January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Kimberley

I want to join the Feb Grocery challenge, what would be an ideal amount for an adult, 3 kids and a dog? Do i keep all recipes and add them all up each week and also what else do i include? :beer:

tattycath

Hi everyone. I think I've finally finished for january spends, I spent £3.00 yesterday-must update my sig. I must hunt out my breadmaker!!! I know it's in the loft-somewhere!!! Eldest DD just made some buns-so no doubt they'll be snacking!!! Got 800g of minced beef in fridge. How many meals for 4 do you think I could feasibly make (please) without being too stingy, I do have some peppers and mushrooms to bulk it out with. I was hoping to cook in bulk and freeze some for meals later in week. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

carrottopsuk

Never done this challenge before although we tried to reduce shopping bill this month. (unfortunately haven't managed to save all receipts). I hope that this challenge will help us focus in February.

The challenge is for 3 Adults with the occasional lunch and tea for 4. It also includes food and cat litter for 5 hungry cats :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

However, we are away for a week- although the moggies still need to be fed.

I'm a bit unsure how much to budget in that my mum used to spend a fortune on food (& waste a lot of it). However, this month we've been cooking a lot from scratch & have cut down on ready meals. As I don't eat meat & poultry, we've been eating mainly vegetarian evening meals - I just need to sort out how to menu plan & budget for lunches.

My mum has every cleaning spray under the sun under our kitchen sink so I've told her not to buy and more without using up the supply we already have (seriously - there simply isn't any more room to store it). I said that we should only have a few bottles underneath the sink and we could try swopping it with vinegar or stardrops instead. I'm not sure how long the washing liquid etc will last us though we seem to be washing clothes, towels etc all the time.

Sorry for waffling.

This is a bit of a guess as I am hoping to budget £55.00 per week (3 weeks) for food, household stuff & budget £25 for cat food/litter =

55 x 3 =£165
25 x 4 = £80 - £100

We've got a few bags of cat biscuits in already and some boxes of cat food so it may not reflect the true picture. Also, I tend to bulk buy cat food when there's a good offer.

Moniker

Well, as you can see from my updated signature I am going to be over my limit this month. It's my own fault, because I mis-calculated the size of the joint I would need for five of us today and had to go out an buy another one yesterday. But I didn't have to go into Boots and buy those half price items! Also, I could have used my Nectar points for my last big Sainsbury's shop but thought I would be well under without them and would use them on Thursday this coming week instead (though that is actually the start of my February challenge). Still, it's not much over and I will do better next month as I still have lots of cereal and dry goods leftover which means my first big shop of the month won't be as expensive as usual.

Good luck all those of you who are facing the last week of January - and well done to all those who have succeeded. I'm off to calculate my budget for February!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there Kimberley

Everyone is different Some -like me , include all toiletries, cleaning stuff etc... some have seperate budgets for that -so its really which way will suit you best... I just find it easier to keep tabs on 1 lot of money than several smaller budgets...

Deciding how much to budget... well again most people usually suggest adding up how much you are spending at the moment (guestimate if you don't have receipts;) ) and then reducing it a little at a time-say £50 less this month and then a£50 the following month -rather than cutting right back and having the family freak at the loss of their "goodies" ...

I update my signature everytime i spend something -that way there is no excuse of "ooops lost a receipt -so can't count that"...

You will soon get into the swing of it -and pick up loads of ideas and recipes along the way :T

Honeybe21

the february thread should be appearing soon -quite a few folks are getting ready to start that one...even though its still January :rolleyes: -then you can jump in and join us all

Moniker

tattycath wrote: »

Got 800g of minced beef in fridge. How many meals for 4 do you think I could feasibly make (please) without being too stingy, I do have some peppers and mushrooms to bulk it out with. I was hoping to cook in bulk and freeze some for meals later in week. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

I usually find that if you make a big batch of bolognese sauce and then put it through a food processor if you have one so it is quite a smooth sauce you can fill cannelloni tubes (allow about four small ones per person) and cover with a white sauce topped with grated cheese/ parmesan/ breadcrumbs - it goes a lot further than if you make lasgane or a sheperd's pie with it. You could easily do enough for two lots of canelloni and still have some left for a spaghetti sauce with this amount of meat. I usually make ny bolognese with celery, mushrooms, onion, carrot a tin of tomatoes and some lentils as well as the meat and 200g meat will feed the two of us twice this way. Hope this helps.

honeybe21

thank u mrsmcawber

i suggest looking at what u buy the branded named things as the cheap stuff is just as nice and using a compare site i found that asda is the cheapest comapred to tesco and i only buy the asda smart price foods for everyone including the animals.

for those with lots of cats i suggest multi packs of food perhaps from a pet food store not a supermarket as they usually only have upto 24 tin multi packs and dried food so they can have meat once a day.

Kimberley

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Hi there Kimberley

Everyone is different Some -like me , include all toiletries, cleaning stuff etc... some have seperate budgets for that -so its really which way will suit you best... I just find it easier to keep tabs on 1 lot of money than several smaller budgets...

Deciding how much to budget... well again most people usually suggest adding up how much you are spending at the moment (guestimate if you don't have receipts;) ) and then reducing it a little at a time-say £50 less this month and then a£50 the following month -rather than cutting right back and having the family freak at the loss of their "goodies" ...

I update my signature everytime i spend something -that way there is no excuse of "ooops lost a receipt -so can't count that"...

You will soon get into the swing of it -and pick up loads of ideas and recipes along the way :T

Honeybe21

the february thread should be appearing soon -quite a few folks are getting ready to start that one...even though its still January :rolleyes: -then you can jump in and join us all

Thank you well this is my estimate for Jan so far going by my debit card payments in my budget book.

£120.22 at waitrose
£18.15 at Somerfield
£73.11 with Tesco direct

thats £211.48 a month so far on shopping and thats not including the cash payments :eek: OMG i'm shocked.

MRSMCAWBER

Tattycath

Do you have a spare sausage lurking in the fridge/freezer?
if so you can make "savoury meat roll" something my mum used to make when i was a kid and now i make it

I will give you the general idea..as there is no such thing as a recipe :rotfl: and you can alter to suit what your family like...

SAVOURY MEAT ROLL

1. MASHED POTATO -great for using leftover
2. ONIONS, SLICED AND MICROWAVED
3. 4OZ RAW MINCE -can use left over joint (blitzed in processor)
4. 1 RAW SAUSAGE -SKINNED

Basically mix all the above plus seasoning-its best to use your hands so that everything is distributed right through..
leave to go cold -so the pastry will be easier to handle (the amount of pastry you need will depend on how much filling you make)
roll out short crust pastry into a long rectangle (flaky/puff just doesn't seem right with this)
spread filling over and roll like a swiss roll -place on baking sheet and whack in oven (about 190)until golden and hot right through -best served with HM mushy peas and gravy

It really is a tasty meal -using little meat..the pastry on the inside absorbs loads of flavour too
As i say you can alter it to suit..
mashed potato and swede, carrots etc.. and if you wanted you can add more meat -but to be honest it doesn't need it
and of course you could make it into a pie/pasties if the roll is a bit much to handle:rotfl:
hope that helps someone..we love it and its a good old fashioned meal that my mum learnt as a child during the war :T

tattycath

Thanks Moniker that's very helpful. I have also got 500g of yellow split peas in cupboard, but have just noticed they need soaking overnight. Would it be possible to soak them all overnight then split into portions and freeze so I can use them straight away when I need them please??
same with black eyed beans I have just found in cupboard!!! Goodness, I'm finding all this stuff I didn't remember having!!! i will have to seriously update my storecupboard list on excell-doesn't help that OH and kids have stopped using it, I've been a bit lapse with it tbh or I would know what I have in the cupboards-the dried stuff anyway.