January 2008 Grocery Challenge

tattycath

Don't beat yourself up Catralense. That's the point of this thread to encourage, support and help one another and (from my point of view) to help us to budget better. Put it down to a learning curve. Just seen Rosieben and Mollymops posts-they are spot on. There are alot of wise people on this thread and I am learning loads from them.

catralense

tattycath wrote: »

Quick question though. Please can someone tell me how long they will keep? and if I could freeze one of them (if they don't keep more than a couple of days?? Any advice/hints/tips are very much appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

I've never frozen banana bread before but I can't imagine that there woiuld be any problems with it. I made three over the weekend (using a recipe I got from here) and they were fabulous! I made one polain one and two with added prunes and walnut pieces...diet starts Monday (again! :rotfl: ).

barnesy_2

Is it too late to join? Would like to budget £160 and have started the fantastic meal planning and had trips to Lidl and Asda today and spent 35.19 on lunches and most of things needed for the weeks meals

Keiss_21

Hya Folks

Sorry not dropped in for a few days and it has taken ages to catch up!

Glad I am working to a monthly spend rather weekly. We have done the main shop for next week today, so perhaps it isn't that bad. This spend also includes a celebration trip to the chip shop on Thursday of £15.68, because:

My DS1 has been offered a place at Cambridge to study Maths, and we are over the moon! :j:j

I did suggest we went out for a meal to celebrate (he didn't want to go out for his 18th last week either), but he said he fancied some fish'n'chips. So you see, we could have spent soooo much more. I think my DS1 is better at saving money than me!

Still, we are not doing too badly, I have made a list of the contents of the fridge and freezer, and am working my way through the cupboards, should finish tomorrow. I have made a menu plan for most of next week, but it may change if I unearth goodies in the cupboard!

I have ordered my slow cooker from Amazon (top Which one), reduced from £34 to £19.99! I am paying for it out of the money I got for Christmas, so I am sorted!

I will get the bread maker out again and set it to work, we used to make all our own bread. It will save us a fortune, especially as our favourite bread is £1.50 each. I have the Easy slice from Lakeland, which means I can cut all my slices evenly and at the thickness I want.

So, very little shopping due next week, though I just might pop into Julian Graves to top up on dried fruit and nuts at half price.

I must visit this thread more regularly as it is sooo busy at the moment.

Keep on saving!

M

rosieben

Keiss_21 wrote: »

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My DS1 has been offered a place at Cambridge to study Maths, and we are over the moon! :j:j

I did suggest we went out for a meal to celebrate (he didn't want to go out for his 18th last week either), but he said he fancied some fish'n'chips. So you see, we could have spent soooo much more. I think my DS1 is better at saving money than me! ...

Congrats to your son! :T

we tend to think we have to spend a lot of money to enjoy ourselves, but well done to your son for knowing what he really wanted and not just going for the most expensive option!

mind you fish and chips are not exactly cheap; when I was a girl ... oh dear! best shut up.... :rotfl:

mumzyof2

Thanks molly x how are you doing with your challenge?

belfastgirl23

Okay so first of all what is Julian Graves??

Second Catralense do not beat yourself up about failure. I failed over half of my grocery challenges last year but still saved about £1700 on the previous year's grocery spend. If it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge

And ballandchain, I know what you mean. There are two of us as well and our standard 'too tired to cook' was going to M&S for nice salads (at least £10 a night when we did this). Now I try to have a big cookup roughly one sunday a month when I cook and portion off a lot of stuff that can be easily taken out during the week. I bought a cheap DVD player for the kitchen so if I get a good movie etc on this can be quite nice I also have a few standby dinners - pasta with pesto and frozen peas or beans, beans on toast, omlette or scrambled eggs, which can be made from store cupboard ingredients. Charleypink is right about stir frys too although I find that you can't buy them in advance and I try to limit my trips to shops It works best for me if I think about what to have for dinner tomorrow once I've had dinner tonight and leave it in the fridge etc to defrost overnight - I have pizza dough defrosting right now - but this might not work for everyone

Good luck, it's hard to break the convenience food habit but once you do you'll wonder why you ever had it to start with.

lil_me

Julian Graves is a shop that sells spices, herbs, other ingredients, weird kitchen gadgets/storage etc. Try their website, depends where you are as to if there is a store, been to the one nearest me a couple of times as they had an offer on Easyio stuff.

Keiss a huge well done to your son, what a great achievment, you must be ever so proud, I hope he really enjoyed the treat. Hopefully he'll make a great student if he can budget well, maybe he'll not one of those who phone Mam/Dad every 2 minutes needing more money.

chardonnay_2

glitch alert:eek:

tesco have a glitch on mr kipling cakes, pre packed cold meats and tubs of sandwich fillers.

eg some cooked meats with no added water are 2 for 3 quid but tills are taking 3 quid off as a discount and you are getting 2 packs meat at 1.73 for 23p each after discount.

check out

http://www.paidtoshop.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23973

http://www.paidtoshop.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23901

http://www.paidtoshop.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23963

Jacks_xxx

BallandChain wrote: »

Another fantastic thread for me to read! I have been thinking of ways to cut the shopping bill down and then found this thread so I hope you can all help me. (Pretty please!) I shop for me and OH and usually the bill was for £80 a week! I have managed to get it down to £40 but as neither of us have the time to cook (we both can cook but hate it) we mostly live on salads and to complicate? things further we don't eat much meat.

I've been thinking of how to cut the food bill down and thought it would be impossible as I've been reading this forum for some time now and it seems a lot of you ladies cook from scratch.

Has anyone any ideas for simple meals that are quick to make bearing in mind we don't have the time nor the inclination to cook from scratch? Is there something else I can do that maybe I have overlooked to get the food bill down? I currently get my shopping from Sainsburys as there is no Lidl or Aldi, not even a Netto nearby. Oh and no Asda and they don't deliver to my area either.

Edited as I checked for Farm foods and the nearest is 16 miles away! You can tell we live in the middle of nowhere lol!

We buy cereal, milk, bacon, butter, bread, milk, veg, cake (I just can't get rid of this craving for cake!) ice cream lollies for OH (his weakness), household products usually every few weeks, olive oil and I think that's it.

Hiya honey, :wave:

I am just off to bed now, but I promise to have a little think and see if I can come with some ideas for you in the morning.

Love Jacks xxx