January 2020 Grocery Challenge

carolinerunner wrote: »

+

I didn't know you can put money on a clubcard, how does that work and if I put (say) £0 on, can I use that on one of the deals where you get £30-worth of goods for £10?

It only works for the Christmas saver, you get a bonus if you top up your clubcard. I'm going to use the top up and bonus during December to reduce my spends and use the vouchers I've earnt through normal shopping for days out.

elsiepac wrote: »

Budgets updated to here



Mrs Cheshire another one who is sounding very organised and off to a fab start! Same question - anything exciting on the meal plan? I love seeing what people have to eat and I think others do too - we can all get ideas from each other!

This week the menu has included
Breaded chicken steaks, sweet potato fries ( at my parents, quick tea before heading home)
cottage pie (base and extra veg from the freezer, already had potatoes in)
pesto chicken pasta (all from stores, using open jar of pesto from fridge)
lamb leg, new poatoes, veg (from freezer/stocks cooked all and frozen half the lamb for another day)
sweet & sour chicken & rice ( from stocks except 1 can of pineapple chunks)
sausages & mash (from freezer/stores)
pulled pork, sweet potato fries/chips, onion rings and corn (all from freezer.

Next week we're having
Pasta bake with sausages (loads of cocktail sausages in freezer, so will chop into chunks)
fish and new potatoes (freezer/stores)
chicken curry and rice (freezer/stores)
steak, sweet potato fries, pesto mushrooms (hubby's birthday, so making his favourite meal)
fri/sat- we're away so will be eating meals out, mum will use food in freezers to feed kids/herself
sun - roast beef, yorkshire's (need to use up some flour/eggs) (roast beef is from the freezer as I bought a large joint before christmas, cooked and froze into smaller portions)

I've got the ingredients to make a banoffee pie for a dessert next week.

Need to think of some interesting meals using pork loin steaks and diced beef as I've got some in the freezer to use. Any ideas??

sarahj1986 wrote: »

€3.22 spent today

Needed weetabix and bread for my girl. Unfortunately I can only buy branded weetabix as they don’t sell supermarket knock offs over here. My daughter loves them so I buy them for her and I might have them occasionally too.

€292.71 left

€12.19 spent today

Hubby needed more breakfast cakes as we ran out. I got veg to make a butternut squash soup as my girl seems to enjoy soup in the evenings, plus the bread for that. I also got half price Christmas chocolate, it’s my favourite and only available those short few months before Christmas so I got 4 bars to keep me going :-) also minced beef was on offer so I got 2 packets as we use beef quite a bit. I decided this month to only buy meat/fish either on special offer or reduced. If it works I’ll carry it on into February.

Kings day here on Monday so everywhere is closed. Hubby is getting the water tomorrow as it’s too much for me to carry on my own.

€280.52 left

Just a small spend today of £2.70, I was trying for a NSD. I needed some mustard powder for a spice mix that I am making up, when I opened the tin it smelled funny and when I looked it had actually gone out of date in 2005! I went and got some more and some free from Pesto, but note to self – make sure I use the mustard powder and don’t buy anymore jars of English mustard.
This hunting around in the pantry first before shopping certainly pays off. I was coming to the end of my homemade vanilla extract and thought I would have to buy some ingredients. However I found half a dozen vanilla pods and a half bottle of vodka. Pods into bottle and now to wait six months. When the old bottle is completely empty I will also add those pods to the new bottle. This is a very cheap way of making a good, strong flavoured vanilla extract for baking etc.
There are some fabulous tips here people, thank you.

£6 spent today, not on food but on a car wash and this is the budget it comes out of so here it is

A very frugal week as I have spent under £16 so far (for a family of 3), so I am feeling very pleased with myself! Good job as the dd has just reminded me that I need to give her money for a concert ticket.

I will be popping out for a loaf of bread and some apples shortly - trying to time it right for yellow stickers!

Dinner will be pasta with homemade veggie sauce for ds (made in the slow cooker with a 10p yellow sticker bag of casserole veg and some tinned toms). Dd and I are having chilli, made with the veggie sauce as the base with beans and spices added. I've also frozen some for next week!