thurs - Butternut squash bake
Fri - salmon pie. I got a side of salmon reduced to £8 something, We used half last week and I poached the other half to freeze. Also have some ys pastry in the freezer to use.
Sat- Turkey meatballs. could only get a large pack of mince so plan to make loads and freeze some
Sun - toad in the hole - bought some sausage meat reduced to 25p so reckon I could make it into balls and use instead of sausages. Son will have a couple of the mini pies i made a while back cos he doesn't like sausages.

Have spent £62.11 this month, including ready meals on Saturday . We were planning on going out as a last family thing before school/work kicked back in but nobody really felt like it so we got ready meals and vegged in front of the telly.-

And i forgot to wish you all a Happy New Year

meg72

Hi everyone, I am back after spending a fabulous 4 days in Rome with DD and DGD.

Loved it but oh my the prices cant believe I spent 4 euros on a small loaf :eek:

Well its back to frugal ways now with a vengeance as want to go to Amsterdam in the spring.

After 4 days of super rich sauces and huge pizzas I am longing for something simple so going to have baked beans on toast for lunch and maybe egg and chips for dinner.

Welcome to all the newbies

lovefullshelves

£44.93 on a delivery from mr asda:) stocked up on 50p things! And my favourite...chocolate!!

dumpling

Had a bit of a fail as I went shopping in Tescos for bread and apples and spent £34.88 . I did manage to get a nice big piece of gammon reduced to £4.34 and their extra lean mince is down to £3 a pack and that's the only mince I buy so I bought 3 packs. I also bought a chicken for £5 as I was going to buy a cooked one for lunches but they were tiny and it's not like I don't have the time to cook one, so that's in the oven as I write . Ah well, it's a learning experience! I'm £21 over my budget for the week so far but I won't need to get anything else now till Friday (she says hopefully). Hope everyone is doing better than me :rotfl:.

physicsgirl

So my budget for this month is £200, this should be achievable since we only got back from Scotland on Saturday (we stayed with OH's parents so "free" food up there!).

Did a shop Saturday evening, spent ~£30 in Ald! and ~£15 in T3sco, including some great YS bargains - 15p pots of guacamole, 90p half rounds of stilton, 25p fresh soup, and 10p chesnut mushrooms.

Here's the meal plan:

Saturday - Sweet and sour stir fry (peppers, mushrooms) with noodles and spring rolls [forgot about the spring rolls :S I used half a jar of sweet&sour sauce in the stir fry, but I think I'll stick to stir fry sauce in future as it was very bland]

Sunday - Fajitas (1 courgette, 6 mushrooms, 1 pepper, salsa, spice mix, wraps, guacamole (make it? avocados, red onion, tomato, lime juice), yoghurt) [used 15p guacamole instead of making it ]

Monday - Ham and mushroom calzone [I emailed my OH the ingredients and quantities for the pizza dough so he could weigh them out and put them in the breadmaker - I got home and found he'd used strong BROWN flour instead of strong WHITE flour, but it turned out ok thankfully! I must remember to cook the mushrooms before putting them on the pizza next time, the base went soggy after it'd been cut]

Tuesday - Ceasar salad with HM croutons, roasted butternut squash and pine nuts

Wednesday - Gnocchi with a 3 cheese sauce (cream cheese, cheddar and stilton)

Thursday - Loaded potato skins (bacon, cheddar, spring onions)

Friday - Thai curry with coconut rice

Saturday - HM Cheeseburgers with wedges

Sunday - Risotto (beetroot?)

Monday - Pasta and vegetable bake

Tuesday - Turkey curry with pakora and "Maharani style" peshwari naan

BlueMoo

Hi everyone, I am back after spending a fabulous 4 days in Rome with DD and
DGD

How lovely Meg! Rome is so beautiful - did DD and DGD love it?

So I have a £92.47 underspend

Well done! :T


******

NSD yesterday and hoping NSD today.

Is anyone else fidning it very hard to resist takeaways? Especially as it's so windy and cold at the moment.

Have managed to resist so far, but keep forgetting to prepare food ready for next day, so when I get home from work the last thing I want to do at the moment is cook a full meal.

***********

Have thrown away alot of food as well that has gone mouldy. It was not re-usuable at all!
Oh dear! Onwards and Upwards.
Especially when I have to confess to all of you here!

*******

Dinner last night of beef tacos (made from roast beef leftovers jazzed up with peppers, paprika, cayenne, stock, fresh tomatoes, red/white onion) with salad.

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First_Trouble

Wow page 28 already. I better catch up on my reading.
A budget of £100 for me for this month

physicsgirl

I also thought I'd share my money saving lunch with 2 of my girlfriends: we were meeting up on Sunday and usually we'd go to Wagamamas or similar and I'd spend ~£10. BUT instead I suggested they should come round to my flat for lunch. We had pizza (with toppings added) and garlic bread:
2 garlic baguettes - 65p (Ald!)
3 margarita pizzas - £2.69 (Ald!)
4 mushrooms - 4p (~1/3 of reduced 10p pack of mushrooms)
Peppers - 60p (I need to find cheaper peppers)
Ham - ~20p (part of £1.75 ham trimmings pack from Ald!)

So grand total of £4.18 on food, plus maybe 30p on teabags and squash, and my friend reckoned the pizza was as good as any you'd get in a restaurant plus there was enough food left over for lunch for me and my OH the next day!

happytails

meg72 wrote: »

Well its back to frugal ways now with a vengeance as want to go to Amsterdam in the spring.

Ahh Amsterdam is lovely, the hubby and I went for our honeymoon 2.5 years ago. Wanted to go back for our 5 year anniversary but it all depends on cost as we stayed in a swanky expensice hotel and we want to go back there!

Anyway enough of my waffling, just wanted to say its a lovely place, atmosphere is great and the public transport is so much better than the uk!! LOL

Sarah xx