January 2014 Grocery Challenge

BlueCow1975

Just adding a £5.30 spend which was supposed to be DH picking up milk after work. He also bought oat so simple porridge on offer which we don't need and frozen veg which we also don't need, and a few other bits that took his fancy.

Just had roast lamb for dinner that we bought half price before Christmas. Going to make a curry tomorrow and off to investigate what I can do with the bone. I usually just throw it away but I am wising up!

Also need to finish meal plan for rest of week and do an online order as running out of laundry stuff, cereal and a few toileterries as well.

minicooper272

I have bought a couple of expensive bits lately. Firstly I start a curry cookery class this week, which required lots of spices. I deliberated whether it was fair to take the money from my food budget, as it's a bit of a one off stock up, so decided to take out half the spices cost, as they cost around £20 :eek:

I also spent quite a bit on some seeds and nuts from the health food shop, which are supposed to contain nutrients good for skin problems. Again, really expensive, and not a typical spend, so decided to treat it as a one off from a different budget.

Took ages to work out, but after my weekly shop yesterday, I have £38 left for the rest of the month. The next couple of weeks will be fairly cheap, but I don't know what other ingredients I'll need for the cookery course. Will have to wing it a bit.

samtoby

Didn't turn out to be a NSD today for me. I had to go and buy tomato sauce and some fruit I spend just under £7.00 so need to update my signiture.

Cooked the roast and now we have the left over chicken. MIL is bringing over stuff to make some chutneys which I am looking forward to.

marris

spent £0,50 today will update my sig. surprisingly doing very well with January budget.

happytails

Nsd today. Hoping to sort fridge tomorrow ready for the food shop in the evening and I'll do a freezer inventory whilst I'm at it as the cupboards are done.

Think I'm going to start working my way through recipes in my cookbooks and actually try and see what they're like. A) taste b) cost per portion and c) prep time and create a little folder of sorts so I have say 20 regular meals, 20 meals for guests over/days with more time and 10 expensive meals that would be a rarity. Then I can get rid of the countless books that I only cook 1 or 2 meals from that clutter my kitchen space lol. That might be my challenge for 2014 actually!

Sarah x

Bluegreen143

Kayester - personally I have a Mr A delivery pass and think it's great, but I get 2-3 deliveries a month from Mr A's as I think they're cheapest for what I buy anyway. I've also beeing buying in booze for my wedding and over Christmas took advantage of Mr A offers and got this delivered using the delivery pass too. Some people don't like being tied down to one supermarket though. It's worth it for me as I already shopped online so knew I'd use it and it'd save me quite a bit on the delivery cost. HTH

K9sandFelines

Just signed up to asda delivery pass .... the only thing that puts me off is the fact they don't state when their offers end. I have been caught out a few times by this; but i am going to give it a try again. I figured being as i was just about to book delivery from Tesco, which was costing me £3.50; seemed silly when i have to nip in there to collect a parcel on Wednesday anyway when next that way, so will pick up the things i can't "live without"!

So £5.00 to add for this months chunk, and i will devise a shopping list in bed as i am wide awake (god help me tomorrow when the alarm goes off)!!

kayester

Bluegreen143 and K9sandFelines thanks for advice there.

I am going to go for it next week (my mr a came yesterday, added £64.46 to total)

I shop at either mr A or mr M, upto christmas it was just Mr M for the £40 off, and I like their quality there, they dont deliver in my area until the summer so I am happy to settle for mr A until then

Chicken chasseur was yummy yesterday, forgot to take a pic though....chicken in cheese and tomato and croquettes tonight

lushlifesaver

Incredibly fussy bf has started to try new foods!!! A milestone for us as currently we often have a limited diet. In the past two weeks he has tried smoked haddock (didn't like it), stir fry with black bean sauce ('alright...I ate it') and white fish in a tomato sauce (now he says cod...feeding 20+ of them in a hotel on a budget I'm expecting it's more likely to have been Pollock/similar? He liked this one)
It's sad how happy this makes me seeing as I know it will have a knock on effect on the grocery budget from Feb (when he's actually at home for any length of time). Going to investigate some recipes today and then look at prices on my lunch so I can start to work little bits in - not too often but just a couple of times a month.

If anyone has any very simple recipes for similar fish dishes I would be most grateful :-)

I have some salmon portions (you can either boil them in the bag or microwave them) in the freezer which I got from MR A reduced to 80p each so might try him with a bit of that - what I might do is cook one and cook some scampi or something and get him to try the salmon but have a back up ;-)

CH27

My week starts today & I need more fruit & veg.
I also need to decide what meals we are having this week so I can buy what I need not what I want.