November 2014 Grocery Challenge

craigywv

Ding dong your hamper sounds good, i too have one in corner of kitchen and have nuts,fancy crisps, fancy crackers, mallows, choc and 2 schloer so far, i too get excited looking at it ds keeps poking about in it too. Oh has his pear cider in shed for new year eve and some nobbys sweet chilli nuts and bombay mix hes easy pleased. I have thorntons summer fruits 2 bags and a small box of maltesers as i not a drinker through choice prefer the chocolate! I think as you say it makes good memories and i hope ds will have his own hampers in years to come for his own family xxx

maria3104

Bobarella wrote: »

Thanks Caterina that is really helpful. I will take your advice. Any other top tips? We are having a treasure hunt in the park first, so should only be in the house for about 45 mins. Plus they should be worn out from running round the park. She says optimistically

Awesome idea, my children are grown up but I soon learnt the less time they spend inside at a party trashing the place the better! Lots of over excited small people.... shudder.

Get out the camera and take lots of photos, fab memories, we still refer to birthday cake as spat on cake after everyone had had a turn at blowing out candles.YUK but such fun!
Kiwi, I would shelve cost saving for a bit and focus on getting as much healthy food into the system of your body that you can. Beetroot is meant to be amazing and manuka honey, along with lots of hugs, Good Luck.

Sounds like everyone is having a productive time. Has got me going. I have cleaned downstairs, 3 loads in dishwasher and it is still working so breakdown crisis over! hopefully.

I have ordered stuff for the hampers for xmas, baskets, kilner jars and bottles, but as I can not do anything til it arrives I am tempted to go upstairs to xmas stash and do some wrapping. I fully intend to spend next weekend doing only xmas stuff and the weekend after and going to a craft xmas fayre for a mulled wine and walk around smelling xmas.

Yep, I love the season. The visitors, the short days, the log fires, the music, church, even the impulse buys.,....

Have a good day. Go birthday partying, eat too much left over cake. A NSD for me.
Maria

Pandora_2

Hi everyone!
Well, this week has been a super expensive one for grocery shopping, however it was all planned out apart from one little blip when I had to buy lunch as I had forgotten to take my sandwiches to work, so that was £2.15 wasted although it was very yummy!!

Had a big Mr T delivery on Thursday which came to £41.52 :eek: but that included nearly all my Christmas alcohol, a few Christmas food items, and at least 3 months worth of cat food and litter.

Had to pop to Adsa today for milk, bread and potatoes (£3.82) which was fine, but I also ended up spending an extra £14.99 on some Feliway (reduced from £28!!) for my cat as she just hasn't been herself since we moved house. Hopefully it will help settle her, but even if it doesn't, I don't consider it a waste of money as I would do anything to make her happy because I love my big lump of fur!!!

Total spends for the week worked out at £62.48, which takes my total to £86.50!! Only doing up to payday rather than the end of the month, so that leaves me £13.50 for the next 10 days. Hopefully I will be able to come in under budget as the freezer is still full to bursting, and we have a microwave at work so I can take leftovers for my lunch once I run out of bread. So in theory, I should be able to get away with just buying some milk next weekend :A Any money left over will be added to my Christmas budget (which has a grand total of £30 in it so far!!!! ) which is for presents and any food I've not been able to get using my Grocery budget. Luckily, I don't need to buy many presents, and the ones I do buy are always inexpensive but meaningful things. Much better in my opinion!! Thankfully, my family and friends agree!!!!! :rotfl:

Well, that was a bit of a longer post than intended!! Woops!! Better do some cooking and cleaning and will be back later on my 'tea break'!

NewShadow

Making up my meals for the week.Aiming for no spend until friday so they're a little hodgepodge - I'm also trying two fast days this week - Monday and Thursday - how does this sound?

Breakfasts - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: Oats, Cinnamon, Blueberries, Dried fruit, Banana

Friday: Beans, Egg, Mushroom, Toast (or maybe fried bread )

Optional 10am snacks - Cottage cheese + Scan bran, Melon, pear, kiwi, apple

Lunches - Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: Hard boiled egg, Cooked beetroot, Gherkin, Mediterranean Couscous

Monday, Thursday: Cottage cheese, Scan bran

Dinner - Tuesday, Wednesday: Vegi (mushroom) Chilli (chilli, then with wedges)

After Wednesday will depend on Mum.

scotmumof3

A NSD for me today. DH is backshift it's raining and I don't intend to leave the house at all (the dog might have other ideas though!!)
I have rechecked the fridge/freezer and cupboards and meal plan for the week for 2 veges and 2 carnivores is

Sun mediterranean vegetable pasta bake with garlic flat bread /chilli and potato wedges both with salad
Mon HM butter bean and vege burgers with chips /HM beefburgers with chips both with salad
Tues quorn stir fry with rice / chicken kiev rice and veges
WEd Mixed bean casserole with oat and seed topping and veg /RM mince beef and onion pie mashed potatoes and veg
ThursSpiced rice with chickpeas and veg HM chicken and veg fried rice
Fri meat free mince bolognese with garlic flat bread / beef bolognese with garlic flat bread both with salad
Sat Pizzas potato wedges salad dips

That's the plan. Fingers crossed I won't need to buy much, if anything, most of the ingredients are already in the cupboard.
Wish me luck:D
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday.x

scotmumof3

NEWSHADOW sounds very nice. I tried the 5/2 diet where you fast 2 days only eat 500 cals and then eat what you like the other 5 days but I couldn't do it i was constantly thinking about food (nothing new there some might say LOL!! ) but I wish you luck.

piglet27

Hello all, It has been so long since I've been on here! 2 weeks maybe. . .

I have kept an eye on spending and it is unfortunately VERY HIGH!

Total food spends are £261.17!
Eating out £55.80 and Personal spends of £55.26!

I am really sorry to the family and friends of Rosieben. You will be missed.

Kiwi I am sorry to hear you are starting Chemo, best of luck to you that it works and gets rid of ALL the nasties! Hope it doesn't knock you off your feet. Sending hugs to you ((())).

Have a great week everyone.

I am going to update sig now and sort my meal plan out from all I have in fridge/freezer and cupboards.

CountingPennies

Popped to Mr T's for some bits and pieces. Total spends of £31.76 which was mainly dog food, packed lunch stuff for the week, some treats for the kids as they haven't been out this weekend and a couple of basics such as milk, bread ect to tide me over. Gonna do a little midweek online shop once I have sorted my meal plan for the week. Already know what tomorrows dinner is. HM cottage pie and veg.

Right.... off to sort kids out!

CP xx

Effyb4

We tried our cats on ald! cat pouches this week. They are very fussy, but they are eating them. I can't believe the difference in price - 85p a pack instead of £3.50 a pack. Some belt tightening is needed, if we are to keep to budget this month. How do I stop 3 teenage boys eating everything?

Pandora_2

Effyb4 wrote: »

We tried our cats on ald! cat pouches this week. They are very fussy, but they are eating them. I can't believe the difference in price - 85p a pack instead of £3.50 a pack.

85p a pack?!?!?! How many pouches do you get in that? My cat is fussy as well and only seems happy with Fe1ix or Wh1skers so I always stock up when they are on 2 for £5 - 12 pouches in each box. Would be more than willing to try the A1di ones though if they are that cheap!!!!