March 2008 Grocery Challenge

mumzyof2

Hello I did a meal plan yesterday and it will last me 27days i think..just wondered if it seems ok so il post it below. Also if i stick to it, i will have 20 food items in my kicthen which mostly are ketchup, dried herbs, etc and baking things

In any order throughtout the month:

Corned beef hash x 3
Lamb stew and dumplings, beetroot
Sausage casserole and mash
Chicken casserole and mash, beetroot
Spag bol
Rice, chicken tikka jar of sauce, chicken and chips )all together)
Lasagne and chips (going to free half lasagne and eat the rest so makes 2 meals)
Tuna bake with veg
Egg chips and beans
cheese and onion pie (already in freezer HM) chips and gravy
Mince and onion pie, waffles and beans
Chicken Kiev mash and beans
Quiche, chips and beans x 2
Burger and chips
Pasta, onion, bacon and tomato sauce all mixed together
Gammon roast
Hotdogs and onions
Pizza and waffles
Mince pie and mash, gravy
Spicy breaded chicken, mash and gravy
Pasta, cocktail sausages, onion, spag bol jar (made this up last night as needed to use everything up and we had it today and it was loverly)
Super noodles (when kids have a big big dinner)
Burger, mash and gravy x 2
Sheperds pie and beetroot

AS you can see there is loads of "cr*p" food on there but this is what was in my freezer b4 i became one for cooking homemade and i want it gone out the freezer Hopefully this will last me till end of month and il only need to buy fruit,milk,potatoes etc. This first time i have mealed plan also. And im away first week in april also for 2 weeks

Can anyone let me know what they think?

fallen_angel_shelley

Lil_me & MRSMc, thanks for the tips and ideas. the HM tortillas sound nice could you pm me the recipe please MRSMc. i ended up spending £44.04p at mr t's today but that should last about 14 main meals. we had roast chix diner tonight and i'm going to make soup out of the left overs for tomorrow and have it with salad, panchta,cheese and sun dried toms. i will post a list/meal plan tomorrow of the rest of the stuff i got and you see what you think of it. i have had to ask my ex to store most of it for me in his frezzer (i dont have one) i just hope he dont help him self to it

Moniker

Hi, just popped in to add my target for March which will be £260 please Mrs M. Did a big shop on Thursday and got a month's worth of dry goods and cleaning stuff which totalled £114-47. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were no spend days but will need to get more milk tomorrow. My cooker is still broken so it will be jacket potaoes and beans in the microwave tomorow - another cheap meal! Good luck everyone with this challenge.

Moniker

OberonSH

I've just done my first weekly shop with Asda, after half an hour trying to figure out where everything I needed was, I then realised I could have got piggypoints! Thought twice about having to redo the whole thing so let it slide. Approx £25 out of my £50 budget for this week, so about the same as trotting round Nettos and the market, but more convenient for the heavy stuff (as my shopping helpers are a bouncy 3 year old and a 2 month in a baby carrier i.e. a complete hindrance)

However, I got a rabbit at the market, as part of the 3 trays for a fiver deal. Popped it in my slowcooker with some veggies, smelt lovely. I spend the day thinking how much I rock for being able to transform an alien-looking carcass complete with giblets into a fragrant dinner stew. I then must have had a visit from the Cockup Fairy, as inbetween OH coming home and saying 'Mmm that smells nice' and taking off the lid to dish up my rabbit stew turns into something that even a maggot would turn their nose up at! It smelt absolutely disgusting and tasted worse. So Dominos pizza for tea...... I'm taking it out of my spending money, so technically doesn't count towards my grocery pool, but still very disappointing.

Still, the 2 slow cooker books I got for Mother's Day are forming the basis of this weeks menu....

Mollymop5

Mumzyof2 i'm well impressed with your meal plan.I might actually pinch a couple of ideas.Sometimes we get stuck eating the same things over and over again so I'm going to try making a couple of pies and quiches this month I think

mumzyof2

Thanks Mollymop

mama67

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Hi all

Well another £9.51 down in Holland and Barrett - this includes the nice veg stock, seeds for my bread and peanuts to have another go at a nutty version of twink's hobnob biscuits. I did debate doing this today but it seemed a very bad idea when DH is away I also got a load of radox bath stuff in boots on 2 for 1 but I used my points for this so it was free

I also spotted a pretty good offer on loo roll at Dunnes stores (I guess our equivalent of Morrisons?? some of the irish ladies will know) 12 for 9 andrex for £3.39 which seems amazing, so gonna try to get myself over there in a mo - didn't fancy carrying them through town

Jacks stand strong!!! You have to report back to us all remember!!

COstcutters at the mo have 18 pk of novelle recycled for £3.99, that is a good buy.

TheBees

OMG I haven't been on for a couple of evenings and come onto here to discover I've got 10 pages to catch up on!:eek:

Cooked roast for Mothers Day. (Did a lovely shoulder of lamb following a Jamie Oliver recipe but unfortunately as we were feeding my parents there is little left for another meal but the cat loves it!)

Popped into Co-op for a Sunday paper and checked out the reduced section at just the right time. I managed to get two packets of sausages for 46p each, some reduced diced turkey and some spicy chicken bits. Those bargains will provide us with at least 4 meals for under £7 so I was very excited.:j

I haven't got time to plough through all the pages tonight but wish everyone luck for March.

belfastgirl23

Thanks mama67 I just googled and we do have costcutters here in NI although the ones in Belfast are all a good bit away from us. I may try to find one if they have deals this good tho I'm sorted for loo roll for about 2 months now

In total I'm up to £57 spent so need to pull back a bit. That's nothing compared to my own personal spending, feel like I've just been handing cash over all weekend, def need a few NSDs now.

Hope you're all geared up for the new week. We missed pizza sunday today with DH being away so we'll do it tomorrow instead. I also used up some leftover spinach to make soup which will do for lunches. And have eaten very sensibly all weekend so feeling a little bit proud of myself. Good luck everyone

Oh and PS Cherrypie I have the panasonic 254, got it before Xmas and I love it. It is pretty idiot proof and seems to do a good job on timer etc. I've also used it for seed bread etc without the special dispenser (just bung it all in at the start) and it's fine. Can thoroughly recommend it! And unless you think you'd use the dispenser a lot I'd say go for it rather than pay the £25 extra for the 255...unless there are some other big advantages I don't know about.

galacticgreen

Did our big monthly shop yesterday, mainly in Lidl, Asda and the local health food shop, and managed to spend £158.43. Only got £41.57 left!!!! I haven't done my meal plan yet for the month. Ran out of time today. Did make some lemon fairy cakes and some small chocolate muffins for lunchboxes though. Will try and menu plan tomorrow night. I've got a list of what's in the freezer, so thats a good starting point:cool: