January 2014 Grocery Challenge

tessie_bear

hi just prepped a massive bit of beef to cook for a few teas....doing the full works for tea and then using it up as the week progresses

been having a tidy of the food cupboards today seems to be quite a lot in them so will need to plan ways to use the bits in them up....already started by making up a sf jelly which smells nice

have a good day tessa

XSpender

LittleBill wrote: »

I used some lentils yesterday to add a bit of bulk to a batch of Spag sauce .. I would say around as much as you could heap in one hand .. That amount should bulk up to be around a tin's worth

LittleIDon'tHaveVeryBigHandsBill

joedenise wrote: »

100g of dried beans is the equivalent of a 400g tin; I would have thought it would be the same dried lentils, although I've only used the red ones and puy lentils, both of which I just tip out until it looks enough:rotfl:.

Denise

Thanks for the tips. I will measure out 100g and check it's about what I can get into my 'notverybigeither' hand:D

Hollygym

spent the morning being organised, making breakfast muffins with bananas and oats, waffles for DS2 (tried recipe for the first time and it was received with full approval) and cheese and pot hot pot from recipe index. A NSD here today.


Fruit and Veg purchases yesterday came to £7.58 and DH had a spur of the moment shop at A!ldi coming in at £24.55. Will update my sig, but looks as if I'm doing ok this month. DS2's birthday on Monday so I'll need stuff for his party. Will be organised and I'm going to make individual lunch box food to avoid any excess waste.

Upsy_Staffordshire

OH bought a salad and 2 chocolate bars on Sunday, as he was working in a supermarket and got hungry - hate when he works in supermarkets!

Went for a day of shopping yesterday. Went to our favourite garden centre that had 75% off sale on xmas stock so got 4 lovely tree decs and a colour your own bauble set for Xmas prezzie for our nephew for next xmas all for £3.29 :jWe had lunch out but not going to count that in GC total.

Spent £5.47 in B&M on couple of cleaning products, screenwash and a couple of packs of little choc bars for OH for work. Spent £20.60 on weekly food shop in Ald!, which I was really happy with, and I think is down to me doing a meal plan again.

Spent £7.02 in Farmfoods stocking up on frozen veg, a pack of mini scotch eggs for OH and got some good bargains! They had Nutri-Grain biscuits for just 19p a pack, mint digestive slices at 39p a pack and Galaxy Mistletoe Kisses cake bars (which are lovely) also at 39p a pack. Stocked up on a few of these so hopefully they will last for a while.

All of this comes to £33.09, and we should only need milk to keep us going for another week, unless we spot any other bargains!

Made a loaf today so that will go in the oven soon ready for sandwiches for lunches. Meal plan for this week (already altered as Ald! had no courgettes):
Tonight: LO pasta from yesterday
Wed: gammon, egg and hm chips
Thur: Pasta with veg, passata and chorizo
Fri: Roast chicken
Sat: SC sausage casserole
Sun: Spag bol

debtdawg

£4.05 in Costa today, I couldn't resist a slice of pecan pie with my coffee when I met my friend today (I blame her as she encouraged this expensive and non-MSE treat!), £2.21 in Lidl on a few bits we needed.
Still on target, despite my Costa indiscretion today
Some leftover defrosted roast turkey from Christmas for tea, with roast potatoes, buttered leeks and sweet potato and carrot mash...mmmm yummy!

angelatgraceland

Ive cooked my first gammon joint this week in my slowcooker, First gammon joint ever in every sense. I did it in coke. Couldnt find my cloves or treacle so basted it in honey at the end and baked it for 10 mins. Lovly. Ive now found both cloves and treacle after starting my inventories for all fo-then it will be cleaning stuff,freezers,then toiletries.I actually returned some ariel and fairy to Waitrose today as Ive got far too much and Ive just made a batch of laundry liquid and a batch of laundry powder. My food spends are low-only £87 so far this month but Ive spent out on household by investing in a new carpet shampooer and a new mobile phone. Now my dishwasher has clapped out! Undecided on whether I will replace it. I may get an estimate for repair or I may just get rid of it so meanwhile I will do nothing and save money!

lushlifesaver

Ok...so pay day isn't for another 11 days which is when Feb GC starts for me BUT I've been a tad naughty:


I needed to get cereal bars etc for bf to take away on his trip to Canada (trip with GB so mostly catered for but need to sort his own drinks and snacks between meals out) so picked a few bits up in A*** at the weekend as we called in for a couple of bits for me. Already takes me over my, non-declared, budget for Jan.


Cereal bars...now he has two a day for breakfast at work - can't eat before leaving and can't wait til lunch so these tide him over nicely. Don't mind the cost usually as I can usually find something he'll bear in between offers or I just spend it. To be honest I'd rather pay full price and know he's eating than him not eat from getting up at 6am to getting back from work at 1pm or later! Since some he really likes are currently on half price (99p down from £1.99 for some and £1.14 down from £2.28 for the other) I've taken some money from my savings account and bought 4 boxes of the first and 4 of the second. Also bought some of the cereal he likes (I ate the last two boxes whoops) a big tub of cadburys hot choc (will last ages), some reduced breaded chicken portions and the sliced malt loaves he needs for training plus a couple of extra bits.
All good stuff and all has decent dates/possibility of uses but all had to be bought now otherwise the offers would have ended before payday - will be deducting money from the feb budget to account for it though!

jammy_dodger

today was a spendy day after two more NSD's

£12.86 on groceries added to my total but still on track with my alloted budget of £80 as only spent £26.70 so far


did blow £49 on a jacket but it wasnt an impukse buy i had been looking for one for a while and was hoping id find one in the sales and i did at less than half price so am pretty pleased with that

Ive updated my sig and all spends witten in my book

i realise how i would spend without realising where money had gone as i have spent another £4.75 on coffees for a friend and I something i would never normally do as i am never near such fancy shops so that'll be a one off

but actually i am going to add that to my groceries bill..that'll teach me
so thtas £31.45 in total ...if i cant be honest with myself i have no hope of staying on track:o

off to catch up on how everyones getting on

thanks to all who contribute to this wonderful inspiring thread
JD xx

mossylawn

kiwiblue wrote: »

... Will turn most of the venison into salami and share it with him, but the crayfish is mine, all mine, mine alone. Apart from OH who will no doubt claim half.

Hi Kiwiblue, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you make your own salami? I'm fascinated that you can do it at home, and I'd love to know how. Can you only do it with dark meat, or can fowl be used as well?

marris

spent £7,11 today ( includes 500g of YS smoked salmon for £0,90).will update the sig