January 2008 Grocery Challenge

craftycrofty

Well I thought I had done my last shop for January, but we had friends over for lunch yesterday and OH decided to buy 'a few bits'. Anyway my total is now £252.34 which is £2.34 over.

HOPEFULLY that should be it for January, but I'm not calling that my final balance until 31st!!

CC

C1aire

Well, slightly over budget this month, but still spent loads less than I would have done if not taking part in this!

Got paid on Friday which is a relief, but am getting to the bottom of my store cupboard, so I think I might up my budget for next month, though only by a tenner! Also just bought myself a slow cooker with some Lakeland vouchers I had, so I'm hoping that will save on some cash too.

The real expense is the cats - they aren't fussy, but they are on special diet food which is fairly expensive. I'd just feed them less of the regular food, but oh my! :eek: The results are sooooo nasty to clear up!

Is there a separate Feb GC thread?

jackiegibbo

C1aire wrote: »

Well, slightly over budget this month, but still spent loads less than I would have done if not taking part in this!

Got paid on Friday which is a relief, but am getting to the bottom of my store cupboard, so I think I might up my budget for next month, though only by a tenner! Also just bought myself a slow cooker with some Lakeland vouchers I had, so I'm hoping that will save on some cash too.

The real expense is the cats - they aren't fussy, but they are on special diet food which is fairly expensive. I'd just feed them less of the regular food, but oh my! :eek: The results are sooooo nasty to clear up!

Is there a separate Feb GC thread?

Yes there is you will find it in the moneysaving oldstyle index

bebee_2

ermm yeah i spent yesterday when out and about, but pretty sure i got some bargains.

Vegtables & Fruit for the week from the Market £8.78
Ham shank/ 2 Lamb shanks/ Sausages/ cooked meat £12.63
and a bit of a luxury homemade Marmalade £2.50
Mr T few bits - £19.00

I have update my Jan GC spend. as can't see how i will need anything else this week (famous words). Total spend £154.59 under for this month but to be fair didn't start till 17/1 .
Of to Join Feb GC list

Lil_me please put me down for £250 again as this will be my first full month

mikeD

Hiya all.

Wow wottalotta posts since I was last on (i.e. yesterday) it's taken around an hour to get through them.

BigmammaF - Thanks for :kisses2: that. DW asked me what I was doing on the floor with a glazed expression in my eyes. Apparently I mumbled"Can I have another two of those please .

Bobbykins and BG23 - You need to get down to training you OH's better. I'm sure that tattycath and annie123 could help you here as they seem to have got it down to a fine art. REMEMBER..."If you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem"

Made a lasagne for dinner yesterday evening. My goodness what a fiddly dish to prepare. Made the ragu OK and the sauce but when it came to the pasta I had a problem. I was using Darling Delia's recipe but my DW said you only need to put the pasta into boiling water and no more, but Delia says cook the pasta for eight minutes. Well there's a dilemma who to believe DW or "DD". On top of that the dish I had was 7"x 5" and the pasta was 7"x3", so had to cut some into half. Also the pasta stuck together and was difficult to separate. Managed in the end though and it turned out quite delicious :j. Will have another go next week and keep "Er indoors outa the kitchen"

Only four more days to go the the month end and looking good for a below budget one. Methinks I am getting complacent and that a bit of failure might be good for the soul. so am considering lowering the target to £50 per week for 3 adults and try to do what Mrs Mcawber did (respect ma'am, respect :A).

Good luck one and all.

Love the FM

MRSMCAWBER

Why..thankyou MikeD

It helps having a hubby who loves good old cooking -and delights in taking flasks of Hm soup and lumps of Hm bread for lunch at work this weather, he very rarely snacks :eek: , doesn't add stuff to the trolley on the odd occasion he shops with me:T

And being in Germany helps -as the tax etc for locals is so expensive the food costs etc can be quite low-as long as you are carefull and buy basic ingredients to make into things yourself -the range of products here is mind blowing and you could go mad (and i have been known to before )
Oh and being on the old style weightloss thread helps -as i now no longer eat a pea more than a pig :rotfl:...the 4 portion recipes now serve 4 instead of 2:D
lets see how February goes shall we

nopot2pin

mikeD wrote: »

Made a lasagne for dinner yesterday evening. My goodness what a fiddly dish to prepare. Made the ragu OK and the sauce but when it came to the pasta I had a problem. I was using Darling Delia's recipe but my DW said you only need to put the pasta into boiling water and no more, but Delia says cook the pasta for eight minutes. Well there's a dilemma who to believe DW or "DD". On top of that the dish I had was 7"x 5" and the pasta was 7"x3", so had to cut some into half. Also the pasta stuck together and was difficult to separate. Managed in the end though and it turned out quite delicious :j. Will have another go next week and keep "Er indoors outa the kitchen"

Mike.......
I never precook lasagne. If your ragu has enough liquid in it, then the pasta will cook within the dish.

One of lifes mysteries... Why are lasagne sheets and dishes different sizes ?

waddy80

I'm over budget!!!!!!

Really annoyed, We've been to center parcs this weekend with some friends, and the plan was to shop on the way at tesco's. I'd had a tesco delivery in the morning (bogof's and stuff for this week so I had stuff in), but didn't take a massive amount of food. We normally do a spag bol on the fri night and then a bbq etc the next day and just graze the rest of the time.

But one of our party said 'Don't worry I'll do some shopping on the way' so we went straight there. She didn't (!!!!!!) and we ended up shopping in the supermarket at centre parks. £1.20 per loaf of bread! I nearly died!

In future I am going to do all the shopping, take my slow cooker and have some rubber chicken!!!!

Gonna lower my budget to £110 next month and see how I go.

PS: If anyone is going to centre parcs soon ask for one of the newly done up woodland lodges. Much nicer! And they have a dishwasher!

teeni

Was doing really well until i got the dreaded flu bug and hubby had to take over for a week, have now spent £310.46 which is way over budget with 4 days to go. Will try and cook from the cupboards/freezer for the rest of the month and limit the damage

carolt2

mikeD wrote: »

Made a lasagne for dinner yesterday evening. My goodness what a fiddly dish to prepare. Made the ragu OK and the sauce but when it came to the pasta I had a problem. I was using Darling Delia's recipe but my DW said you only need to put the pasta into boiling water and no more, but Delia says cook the pasta for eight minutes. Well there's a dilemma who to believe DW or "DD". On top of that the dish I had was 7"x 5" and the pasta was 7"x3", so had to cut some into half. Also the pasta stuck together and was difficult to separate. Managed in the end though and it turned out quite delicious :j. Will have another go next week and keep "Er indoors outa the kitchen"

Hi I never soak/cook lasagne sheets either. It usually says on the box whether you have to pre-cook them or not.
Another alternative is using pancakes instead of lasagne, the recipe is one of delia's. But she used them instead of canneloni.;)