January 2008 Grocery Challenge

dlb

Another £4.00 spent here on a few bits, bread,potatoes and some stuff for pack ups next week (half price biscuits and chewy bars at tescos).
Had to throw away 4 chicken breast today!! Froze them on day i bought them and got them out this morning and as they started to defrost the smell began..they were off!!!!!!!! So not happy about that as had to change meal for tea, to a use up night ( a bit of everything!!)

Sassamac

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

. Just been looking at what fruit/ veg I can plant in the garden in which month - roll on Spring!

do you have any info you could share on this? I have been vaguely browsing through the forums but not seen anything which tells me exactly what to do when. Im a total novice!

undercover_angel

Right, first spend done: £33.93, not too bad cos we were in need of quite a bit of store cupboard stuff and toiletries and also got a couple of little treats too. Need to get a few bits from the market tomorrow- fruit and veg that will probably be about £6 at a guess. Also this is going to be an expensive week as need to stock up on meat as the freezer is starting to empty (having said that, this is the first time we have had to fill up the meat since our initial shop when we moved in in October!!!) so will take a visit to the wholesale butchers and get a load of mince, chicken and chops etc will probably cost £20 or so but should hopefully last another 3 months!!

Feeling quite positive so far, glad to see so many others doing well!

xx

Sassamac

I had another spend today of about £16, so if I want to hit the shops again before Monday I have less than £7 to stay on target (roughly £34 per week = £150 per month). Got a few more store cupboard things, plus pizza for dinner as per our usual Friday treat.

I have decided that for January, being my first month, I will try to reduce my bill by buying a higher proportion of reduced / value / BOGOFS products at my usual store (Tesco), and also start to delve into the depths of the freezer.
Then for Feb, I will try Lidl etc. to reduce it a bit more.
Then for March I will bake my own bread, pizzas etc.
For April I will grow my own fruit and veg (I realise it doesnt grow in a month but its a starting point).
So hopefully by that point I will have a food bill that I am happy with.

methekidsandthecat

Hi all

I hope the challenge is going well?

I did my first shop in Sainsbugs yesterday and it came to £28.46 but that included a new iron as my one is leaking - however it was reduced to half price in a sale (£11.00).

I am quite impressed - I know it is only week one and the grumpy perpetually hungry teenagers are still cleaning up the Christmas food.

Me

Curly_Girly_2

I started with lots of good intentions last year, but the meal planning went a bit astray towards the end, so I'm giving it another bash, especially as we have a baby on the way so household income will take a nose-dive come spring!
Normal grocery spend is between £225 - £275 per month - that's just for two adults but includes toiletries and cleaning stuff - still awful though. So target is to do £200 and make it consistent, and then I'll see if we can get it down further. I tend to do a big monthly shop which is delivered and then just get veg, bread and milk each week.

redmel1621

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Morning all, well I sense another no spend day coming up since I'd be mad to head out in the snow (still a couple of ins deep here). I've also managed NSDs yesterday and the day before and have stuck so far to not eating chocolate, no wine and no snacking on cheese. So feeling like I'm getting somewhere. Only 27 days to go as windowshopper pointed out :j

Only grocery update was £3.23 on fruit. Will need some stuff over weekend - more fruit and veg and a couple of other bits but hope to spend no more than £15. By the way quick question, does anyone know if you can substitute oil for butter in the breadmaker? I've run out of butter and am hoping not to buy any more (esp with a new breadmaker I'd just eat bread and butter for the next week and this is not good for the already expanded waistline).

Hope it's going well with all of you....

I only ever use olive oil in the BM 25g = 2tbsp oil.....HTH

Mel x

rosieben

Sassamac wrote: »

do you have any info you could share on this? I have been vaguely browsing through the forums but not seen anything which tells me exactly what to do when. Im a total novice!

Have you browsed through the greenfingered MS forum? lots of advice
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=134

why not go to your library and ask them to get you a beginners guide to vegetable gardening and take it from there?

I grow everything in containers/pots in a sunny and sheltered yard, usually have a brilliant crop of tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers etc although last year was a bit of a failure because of the bad weather.

Once you've grown your own veg, you wont want shop bought ever again!

mumzyof2

Hi there i have spent £10.49 Topping up in morrisons.

chardonnay_2

jackie_w, have you tried adding cornflour to your slow cooker stuff it is a great thickener for sauces (you just mix a little in cold water and then add it to whatever you need to thicken).

just realised i said homemade gravy - well it was sort of homemade in the fact it was bits and bobs added to it but it also include a few ready made ingredients.

i used chopped leftover cooked chicken, added 1/2 punnet raw mushrooms, and 6 small chopped onions. for the gravy we used 2 & 1/2 pints chicken gravy (made from a tub) then added a few squirts of hot sauce, chilli powder, garlic granules, tikka powder and two sachets of tikka sauce from some uncle bens indian wrap kits which we had left over.

we didn't use any water apart from the gravy.

we quite often make a spicy gravy by adding spices such as hot sauce / tabasco / garlic / chilli / paprika to gravy powder. just add what you like to whatever strength you like. we sometimes have this with leftover chicken and chips