July 2012 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143 · 28 July 2012 at 12:25PM

No grocery spends yesterday - though me and OH went out on a very expensive date night bowling and then the casino :eek: (we always pick a set amount we're happy to lose and stick to it religiously and last time I actually won just enough to pay for the whole night out but sadly not this time!).

Feeling a bit rough this morning as quite a bit of alcohol was consumed!

it wasn't an MSE evening at all but we haven't been out together for AGES as OH has been a bit skint with less overtime at work, and it was really really good for us and a fantastic night

Only we put the Olympic opening ceremony on to record and on the way out I forgot and turned the sky box off at the wall and so it didn't

Before we went out I made an adapted version of a Jamie Oliver recipe, a spicy sausage pasta where you pulse the sausage in the food processor so it's kind of like pork mince. Well I wasn't trying to save money, it was supposed to be part of our nice date night after all, but I accidentally made four large portions with only 5 sausages! Not like Jamie meals to save you money but the sausages are well bulked out with onion, tomatoes and carrot in the recipe, it wasn't even me adding them to be cheap lol. Was delicious too, OH is really excited about eating the rest of it next week (I froze the other two portions)

Bluegreen143 · 28 July 2012 at 12:29PM

ACTUALLY have just remembered that I did buy reduced food bags for 99p and a YS individual tiramisu for 45p (OH's favourite dessert) when I bought the booze at Mr M. Don't count alcohol in the GC thank goodness but I'll add £1.44 to my signature.

Whoever had the freezing whole chillies idea, it's brilliant btw!!

Suffolk_lass · 28 July 2012 at 1:13PM

Following last night's Fab Olympics opening ceremony I looked again at my July sheet this morning (I hurried everything yesterday so we could loaf in front of the TV for the evening!)and realised I had included DH's purchase of hayfever tabs last weekend when we were away (also some Ibuprofen).

My logic may seem flawed to others but I am happy to buy SM OB citirizine (in fact I bought four packs of 14 for £1 each in July) but not when I have bought them and he forgets to take any with us. That came out of the weekend away budget, not the GC!

So I have updated my sig to reflect the reduced spend. Having also bought the pet stuff out of my target and stocked up on coffee and shower gloop my Jul GC is not bottomless!So feeling better now!
SL

bikelesschick · 28 July 2012 at 2:09PM

I've not been keeping up to date with the thread. I hope you are all well.

A speedy post to declare a grand total spend of £319.20 for July, £69.20 overspent. I relaxed a bit in the last part of the month, hence the excess. Saying that, I also made the most of some whoopsied bits so hopefully, that will help me to come within budget next month.

See you all in the aug thread

Bluegreen143 · 28 July 2012 at 5:09PM

Didn't think we'd spend much today if anything, but OH nipped to the shop for milk and came back with two shopping bags :rotfl: on closer inspection, one of the bags contained lots of beer, which doesn't count in the GC budget.

He didn't get the receipt but swears the total minus beer etc worked out to £6.30 - seems plausible as he got rolls, bacon, hummous, pesto, milk and a multi pack of crisps. The crisps were on the list for the weekly shop tomorrow anyway so I've removed them, and the milk was needed - the rest wasn't planned but I costed my shopping list for tomorrow online and should be less than £25 so we'll still be fine

will update sig now.

PennyGrabber · 28 July 2012 at 5:47PM

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

No grocery spends yesterday - though me and OH went out on a very expensive date night bowling and then the casino :eek: (we always pick a set amount we're happy to lose and stick to it religiously and last time I actually won just enough to pay for the whole night out but sadly not this time!).

Feeling a bit rough this morning as quite a bit of alcohol was consumed! it wasn't an MSE evening at all but we haven't been out together for AGES as OH has been a bit skint with less overtime at work, and it was really really good for us and a fantastic night Only we put the Olympic opening ceremony on to record and on the way out I forgot and turned the sky box off at the wall and so it didn't

Before we went out I made an adapted version of a Jamie Oliver recipe, a spicy sausage pasta where you pulse the sausage in the food processor so it's kind of like pork mince. Well I wasn't trying to save money, it was supposed to be part of our nice date night after all, but I accidentally made four large portions with only 5 sausages! Not like Jamie meals to save you money but the sausages are well bulked out with onion, tomatoes and carrot in the recipe, it wasn't even me adding them to be cheap lol. Was delicious too, OH is really excited about eating the rest of it next week (I froze the other two portions)

Glad you had a great night out - we deserve these every now and then, after all, what's the point of being frugal all the time, if you can't use the 'saved' money to treat yourself now and then!

The sausage pasta thing sounds good - any chance of the recipe please?! We use lots of sausages in our house as they're cheap, but always on the lookout for inventive ideas with them!

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

My logic may seem flawed to others but ...

Not flawed logic at all - I completely get where you're coming from there! And, as it's your gc, it's your rules, so what you say goes!

NSD today, woop woop. Could very easily have not been, because I wanted some extra veg for the dinner, but I decided we'll just have more fruit, which I already have in, for pudding instead.

Bluegreen143 · 28 July 2012 at 6:06PM

No problem PennyGrabber, this is the recipe as my sister emailed me it, I assume its from 30 min meals as I know she has that book (changes I made I've highlighted below):

4 spring onions I used two small normal onions
1 carrot I used two, again quite small ones
1 stick celery I left this out as didn't have
couple of fresh chillies I used dried - around a tablespoon but hard to tell as I just shook the jar over it lol
6 good quality sausages I used five as that's what I had
1 tsp fennel seeds halved this as not too keen on fennel.
dried oregano Used a big bunch fresh from the garden
penne pasta Served with spaghetti
4 cloves garlic
4 tablespns balsamic vinegar Used about half red wine vinegar but then ran out so used balsamic for the rest, next time would stick with balsamic though as it's sweeter
400g tin chopped toms
some basil

I also added two large fresh tomatoes as they really needed used up, some sliced black olives and half a courgette with the rounds cut into quarters. Plus a good bit of sugar to taste as I found it too vinegary (but then I used value toms which often need sugar). Oooh I also added soy sauce at the end because I find it gives pasta sauce a nice savoury flavour

chop all the veg & spring onions roughly then blitz in the food processor with the chillies. Add the sausages, oregano and fennel and pulse until well mixed.

spoon it into a hot frying pan with some olive oil, giving it a mix to break it all up. Crush the garlic into the sauce and add the vinegar and tomatoes, and stir in, cook for at least 20 mins, but it's better if you give it longer. Add some pasta cooking water to loosen if needed and the basil at the end.

I served with some extra basil torn over it (from the garden, well windowsill) and parmesan, plus with a side salad. Made four generous portions. I have a picture too that I'll upload later (need to go make dinner now!).

EDIT Here's the photo:

rosieben · 28 July 2012 at 6:56PM

Bluegreen, I've added your Spicy Sausage Pasta recipe to the front of the August GC (in post #7 for the moment) :beer:

PennyGrabber · 28 July 2012 at 7:23PM

Thank you bluegreen, sounds yummy!

We've just finished our dinner. Easy; jar of roast chicken mix, chicken, peas and mash. Nothing fancy, or full-on hm, but tasty and easy. And cheap!! I made sure to do enough mash for tomorrow's dinner - corned beef hash. That will use up another tin of beans, so then I'll only have about 15 to go!!

Breakfast tom will be scotch pancakes, lunch will prob be boiled eggs or egg muffins, and the hash for dinner. Easy day. Then, we're at my friend's for dinner on Mon (I shall take some cakes as a pud), and no idea what we're having on Tuesday! Off to think about that...

PG x

Looks delish!!

Make-it-3 · 28 July 2012 at 10:22PM

Been a busy few days organising and making all the bits for OH's Olympic birthday tea. So just catching up now with the spends from that £14.08 & £11.36 bringing my July total to £173.17/£200

So one more shop to go and there's lots of leftovers hanging around in the fridge so we're see if I can bring the month in on budget by being resourceful with these.

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July 2012 Grocery Challenge

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