March 2008 Grocery Challenge

gunsandbanjos

Eek, getting dangerously close to my budget:eek: Hopefully wont need much more, bought a couple of top ups today though. Can i be in for £200 this month, i should reduce it really to challenge myself, its a 5 week month though:eek: Will stick to £200 and see how i do:D

Fi27

Hiya

Ok,

Good news - Found a full bottle of washing up liquid and a pile of bin bags, that i didnt know i had, when i tidied out the cupboard under my kitchen sink :j thanks to the flyladies :A and a HHC :T
Can cross that off my list of things i need to buy

Bad news - Have been back to Mr T's and spent another £13 odd, Still to tot up reciepts so will adjust sig later. Had intend sending OH with a short list but he persuaded me to go with him as it was a 'nice evening' and then i fancied a pizza with coleslaw for tea and before you know it :eek: £13 spent when i should only have spent £5 Oh well.

Thanks MrsM and others for the tip on putting oats or lentils in mince dishes and stews to bulk it out, i had never thought of that before and will def try that next week.

I too keep my GC to myself as various friends are always eating out, getting takeaways and splurging however a few people have mentioned the price increase in their food shops recently and i agree with them but thats not why i want to cut back. Like alot of others on here i want to be debt free faster and this is a fun way of doing that. And by cooking from scratch you can guarentee no additives, preservatives, colourings, e-numbers, salt, sugar etc so much better for you.

So thank you :T every one for all your posts and encouragement, it goes along way :A

Fi

savingfortravel

Today I spent £6.09

• Popped into Farm Foods-Linda McCartney Lasagnes were 35p each-picked up 3-wonder if this is true in all stores.. what a bargain.
• Wilkinsons-Bisto Cheese sauce granules-89p
• £3 on huge bag of potatoes from a local farmer my dad knows (already included in total spend so far)
• £1.15 on Mr T Value butter-used 55p of vouchers at self service till-can't believe they accepted them as not buying product and picked up my free tub of Lurpak.

Kaz2904, Weezl74, Nykmedia, Mortgagefreeforme, Cheerfulness 4 and Mrs Mcawber........ I absolutely agree with your comments... I knew I'd gain pleasure from the challenge of the challenge (if you know what I mean), esp as everyone is here to support you.
In addition OB is delighted that I want to help him in the garden this year and use all the produce in recipes... speaking of which I'm loving cooking (to think I would previously spend over £4 on a ready meal-fish pie for us both..much prefer the recipe Mrs Mc recommended).
Most of all we hope our savings (added to no Council Tax DD Feb/March) will pay the cost of one person to go to C.America next year.. We are the saving the rest in other ways...
We are so sensible the rest of the time with money.... save, save, save to pay off some of the mortgage, but both love a far flung adventure every two years.. I can't believe just from food budgeting we could save so much.. money we would have just eaten...

Mrs Mcawber-Just out of interest where do the final totals get put?
Thanks SFT

Kaz2904

W-S-M, hmm, well it's neither the best nor the worst place I've ever lived!
I like the fact that we can get to places reasonably easily and I like the green areas around. I wish I had a bigger garden (don't we all?) but like my old house. I don't like the fact that we get inundated every summer and the roads become impassable but like I said we tend to walk then.

It does get annoying having the hospital full of people who are too dense to take the medication that they've been on for years and then end up in our beds sitting waiting for social problems to be sorted out for weeks. It just makes our figures look really bad for waiting times. The local scandal rag loves nothing better than printing "we hate the hospital because it killed our mum/dad/aunty/dog" stories!

So I've cooked the mince and weighed it into 8 portions. I've put 7 in the freezer and made something (spag bol?) with the other. I've bulked it out with 1 tin tomatoes, 1 red onion, 4 tbsp porridge oats, 1 stock cube, 2 parsnips and 1 carrot. The thing is now there looks to be too much for 1 meal! I'll see what happens when I serve it and may just top it with mash tomorrow or stick it in the freezer if people complain about it (in the vain hope it sits there for 2 weeks until they forget about it and I can serve it again). Or I could add beans and make it into a chilli. I'll do that if it's too bland.
I also just made 24 banana muffins from mumzys banana cake recipe. I just doubled the quantities.
The bananas were only 5p from Asda on Monday so very very cheap (my favourite price!).

Right you lot- thinking caps on. I have 7 bags 100g mince. About 1 billion parsnips, carrots, frozen veg cauli, broccoli, carrots, chopped spinach, sweetcorn and peas. I also have some veggie wedges. One night I will be making tortillas with the wedges. What shall I do with the other 6 lots?

I'm not overly keen on lasagne- (I'd rather stick hot pins in my eyes than eat it TBH!) and have some lasagne sheets. I've heard people sticking up recipes for canneloni- how about this with a bologneise type sauce? Would it work and what would I serve it with?
I need to replenish my flour supplies as I've only got bread flour atm.
I'm using rehydrated milk too and I'm at the beginning of the month Argh!
I would really like to get to the end of the month with my grocery budget intact (and still have a DH!).
Feeling quite positive though because my freezer is really full and I'm going to have to put some of the banana cakes in it I think (1 to stop me eating them and 2 to stop them going off) I'll let DH try them this evening and see what he think so I know whether to stick them in in 4s or 3s. Could just shove them in in 1s and let DD take them to school but they're off for holidays from next Friday.
I can see me going to our local farm/playbarn every day as we are members and don't have to pay to get in. That and the beach if I can stand the grockles!
When do we get our shiny new page?

getting-sorted-sarah

The Bees Don't give up! You can do it! Go us Devon gals!

poohbear59

Kaz2904 wrote: »

I have a packet of soya mince in the cupboard. DH decided last year that he didn't want to eat so much meat so bought Quorn and things like that. We also bought 2 bags of this mince. We used 1 but it is truly dreadful stuff!
I will be adding it to our mince for my mega mince meals!
I've masses of parsnips too so need to factor them into recipes.
I've got the mince out of the freezer so I need to get the wizardry done before DH comes home from work so that he can't see what I'm doing and how many meals I'm trying to squeeze from a packet of mince!


I've learnt not to talk about food with other people as they just mock what I cook or how little I try to spend.

:rotfl: You sound just like me.

My family never knew what I was putting into meals to make them go further. We use a lb. mince for a meal for six and if we have chisken breasts we have two between six of us too. Now there are only five at home we get a bit more meat each.

My very over weight friend used to use 1lb mince between her and her daughter. She has now learnt to eat like us and has lost loads of weight.

Another thing I put in mince is porridge oats or oat bran as it helps reduce cholesterol. Not the same time I put TVP in though as it would be just too much! I put loads and loads of veggies especially carrots into chilli, bolognaise and shepherds pie.

My sis mocks me because we eat so cheaply and don't buy ready made stuff at all.

razra

chardonnay wrote: »

everyone all together:

razra & dishy guy up a tree, kissing, first comes love them comes marriage & then comes the baby in the golden carrage:T

i think you've got a secret admirer - better keep up the non smoking. well done all the quitters.

:rotfl::rotfl: sadly for me he's happily married, arent most of the nice ones:rolleyes:

Well another NSD on food for me although I have treated myself with some of the fag money savings to two lavender bushes for the garden, got them off ebay so hopefully they will be nice and healthy:j have decided I'm going to treat myself to something once a week that costs the price of 1 packet of fags so it keeps me motivated the rest of the pennies saved will go towards clearing my loan faster:D

People laugh at me for spending so little on food to, they always say oh but you live on your own so surely you must be rolling in money so why do you need to spend so little umm still havent quite figured that one out myself but sure it must make sense in their heads .

Mind my boss at work has started coming in at lunch to see what Ive got and then asks what I'm having for tea, :rotfl: so cant be that bad, esp as Ive been taking in freezer surprise this week. Really must label things when I put them in the freezer:o although when you live on your own its near;y as exciting as someone else cooking, LOL at least its a surprise as to whats for tea/dinner:rotfl:

gunsandbanjos

poohbear59 wrote: »

My sis mocks me because we eat so cheaply and don't buy ready made stuff at all.

Out of jealousy probably:rolleyes:

Kaz2904

Frrezer surprise- love it!

EDIT- can't spell it but still love it!

gunsandbanjos

LOL, freezer surprise is fab. Had it the other day, turned out to be chilli:D