January 2008 Grocery Challenge

rosieben

Hi witchy, I have fish and chip lunch every week with an elderly rellie which I do include if I pay (we take in turns), but other than that its a separate budget. One chinese meal would throw my gc into complete chaos!!

Frugaldom

Hello all, I'll be continuing to cook up whatever's in the cupboards for a while yet but had a quick trip to Co-op today for 2 cartons of milk (2 have green top and 1 has blue top in this household), 2 loaves of brown bread, 815g carrots and I also got another half price block of mature cheddar. Total spend for today = £6.86 I have a huge pot of pea and ham soup simmering and will be doing roast chicken, boiled potatoes, mixed veg & gravy for tonight.

DdraigGoch

Today OH went out and bought firelighters and black bags - does this count? [it amounted to £11.07 :eek:]

jackie_w

chardonnay wrote: »

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

Chardonnay, Thank you for that, will defo try that next time. I remember when I got my slow cooker, I thought the instructions said not to use as much liquid, maybe I read it wrong.

Had to go to Asda & Lidls today, spent £22.53 in total.
I have to say Im a bit disappointed with that because, Ive set my total for £200 this month, so that works aout approx £50 per week, and so far ive spent £43.21, and its not as if its been on actual proper food.
Todays spend was on flour, yeast, salad stuff, fruit, bread, pizza, diluting juice butter, and baby wipes. I did get the kids some treats which amounted to £3.68, but, Im afraid I havent actually got very much for my money.

Today, im starting to do my own baking. Got a bread maker for Christmas, so, I am going to make my first attempt at baking bread (I really hope it works out okay). Kitchen scales have broken:mad: , so, will have to but some new ones, luckily, DH is out and about, so, I have asked him to get me a set. I have asked for a cheap set (you know the ones about £3.99, whats the bet, he will come back with a state of the art set),

I have a recipe for Chocolate bread, however, its a recipe thats made by hand (no doubt it could be made in bread maker, but, as im just learning, I will go by the book). It says to use cocoa powder, but, I couldnt get any , so, I was just going to use Drinking chocolate, do you think that will be okay?

Anyhow, I will be off now, to update my sig, read a couple of more post before DH gets back with my scales, and I can start with the bread making.

Jackie

Frugaldom

DdraigGoch wrote: »

Today OH went out and bought firelighters and black bags - does this count? [it amounted to £11.07 :eek:]

I count firelighters as part of my fuel budget (heat & light) and black bags as groceries because my grocery account has to cover all cleaning, laundry & toiletry products plus papergoods (toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, tissues, newspapers, magazines, stationery), but I get my bin bags for 99p a roll and firelighters are about 65p. Is that a typo on the amount or did OH buy 3 sacks of logs at same time?

peony40

Just returned from the local market where I bought fruit and veg for the week which totalled £7.77. This is the first time in simply ages that I have used the market so I found it quite overwhelming at first with all the hustle and bustle but I did enjoy it. I still need to weigh out the produce to work out how prices compare to the supermarket, so after a cup of tea I will get the scales out.

I haven't had chance to read anyone elses posts yet, but will sit down later on this evening to catch up with everyone's news. Have a good Saturday afternoon/evening.

bails

JoJoB wrote: »

start getting a few baby things in.... All pre-loved of course

I love that expression JoJo, I'm going to use that from now on if you don't mind!
Now, if anyone has noticed my signature, they might be forgiven for thinking I'm blowing the budget well and truly already! But fear not, I am just stocking up on sale goods to keep me going. If anyone needs to get in nuts, seeds, pulses etc, then Julian Graves has its 1/2 price sale on til Tues - only time we go there but it does work out cheaper and we have things for the next year!
Freezer is getting stocked up with HM food made with all the bargains and I've lost 4.5 lbs so far this week (and yes, I'm eating loads!):T Off to catch up on the thread now, take care all x
EDIT: I've caught up now! Everyone's doing so well, it's great, and even those people who don't feel they are, it seems you're putting a lot away for the future so try not to worry. I chose to do a monthly rather than weekly budget for that reason - I'd be having kitten by now with what I've spent already! Keep up the good work peeps, I can't wait to see how much people have saved by the end of the month! And as someone else said, I feel I've changed so much already, it's ace! :j Thankyou so much everyone! My next plan is to have a go with my breadmaker

Skint_Catt

Spent £30.84 in Asda this morning - pretty much stuck to my list which is unusual as OH was with me!

Catt xx

brummiebabe

witchypoo wrote: »

What does everyone else do with regard to their takeaways or treats/meals out? Do you budget for them seperately or include them on the month's grocery budget?

Hi -I pay for meals out/takeaways from my monthly spending allowance rather than shopping budget - after all they're not essential & I view them as a treat (& a lovely one at that!!:D ) Everyone does it differently though...whatever works for you;)

Savvy_sewing

My spend has reduced, becuase I had ordered a couple of hampers, on Tesco Direct and after a bit of a change around, because they dropped the price, I cancelled, re oredred and ordered an extra one, and still saved £9.39!! And have the contents of 3 hampers now yepee