January 2014 Grocery Challenge

BlueMoo

Hi - hope everyone had a good weekend.

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Managed to avoid the shops all weekend and survived on stores, but will need to go to shops today to top up on Fresh - milk, eggs, bread, fruit.

Hoping to come in under £10. Will be shopping locally as well which makes it much more expensive compared to big SM.

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Friday Dinner -Not 100% sure but think it was Egg on Toast.
Saturday Dinner - Lamb roast with yorkie puds and trimmings.
Sunday Dinner - Chilli Beef with peppers and rice.

Not very exciting as you can see but trying to use up the freezer and stores so I can try and keep track this month.

It's been very strange trying to plot and make lunch foods as well as haven't had to do that since I was at university so definitely a change.

3 large roasts cooked over the weekend so the OH has plenty of food in the fridge to snack on and whatnot during the day. One pork, one lamb and one beef. Remainders of beef will be eaten for lunch and supper today.

Lamb mainly eaten from the roast meal - but enough for one portion - perhaps a lamb pitta greek typey meal for OH lunch.

Pork not touched but have put in for slow broiling in juices and vegetables ready for pulled pork at some point during the week.

Hollygym

Had a busy weekend, still trying to use up store cupboard things instead of shopping. Went to A*da on Fri and managed to buy cava, crisps and smoothies for £11. Using gift card through work, I saved 5% off the price!!


Sat spent £8.22 at Sainsbugs, as MIL back from holiday and I bought bread/milk etc for her. Again, 5% cheaper as used gift card.


Quiet happy though as we had 11 for tea on Sat and 7 on Sunday. Managed to use freezer food including YS cream for pud. Made beef in horseradish sauce for Sat. Very easy and looks complicated while using store cupboard stuff.


Need fruit and veg today though - not sure whether to use the local greengrocer, or wait til tomorrow and shop in the Asian supermarket which is always much cheaper... hmm....


off to update sig.

tessie_bear

hi been to aldi/coop/farmfoods today and spent about £20 between the 3....coop still have a few christmas bargains which i got a few of today to help with packed lunch and general nibbles...farm foods do a limited range of fresh food now at quite reasonable prices aldi was its lovey bargainatious self

we are having a huge roast beef join this week i will be trying to stretch it out so if anyone has any nice beef recies please share

poster was talking about fish recipes...have you tried a fish pie ?white fish and salmon in a parsley sauce with mashed pots on the top ?

thinking of a bit of baking tomorrow
take care tessa

BlueCow1975

Well........you are all definately having a positive inflence on me as 1. Meal planning is helping to have more nutritious home cooked meals and 2. I feel like I am wasting a lot less in terms of food and ££ so thankyou!

Meal plan for this week done:
Mon: SW lamb curry and rice (left over lamb from last nights roast)
Tues: SW spicy tuna pasta bake
Wed: chilli con carne (lots of mince in freezer to use up)
Thurs: salmon and jacket potatoe (salmon in freezer for a while)
Fri: chicken legs, sweet potatoe wedges done in actifry with coleslaw (friend visiting and wants to see what actifry does)
Sat: major cheat night - DH buying take away curry from his social budget as a "blimey we are half way through Jan" treat!
Sunday: Fish with potatoes and veg

I think we need to include more veggie options in our meal plans for the future but my hubbie is very much a MEAT man!! Little steps though.

Discovered a good tactic for stopping me buying too much in Aldo's. Parked the other side of town and walked with ONE bag so I could only get what was on my list as would have been unable to carry more!!!! Good tactic!! Anyway, £9.86 spend on fresh fruit, veg, herbs, orange juice and couple of packs of their baked ham which is amazing for 99p!

Got a Mr A delivery later for £72.91, which if I am honest is more than I would like to be spending, but £15 of that is a stock pile of toilettries and £12 is laundry stuff which should last a while. Rome was not built in a day I suppose........litte steps and all that!! :cool:

Make-it-3

I have had 4 NSDs in a row, however OH went to the ethnic food market yesterday and I never know how much he spends there as its mostly cash purchases and he never bothers to get receipts. As he took out £20 from cash machine and I won't see the change, that's what I'm deducting from my budget. So we now sit at £111.55 left for Jan.

I don't mind if he buys store cupboard stuff but fresh veg and salad is annoying when we already have the same in the fridge already.

Boy does January seem like a long old month to get to the end of, Christmas supplies are depleted - and choccies all gone

K9sandFelines

18p on sparkling water.Forgot it today in Mr M so went back.

bmma

:THI quite a big shop today -some bulk buying included--:j
:jbag of tomatoes,bag of shallots,2 peppers.bag of potatoes-£2.00p:jegg replacer, 2 bags of dried dates (for baking) should have cost £5.19p with voucher cost £2.69pr:j Rest of shopping- normal prices
12/1/14 Total spent £24.51p
13/1/14 NSD

mrs-moneypenny

spent £135.89 over the weekend. but we are now stocked up on cereals which we were low on, vitamins for youngest, and frozen veggie sausages and burgers which we were also low on. apart from milk bread and fruit and veg, i shouldnt need to shop next weekend now.
it was a tactical shop as we normally just go morrys but DH had friday off so we went town where all the stuff we were short of is cheaper in iceland, farmfoods and sainsburys. saturday Dh had to do a journey for DD2 anmd i needed a couple of clothing items for pressies so i did the shopping at Ts so i could get the clothes and a DVD.

dinner today was fishless fingers (ok but wouldnt buy again) toms fried eggs and toast, tonights will be hm leek and potato soup.

BMG

Please remove me from the grocery challenge. I am pulling out due to personal reasons. Trying to budget as well as everything else that is happening is making me quite ill. I am sure I will be back at some point

Dakota86

Can I please join in. We have just got our first family car and the money it is gobbling up has left me panicky and shocked. We cant afford to keep living the way we are and have to cut back on a lot. However, my monthly shop comes to a shocking £700 per month (that includes all household products etc too not just food). That's for 2 adults, 3 kids, 1 weaning baby and 1 cat. I would love by Xmas 2013 to try and half that! Now we have the car (though it costs us money it has improved our lives) we can shop around for better prices or go to Lidl, Aldi etc. Thanks