Cash neutral grocery spends, 'till Christmas.

t14cy_t

sign up to goodhousekeeping the posh mag, you can do free to enter competitions and hopefully get on their trials panel. ive been very lucky with them this year and am about to trial my 5 th product with them this year....all gorgeous things you can keep after you've given your honest opinion on them. xx

Owain_Moneysaver

mumtoomany wrote: »

if I can harvest the rabbits

fixed that for you

mumtoomany

HI all.

Beenthere-donethat, 5 of the 8 of us are away till Saturday, visiting the DGC's other grandparents, so chicken thighs only for three. I have cooked that little meat for all of us, but usually disguise it in a pie, on a pizza or in an omlete. DD3 is having potatoes with hers, OH and I just veg, carrots, kale, (both home grown) and cauli. We are on a low carb diet for the next 3 weeks.

t14cyt thanks, I will look into that.

Owain, we have indeed harvested rabbits in the past. The dog when younger and fitter would often catch them, we also get given rabbits and pheasants occasionally from a neighbour.

Have just cashed out £50 from yougov. That should sort any shopping needed this week.

Mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

Hello all. First shopping trip since the start of this challenge. Total spent £15.18.

£6.50 in the veg shop, I got 10kg carrots, 5 iceburg lettuce, 4 cauliflowers, 1 savoy cabbage, 13 bananas and 19 huge and one medium sized tomato. Told you it was cheap!

Aldi, I got milk, bread, brown sauce, ketchup,mushrooms, pasta and tampons for DD3.

I'm hoping I won't need anything else for a week or so.

Speak later, mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

So this afternoon DD3 needed collecting from her friends house. They went out for Halloween last night, as I was student night so £1 drinks. Must be my daughter! Called into Morrisons, the only things on the list yesterday that I did not buy were frozen peas(none in stock) and cooking marg (aldi don't sell this). I was going to manage without until next week, but as we were in town anyway, called in. Got the marg and peas, also the broccoli were reduced to 14p each. I now need to find room in the freezer for broccoli. Unfortunatly OH was with me so 2 bags of nuts also ended up in the trolley! Total £8.97. Must try harder!

Mumtoomany.

buildersdaughter

A suggestion as you have mentioned tinned mushy peas - do you use dried pulses? I used to stretch things a long way by using dried peas, and things like butter and haricot beans, chickpeas & kidney beans.
The problem is that they need long cooking, and depending on what you pay for fuel, some think it not worthwhile. I think it a lot tastier. You can use a slow cooker as long as they have a good boil first (you can look up the exact times to be safe, but I give them all 15 minutes!).
I buy gammon slipper or collar to soak and cook, and also the spicy sausage stuff from Aldi/Lidl. You can use these to make lovely spicy stews with plenty of pulses.
We always stretch our chill with sweetcorn as well as kidney beans, adds colour & texture.
Also, I always cook up a huge batch of mushy peas, freeze some portions, and make some into soup.
I use pheasant as well to make the bean stew into 'cassoulet'. The stupid people who come to shoot and not take their pheasant , enable us pick some up very cheaply.

At the risk of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs (but others may find this useful) I also know these don't fit with 'low carb' but for those who are burning off the calories:
With those numbers it would be worth making your own bread, but possibly not if you can easily shop at Aldi / Lidl.
I also imagine that you can pick up huge sacks of potatoes - my friends used to say that I started cooking jacket potatoes before deciding what else we'd eat!
Variations on pies: Scone or savoury crumble topping is cheaper than pastry, and you can add herbs & ends of grated cheese for flavour, and use up breadcrumbs as well.

Good luck!

mumtoomany

Thanks for the ideas buildersdaughter. I don't use dried pulses much. Do put lentils, red, green, black into things. Use tinned beans of all sorts. No chick peas, they would all move out if I used them! Of course that would cut the food bill. We cooked with bottled gas until last week. Now have the hob connected to the tank, so a few pence cheaper, but still expensive.

Potatoes, I always buy 25kg sacks. Last time I bought 2 for £10, one sack in the barn.

Bread, I do sometimes cook my own, and always make my own pizza bases. The cash and carry often have reduced bread. Loaves 20p, wraps 20 for 20p, rolls £1 per big bag etc.

Everything gets stretched with more veg and often oats too.

Low carb diet only for another 2 and a half weeks.

Mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

Just researched dried beans/tinned beans. A tin of kidney beans contains 240gms of beans. At 30p can the beans are 12.5p per 100gms. 50gms of dried beans makes 100gms of cooked beans. Dried kidney beans are, at present around 15p per 100gms (dried weight) so cost around 7.5p per 100gms cooked. Much cheaper, and I think other beans would work out cheaper too. Also they can be cooked in the pressure cooker, saving time and money. I think I will be swapping over to dried, once all the tins are used. Bulk cooking and then freezing in batches. Thanks again buildersdaughter, never too old to learn something new.

Hope this helps someone else, mumtoomany.

D&DD

Count me in we've had some devastating news this week about our beloved Rosie her growth is cancerous and thanks to Virgin stopping pet insurance she is no longer covered due to her breed.


Outgoings so far have been over £800 this week alone and she's in for major surgery on Monday which is going to be at least another thousand.


I'm not willing to give her up without a fight and as long as she's still comfortable I don't care how much it costs I can happily exist on my stores for years if need be...I may have to crowdfund for cheese tho


I won't be posting much for obvious reasons as my nursemaid hat is firmly on at present but will be checking in as time allows and cheering you all on from the sidelines.

mumtoomany

Hi D&DD, so sorry to hear about Rosie. I hope all goes well for her on Monday, I'll be thinking of her and you. Have a small cheese mountain in the fridge here, come and help yourself, mumtoomany.