January 2014 Grocery Challenge

xmillyx · 6 January 2014 at 3:05PM

First shop of the month done for this week.. Total spent was £25.23 so a touch over 1/4 of the months total spend.

Bluegreen143 · 6 January 2014 at 4:52PM

Thought I'd post up my meal plan -

Su - veggie egg fried rice (leftover cooked rice from dinner party night before

)

M - spicy sausage & roasted pepper pasta and salad (leftover cooked sausages in freezer)

T - haddock (from freezer) in a tomato & thyme sauce with HM chips and veg

W - mixed bean enchiladas and salad (beans and wraps in freezer)

Th - chicken & veg casserole with dumplings (chicken thighs in freezer)

F - gnocchi with roasted squash, pine nuts and pesto (need to use up potatoes!)

Sa - out for dinner on date night with OH as we've saved up so much money in our joint account (seperate to other savings)

also to congratulate him as on Sat it will be nearly 6 weeks for him without a single cigarette

:D I'm so proud of him as he's been quite a heavy smoker for 15 years (since he was 14-15!!)

As you can see, I'm trying to reduce freezer contents a bit :oUsed my electric slicer I got for Christmas to slice up my HM bread last night, totally love it and can't wait to cook a joint of meat up (sad I know lol!).

Hope everyone's having a frugal day.

Juliajojo · 6 January 2014 at 4:52PM

I fancy some chicken stew with dumplings tonight but had no suet so popped in and the Co-operative and purchased a box for £1.19. I had a NSD yesterday, and am hoping that tomorrow and Wednesday with be NSD's too.

JJ

Florenceem · 6 January 2014 at 4:55PM

Cleaned and tidied fridge - lots in there!
Mr F has gone out - told - no GC money spending.

nicknack · 6 January 2014 at 5:10PM

Hi everyone,

Haven't posted for ages but I've still been reading the threads and doing the challenge but have decided that for the new year I will try to post a lot more! Can I be put down for my usual of £200 please? I've been taking £200 out in cash every month and putting it in my shopping purse so not spending on my card, and this seems to have been working for me. I tend to do a shop at HBs at the beginning of the month (for toiletries, cereal bars and cleaning products etc), as well as one at A!di for cupboard items and then doing weekly shops for F&V and meat.

Good Luck everybody x

Ali-OK · 6 January 2014 at 5:15PM

Juliajojo wrote: »

I fancy some chicken stew with dumplings tonight but had no suet so popped in and the Co-operative and purchased a box for £1.19. I had a NSD yesterday, and am hoping that tomorrow and Wednesday with be NSD's too.

JJ

Perfect dumpling weather

I made beef stew and dumplings yesterday, so we'll have leftovers tonight and I also froze a few portions.

Have had to buy more suet today, milk, and porridge as I'd run out and also picked up Basics coffee and Basics bourbon biscuits. Wish Aldi would bring the bourbons back! I do wonder if there's a shortage though - SB hasn't had any for a couple of months and according to my Mum, her Asda and different SB has been the same. DS will be very happy now!

Spent £4.34p, £4 in Luncheon Vouchers from doing P!necone Research surveys and 34p of money. I'm only adding in the cash spend bit to the challenge, otherwise it won't tally with what I've got in my purse

dumpling · 6 January 2014 at 5:27PM

DanielleNic87 wrote: »

I have found the SW version of the kebab which apparently tastes just like the real thing, so I'm going to give that a go as hubby is partial to a shop bought kebab.

I would love it if you could post the recipe please. I'm counting calories and quite often use SW or WW recipes. Thanks x

lushlifesaver · 6 January 2014 at 5:43PM

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

just spent £1.50 on bags of dried fruit with choc chips in it was rtc in sains it was £1.65 a bag before christmas now its going through till at 15p a pack so got 10 bags to use in baking etc and for snacks

Wish I could find this is my local Sains but there's nothing

Have picked up some mincemeat for 10p a jar though (3 jars today) bit miffed as I paid 30p for the same stuff last week! No harm or foul though I suppose as it's reduced down from just over £1 a jar!

XSpender wrote: »

Thu Chicken and leek gratin with carrots and green beans

Don't suppose I could get your recipe for the Chicken and leek gratin? Sounds right up my street for whilst bf is on his travels!

Got a bag of Sains basics parsnips reduced to 45p today. It's a 750g bag so will blanche some and freeze for roasting (bf doesn't like them so will do about 1/3rd of the bag this) and then will make parsnip soup (maybe parsnip and chicken)

Islandmaid · 6 January 2014 at 6:32PM

Spent another £9 at Ald! On salad bits and bread rolls etc, made the mistake of taking DD who NEEDED popcorn and biscuits

XSpender · 6 January 2014 at 6:34PM

Recipe as requested lush lifesaver

Chicken and Leek Gratin

40g butter
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 sliced medium leeks (works with fresh or frozen)
2 gloves garlic chopped
300g cooked chicken
25g plain flour
100mls vegetable stock
¼ tsp mustard powder
200ml milk

Enough fresh breadcrumbs and grated cheese mixed together to cover. A bit of Parmesan is nice or mature cheddar.

To make the filling melt the butter and oil in a saucepan add the leeks and cook for 5 mins over a medium heat until softened but not coloured stir in the garlic and chicken and cook for 2 mins
Stir in the flour and mustard powder and cook for 1 min gradually add the stock and milk stirring until the sauce thickens season to taste spoon the mixture in to a pie dish and cover with a mixture of fresh breadcrumbs and grated cheese.

Cook for about 25 minutes at 160-180.

Sorry the recipe is a bit vague it is a quorn recipe with a pastry top that I have converted to a chicken recipe and replaced the pastry top with a (GF) crumb top! I usually cook the chicken first.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

January 2014 Grocery Challenge

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