January 2008 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Hi,
Just a quick update...
Spent 99p last night on a bottle of squash from the corner shop - deliberately avoided Tesco as I can't just go in for one thing and stick to it!

My total is now up to £89 (give or take a few pennies) meaning that I have £10 to last me until the end of the month. This may be a bit tricky as although I'm working away from Sunday - Friday next week (and all food is paid for by work) I have to go straight back to my parents in Wales on Saturday to look after the family whilst my mum is in hospital having surgery (I have a disabled sister, a well meaning but totally unpractical dad and a bonkers nana!)

This is a good thing as I get to eat mum's food for the weekend but a bad thing budget wise as my sister is coming back to Manchester with me to stay for about 5 days whilst my mum recouperates. I hadn't budgeted for this and will either have to try to make things stretch (my freezer is relatively full and the cupboards look OK but the fridge is empty!) or relent and spend more. I'm a veggie but she's not - she'll eat veggie stuff quite happily but I don't feel like a very good hostess if I don't give her at least some meat! Any ideas for things that can be easily doctored from veggie to contain meat (at the last minute of cooking!) would really help.


Anyway, good luck to everyone else and see you in a week!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there theamazinggem

You can freeze fresh pasta no problem...with filled things like ravioli, i would spread them on a tray to start them off and then just tip them in a bag to store... you should be fine...:D

mrs-moneypenny

morning all, well ive stayed in budget (but only just) for 2 weeks hoping to do a lot better this week as its the first one that i havent got to dip in the food money for other things.

planning a trip to Aldi tomorrow after ive been to the market for the fruit and veg, so lions share of the shopping should be covered all in one day.

got some soft tomatoes left so am planning a pizza tonight, that will use those and the last of the mushrooms and peppers up --Cheap but filling tea:T

cheerfulness4

Justamum wrote: »

A few months ago in the reduced section of our local supermarket I found 1lb punnets of mushrooms reduced from £1.19 to 10p! I bought all that they had (about 5 I think). When I got home I sliced some (for pizzas), chopped some into largish chunks (for stews) and chopped some into small pieces. I just bagged them and froze them as they were and they were fine. I've just about finished using them up now. One of the best food bargains I've ever seen (there aren't many where I live).

Really glad you posted that! :j I was wondering last night, while using some frozen mushrooms that I'd bought, how I could save money and freeze reduced ones. They have them at mine for 10p a lot and they're as fresh as daisies. Will save a fortune, and love the tip about freezing in different sizes.

I've been buying up the root veg at 10p a go, as lots around after xmas, and been freezing that it different sizes but didn't even think about doing that with mushrooms.

Mollymop5

Really hoping for a nsd today.I have soup in the slow cooker getting my tastebuds flowing and I'm making a lentila and potato bake for tea with crusty bread rolls I made last night soup is for the weekend.The kids have it for lunch saturday before going to their dads and I send a big tub with them to keep my ex happy

theamazinggem

right well i'm on the ravioli building for the weekend then... should be fun!

i wonder what "leftover bits from the fridge" tortelini are like...

JoJoB

£7 in the co-op today. Popped out with OH to get some porridge oats so I have something for brekkie tomorrow. Emerged with bananas, orange juice (tropicana 2 for £2.50 so seemed like a bargain), profiteroles reduced to 80p so it would be churlish not to, milk, and 2 packets of crisps (really essential).

Really not doing too well at all!

hilary1

I think I'll have to stop taking OH with me lol

Last week he put a pair of jeans in the trolley in George and yesterday in Morrisons he added batteries (just incase) so I'm going to start shopping when he's at work instead.

Still have to do my freezer list, but its too cold.

Otherwise I'm pretty happy with my shopping to date as doing this has made me stay away from the shops even for the sales.


xx

** Forgot to tell you all that in Morrisons Special K is on offer at £1.25

orchid-96

Just back from the weekly shop at Tescos, spent £36.13 so really pleased with that, I have to admit thought that I spent £11 on nappies that I didn't need yet (I have enough in to last a few weeks) but I needed to use some nappy points vouchers at Tesco as I am booking a holiday in Feb (Haven) and want to get as many points as possible from this mailing...so anyway I havn't included it in my spend as I didn't actually need them and have put them away so will include them in next months (or not depending on how I feel!!) I have included though a few bits of food that I bought also to use the vouchers...

All I have to do now is get my mealplan sorted (with what I have) and stay away from the shops till next Friday!!

Mr T had some 2pt local milk reduced to 27p so I got a couple of skimmed (for me) and a couple of semi skimmed which we can all have....the babies need the full fat (which they didn't have any reduced - probably some mser had already bought it at 27p for 2pts ready to water down!!!!)

I pretty much stuck to my list apart from a couple of things on offer at half price (linda mcartney sausages 80p and cauli cheese grills 84p) which I will definitely use this week...I also got 8 cans strongbow for dh to keep him quiet...

Everyone seems to be doing great...The only thing I will def need is bread, so will have to pop out for that but otherwise hopefully set for the week...

I have just remembered though that we have my sister, her bf and her ds coming on 25th Jan and we usually have a takeway one day and cook the next so I will need to budget for this...

Sorry to have waffled on, this thread is already soo long and hard to keep up with

belfastgirl23

Mollymop5 wrote: »

I'm making a lentila and potato bake for tea with crusty bread rolls

Oh this sounds nice (glad I've had lunch or it would sound even better ). How do you make it if you don't mind sharing? Trying to eat more pulses for reasons of waistline as well as wallet...

I'm going to try very hard to keep this weekend's shop light. If I can I think I'll make do with a F&V shop. So hoping not to spend much more than a tenner, £15 max. We're down to our last half banana though so need to do it soon I really think I have a chance of coming in on budget this month, partly cos DH is away tues-fri the week after next so I think I might finally get to have a 'use up' week

I also got around to making fruit bread in my new panasonic. It was lovely but couldn't help thinking how much nicer it would be with butter on top

Good luck to everyone over the weekend and stay away from those shops