December 2007 Grocery Challenge

Blairweech

I have done quite well this week, managed to eek out the contents of the freezer so that all I spent was £6 - this was £5 on milk from the farm and £1 on emergency loo roll. Just about to make my meal plan for next week and probably go shopping.

lil_me

Big hugs for Jacks, that is something I have done several times, hope you didn't get burnt or anything, last time I did it was shepherds pie and it smashed spilling over my legs and cutting my foot big ooops.

I'm still here but trying to be VERY good, I'm trying not to buy anything unless I NEED to, so far I haven't bought anything since last Friday I think it was. I'm trying to use up what we have so I can try to empty the 2 freezers a bit, Xmas meat ordered and nowhere to put it as they are both full

Oh who mentioned the cereals, Weetabix. The normal Weetabix (branded) are usually on offer in InStore and Lidl at the mo. In my house we don't have cereal packets, all in tubs, even the Weetabix is in a big tupperware box, all taken out of the wrapper so noone is any wiser except for corn flakes, even I dislike the value ones of those, yuk!

sweetpea03

sorry to hear about your dinner & dish jacks Hope you managed to find something else to eat
Had to buy milk today, would usually walk to Lidls but the weather here is really rough today so I chickened out & went to the corner shop instead. It was ok in the end though £2.20 for 2x 2litres (special offer at costcutter) My first week has gone well I think just doing top up shopping next week as I am trying out the fortnightly shop the week after

tattycath

Hi Everyone. OH has only found one receipt so far from when he did some shopping while I was ill in bed, so I am going to have to take an educated guess and adjust accordingly when the receipts appear. I estimate that as well as spending £4.52-the receipt he did produce- that he probably spent another £15.00. He only had to buy catfood and bread so I cannot imagine that he would have spent more than that-I hope not anyway!!! lol So If I round the figure up to £20 and hope that when he finds receipts I have overestimated. I will update my sig to reflect this.

Skint_Catt

Didn't do hugely well last month - went over my £225 in the last few days as had a spurt of needs I hadn't planned for.

Technically this month should be cheaper as we're out and about for half of it but I'll aim for £225 again as we have to buy some stuff for Mum and Dads Xmas Day.

Fingers crossed!

Catt xx

mikeD

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Sadly...they come wrapped in weetabix organic stamped paper so no chance.

On the bright side he is eating this instead of other things so I suppose it's MS in its own way

And Mike would you believe I puzzled over what a DW was for ages before it dawned on me sorry you're so outnumbered.

A long time ago someone thought it stood for Dish Washer!!! This accentuates the discriminatory element on this particular thread that only Wimmin can actually do the shopping. This may be true in a parochial sense, but universaly men are far better at it than Ladies. Trust me I know! My DW and I use to shop together and she took an ENORMOUS :eek: amount of time to get the weekly shopping :rolleyes:. Now I can do it in half the time without leaving the house. I use logic, not emotion!! . OK I can hear the keyboards rattling away (I've got my hearing aids in :rotfl:) but you will never convince that Ladies are better shoppers than Men!! .

Good Luck Everybody!

mikeD

Blairweech wrote: »

£1 on emergency loo roll.

Thinking about "Emergencies" My DW has acquired a "Delicate tummy". We have narrowed it down to (a) Onions (b) Spices and (c) Curry. As onions are very good for the blood and spices and curry (which I and my DS3 like very much) make some very tasty dishes, this is restricting my ability to produce a reasonably tasty menu that satisfies all concerned. This, coupled with the fact DS3 only eats late at night so heats his meals up in the microwave, restricts what I can cook for our dinners. I'm quite a good cook and would like to extend my range, but am hampered by the the requirement to produce good food for each taste and circumstance. Advice please, bearing in mind that I'm on a very restricted income. I love good food and am continually frustrated that I have to continually subjugate my desire to meet the needs of others. :mad:

Jacks_xxx

:rotfl: Lol Mike!

My hubby used to do the supermarket shopping when I worked full time hours but now I'm a part timer I do it using a combination of shanks pony and my mouse finger.

The fact that we spend a lot less now is nown to MSE and the GC rather than any special shopping skills I may have!

The first installment of my Christmas Mr T order is in so I'm off to update my sig.

Thanks you SO much to everybody who commiserated with my Moussaka Disaster. I'm making it again this week, but I haven't bought a new pyrex dish to put it in yet.

Love Jacks xxx

PS Mike, sorry to hear that your DW's tummy is playing up. I'm not much of a cook honey so I can't think of anything to suggest immediately - but I'll put my thinking cap on and see if I can come up with anything. (An onion free moussaka could work as it's easily microwavable later and a salad to go with it can be left in the fridge. Just don't let some muppet - who may or may not have been on the cooking sherry - drop it! )

tattycath

mikeD wrote: »

This accentuates the discriminatory element on this particular thread that only Wimmin can actually do the shopping. This may be true in a parochial sense, but universaly men are far better at it than Ladies. Trust me I know! My DW and I use to shop together and she took an ENORMOUS :eek: amount of time to get the weekly shopping :rolleyes:. Now I can do it in half the time without leaving the house. I use logic, not emotion!! . OK I can hear the keyboards rattling away (I've got my hearing aids in :rotfl:) but you will never convince that Ladies are better shoppers than Men!! .

Good Luck Everybody!

Mike you might as well just
:wall: :wall: for all the notice us girlies are going to take. :rotfl: :rotfl: I agree men are better than women at some things... moaning, blowing their own trumpet... :rotfl: :rotfl: maybe DW took so long shopping when you were with her so as not to prove you wrong!!! an ego thing for your benefit!!!:rotfl: :rotfl: lol As for using logic not emotion had you really used logic you wouldn't have come to that conclusion.:p
Anyway maybe DW didn't like shopping and has cunningly got you to do it. Just teasing Mike. Personally I'm great at shopping you ask my OH, he says he spends many an hour watching me trail round the supermarket.

belfastgirl23

hi everyone, god what an awful day, rain and wind together is the pits!

Had a foray to tesco tonight to get a few bits (got friends coming round). And ended up spending £18.87. Which is about £9 more than I meant to spend. Weetabix accounted for £2.07 of this - and let me tell you all that DH would raise the roof if I started decanting it into plastic and would know straight away what I was up to I also couldn't resist the clementines (another £2.29) and I decided to get an aubergine and some goats cheese for a different pizza. Anyway got a big shop arriving on Tues so I think it'll be tight towards the end of the month And before anyone asks, DH sat outside tesco rather than coming in which suited us both perfectly

Hope you're all tucked up cosily on this grim night off to eat and drink a lot too much. Jacks will be careful to keep a very good grip on the pizza stones...

Oh and Mike is it possible to do say a basic mince or tomato-y type dish and then add in curry stuff etc later so your DW could have the plainer version and you could get your spices? Not so big on hot stuff myself so maybe adding it after doesn't work?? I'd also want to find out asap if onions were the cause of the trouble cos cooking without them seems a lot harder to me...will have a think and see if I can come up with anything...