January 2018 Grocery Challenge

LizzieWb

Hi everyone,

I've just put 6 x ragu meals and 2 x turkey cottage pie meals in the freezer, looking forward to using them when I can't be bothered to cook - and must have saved some money too....

Feel like I'm going to the shops more often but have been spending small amounts each time, and I think I'm wasting less food this way too. I did a meal plan for the first two weeks which seems to be working quite well, so plan to do a big shop every two weeks or so and then just top up with bits and pieces as needed.

So far, £320 of £500 remaining.

Lizzie

Sparkysteph

Ginmonster wrote: »

Could any of it be whizzed up with a bit of water or stock to make a soup? Might be with a try.

Brilliant idea, thanks for that 😊

Highland_Fling

Hi Save Dosh
thank you very much for your explanation re sticking to budget. You are an inspiration.:j

Highland_Fling

Hi Pipney Jane
thank you so much for the helpful advice. I can certainly use some of your strategies and adapt others to suit my circumstances.:j
I really appreciate others taking the time to pass on and share their expertise.

ma-ri-ella

spent 1.53 today bringing my total up to 2.97 for week. Got quite a few days lunches and started to get a few stockpile essentials for when the yellow stickers are low. They have really made a difference tho - I'm only really checking the 1 supermarket aswell.... might start doing more of them so i can hopefully get a wider selection, i seem to be low on the fruit/veg/salad this week . At the minute seem to have 6 days lunches for 39p total (might change depending on any other bargains )the loaf of bread for 6p will cover toast for the week (14 slices) so that just leaves dinner (hopefully will pick up bargains) which i have pasta etc in house so woudnt be in my total but even if i did include would still leave me under £1 a day .

Puddleglum

Hello. Can I join in please? I've been AWOL for years! I'm going to aim for £35a week on groceries including alcohol and will separately be recording my petrol expenditure this year to motivate very careful driving over long distances each week.:j

Esthermate

I'd like to join. I lurked last month and I'd like to try for £60 for January. Only me most of the time.
I am shopping once a week with one milk top up.
(apollos for not knowing how to embolden in red)

£11.42 so far!

armchairexpert

Urgh, not going well here. We did a specialist market shop yesterday, which is where we buy the things we can't buy in our own town - laksa paste and proper spices and stuff like that. So that added up, as well as treaty seafood because it's Mr E's birthday. Add that to the Costco visit, and I'm one week into the month and already $475/950 down PLUS we still need to go to the supermarket for basics.

Logically all the remaining shops should be cheap: we have bulk coffee, lots of bread flour, lots of meat, all the expensive things like that. But who knows in actuality.

Itisme_2

Yesterday spent £14.11 at Tesco.

pipkin71

PipneyJane wrote: »

For an idea of what to cook, we had cream to use up so used the last of our potatoes on Thursday in a Dauphinoise-style dish. I used/abused the BBC recipe. It says to cook your potatoes in a lot of milk and cream. Instead, I cooked mine in boiling water for the suggested 3 minutes, layered them into a dish, then heated considerably less milk and cream with some crushed garlic and poured that over. Some chopped ham and a bit of grated cheese on top and into a preheated oven for half an hour at 180c. Our “potatoes” also included some sweet potatoes, because we didn’t have enough of the regular variety. Very garlicky and quite yummy.

- Pip

My girls like dauphinoise potatoes, Pip, so I will give your method a try next time I get some cream on the shopping list. Sounds lovely