January 2008 Grocery Challenge

charleypink

hi everyone,
well iv'e had a good day today, only spent £10.80 in aldi and iceland. I bought 8 pints of full milk, which i will dilute and should last till next weekend! I also bought a few bags of four, so my oh can make some bread through the week. I tried my soap nuts today and i was really pleased, i added some essential oils and the washing smelt lovely! i even washed some of my toddlers clothes and they came out ok.
charley:p

Frugaldom

Hi everyone, I did a dash around the supermarket today and spent a grand total of £10.85

I had been aiming for £10 but let's just say my accompanying male human calculator wasn't quite arithmetic perfect :rolleyes: Oh well, better luck next week.

So far, so good, signature updated, grocery budget well within target and cupboards still heaving with pasta and rice

mikeD

I cannot believe it :eek:. Went to the freezer last night to get the meat out for todays dinner and budder me the cupboard was bare :o:o. I'm usually so good at provisioning for the fortnight ahead so where did todays dinner go?? Anyway post hasted it to the local convenience store and got a chicken for £4.88 :eek:, well it was free range from a local farmer. It will do for tomorrows dinner as well and can also make some chicken stock from the carcass :T. BTW it was very tasty!! Also got some cooking chocolate, yoghurt and cream and will make a nice mousse for tea.

Have updated siggie and hopefully will come around budget for January.

tattycath, how's the poorly head today, hope it's better, migraine is so awful.:grouphug:

Love the FM

Bobbykins

Hi Frogmaster......I'm very interested to know whether you thought the extra money was worth it for the free range chook?

I notice you said it was very tasty but was there a significant difference to what you normally buy? (I'm testing my conscience at the moment on the free range issue vs financial constraints!)

cheers

mikeD

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Just for info there was a really interesting article in The Observer today about rising food prices - in case anyone wants to read it it's
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2243786,00.html

Not directly relevant for this thread but some might be interested, there was also one on fuel poverty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/20/utilities.householdbills

Really makes you think.

Thanks for that bg23, it certainly does make you think. It is no real surprise to me as a loaf of bread at our local convenience store has just gone up from £1.19 to £1.25. The rise in the cost of staple foods like this and milk and eggs etc. will make life in the future more difficult to bear especially for pensioners on a fixed pension with no opportunity to find work to supplement their income. My DW and I lived through the 2nd WW and remember how difficult it was for our parents to feed us when food was short. But they managed somehow so we can hopefully take an example from them and overcome adversity whatever problems are thrown at us. At least we have this community to support and encourage each other.

nopot2pin

Went to Sainsburys today... spent £3.26.

I am getting to the scary part of the month for me now, as previous months show that I always go mental in the last week of the GC :eek: .
But I only have £11.82 in which to go mental with :rolleyes:

I do have to go to the egg lady tomorrow for eggs. That will be about £4ish. In fact... I might try and wait to go there on Tuesday :think: Which means not getting the purse out at all tomorrow.

I have just made a massive pot of soup. Its lovely:o . And I also made some bread.
I have taken some of that up to my parents. And now, I am going to sort the rest of it for the freezer.

Moniker

Gosh, this thread moves so fast I haven't had time to read all the posts for days. Have just updated my sig though and have just over £74 to last till 31st, which should be do-able as I have my Nectar ponts in reserve. However, both DDs are coming home next weekend so I willl have to buy some extras.

I was a bit cross with myself on Friday as I popped into the local Co-op to buy some bread rolls and came out having spent over £4 on the reduced section. I don't think I really needed the reduced soup or the mayo(!) and I already had a couple of packets of lasagne sheets! Still I know now that I am useless without my list and nothing is worth buying if you don't really need it!

Never mind - downhill run now till the end of the month. Good luck folks and have a good week.

bails

Hi all, just to let you know I'm still doing the GC, just not enough time to post regularly! I'm over budget for this month (my first month) but will definitely make up for it over the year as I have LOADS of stuff still! Good luck to those who are nearing the end of their funds, hope you manage to make it. Will let you know how I got on at the end of the month.

Aril

Just a thought [another small one as usual:D ] If you find you're forgetting stuff you need I read a tip somewhere that it works well setting up a core list of regular stuff you buy on the pc eg milk, yogurts [that's one of my blind spots!] and then when you come to doing your list you can just check against it and see if any of the items ring any bells. It's not something I do but may be of use to someone.
Aril

scotrae

By popular demand and following the acclaimed meatballs, he's my DH's much-hyped veggie burger recipe ...

Mashed potato - leftover from previous day
Diced carrots (could use leftovers instead of freshly boiled ones)
Broccoli (ditto)
Peas

(DH suggests you culd use any veg in addition to the spuds, depending on what you have leftover or in the freezer. He can't remember if he used onion - sometimes we do.)

Drain the boiled veg and mash them into the mash, which should ideally be cold as it will be easier to shape.
Add a 'hint of pepper' (hark at him!) and a sprikle of curry powder. Salt if you want to. If it's too dry you could add some butter/marg but take care that it's not too 'sloppy'.

Tip on to a flat surface and shape into a slab, about 1 inch thick - then use shaped cutters or rounds - 'healthy hearts' in this case. Put shapes on to foil on a baking tray and grill to brown the tops, turning once to crisp the other side.

We had ours served with thick homemade chips (more spuds) and a dip of tomato sauce.

I have a late addition to the week's shopping once I find my receipt from last night. I went to Tesco Express via the petrol station, aiming to get some indulgent chocolate puddings. But when i saw the price of them I decided to get a pot of cheap fromage frais to have with some fruit from home, and just a chocolate flake to crumble over the top of it. Better still, I got a £1.89 bag of apples for 29p and an expensive pack of vine tomatoes for 59p and still spent less in total than I would have done on 2 slices of chocolate cheesecake.

Tonight's roast pork was a huge piece that I bought for only £2.93 and there wil be plenty on i for another meal and lots of sarnies. All in all I reckon that the fantastic meal cost less than £1 a head for the four of us, leaving us some mash and pork for tomorrow.

Can't wait for this new week to start. I'm going to try to find out when our Tesco reduces the meat as I'll have to get some more this week but I'm still aiming to keep to the budget if I can.