January 2016 Grocery Challenge

Zed42

Evening all, as suspected today was never going to be a culinary / budgetary success.

In the end, whilst I was meant to finish at 5ish, it was way gone 8 when I was done.

Takeout: £22.60

On the upside, we're out all day tomorrow, but I've got tomorrow nights dinner out of the freezer, just to need to make some rice to go with it

HornetSaver

My main meal recipes for the week:

Friday - homemade pizza, garlic bread and onion rings for four.
Saturday - giant chicken and mushroom pasty
Sunday - spaghetti bolognese
Monday - Chicken breast with couscous
Tuesday - tuna burgers
Wednesday - mushroom and spinach lasagne
Thursday - toad in the hole with onion gravy

Haven't bought spinach yet, but spend for everything else on those recipes, plus milk, pasta bananas and two extra part baked baguettes, came to £24.83. Best of all, spend on couscous, frozen (branded) sausages, frozen peppers and baked beans (was going to do baked bean pizza but changed my mind, did use peppers though) also bulked up my stock cupboard :j

Got a couple of food luxuries from my personal budget. As last week I will include any overspend on that into my food budget next time I post, but I'd be amazed if I did as I'm not going out until next Saturday. Therefore my running total is £57.14, which I'm hoping won't change.

jlhmd666

FoxFace wrote: »

I don't really use recipes, but I can tell you what I did

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tin chick peas, drained
1 tin coconut milk
small butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 1in)
2tbl of tomato puree
3 tbl Curry powder (I used medium, but whatever you have/like)
1tsp dried coriander
½bag spinach

I have literally just thrown everything in the SC, except the coconut milk and spinach, which I will add nearer the end as I have read that coconut milk can curdle and spinach takes no time to wilt. I have added just enough water to cover it and bunged it on high. I might turn it to low when it looks cooked.

I'm just serving it with some value rice, which I make with cardamom, bay and a pinch of saffron (a bit like a pilau) and some YS 9p T3sco finest naan breads... can't wait!

It smells blooming lovely in my house right now!

Thank you so much for this. I made it last night and we really enjoyed it. Plus the house really did smell lovely as it was cooking

XSpender

I have spent £129.63 so far this month out of a budget of £250 and will need milk, fruit, eggs and lunch bits. I am tempted to buy DH some SW ready meals as he likes them and he is a bit bored with my limited repertoire. Each box comes with the recipe to make it yourself so I can recreate it. This will take a chunk out of budget though.

Had success with introducing our oldish dog to complete food last night. I would prefer he ate this to dog meat but when we have tried it before he has always eaten the meat around the biscuit and left the biscuit. Mr S had Bak3rs senior on offer so mixed half a tin of food with half a cup of mixer and a little gravy and he wolfed it down

Last night I spent £20 on oven cleaner and cleaning products as we are giving our house a deep clean ready to put it on the market next week.

I must do a meal plan for next week, I only away 1 night with work so will be able to cook more and use up the freezer stocks.

£120.37 to last 2 weeks :eek:

Itsa_Longshot

Spent just £16.72 this morning which is great, and even included treating myself to a battenburg for £1.

£40.62/£135.00 for the month.

ancientmum

Hi all
It has taken me some time to get back to post my spends but I have been lurking and it has been interesting reading.


I was paid on 31st December and so far have spent £39.77/£160, I do not have a freezer, no room in rented house, so often buy small amounts after work to get YS goods. I also tend to spend on cc to get clubcard or nectar points, so have decided to keep £40 of budget as cash in a separate purse, for when a spend is less than £5. any left over at the end of the month can be put back to pay cc bill. (I always pay off at end of month). I have also managed 3 NSD this week, so all going well so far...


It is good to know that there are others out there with the frugal gene and we can all support each other.


Linda x

FrugalinShropshire

I did a quick Aldee shop in which I spent about £3.50 stuff for the pizza and DS's cheesy topped rolls for his packed lunch. There was enough peperoni and tomato puree for a pizza next week too. I did the Tightwad Gazette's quick pizza, hm garlic bread, hm coleslaw and a salad and having got in at 5.50 it was on the table at 6.45. Couldn't go and see OH in hospital last night as my cold started to stream and I couldn't stop sneezing. But I saw him in the morning and he has a fab new wheelchair!
Very pleased with my coleslaw:I had cabbage on my shopping list , but I realised I had a brocolli to use up, so I cut it into florets and froze it, then peeled the stalk and put that through the food processor with the carrot. Very yummy with a slight peppery taste.

FoxFace

Good morning everyone

NSD here today, logging it now as I am not planning on going into town...

Last night was a great success Had a fab night with great friends... also got a last minute 50% off voucher e-mail for the pizza company we had already planned to order from, so the takeout actually came in way under the budget we had planned

Running a little sparce for lunch today, but we will probably just throw together some PB&J sandwiches and have fruit or something... dinner tonight is ratatouille lasagne, which was going to be a regular veg lasagne, but I found tins of ratatouille for 59p which worked out way cheaper than buying all of the veg separately

I will update tomorrow with my menu plan and spends for the start of next week.

Have a lovely day everyone

Living_proof

More by luck than judgement I am exactly on budget so far this month, with a total of £24.42 spent so far. I have also used £4 vouchers on some reduced lovely Spanish hams, chorizo, olives, etc. pack from M & S with a sell-by date of 26th January. It would have been unaffordable at £14 so I am looking forward to that in the days ahead. Lidl also reduced their packs of filled antipasti mix to 99p which we will eat as starters over the weekend.

I am pleased with how little I have spent and yet included washing powder, large Fairy liquid and 9 packs toilet paper. I do however always have a very well-stocked larder and freezers and also a lot of dried food, so there is no reason for me to have to go over budget at all. Cash flow is very very tight at the moment due to a difficult time business-wise and it's gratifying to know that I could go much lower with my household budget and still not suffer in any way.

MoneyMission

Just reporting in with spends so far. Am on a 5 week month in terms of budget and have just bought everything needed to see me through to the end of week 3. Total so far: £207.68 / £532. Should be able to come in under budget and will then look to reduce next month if I think we can do it again.