£1.60 spent in Mr T today on a reduced sandwich filler to go with my last wrap, and I also got a reduced pasta ready meal. The sandwich filler was supposed to be just for today - but there is quite a lot of it! I've used up all the bread in the freezer and all my salad (apart from one tomato) as well. I'll have to buy a bagel or something to go with it tomorrow, and put the ready meal in the freezer for next week.

Tonight I've defrosted some sausages in the freezer, and in the absence of potatoes, I'll will be making a swede and carrot mash with swede + carrot which needs using up, and a couple of roasted parsnips which need using up also.

I'm quite surprised how well I'm doing at this stage of the month, especially since I've been out for a meal as well!

I reiterate what others have said, NONE of us are failures!

if it goes mouldy thats a deal breaker for me, i chuck it then, tho i like to try and not let it get that far

Afternoon peeps

i`m fresh back from the shops and i`m feeling really pleased with myself

My February challenge starts tomorrow and DH would normally be doing the shop tomorrow night after work so to save him a job i`ve done it today and whacked most of it on the CC so that it does come out of the Feb budget as we don`t get paid until tomorrow, thought i`d kill two birds with one stone as i had to go to the dry cleaners which is next to Sainsbugs and the cheapest place for petrol atm around here is MrM`s filling station.

I made a list of the offers that were on before i set off and have managed to get a huge amount of food for very little

In Sainsbugs i spent £17.38 and i bought the meat offer so for £10 i got a gammon joint, 6 pork loin steaks and a chicken, the red leicester cheese that was 2x500g for £4, philly at 91p and 97p for the one with chives, and a tray of chicken thighs and drumstix for £1.50

In MrM i bought some veg for this week which was potatoes on offer for £1, sprouts on offer for 50p, condensed soup for pasta sauces on offer for 37p each,dove deodourant for 95p,some of the 49p sugar (got 3 of those) and a piece of pork shoulder on offer which was £2.98. I also picked up a few random tins whilst i was there so i am a very happy bunny. I`ve managed to get all the meat into the fridge so will rearrange the freezer later so that it can all go in for use in Feb

All in all £27.72 spent and i had £7.74 left from the January budget so i`ve taken that off and will take the remaining £19.98 from the February budget I now have enough food in to feed us for a couple of months as the freezer was almost full before.

Thanks to whoever posted the linky to the half price pet food from Am@zon , i`ve ordered just over £50 of pet food from there saving me a fortune, the dog food was the same price as my local so i ordered it at the same time as it was free delivery and so it saved me the cost of the petrol to collect it. The cat food is stacked up in the spare room upstairs and i`d already got a decent stash in for winter in case we couldn`t get out.

I`ve got enough pet food for at least two months so i shall only buy now if there is an offer on. It would be nice if i can save the pet food money for the coming months towards my mortgage overpayments. I`ve saved £60 this month by reducing the budget and i shall keep it at £100 for Feb too and see if i can stash that into the pot.

Soooo on that happy note i would like to declare £100 for food and £40 for the pets for January please MrsM, i had a look at the linky that you posted for your trek and i must say it looks fab!

Hope that everyone manages to pick up some decent bargains as there are loads on at the moment

SD

I've just done the price guarantee for yesterday's shopping. Even though it would have been 43p dearer in M's, I still have a voucher for £1.85 because of the 10% thing. Not to be sniffed at.

What's the price guaranteed and how do you get it/where?

Sorry folks I have got really behind this week and only have a few minutes before I must leave for work. I have updated my sig and am fairly pleased with progress so far this month. I have rellies coming at the weekend so have had to buy extra as the chicken left in the freezer was only big enough for 2-3 and I also had to buy some more cheese and fruit. Although I am on a yearly budget I will post my month's total next week - as long as I don't go over 1/12th of the annual budget I shall be happy. Staying out of the shops works for me - 14 NSDs so far this month!

Good luck all - will try and catch up at the weekend!

Love
Moniker

You have to buy at least 8 items from A*da, then put your receipt details into the web site

http://www.asdapriceguarantee.co.uk/Compare-Prices/ASDA-receipt.aspx

You will need a printer if you are given any vouchers, and you have to hand your original till receipt in with the voucher when you use it, but you get the receipt back to keep.

I bought something on special offer yesterday and paid for it separately because I knew it would mean I had no hope of my shopping being cheaper anywhere else.

Thanks cranky!

I am waiting for my bread to finish raising so I can put it in the oven! Let's see if it is ok. Not sure. In the last bit I felt that some of the dough had like hard skin on one of the sides of my ball. Maybe it is just dry flour. No clue. I am looking forward to see if it is edible! Lol

Sorry i havent been on for a few days but just got back from mr al spent £25.67 I've had 4 nsd since saturdays visit to mr s .
My total for the month so far is £144 I was hoping to try and keep it under £160 but i still think it will be nearer £200.
But thats a big improvement on £100 every week at mr s.
We are only going to visit mr s once every 3 weeks.

Hi all,been to adsa's yet again !. I spent £45.00 so going to add to my sig in a bit :-)

HI all,

Been a while since i've been on. So far we've been sticking to eating from the freezer and cupboards.
Got no cheddar, plain flour and eggs left so will have to buy some.

going to make these soon, never had them before, but they should be lush.

feta and potato patties.
500g potatoes
115g feta cheese
3tbsp chopped fresh dill (i'm using dried oregano)
4 spring onions chopped (ordinary onions for me)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 egg beaten
flour for dredging
3 tbsp olive oil
salt / pepper

boil potatoes in skins in water till soft. drain and peel them, while warm and mash.
Crumble feta, seasoning, dill, lemon juice, onions, potatoes and egg and stir well.

Cover the mixture and chill till firm.
Divide mixture in small balls and flatten slightly.
Dredge with flour and fry till golden brown.
Serve at once.


will let you know id they azny good, were having chilli and jacket pots for tea, warming and yummy!

Hi All,

Fist months Grocery Challenge!! DONE!!
yippeee!
I spent £159.08 this month on my food shops, this is 20th to 20th so includes Xmas - I am dead chuffed with myself

I didn't use this tread much to give me ideas as this was my first month I just signed up and did my best with downgrading and planning as I could to see what I could achive. So now i'm going to take the next couple of days to read through the whole thread ready to set myself my Feb 11 target, If I can stay under £170 with no help, imagine how much I can save with a little bit of knowledge from you lovely lot!!

See you all in Feb!!

xxx

£3 spend for us today have updated signature. Ran out of milk & bought bacon for lunch tomorrow for my day off

One more shop before our Jan month budget is up.. . will see how we come in tomorrow.... running a little low on my stores

kezlou, I've added your feta and potato patties recipe to the index, thank you

thank you!! he will be greatly missed!! and only made it to his teenage years!!

am going to tackle the outfit at weekend!! too much else to sort!!! had to do my car tax today!!! boo hoo!! only put 6months on usuaully do a year coz its cheaper - but havent got the money!!!

thank you all!!!! sending you all hugs too!!! feel slightly better today - but not much! had a good cry while organising lifts to the funeral for people - lovely memories!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you!! am feeling slightly better today!!! i felt so awful yesterday!!!!!!!!!!! hope i dont have many of those days!!!!

Hi All

I didn't realize how much carrots I had cut up until I looked at the pan!!! Is it possible to freeze swede and carrot mash? I'm thinking it will be possible, but will it end up really watery when defrosted?

Thanks

Final shop of the month (bread, milk, toilet roll and other personal toiletry bits and bobs ) total spend £16.41 so now over budget with ten days to go. I am happy with this amount as its my first month on the challenge and before I was spending £100 plus a week so £260 is a lot less for 4 and a bit weeks. I know I can do better and next month will be more of a challenge so I will be keeping tabs on this thread to keep me motivated. sig updated.

No spend day today. I've been keeping busy, not been out of the village, best way for me to not spend.

I made a strange kind of dip for lunch. Tin of chickpeas, spinach, dash of oil and vinegar, garlic powder. Whizz it all up in a jug. I thought it might taste better if it was warmed so I spread it on an oatcake rolled it up and microwaved it. Made two, tasted fine. Mind you, whatever it tasted like I would have eaten it, I don't throw food away.

Dinner is steamed veg, cheap from Tes&co, with a couple of spoons of plain yogurt on top.
Ilona