January 2016 Grocery Challenge

jlhmd666

Have just booked my last shop for the month which came in at dead on £65 so unless we need to buy anything else, we are under budget for the month at £296.20.

It has been quite an eye opener this month, watching what goes in the basket and not buying something just because we might fancy it. I also started to waiver last week but went through the stock and looked at the recipes on the first page and managed to pull it back together again. For the six of us I can spend double what I've spent this month so really happy with the savings made

Billie-jo

FrugalinShropshire - hope that your dad has a good recovery.
Have got £80.76 left of the budget and just another week to go.
We had planned to have oxtail stew yesterday with mash but although the oxtail was cooked the day before and left in the fridge to firm the fat up so it could be removed it still looked and tasted really greasy so it was thrown away - wasteful but none of us can eat really greasy food. We ended up with some ham, mash and leeks.
Tonight we are having sausage, bubble & squeak to use up the last of the mash, 1/2 a leek and some cabbage that is left. Will also add a Yorkshire pudding to it and we have some carrots and about 5 cauliflower florets left.

Crowdpleaser

8.71 spent in Mr L this morning on way to work for just a few bits like fruit and veg and some cheese to get us through this week. May need milk at weekend and another veg to go with a roast on Sunday but otherwise that'll be it and at the moment I'm on 220 with a 250 budget. Am v impressed with ourselves as budget is usually 320 and I spend it all! Pat on back here! Lol x

Mrs_Cheshire

Hubby has just popped into Aldi for me to get bread to last until the main shop on Thursday, peppers for tonights tea and a couple of bottles of lemonade. Total spend £1.96 bringing our monthly total to £331.88/£420.
We shouldn't need to get anything else but will come back on Thursday when our new budget starts to declare just in case

Mumof2_2

Just added £3.66 as almost out of bread and our entire fruit ration - apart from bananas which we have about 10 of for some reason - was 1 little satsuma! Bought more satsumas and 2 bags of lovely juicy apples.

I should be in within budget but will need to get some more milk and another Mr M shop for the end of the week. At least this is making me think about what I'm buying which has to be a good thing.

Kitchenbunny

£29.52 spent on this week's main shop - there'll probably only be a few bits left to buy for this month and the next one starts by the next shop anyway. Currently the total stands at £152.39, so I've a bit of leeway with the top up shop for the weekend. Looks doable!

Have a lovely evening.

KB xx

mrs-moneypenny

Did jacket pots for lunchtime time and just got a pan of mushroom stroganoff cooking now.

Tomorrow
Lunchtime-omelette evening-butternut squash risotto
Wednesday
Lunchtime- jacket pot evening veggie lasagne
Thursday
Lunchtime Dh can have leftover lasagne. evening- quorn & leek pie
Friday
Luchtime Dh can have left over pie. Evening use up veggies & quorn mince

Hoping for as many nsd days as poss

Islandmaid

Have had a spend of just under £30 in Sainsbo, and Aldo. This does take me over my target by a squidge, but still pretty pleased.

Food is a bit boring this week, using up HM frozen leftovers, but at least it means I can get away without a shop in this months budget.

I will do a freezer audit and bulk buy after payday, and write my Feb meal plan, it has really helped.

Suffolk_lass

Zed42 wrote: »

Evening all

Other than that, DD needs a snack each day (healthy and portable ...) she normally has a Fruesli bar (or similar) or a sandwich. Currently out of bread! She's ok for Mon & Tues. But the rest of the week is going to be challenging with the staple ingredients and time I have.

I'm thinking I can probably knock up a batch of blueberry muffins tomorrow night and that will suffice. Failing that I have some HM muesli which I can attempt to make into flapjacks. However, my flapjack attempts have rarely proved successful.

Why not try half of the twinks hobnobs recipe from the recipes section? They are excellent and filling. I make more than a "packet and a half" from half the quantities. Much more straightforward than flapjacks. I use balls a bit bigger than a 50p piece and they come out biscuit sized but a bit thinner.

SL

Zed42

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Why not try half of the twinks hobnobs recipe from the recipes section?

What a fabulous idea. I've used her recipe in the past, simple, tasty & filling .... and almost foolproof!
Great suggestion, thank you !!

Another NSD here from us

Lunch was a bit of a disaster frankly. I had marmite on toast ... now I love marmite, but today I discovered that indeed there is too much of a good thing ... bleurgh! Cheese was nice though

Dinner was a roaring success ... venison stirfry with noodles ... we managed 8 types of veg

Tonight we've baked a tomato and chilli bread from a Mr W. breadmix .... having done the obligatory taste taste ... I can say "yum" ... so my lunch will look better tomorrow

Haven't decided on dinner tomorrow night, feeling a bit jaded (tax bill payment tonight .... it's budgeted, but even so .... ). I do have a pack of venison (200g) and a couple of chicken breasts .... perhaps fajitas ..... yes, let's do fajitas. I have the wraps, I have the sour cream, I have the chives, I have the tomatoes etc., to make a salsa .... just the inclination which is lacking. So, yes, let's make a commitment to fajitas !

I will not let depression get the better of me, I won't, I won't, I won't (yes, yes, I know ... but I'm trying).

Wed - chicken tikka masala (whoopsied item from Friday)
Thurs - game casserole with mash (no, I can't even convince myself of that) ... unless I can persuade DH to do the mash on Wednesday, which if asked, he may well do. Hmmm.

Don't think I'm going to come in under budget this month, but given that this is my first month, I won't beat myself up (too much). My focus next month is to bring down the takeout spend, that'll be interesting to see how much this affects my grocery spend.

I'm fairly good on wastage, unlike when we were "DINKY" 's .... that was a case of Sunday - buy veg .... following Sunday ... throw out veg, buy more veg.

(I do apologise that my posts go on for eons, but when I start typing, I kinda keep going!)