January 2014 Grocery Challenge

Suzexxx

Hi all

Haven't updated for 2 days now, but i've had a couple of spends. Bit disappointed with myself as i'm only halfway through the month, but over halfway through my budget.

I've been trying to use up my freezer food as each week i'm struggling to fit essentials in there due to my yellow sticker habit. Tonight i used some hot and spicy beef burgers,i then realised i was out of chips to go with them so went to the shop and ended up buying more reduced bargains. Spent just under £5 and that included some normal burgers for me, chips and a load of bakery items, which i will give to my Nan tomorrow anyway.

Yesterday i spent around £3 on reduced bits too. Tomorrow will be a NSD for sure as i literally have about £1 to my name until payday Friday.

Off to update spends and catch up with the thread!

Suze

islandhoppa

Well I've blown my budget (and some)! £28.47 spent in Mr T which I had not planned for, DD1 needed cookery ingredients for 2 weeks and picked up all the bits I was going to run short of (except forgot milk) so got until next Friday which is my payday to go whilst trying to buy nothing except milk

BlueCow1975

Well.......good news and bad news for today.

Good news being that I am sticking to meal plans. Used the bone from the weekends roast lamb to make a gorgous broth in the SC today. Chucked the bone in with beef stock, half pack pearl barley, tin black eyed beans, 89p veg casserole pack from Aldo and some frozen corriander and rosemary I had lurking in the pack of the freezer. Also dragged my bread machine out of the back of the cupboard and made own frech bread for the first time in years. Ridiculously easy to do, so I will definately be making far more loaves from here on in. Enough of both left over for both me and DH to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

So, feeling all domesticated as would NEVER have used the bone before and just thrown it. You are all such a positive influence on me!!

Bad news is I needed to go into town to get a birthday present and did some unscheduled supermarket shops (£4.55 Aldo's, £9.53 Sainsbobs). DH also spent £5.30 yesterday on new toothbrushes for kids and some other bits. Will update sig and then off to have a catch up with thread.

jammy_dodger

Faete wrote: »

£3.98 spent today. I'd run out of carrots for breakfast (I have a carrot , grapefruit, apple and ginger juice each morning) so had to pop into the shops - also bought buttermilk, strong white flour and baking powder for scones. I'm a pretty good cook, but my scones were never really successful - but they can't be worse than the half bricks offered by Asda! I've now picked up the "chuffing" technique from Paul Hollywood *swoon*:T so I'm going to have another bash!

Fae xx

i have many scone recipes Faete but Paul H is the only one i use now with the strong p flour and lots of baking powder its excellent . i use that for savoury scones too omitting the sugar adding a bit of cayenne and cheese

delicious and they are very light and well risen:D

happytails

Nsd for me and hopefully tomorrow and Friday too just using up bits in freezer and the potatoes tomorrow, going to have tuna jackets for lunch!

Sarah x

Bluegreen143

Small spend last night in Mr M's - YS chipolatas £1.50 (half price), Savers washing bio washing liquid £1.60 and just over 1kg carrots 93p.

Made haddock tonight (from the freezer packs you get) with a tomato & thyme sauce, homemade skinny fries and green veg. Pretty tasty, OH tolerated it lol (he doesn't like fish but has agreed to try and eat it once a week and has been sticking to it pretty well, with the exception of over Christmas when I wasn't really mealplanning).

Changing the meal plan slightly - OH's brother is coming for dinner tomorrow and there's not enough mince for three portions of mince and tatties (could probably streeetch it lol but don't want to when we have a guest) so I'm going to make something with the sausages instead.

MissOrganised1972

Have only done weekly shops, so far, this month (:A) but did have to do a top up shop today. Had a voucher for Sainsburys for £1.50 off £15 & then also used a £2.50 nectar voucher and so managed to get £15.56 worth of items for £11.56! Had planned this and was very pleased with how restrained and focussed I was!

Managed to get bananas, satsumas, red grapes, apples, cheddar, cherry tomatoes, baked beans, granola, fabric conditioner, 'shreddies' & milk. Was quite pleased with that as I'm usually an Aldi shopper.

Last night we had SW curried parsnip soup with ciabatta rolls which was a hit with DH.

Tonight's dinner was SW Mac'n'Cheese. Mixed responses to that. They've all had it before & enjoyed and so they WILL have it again!:rotfl:

Only have my M&S vouchers & some change left now & so will definitely have to chose wisely what we buy! This is to last until 24 Jan. Loads in though.

Night night

mags50_2

Well I'm hoping if I come on here late at night ( or very early morning) no-one will notice that I've had a big spend on Approved Foods tonight lol

It came to £59.93 with postage....eeek! But....I've been very careful that I bought stuff that I would use and it wouldn't get pushed to the back of the cupboards, and there were quite a few toiletries and cleaning products which should last us for ages.

Have I made enough excuses?!
I'll update my signature later

meg72

Up very early this morning as full of a cold and sneezing my head off.

Well my yoghurt using fresh milk is very successful so I will do it again. I think I was just nervous about trying it and so stuck with the UHT.
and wondering if it will keep as long though.

mooomin

Get well soon Meg!

I'm doing a huge gammon in the slow cooker tonight - it's about 2.7 kilos and there's only two of us to eat it :rotfl: I have a good plan for leftovers though including soup, sandwiches and frittata.