February 2018 Grocery Challenge

PennyGrabber

Hi all,

2 nsds out of the 2 days in feb so far... I was really tempted to pop round the corner (literally) to ff00ds and get a pizza or something, but I made a pizza using a wrap instead which was ok...

I still have a ton of food in the house, so any shopping this month should only be fresh stuff, lunchbox stuff and dd's cookery stuff.

I'm not too sure what I'll be eating tomorrow, but I'll be doing road in the hole for dinner on Sunday, and a tuna pasta bake for next week's lunches while the oven's on. I've had the last three weeks off work, so having a ready-made lunch for the first few days will really help me out.

I'll be writing my shopping list tomorrow, so I need to check if I have any mince in the outside freezer for Monday's spag bol nachos (DD's creation). In fact, I think I'll swap some bits around in the freezers, so I can use up some stuff from out there.

PG x

JingsMyBucket

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Hubby bought home a huge bag of mixed fruit tonight, so if anyone has got any good recipes for using it up!

What kind of fruit is it? Are they berries or rather a jumble of oranges, bananas, etc?

Highland_Fling

Hi everyone
i was writing a post and pressed wrong key on laptop and it has just disappeared.
Well as I was saying in the absent post I managed to avoid browsing for bargains on the 1st.
Went to M&S to meet friends for a cuppa, blethered too long and was late leaving so no time to browse shelves for bargains.
Planning to make shortbread today. I have butter which was reduced because it was in a Christmas wrap. Also have a jar of mincemeat (reduced) which I fold through a basic sponge mix. Produces a type of very light fruit cake. The taste of fruit cake but the texture of sponge.
Also have plenty of fresh veg to use up so soup maker will be busy..

caronc

First spend of Feb @ £21 - total so far £21/£120

klbooth

Yesterday I grabbed some eggs when passing and pizzas from Iceland for dinner last night. Busy day and needed quick and easy for dinner before work. No plans for any shopping today, just zzzzzzz's

savingholmes

Can I join please? Spent £89 at Aldi on 1/2. Target for the month is £400 or less. I know we overspend on food but have to start somewhere.

We have full freezers and a reasonably stocked tin cupboard - so my challenge at the moment is to use up some of what we don't like that's lurking in the freezer drawer. My son did white food diet a few months ago and we've ended up with loads of white cod etc that none of us are keen on. I'm doing Slimming World so whatever I end up making needs to be reasonably on plan. I will look at the recipe ideas at the start of the thread for ideas. I get paid mid month but am currently likely to end up in overdraft due to some unexpected bills. If however I can limit buying any additional groceries between now and then to fruit and milk and the odd loaf of bread we may be able to avoid using the overdraft.

pamsdish

First spends of Feb £8.48 in B&M which was for a stock jar of coffee some plasters, friend asked for one the other day which is when I realised I had none, picked up 2 packs of dog treats as on offer, although she is still eating her Christmas gifts, just checked receipt charged full price.
Lidl £3.33 only went in to return an item, Morries £15.74 which includes 3 saver stamps for dd, they will accept a card of those but not if I offer cash. 3 reduced plants and 8 bottles of tonic water.
Bother, just found email from My supermarket price drop alerts Ariel Liquid on offer 3 for £10 in Morries so will go back next week to start my stockpile again of those, another thing dd accepts.

ceb1995

Spent £33.16 on a our weekly shop today, got some YS meat for three meals and a few YS snacks including shop cake bars that don't go out of date for a couple of months, so now on £41.91/£180

Tales17

So I have finally got around to going through my accounts for this week!:beer:

Child number 2 now has chicken pox so going to be a fun week here! On the upside we have booked for a week long break at a lodge with a hot tub for half term week so something to look forward to!:j

Just done my final check in for January and ended up £15.98 over which isn't too bad as I wasn't entirely sure of our spending and worked hard in the last two weeks to keep it down!

I haven't updated the February numbers as I have just completed up to end of January but so far I have shopped in Sainsburys using a £9 off £60 voucher and set up a Tesco collection for Monday using £5 off £40 voucher (but topped it up to £60 to get the 10p off petrol voucher as that will be useful for holiday travelling!). Will update the exact number next week!

Trying to make use of the vouchers we have been sent as it makes sense to save money at the shops where possible so probably be mainly Sainsburys this month! Still kicking myself for forgetting to use the Tesco petrol voucher on Friday - had it in the car but did my usual fill at pump payment which meant I couldn't use the voucher!! Lesson learnt!!:mad:

On a positive note, saved another £50 on clothes sale shopping and finding a whole set of My Little Pony bedding, blanket and cushion reduced at Tesco which I have put away for my daughters birthday! :T

Happy Shopping all and will check in again on Thursday I hope!

YorksLass

And we're off with a new month! Three spends this week, £1.59 at the Co-op, £7.70 in the market and £6.90 for last night's dinner of 2 battered haddock from the chippie (yes, it's expensive but it's the one night when I don't cook so I look on it as a treat). So, total for the week £16.19 and 5 NSDs.

Since the beginning of this year I've cut the groceries-only budget down by £5 per week and am saving this in a bulk buy fund that now has £25 in it , most of which will be used at the end of the week when DH goes to the fishmongers for prawns and mussels for the freezer. Other than that, there's no shopping on the near horizon for us as we're still well stocked up with frozen/tinned/dried stuff. I shall be glad of that as the weather forecast for the coming week for where we are in West Yorkshire isn't good - very cold with frost and wintry showers.

Meal plan for this week so far is:

Tonight - Fakeaway king prawn curry with rice
Sunday - Hm cottage pie, sprouts, pickled red cabbage and apple crumble for afters
Monday - Beef & green pepper stir fry in black bean sauce with noodles
Tuesday - Liver, bacon & onion casserole, mash, spring greens (half of the casserole will go in the freezer as a hm ready meal)
Wednesday - Baked cod parcels, hm potato & veg cakes, peas
Thursday - Chicken risotto

This week's hm soup is tomato & red pepper but I'll need to do some baking as the cake tin is empty. I'm thinking flapjacks plus a large custard tart. Any pastry trimmings left over (and there usually are some) I can use for jam or lemon curd tarts.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and I'll pop in again next week to read all the new posts.