March 2008 Grocery Challenge

suzialwaysbroke

Don't know where I am going wrong, but have spent well over £200 of £350 budget already:mad:
Having used a BP machine, was horrified to see it at 180/120 so frantically looking at ways of bringing BP down by cutting salt etc from food.
So....... no sausages, macaroni cheese, cheapie pizzas, etc
Is the only food good for me going to be expensive??
Any help would be VERY much appreciated

Suzi:(

PS already doing a spending diary..............

skintscotslass

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Hello our nearest asain shop is agessssss away and under a railway bridge i dont like going under lol its scary lol. Il ask my fella if there is one nearer than me that i dont know about as he is from where i live and im not LOL

Aw!! I'm very lucky as I get the bus into the centre of Edinburgh and there's loads of choice. Wish I was a bit more adventurous. There loads of lovely things in the shop and I have no idea what most of it is! There's also a great Chinese supermarket just round the corner. I got a kilo of curry paste for £2.75.

The asian shop is just round the corner from the Central Mosque. I dont know about other mosques, but this one (its the biggest one in Edin) does takeaways on a Friday before prayers. £3 for a huge curry. Not particularly OS, but if anyone is desparate for a takeaway it could be an option

skintscotslass

savingfortravel wrote: »

Hi everyone and well done. I've enjoyed reading your updates and have read all 943 entries this month!!!!!!!!!!
Quick questions:
1.Can you freeze egg?
We put an egg and bacon sandwich filler in the freezer and just got it out to use? It looks very dodgy?
2. Can you freeze peppers?
3. Any good advice about where to buy good value toilet paper?
Thanks
SFT

SFT - I like the lidls luxury toilet paper. Sorry I cant remember how much it was, but it was reasonable. I tried the Tesco cheap ones, 37p for 4 and they were awful

You can freeze eggs but separately. Have a look at this link. Please dont be put off by Anthea Turner!! Its a great site with lots of good ideas, not just about freezing food.

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/storage_and_tools/tips/freezer

HTH

SSL

skintscotslass

suzialwaysbroke wrote: »

Don't know where I am going wrong, but have spent well over £200 of £350 budget already:mad:
Having used a BP machine, was horrified to see it at 180/120 so frantically looking at ways of bringing BP down by cutting salt etc from food.
So....... no sausages, macaroni cheese, cheapie pizzas, etc
Is the only food good for me going to be expensive??
Any help would be VERY much appreciated

Suzi:(

PS already doing a spending diary..............

Suzi, I'm trying to lose weight. I guess it is more tricky when you are trying to reduce your salt intake. I'm assuming the machine is correct? Maybe you could make your own pizzas? Using mozzerella instead of cheddar? Sorry its late and I'm not thinking that well. Will have a think and report back tomorrow.

rosieben

suzialwaysbroke wrote: »

Don't know where I am going wrong, but have spent well over £200 of £350 budget already:mad:
Having used a BP machine, was horrified to see it at 180/120 so frantically looking at ways of bringing BP down by cutting salt etc from food.
So....... no sausages, macaroni cheese, cheapie pizzas, etc
Is the only food good for me going to be expensive??
Any help would be VERY much appreciated

Suzi:(

PS already doing a spending diary..............

Remember that you are in the second week of the month so £200 spend may not be as bad as it sounds.

have a look under Healthy Eating here Complete Cooking Collection - there's a thread about low salt diet but you may find other useful stuff there too

weemissy

Hi Suzi
I myself think it is a bit of a myth that you have to spend more when trying to eat a healthier diet. (unless you want to go all organic - which would be great but not poss on my budget). About 3 yrs ago we decided to cut out trans fats from our diet for the sake the kids' health - DS had massive cong heart defect, then we realised that our grocery bills had reduced a bit - purely thru' stopping most processed foods and going back to basics and eating as much wholesome HM food as poss. So initially our grocery bill reduction was actually a side effect of trying to eat healthier. We didn't add salt to HM foods anyway bar HM bread. :j Now we are on an even tighter budget :eek: (how/when/why did this happen?) and are consciously trying to reduce grocery bills we are eating even more healthy. (Obviously I cheat at work with chocolate and crisps where the kids can't see me, due to stress, hormones, bad hair day, bad traffic etc, but that is going to stop, stop, stop) More in season fruit and veg, a lot more pulses, tesco value porridge oats, tesco value frozen white fish fillets (alaskan pollock I think), tins of sardines - the list is endless and many more people will add to it I'm sure. Part of the problem I think is that it takes more organising, more thought and more effort to eat healthier rather than more cost. I am a newbie to this and have got loads still to learn and hopefully save but happy to be trying. So don't be too hard on yourself - we all have times like this - next week it will probably be me (again), maybe I should stock up on chocolate in readiness :rotfl:
Take care.

suzialwaysbroke wrote: »

Don't know where I am going wrong, but have spent well over £200 of £350 budget already:mad:
Having used a BP machine, was horrified to see it at 180/120 so frantically looking at ways of bringing BP down by cutting salt etc from food.
So....... no sausages, macaroni cheese, cheapie pizzas, etc
Is the only food good for me going to be expensive??
Any help would be VERY much appreciated

Suzi:(

PS already doing a spending diary..............

mumofjusttwo

Morning Evewryone.

Had my Tesco delivery and for the first time in a while it actually looked like I had a lot of stuff I had bought rather than £xx amount of rubbish like crisps and chocolate.

My cupboards actually look full and so is the freezer Spent £89.16 but this should take me to end of April (Go on holiday for 2 weeks in April ) Should have about a £20 spend each week until then. Well that is the theory anyway.

Can't wait until Easter because then I plan on making some hob nobs etc

weezl74

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Hi there, i am really intrigued to know how you live off £45 a month for 2 of you, i think your very inspiring... would you mind if you posted your monthly shopping list and also what meals you make off £45 a month for both of you.
Thankyou very much :T :T :T :T

(blushes) ok, will do, a few peeps have asked this, so here goes:

DH is keen that I point out that I'm a bit extreme at everything I do, and he'd like to come and live at your houses!

3 bags SP onions @78p each
SP smoked bacon pieces 94p
Long life cream 2xdouble 1xsingle £1.98
SP grated cheese £1.71
sugar £1.53
Enormous bag of green lentils £1.73
Enormous bag of cumin seed £1.78
2 cans SP beans 40p
2 lg cans spinach puree £1.26
15 cartons LL milk reduced to 20p each-£3
can coconut milk 64p
2 large bags frozen broad beans £1.50
MaMade £1.15
fresh milk 78p
SP plain flour 48p
wholemeal bread flour 55p
ground coffee £1.59
Rajah grd black pepper 78p
halal chicken £2.22
willow butter x2 £1.28
1 ltr veg oil 78p
20frozen SP sausages 85p
2 bags SP mince £2.10
15 SP eggs £1.25
6 bags SP long grain rice £2.58
1 lemon 7p
1.5 kg oven chips 41p

Just over 35 quid - made 10 portions meat pie, 8 portions green lentil and bacon casserole, 8 portions chicken curry with coconut, 7 portions Saag and beans, Paneer for sandwiches from the LL milk, 6 loaves HM bread, 4 meals worth of sausage casserole, 6 lbs marmalade.:o

As marmalade is more pricey, still got storecupboard ingredients for tomato Dahl from last month, see previous post! The cream makes 5 tubs of HM ice cream chocolate and coffee flavours this month.:j

Dh has sultanas or HM cinnamon syrup on his porridge for breakfast, then we have HM sarnies for lunch, dinner is rice, a veg side dish and a curry, or somesuch thing.

I make HM biscuits (cinnamon shortbread this month) etc.

I shop at Asda.:D

In answer to a previous post, sorry can't scroll up and find you, yes we do eat meat! This gives £10 spare for more fresh milk, fruit from the market and emergency items.:eek:

We have more variety than it looks, cos there's alsorts of other things made in large batches as above in the freezer, so I'll eat quiche from last moth, and 'carry over' some curries, meat pie, sausage casserole etc to another month.;)

HTH

Weezl x

mumofjusttwo

Weezl that is amazing. Well done.

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all

Determined to make today my 4th NSD in a row..heck im getting the hang of this ....will make it to 6 days -but then think i may have to replace the salad and veggies im eating... :think: may have a look at my meal plan (messed up with hubby going away) and see what meals i can do that would mean i could put off shopping until Monday -i won't shop on a Saturday:whistle: and everywhere is closed on Sunday.... i have loads of everything else -so just need to work out the veggie issue -im sure there is a way around it..which would give me 9 days in a row :j

Suzialwaysbroke..... I have to agree with weemissy, I have been losing weight on the OS weightloss board since August -5st 3lbs gone so far:j and have reduced our budget right down. We still eat plenty, and really well -but by making as much as possible from scratch i can control what goes in there.
I have found the biggest saver for us has been getting the portions down (hubby always reckoned i cooked enough for the street ) and getting the ratio between meat, veggies, carbs right.... we still have meat most days (mainly chicken-as its a fave) or hm sausages etc... but i just don't shove great big heaps on our plates anymore
Hubby takes flasks of HM soups n bread for lunch, which he loves -plus i can shove loads of pulses, veggies etc in -so SOUPer healthy :rotfl: and he loves them and are great for using up bits n bobs of veggies etc in the fridge
Im sure you will find sneaky way to still eat well and healthily on a budget..

Im sure you will get loads of ideas off of everyone on here

Well im going to spend another few hours trawling through the cook books and mags...
getting some new ideas for Aprils menu plan .. as im off for my 1st visit to the local Asian supermarket

hope everyone has a great day..keep up the good work everyone:T