January 2009 Grocery Challenge

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Comments

  • orchid-96
    orchid-96 Posts: 686 Forumite
    MrsM that bag looks gorgeous, only wish I had any sort of skill in that area at all :rolleyes: how great it must be to be able to make stuff, I can only just about sew on a button!!!

    Thinking reading these posts that I might need to get a remoska they sound fab!!

    well done all, it sounds like a lot of really great penny pinching has gone on in January, my month doesn't finish till 31st but good luck to all who have started Feb :j
    Jun GC £250.00/£12.40 NSD 3 / 30

    January 200/198.91 February 200/239.28 March 200/230
    April 250/no idea May 250/265.95

    Sealed pot challenge number 648
  • elizabunny
    elizabunny Posts: 1,030 Forumite
    Evening everyone! Well I managed to hang onto my last 12p today:j. I soooo want to get to Saturday. I really must spread out my budget more next month and January has taught me a valuable lesson. I think that it is very possible we could get to the end of the month now, but will have to do alot of substituting and making do. Tonight I did the Liver an Onions as planned, but it was a sort of stir fry version as we only have 3 potatoes left and I want to keep them. Now I know this recipe sounds a bit weird but it tasted quite nice. For my stir fry Liver and Onions I used:-

    About 250gr Lambs Liver
    Half Large White Onion
    2 Carrots
    2 Sticks Celery
    1 Pkt Fresh Peas
    Soy Sauce
    Mixed Herbs & Spices
    Noodles (Enough for 2)
    EV Olive Oil for frying
    Seasoning

    Basically all I did was slice up the liver into smallish chunks, chop the onion, carrots, celery and stir fried this all together in a little EV olive Oil with the herbs and spices until the liver was cooked but still tender (I find if you overcook liver it goes a bit chewy and tough). I then added some soy sauce to this and let it sit on a low heat. Then I boiled the peas for about 3 minutes and added the noodles to this, allowing them to cook as per packet. After draining the noodles and peas I mixed eveything together and seasoned it.

    DH said he liked it so that's good enough for me and another cheap dinner!
    Sealed Pot Challenge 7 Member 022 :staradmin:staradmin:staradmin
    5:2 Diet started 28/1/2013 only 13lbs lost due to Xmas 2013 blip.
  • oligeo
    oligeo Posts: 263
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    i've gone way over my budget, so I would like to set FEBRUARY AT £400 please Thank you
  • Kiwisaver_2
    Kiwisaver_2 Posts: 1,169 Forumite
    Started my February a little earlier than I should with rather a large shop tonight, to top up the rather meagre spends we've had over the past couple of months. Febuary budget of $600 allowing myself some extra spends for imminent arrival of family from the UK. :j and hence the short rations for January.

    Still gonna be hard to guage and contain this, as a lot will depend on days out, weather, picnics, whether we eat in or out etc. However, I am going to do my utmost to contain any wild overspending by having 'something I prepared earlier' to stop visitors leading us astray with impromptu stops for lunches and snacks whilst we are out and about. Also family have some 'special needs', basically they are fussy (when they want to be). :rolleyes: They say they don't eat this or that, one diabetic and one migraine sufferer on special 'diets', must have decaf tea and coffee, Special K etc.. They say 'Don't worry about us, we don't eat much.' Yeah, right! Funny that nothing ever gets refused when offered. One is a human dustbin with hollow legs, so no chance of any leftovers and nothing will go to waste.

    So I have made a good start, my freezer tonight is fit to burst, overloaded and I've made a head start on piling up on some of the special needs for visitors (large box Special K, decaf coffee and tea), six pack of bottled water for picnics, big tins tuna for sarnies. Plus also got lunchbox bits for ourselves for the next two weeks. So far so good!

    Now all I have to do is stay out of the shops for the next 8 days. :rotfl:
    Mortgage
    Start January 2017: $268,012
    Latest balance $266,734
    Reduction: $1,278.45
  • sharronej
    sharronej Posts: 578
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    Hi all! We don't have a farmfoods closer than 35 miles away, and i really can't justify going there for milk!!

    Mrs McCawber - what xmas presents are you making? I'm very interested as that sounds dead organised?!

    NSD today - yeah!! - first of my Feb GC so far (started on 23rd).

    Sharronej - I feel for you with the family credit. I'm waiting to hear what's going to happen with mine. What with my "D"H lowering his payments to me, I'm dreading that going down too. Sometimes it feels that I'm on the wrong end of luck!!

    Still, I try to believe that we make our own luck, and GC is certainly helping me in that regard on the money front, as I'm sure i've been averaging over £200 a month for a while. Ridiculous really, as I have a massive pantry FULL of stuff! And, until recently, my 2nd freezer! That's still my March plan, to refill it...

    Good luck those still on Jan - do you have "What can I make with what I've got" syndrome?!?!
    x

    I have realised that when the press talk about people being addicted to shopping that it can actually include your food shopping! I think this may be the reason why we still go out and buy food when we have loads in! Good luck with your family credit!
  • MRSMCAWBER
    MRSMCAWBER Posts: 5,442 Forumite
    Morning all

    Another NSD on the food front for me today -but I am popping to the garden centre (its only about 5mins walk away):j Im only really looking at seed potatoes (famous last words :o )

    Dinner tonight is pasta bake using up more roast tomatoes n veggies I grew and froze last year ;) , whoopsed goats cheese and HM cheeses sauce from the freezer and salami etc from the fridge

    Im going to have a bash at the spinach n goats cheese soup -will post a recipe if it comes out OK (must remember what I throw in:rotfl: )

    thanks for the coments on the bag :p .... but it was sooooo simple ;) ..I didn't think I would get on with the wool as it has metalic threads and tufts of wool hanging off it -but I loved it..and the knitting bit only took a couple of days :j ...I loved doing it so much I have more wool so I can make them to sell (well try) to make more money for our local hospice back home :T
    right enough waffle -off for a cuppa and then to the garden centre ;)

    have a great day everyone :D
    -6 -8 -3 -1.5 -2.5 -3 -1.5-3.5
  • sharronej
    sharronej Posts: 578
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    orchid-96 wrote: »
    MrsM that bag looks gorgeous, only wish I had any sort of skill in that area at all :rolleyes: how great it must be to be able to make stuff, I can only just about sew on a button!!!

    Thinking reading these posts that I might need to get a remoska they sound fab!!

    well done all, it sounds like a lot of really great penny pinching has gone on in January, my month doesn't finish till 31st but good luck to all who have started Feb :j

    Before you do have a look in Wilkinsons, they have one that looks the same for £17.00. I'm going to splash out on one mainly because I believe they are cery economical to run and apparantly the gas cooker is expensive? Advice please
  • sharronej
    sharronej Posts: 578
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    MRSMCAWBER wrote: »
    Morning all

    Another NSD on the food front for me today -but I am popping to the garden centre (its only about 5mins walk away):j Im only really looking at seed potatoes (famous last words :o )

    Dinner tonight is pasta bake using up more roast tomatoes n veggies I grew and froze last year ;) , whoopsed goats cheese and HM cheeses sauce from the freezer and salami etc from the fridge

    Im going to have a bash at the spinach n goats cheese soup -will post a recipe if it comes out OK (must remember what I throw in:rotfl: )

    thanks for the coments on the bag :p .... but it was sooooo simple ;) ..I didn't think I would get on with the wool as it has metalic threads and tufts of wool hanging off it -but I loved it..and the knitting bit only took a couple of days :j ...I loved doing it so much I have more wool so I can make them to sell (well try) to make more money for our local hospice back home :T
    right enough waffle -off for a cuppa and then to the garden centre ;)

    have a great day everyone :D

    Could you not sell them on here? Are you allowed to do that? You could always put them up for sale after you have made them, that way you wouldn't get stressed by having too many to do!
  • scotsaver
    scotsaver Posts: 824 Forumite
    Morning everyone - MRSMC - great minds think alike, I'm also off to the Garden Centre today, "ONLY" buying canes to grow my Runner Beans, found a design in book where you make a row of tepees and then have a supporting cane across the top and then strings all the way along and down. A friend of mine says his Dad used to take 2 days constructing theirs:confused: , certainly hope mine doesn't take that long. Just hope I get a good return for all the effort.:cool:

    Also planning to grow some Peas, am I right in thinking that they just need twigs to support them?:confused:

    I promise not to be tempted to buy anything else at the Garden Centre as I've already got my Seed Potatoes and 26 different veg/salad leaves seed packets!! They didn't cost a lot to buy and I'm hoping that over the months this will save us loads on our Grocery Budget, this will be the first year that I'm aiming to grow all year round so "green" fingers crossed.;)

    Off now to bung everything in the SC for tonights Lamb Tagine, never made it in there before as I've only recently bought the SC, if it turns out OK then I'll post the recipe later. Have a good day everyone.:D
    "WASTE NOT, WANT NOT!"
    GC for OH, myself, DD18 & DD16 includes Toiletries, cleaning stuff & Food.

  • MRSMCAWBER
    MRSMCAWBER Posts: 5,442 Forumite
    Hi sharronej

    No, I can't sell them on here..you can't swap addresses etc on here either .. I will probably put them on the nonnymouse site and see how they go I think :rotfl:

    Scotsaver... thats how I grew some of my beans last year...I remember seeing my grandad doing it that way :D
    Your peas should love growing up twigs as they are easy to grip -you will just need to check what height they grow to....
    I am back from the garden centre...no seed potatoes... although I got 30 18cmX14cm jute bags(green/red and natural) @10c each...can see more xmas ideas coming up :eek:
    -6 -8 -3 -1.5 -2.5 -3 -1.5-3.5
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