November 2014 Grocery Challenge

CountingPennies

lynnejk wrote: »

Hope you feeling better CP - glad you back

Thanks Lynne much better thankyou

Didn't end up at Mr T's yesterday, making it a NSD :T

Been this afternoon tho. Spent £13.93 on fruit, shaving gel, some packed lunch stuff, 4 bottles of beer for DH and some good YS bargains like 14p bread and £1 bags of baking potatoes.

Now need to sort out a meal plan. Aiming for as many NSD as possible this month. Will make this week (from tomorrow) a personal aim of 4. Not sure if its doable, but i'll have a bloody good try. With a bit of planning I might be able to do it! :cool:

CP xx

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, another NSD for me today. All food from stocks. Lovely minted lamb shanks and roasties for tea!

Solstice_3

Soworried wrote: »

I hope your little one is feeling better solstice

Thank you, he is a fair bit better today hopefully he is over the worst of it

Had a lovely roast pheasant for dinner with roast potatoes, parsnips and veg. I am now making stock with the veg trimmings and have a handful of meat left to add to my chicken and potato pie/gratin tomorrow, I will use the stock to make the sauce.

NSD today 09/11 (3)

Homemade BNS soup for kids tomorrow and sandwiches for me, using up potatoes and leftover meats for dinner/tea

[STRIKE]I have 3 free Hello Fresh boxes to give away if anyone is interested (it's the reward for reaching 3 boxes) send me a PM with your email address (I have to send them your email address and they send you the free code I guess).[/STRIKE] Free boxes gone, still have £20 off codes if people are interested x

I also have £25 off codes for Gousto, again PM me if you are interested, I do get £15 off a box if you use that code, nothing for the Hello Fresh though xxx

Have a good evening all :beer:

NewShadow

Okay, I've only had 2 spending days so far this month - mostly because I've spent the last 10 days dying of flu and therefore only having my pre booked deliveries from asda and tesco. £30 and £42 respectively, leaving me £8 for any extra bits.

If it were a normal month, that would be absolutely fine - I've got a load of fruit in, a few kilos of potatoes and various pasta types, and a selection of meats.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to up my spend this month to accommodate my mothers arrival on the 20th... she's requested about £40 of stuff (brandy, marmite, yorkshire tea bags...the list goes on) that she can't get back home, so I'm not going to count that, but I'll be feeding the two of us for at least the next 2 weeks and she can be quite fussy with what she'll eat sometimes (doesn't like to eat the same thing 2 days in a row, hates the traditional food of her youth or anything 'unhealthy' - no to meat and 2 veg - doesn't like beef, mince, lamb, pork, cheese. Will eat chicken, gammon, fish, curry if she knows how its cooked.) so I will go over budget. Mince and beef make up a lot of my freezer.

If I allow an extra £40, I should be able to make some of her favourite meals and then can hopefully claw it back next month - eating the beef and similar that I bought for this month but that will now go in the freezer.

Talking of beef, made a delicious one pot beef... stew is perhaps most accurate. I 'roasted' a small beef joint in the slow cooker on saturday. the 1kg joint made cold cuts yesterday, but will also:

Make 2 or 3 stir fry's in the week.
Be cold cuts for lunch 3 days
Make today's one pot.
Maybe make another one pot if i don't stop eating this one soon...

Made in the slow cooker with the liquid from the joint in the bottom. A handful of diced beef (maybe 100-150g), 3ish onions (previously chopped and frozen so about 2 good hands full), 3 sliced carrots, 1 carton of value passata, a tin of beans (I always throw in beans, makes it comforting), a tin of leaf spinach, and about a cup of soup mix. cooked it overnight then added a heaped tablespoon of a kosher beef stock I got from approved food ages ago - best stock I've ever used (and that includes marigold).

Everything (but the beef) from the store cupboard, quick, cheap, healthy and absolutely delish. I've already had two big bowls - it doesn't even need bread.

(though, to be fair, I've not really eaten anything 'proper' for the last week so this could be the plague talking...)

Mealplan for this week is very simple. I'm back to work on wednesday, so:

Mon, Tues - beef stew, or beef stir fry.

Wed, Thurs, Fri Lunch - Sliced cold beef strips and/or Boiled egg, Gherkin, Cottage cheese or light soft cheese (I need the calcium), Ryvita, Apple, Kiwi (either 3 jaffa cakes or a GoAhead bar from my stash)

Wed/ Thurs dinner - beef and blackbean (noodles)/ spicy sweet chilli beef and mango/ginger (angel hair)

Friday dinner - simple cooked breakfast (a tradition after payday but I was too sick the other week) - Bacon, flat mushroom, beans, Quorn sausage, and either toast or hashdy browns.

Everything for this is in the freezer or cupboard already.

I've got so much in that I'm actually thinking that I should be able to manage next month with only £20 for fresh fruit and veg... then save up my cash for buying reduced meat (and hopefully duck and a goose which I love) to restock the freezer after christmas... one year I got 4 geese for £20 and had one every 3 months as a treat.

Bobarella

Pandora wrote: »

Hi everyone!!!
Been away from MSE for about 6 months due to massive life changes (I won't go into all that here otherwise this post would be far too long!!) and my spending has gone massively out of control After a bit of another 'lightbulb moment' last night, I've come back here to (hopefully!) get the motivation and support that I've had so many times in the past in order to get back on track

Welcome back Pandora. Hope you get the support you need to get back on it. It's blooming hard isn't it at times trying to get debt free. But you have to keep trying. For your own sake. That's what I tell myself too. Good luck hon.

WantToBeSE

New Shadow, I hope you are feeling better again soon.


A NSD here for me


Does anyone know if I can replace crème fraiche with natural yogurt in Jamie Olivers Chicken and Mushroom pie? I don't want to spend any money tomorrow so am hoping the natural yogurt will be OK?

Pandora_2

Evening all
Today's spends of £9.28 were all on essentials apart from some fake Matchmakers for Christmas. They were only 99p for a big box though so much better than buying the real thing
Other spends were on loo roll, baby wipes and a beautiful purple mop and bucket set. Got rid of the old ones when I moved house 5 months ago and I'm sick of cleaning the floor on my hands and knees!! Didn't get around to actually using them but I definitely will on Wednesday as I have the morning off work :A
I resisted the urge to pop into Adsa as I went past, and have eaten up lots of food that was getting past it's best rather than putting it in the bin, so all in all, a pretty good start to my challenge IMO!! :j

applejack07

I spent £4.05 yesterday on almond milk and other assorted bits for a recipe I'm planning for later in the week, but other than that, I've been a bit rubbish with meal planning for the coming days I seem to have lost inspiration over the past couple of weeks, which means I've been eating a lot of rubbish. I'm off to lurk on food blogs for inspiration! Do any of you have any favourites?

WantToBeSE

applejack07 wrote: »

I spent £4.05 yesterday on almond milk and other assorted bits for a recipe I'm planning for later in the week, but other than that, I've been a bit rubbish with meal planning for the coming days I seem to have lost inspiration over the past couple of weeks, which means I've been eating a lot of rubbish. I'm off to lurk on food blogs for inspiration! Do any of you have any favourites?

What kind of foods do you like? If you like plant based clean eating, I'd recommend funeralformyfat and thegraciouspantry.
Or if you are looking for low sugar, veggie/vegan/ dairy free (they have recipes which are a mix of everything) then I'd recommend iquitsugar.com which I have been reading a lot of recently.


HTH.x


For basic good old British cooking I'd recommend frugal queen (google it) and a girl called jack

applejack07

WantToBeSE wrote: »

What kind of foods do you like? If you like plant based clean eating, I'd recommend funeralformyfat and thegraciouspantry.
Or if you are looking for low sugar, veggie/vegan/ dairy free (they have recipes which are a mix of everything) then I'd recommend iquitsugar.com which I have been reading a lot of recently.


HTH.x


For basic good old British cooking I'd recommend frugal queen (google it) and a girl called jack

Thank you so much! I'm just vegetarian atm, but do try to aim for as much clean eating/animal free as possible (budget dependent, of course ), so those links are fab! Of course, I can never go wrong with Jack, too