September 2014 Grocery Challenge

Snorkypants

Joining for September with a budget of £200. More generous than August but we ran down the store cupboard and freezer so we haven't got as much to draw on. This is for 2 adults, one child with us every other weekend and a cat.

nearlytherenow

I sorted my meal plan on Friday for the week and didn't need to buy anything, I have such full cupboards! However, went to Lidl yesterday and spent £17.46 on crisps/cereal/fruit etc for the week.

We were going to have meatballs today but had friends over last night for dinner and combination of hangover/leftovers means I haven't done that so might reorganise some of the meals, will see how we go.

Make-it-3

Its a 5 week month for me too, nothing particularly special happening to sway the budget one way or another so I'm going to set the target at a should be doable £200

crazycatlady2014

Hi

Would love to join please- am a newbie at this grocery challenge but keep hearing good things about it so it's time to join!

My budget is £300

This is for ourselves as well as the cats. Hope we can achieve it- have reduced it by £50 on last month! Oh well, suppose that's why it's called a challenge

CCL
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LynseyLou_2

krustylouise wrote: »

I get paid every Wednesday, so do I start my Month on September 3rd and end it 1st October? We're getting married in October so need to be as frugal as possible this month!

I am also getting married in October and saving all the pennies that I can! What date?

I am enjoying the Grocery Challenge so far. I bought a whole chicken and made three major things from it:

• Chicken and rice soup (using the brown meat)
  
• Roast chicken dinner (using one of the breasts)
  
• Chicken curry (using the other breast).

Going to boil the carcass for stock and will use it in a soup later this week. I am also going to switch from Tesco/Sainsbury's to Aldi.

Best of luck everyone!

michbright

So, we went shopping on Friday and spent:

Lidl: £52.37
Tesco: £61.98
Pet Store: £8.68
Butcher: £13.20

This should keep us stocked up for around 14 days or so for meals and school lunches. 2 older DDs have packed lunch and youngest DD will have free school dinners (under the new government scheme) as she is only in Year 1.

Butcher included a HUGE chicken and enough sausages for 3 meals. The chicken really was MASSIVE and I'm sure I'll be able to make at least 3 more meals out of it as I roasted it today for dinner.

Also bought a pork roast at Tesco that is much bigger than what we need and I'll be cooking that next Monday (8 September).

TBH I'm not happy with DD3 having a school dinner while her sisters have packed lunches because we like to have our main meal together as a family every day and this will mean she has 2 'main meals' every day. I can't afford to pay for the other 2 to have school dinners as well (and I can't control what they eat if they do have them) and then how will she cope once she no longer has free school meals in Year 3? She only starts school on 8/09, so I think I'll phone the school on Thursday when the other 2 go back and discuss it with them then.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox about my view on school dinners now .

Saver-upper

[QUOTE=michbright;66396072

TBH I'm not happy with DD3 having a school dinner while her sisters have packed lunches because we like to have our main meal together as a family every day and this will mean she has 2 'main meals' every day. I can't afford to pay for the other 2 to have school dinners as well (and I can't control what they eat if they do have them) and then how will she cope once she no longer has free school meals in Year 3? [/QUOTE]

Hi michbright.Is it compulsory for your daughter to have the school dinners?My youngest daughter is going into Year 1,so will be eligible for the free meals,but I was going to choose not to have them (I also have 3 older children who won't be eligible,so I will be making lunches in the morning anyway.)It hadn't occured to me youngest won't still be able to have packed lunches.I must check .Do you think they won't have the supervision for younger kids to have packed lunches?

Saver-upper

michbright wrote: »

TBH I'm not happy with DD3 having a school dinner while her sisters have packed lunches because we like to have our main meal together as a family every day and this will mean she has 2 'main meals' every day. I can't afford to pay for the other 2 to have school dinners as well (and I can't control what they eat if they do have them) and then how will she cope once she no longer has free school meals in Year 3? She only starts school on 8/09, so I think I'll phone the school on Thursday when the other 2 go back and discuss it with them then.
.

Hi michbright.Is it compulsory for your daughter to have the school dinners?My youngest daughter is going into Year 1,so will be eligible for the free meals,but I was going to choose not to have them (I also have 3 older children who won't be eligible,so I will be making lunches in the morning anyway.)It hadn't occured to me youngest won't still be able to have packed lunches.I must check .Do you think they won't have the supervision for younger kids to have packed lunches?

michbright

Saver-upper wrote: »

Hi michbright.Is it compulsory for your daughter to have the school dinners?My youngest daughter is going into Year 1,so will be eligible for the free meals,but I was going to choose not to have them (I also have 3 older children who won't be eligible,so I will be making lunches in the morning anyway.)It hadn't occured to me youngest won't still be able to have packed lunches.I must check .Do you think they won't have the supervision for younger kids to have packed lunches?

Hi Saver-upper,

In theory, it's not compulsory, but as far as I'm aware it's up to the individual schools regarding the younger children taking in packed lunches. That's what I want to check next week. She's starting a new school this term and I don't want her to be the odd one out if she's the only one in her year not having a school dinner (there are only 25 children per year). At the moment, one day she wants a packed lunch like her big sisters and the next she wants to have school dinners, so it's all a bit up in the air.

I'm like you, I'd prefer to make packed lunches for all 3 in the morning. That way, I know what my child is eating - at her last school, they sometimes had chocolate pudding for dessert, or sticky toffee pudding, which is okay for the occasional school dinner but not several times a week. As she's moving schools within the same area, I imagine the menu will be pretty similar at her new school

Caterina

Good morning,

How exciting, it is my first day of the challenge today and it is going to be a NSD!

My meal plan for today:

B. Chilli tomato scrambled eggs on toast
L. Cheese salad, apple, nuts
D. Pasta e Fagioli (bean soup) with beans from the front garden and greens from the allotment. Bread. Yogurt with compote I made yesterday from fruit nearly on the turn.

Have a good day!