January 2017 Grocery Challenge. NEW BEGINNINGS!

Mrs_Cheshire

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Hi, i posted this in my DFD (Debt Free Diary) but thought i might get more advice/responses here, so i hope it's ok that i post here too.


The boys (17 and 13) are back to school today, so that should mean i can spend a little less on food! We've run out of snacks and the boys are constantly asking when I'm going food shopping. I am hoping not until Friday.

I feel so mean. We have plenty of food for meals (breakfast, lunch and dinners) but no snacks at all. Am i being mean? They are constantly looking for food (and by 'food' i mean snacks) in the kitchen..even straight after dinner.

I am trying a new thing where i ONLY go food shopping once a week (Fridays) and if they eat all the snacks in the first day or 2, they will have to go without until the following Friday.

Someone tell me i am not being a cruel mother who starves their children? My 17 yr old was saying that he is starting to get fat last night...he told me this while moaning that we dont have any unhealthy snacks in the house.

Do you have store cupboard ingredients like flour and eggs? Or flour, sugar and margarine and could make some pancakes or regular fairy cakes. If they are used to snacking or wanting sweet foods after a meal, it may be a cheap and fairly easy way of feeding them when the regular snacks have run out. The 17 year old could make the pancakes themself!

Franalamadingdong

WantToBeSE - I think you know you're not being cruel. If they eat the snacks in 2 days then they will have to learn, and if they don't it's their own fault. They're getting meals, so it's not like they're going without. I'd suggest if they're that hard done by they can get a part time job and pay out for any extra snacks they want! I'm quite harsh though! After school when my son asks for a snack he's pointed towards the fruit bowl. If he doesn't want a piece of fruit then he can go without until dinner. I'm fortunate that he's only 5, so he still does as he's told mostly although given his current appetite I am dreading the locust years! He had seconds at dinner the day before last, which meant that we had one less portion for the next day than planned.

Wysiwyg, my son loves spag bol, or as we call it, pasta and nanny sauce. If it helps during this month I've listed to have:
Salmon pasta, tuna pasta bake, angel hair pasta with garlic herbs and parmesan, sausage pasta, sweet potato spinach and goats cheese pilaf, red kidney bean curry and rice, (tinned) salmon and pea risotto, Persian chicken, risotto (using chicken from leftover roast), bean stew, chicken butterbean and spinach stew, beef stew, roast chicken, shepherds pie, omelette, chickpea frittas, turkey pie with a stuffing mix topping and finally salmon with a warm lentil salad and noodles.

I cleaned out and itemised my larder as you can tell! And I have a lot of spinach and salmon in the freezer. Salmon is because I was getting a side of salmon for boxing day at my parents' and buying it from the counter is masses cheaper, especially if they have it half price, but they only had whole salmon. So I bought a whole one and he prepared it into 2 sides for me. We cooked one side and I cut and portioned the other side into 8 generous portions. I gave my parents half and put half in my freezer. 16 generous portions for £15 makes me happy! Anyway, I googled things like recipes using stuffing mix, or red kidney beans to get new ways of using up what I had. The butterbean stew had chorizo, but I'll use chicken and add paprika etc myself from my spice store. And of course I'll add veg etc to the sides based on what we have in the fridge. Fruit, veg, bread and milk will need topping up, I need chicken and mince and basmati rice and potatoes, but not a right lot else really. Then in February I'll be annoyed because I have no stock and no idea what to cook!

No new spends to report. Might go shopping at the weekend. Apologies for the mega long replies

AccyAlly

Happy New Year!
Please can I join again this month at £350

I haven't had chance to update my signature or check out from December yet, but will officially declare that as over, when I was recuperating Dh did some shopping but "lost" the receipts!!
Back on track for January, have meal planned until 15 January, so only need to get fruit, veg, milk and maybe vino until then!

CountingPennies

Been to pick up my prescription up as planned, and managed to get a few ys items. So 2 loafs of seeded bread, grapes, and carrots all reduced. Then picked up a tin of shortbread they were selling off for £1.50. Got my milk and needed some mutisurface cleaner. Now I usually buy branded, and there was some on offer for £1, however I talked myself into buying Tesco's own brand for 70p. Small changes like this is what is gonna save me money I think. Hope its ok!

Anyway, spent a total of £5.56. Happy with that and I won't have to go to the shops for a couple of days now. Well at least, that is the plan anyway!

CP xx

WantToBeSE

Thank you so much to Franalamadingdong, Mrs Cheshire, Save Dosh, CountingPennies, freyasmum, CRANKY40, kkffoo, lynnejk and Islandmaid for your words of advice.

I do make some snacks, and there is always bread/crumpets/pitta breads to eat if they are ACTUALLY hungry. I just think that we all got into a bad habit of having biscuits/chocolate and crisps about 6 months ago when things were really busy and i let my standards in regards to healthy food slip a a bit.

And now I'm thinking that buying a 6 pack of crisps and 2 packets of biscuits (or making them myself) should be enough to last a week. If they decide to have them all in 1 day, tough. Right?
I've noticed them (and myself!) putting on some extra weight recently, and my 17 yr old has moaned a few times about getting a bit fatter, so i think its really just a matter of getting used to healthier eating. There is always fruit in the fruit bowl, chopped veggies in the fridge and also a bread type carb available, but its the sugar hit they want.

Hopefully it'll pass. Thanks again, so much, for the advice

Lordhightiggythe3rd

Hi can i join in this year going to try for £200 pr month for a family of 5 2 adults and 3 kids
so much money is disappearing so guesstimating what i normally spend aiming lower and will tally receipts and change budget next month if necessary.

Willowx

Walked to the COOP in the next village to get bread, butter and milk and didn't stray too far from the list! Total spend was £3.51, got 2 pints, a block of butter, a small loaf that was reduced to 20p (oranged stickered not yellow though!), so I strayed to a bottle of lemonade, a large custard danish for my lunch box tomorrow that was down to 19p and a honeydew melon down to 39p.

With regards to the butter does anyone have any opinions on butter blocks? They had a deal on anchor such that two blocks worked out the same price as the own brand but in the end I stuck with the own brand. Was just wondering if there is much difference between (yellow) butter beyond whether it is salted or not.

The plus side of walking to the next village means I'm well over 10,000 steps for the day.

iammumtoone

WantToBeSE wrote: »

And now I'm thinking that buying a 6 pack of crisps and 2 packets of biscuits (or making them myself) should be enough to last a week. If they decide to have them all in 1 day, tough. Right?

I would suggest separating what you buy into 2 (or 3 if you want a share ). That way everyone gets their own treat allocation otherwise you will get get into the situation of it goes in the first few days because they don't want to lose out to the other eating it before they do!

Good Luck

thriftwizard

WantToBeSE, it sounds like there's plenty for them to choose from, but if you want any more ideas, my boys loved - still love! - HM jam tarts & flapjacks. Come to think of it, so did/do all their friends... all 20-somethings now, but they all look hopefully at the snack tin when visiting! These can be nowhere near as sweet as commercial snacks; my jam tarts are usually made with crab apple/quince jelly, and "cheesy flapjack" is the biggest favourite of all - except possibly cheese & marmite swirls. Pure boy food, and they're all extremely fit; a couple of them are professionals in the fitness/sport field.

I spent £15.50 at the county town market today. £11 of that in cash, and £4.50 owed to a stallholder who'd already packed up when I got there. So I spent the money (on veg) elsewhere, then found him talking to the greengrocer. He asked if I was after my "usual' and when I said yes, but I'd already spent all my cash, he said I could pay him next week! Bless him... and that's another reason why I shop mainly at the markets down here. Good prices, wide choices including varieties (of apples, cabbages, spuds etc. - also cuts of meat, and rare meats & cheeses) that no supermarket would ever bother with, availability of locally-grown or made stuff, and service well above & beyond the call of duty. Worth every penny...

nannygladys

Hi everyone

WantToBeSe. My two older daughters are only a year apart but one wasn't bothered by food and the other was. I used to buy treats for both and give them to them to keep in their bedrooms as the younger one would pinch the others goodies and then when the other fancied something there was never anything left!!!! It's still the same now they have families of their own, the eldest eats to live and the younger one lives to eat, guess what the older one doesn't take after me!!!

Spent £1.79 on hay fever tablets and ys cheese. Not sure what's for dinner tomorrow but there's still plenty in and it will include kale. Oh went to the lottie this afternoon and picked some brussels but I've left them outside for later in the week.

Nannyg