January 2014 Grocery Challenge

BlueMoo

After all that, I have now managed to find it.

This was in response to a poster who had listed her food cupboard and was looking for advice for how to construct meal ideas.

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QUOTE
In terms of your food cupboard, the key is to find one thing like the mushrooms, and then make a meal around it.
So if you have chicken - I would first start off with a plain chicken dish 'e.g. chicken fillet served with new potatoes, green beans with a white wine sauce.

Then if you have a lot/or leftovers, then plan to do a chicken dish where you can use the LO - such as chicken pie. So make chicken and bacon pie served with mashed potatoes and leeks.
(Now you have incorporated bacon)

Next meal, how about a pasta bake sprinkled with bits of bacon.
(Say you still have leeks and green beans left - either cooked or the last ones left in the packet) - How about a leek/green bean risotto

Then I usually plan a leftovers meal which will vary according to what I have left - in this case maybe you would have enough here for a veg soup.


You can build up your base meals e.g. pie/pasta/fillet/risotto/stir fry etc, and then just change the flavours depending on what you have.

I also tend to pick a meat, and then pick a country, and change from day to day so that the flavours and textures are varied which means you don't feel like you are eating the same thing

For example - You say you have fish - I will just pretend in this case it is cod.

Day one: English - Fish&Chips with peas
Day two: Asian - Fish thai green curry with rice with green peppers
Day three: Spanish - Fish served in a cassoulet of chickpeas and tomatoes
Day four: French - Fish steamed served with potato dauphinoise and asparagus
Day five: English - Fish pie served with mash and leeks
Day six: Italian - Pasta served with chunks of lemon basted fish and spinach
Day seven: Scandinavian - Pickled fish served with a salad.
etc. etc.


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Hope that helps

Make-it-3

A trip to Lidl today to scour around see what is cheaper there than Sainsburys and a few bits purchased. Hopefully in the coming weeks I will get it sussed as to what to buy from which store and that will help me keep my budget on track.

So after today I have £131.55 left till month end.

angelatgraceland

BlueMoo wrote: »

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£16.07 left of Grocery budget.

May well have to go over due to OH's being off work for the next couple of weeks with back pain and surgery.

So, afraid I will probably have to bow out of the challenge for this month, especially with increased expenditure on petrol, hospital parking, etc. etc.

However, will still be following the thread and posting bits and bobs, but budget is most likely a write off.

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Last night, shopping for OH - biscuits, milk, bread, fruit, crisps, snacks etc.
5.93 spent.

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Going to make the use of the weekend to try and prepare as much as possible for the next week. Needs to be stuff that's easy to reheat, as OH is not very mobile at all.

Why not just hang in here-keep track of it all anyhow>? It doesn't matter if you go over and don't meet your targets-it keeps you focused and I think you will be surprised just how mindful you will be as a result! Best of luck with the hospital!

Florenceem

Soworried wrote: »

What a great idea, that could be a thread :j

I have a cookery book for dogs - it was a Christmas present from my youngest Son and his partner.

Hollygym

had a quiet couple of days, only paid my milk bill of £50.25!!! sig has updated. Still well under budget and living off Christmas food!!

2childmum

Spend of 54.38 in Mr T today. Got some meat on special offer (plus a money off coupon on one pack) and then some rather good bargains - mince pies for 16p a pack (DS would eat these until he turned into one!) 2 boxes of chocolates at 50p, chocolate lollies for 5p each, long tubes of smarties for 13p each, and 300g of Lindt premium milk chocolate for 20p a bar! Most of this has dates until mid year and the Lindt until 31st Dec! I've put it away until next Christmas - optimistic! The rest of it will go into my secret sweet store, ready to top up sweetie jars at the beginning of February - we have one each (adults and kids) which come out once or twice a week after dinner (on 'sweetie days') and if you eat them all at the beginning of the month there are no more until next month! This is a hang over from when the kids were little, but they still like doing it, although they both now buy their own sweets at the tuck shop at orchestra on a Sat, so we only have one sweetie day a week usually! Jars are full from Christmas at the moment, but I buy bargains when I see them and store them away.

I've spent quite a bit this week but some of it is beginning-of-the-month stuff and I should spend less for the rest of the month.

downshifted

Quick trip to Lidl that will see me through the weekend and declaring my first week at £45.94/£50. This includes lots of treats for lunch at my daughter's this week. I do think I am better at keeping on track on a weekly basis rather than monthly :-)

£45.94/£200

jammy_dodger

islandhoppa wrote: »

another NSD today, this proves how well meal planning works as I did a big shop last week but would still usually have to nip out for more "bits" or things I fancy and I haven't had to at all yet. Must make an effort every month to do the same

islandhoppa i totally agree .
when i had all family at home i too used to sit down and write a meal plan each week and shop accordingly and
shop for offers. which is why i have huge stockpiles here of items that store well
i dont need mountains of these anymore which is why i am gonna hold off stockpiling till my mountains are mole hills now theres just me to cook for
I'm fancying veg so am gonna throw a casserole in slow cooker tonight ready for tomoorw when I'm home from work

JD x

jammy_dodger

kiwiblue wrote: »

NSD today, that's 8 for the month so far.
Have examined my grocery receipt and have decided to tackle one item a week, and either find a cheaper alternative or make it myself. Should be an interesting challenge. This week is dog biscuits, so I made some using the leftover gravy from last nights roast as the base. It was a huge success. Next I am going to make water biscuits, so off to do some research!

hi kiwiblue
#your not alone i too make dog biscuits for my er...dog
when i have the time i have little bone shaped cutters . much cheaper than those boxes of gravy bones that you buy and gotta be better for them

i bag some up as presents for my friends pets for their birthdays ( thats the dogs birthdays i dont give dog biscuits to my friends:rotfl:)

i basically use a little stock cube flour , bit of milk powder fennel seed a little olive oil and water to make the dough

upper staffordshire Mr T should give double difference if youve been overcharged so £1 would be correct theres a thread aboutt it somewhere

JD x

she_who_can_not_cook

Sorry guys but I just need to get this off my chest...
Just got back from tesco I went to the customer services to return an unwanted Xmas prezzie. I said to the lady this DVD is unwanted can I exchange it.
She took receipt and Marked out a line whe're the DVD was. Then said I need your debit card for refund. I said sorry I usuAlly pay by cash so did not have it. Can I just exchange yes she said I pick my items up for the exchange it was 12 quid. Got to C S. I had picked up items totaling 13 pound. There was a different cashier, I said I was doing the exchange and pointed to the item. She put them thru and closed the till. She then put the DVD to one side with a barclay card on top (as said before it was not mine) I Stood there with my coin bag out ..she looked at me and I said "I owe you money" no she said 13 pound and 13 pound. I then said no I do.... she looked at me . Well if you are sure and I walked off. Is it me or is that weird. The silly thing is I did not ask for the receipt back I know daft I just do not return stuff