February 2014 Grocery Challenge

islandhoppa

£6 spend to report in Mr M on yet more ingredients for DD1's cookery exam tomorrow (bought loads last week but she has had a practice at home making her 4 dishes and found we didn't have enough butter etc and they also insisted on serviettes and things for the presentation)
Would have been a NSD otherwise as cupboards and freezers really full

WelshWoofer

Can I please join in again? I used to regularly do the challenge but fell by the wayside and now need to get a grip again before things get out of hand.

There's just me and a small greedy dog full time to cater for so I should be able to manage but am hopeless at making the effort to cook and end up buying ready meals or rubbish.
So my new goal is to make proper food each evening and actually eat the food in the house rather than just buying more every week
I started well yesterday making sweet chilli quorn, veg and noodles for tea with an extra portion for tomorrow's tea, and have had a 'use it up salad' tonight. I take lunch to work but that usually consists of fruit, houmous and leftovers.
I have plenty of bits and pieces in the freezer and cupboards and need to meal plan to actually use them. I think I could get away with buying just fresh stuff next week to go with what I have.

So, I'm going to budget £120 for February (starting on the Saturday) for all toiletries, food, cleaning products, household stuff and dog food. I'd hope to come in at around £100 but we'll see how the first month goes before getting giddy with myself.:);)

superrhinos

So much for thinking I had done most of my shopping on Saturday.

I took my son to soft play yesterday and once there realised I had left the spare nappies at my parents house. Therefore necessitating a quick dash to the Tesco and a further £5 spent.

I also spent a further £4.20 in Aldi today as well as £3.14 in Waitrose.

That should really be it for the week now.

Florenceem

NSD.
We had for first time - Bucks Bacon Badger - recipe on MSE. Had it with roast potatoes/parsnip + roasted veggies - red onions/red pepper/white onions/beetroot/garlic.
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lushlifesaver

So I ended up spending £5.90 in Morries. For that I got:
Smoked cheese £2- not seen this one in there before and its exactly what bf likes. Got enough for all week plus the weekend. Might need to take some from the money I have budgeted for the tournament at the weekend to add to the GC budget (say £1 if we use half for example)
Smoked ham £2 - enough for 2weeks for again a small amount to be taken from the tournie budget
2 x Frij milkshakes @45p each (half price treat for bf)

Also spent £3.96 on some more rice crispie bars (still on half price and dated until August) half are for the tournie so £1.98 to come from GC

In total That's £6.88 to add to my sig, might need milk but nothing else before the weekend. I've budgeted £50 for this weekend but am owed £68 for one of the hotel rooms and bf will be paying for at least one if the two meals so realistically I should break even. So far have spent £3.97 of that on flapjacks and Cereal bars/rice crispie bars. We will still need squash, bananas, wraps, hot chocolate, milk and malt loaf.

chirpycheap

So today I was a Frugal Goddess! Not in work today so made sure I made the best of the day.
I made a loaf of bread and it is amazing! It looks like bread, it tastes like bread, it is in fact real bread - and I didn't buy it in a shop!:T
I pulled my Easy-yo yoghurt maker from under the stairs and made yoghurt using a recipe posted up on this site. Even more excited about this -it tastes delicious! :T
I also sorted out my freezers. I have a large chest freezer in the garage and a freezer in the kitchen. I must admit that the walk to the garage at the bottom of the garden means that I seem to constantly top up and use from the kitchen freezer and forget about the outside one apart from when I do a mega freezer shop .
After sorting stuff out I realised that lots of the stuff in the chest freezer is getting close to its sell by date. So I have done a reshuffle and swapped the contents of both freezers.
I have made a list of all the stuff in both with use by dates and given myself a talking to about being a lazy moo. Not wanting to put my shoes on and go down to the garage is causing me to waste money!

MissOrganised1972

Hi all. Quick spend yesterday of £1.44 :eek: on bread. A lot more than we would normally spend but DH called at the local farm shop which did prevent me YS shopping, had I gone for the bread!

BlueMoo

Sounds like everyone is going great guns, and good to see so much home cooking going on! :T:T:T

****

Dinner last night of mild chilli (no beans though, swapped that for lots of lovely mixed peppers) and JP. Nice and simple and healthy too!

******

Don't want to clog up the thread, but thought I would mention I have posted about a couple of items I bought at Costco
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1603897

Hopefully this will help someone.

******
NSD yesterday. I have plenty in so there is no excuse - only things needed are milk and some fresh veg so may even just go to the local - more expensive but it won't tempt me.

Gorgeestwo

Good morning
After a disastrous January please could I be put down for £400 again please? I'm also going to try for more NSD.
Today is our sons 9th birthday, so he's chosen Domino's for tea, this will come from from a different budget.
Good luck everyone.

meg72

chirpycheap wrote: »

So today I was a Frugal Goddess! Not in work today so made sure I made the best of the day.
I made a loaf of bread and it is amazing! It looks like bread, it tastes like bread, it is in fact real bread - and I didn't buy it in a shop!:T
I pulled my Easy-yo yoghurt maker from under the stairs and made yoghurt using a recipe posted up on this site. Even more excited about this -it tastes delicious! :T
I also sorted out my freezers. I have a large chest freezer in the garage and a freezer in the kitchen. I must admit that the walk to the garage at the bottom of the garden means that I seem to constantly top up and use from the kitchen freezer and forget about the outside one apart from when I do a mega freezer shop .
After sorting stuff out I realised that lots of the stuff in the chest freezer is getting close to its sell by date. So I have done a reshuffle and swapped the contents of both freezers.
I have made a list of all the stuff in both with use by dates and given myself a talking to about being a lazy moo. Not wanting to put my shoes on and go down to the garage is causing me to waste money!

Well done on your bread, I well remember my first successful loaf
I was so pleased with it I didn't want to cut it up :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I find my HM yoghurt saves me quite a bit and I prefer it to shop bought.