January 2012 Grocery Challenge

sistercas · 7 January 2012 at 12:58PM

reporting in after the 1st week of the grocery challenge

i am 22% through the month but have spent £125.22 which is 31% of the budget

hopefully it will even itself out over the next 3 weeks

have plenty of stuff in at the moment though to last a week hopefully

icontinuetodream · 7 January 2012 at 12:59PM

Expensive week this week

sm has the coffee that I love on special offer so have bought 11 jars!!:eek:

So, along with some sweet potatoes, two jars of stirfry sauce (on offer too!!) and some cheese for the mob.....thats £34.93 spent this week!! Not too bothered though, its definately worth it because in the long run, I have saved myself over £10 on my coffee...:T and still have £39.04 left to see me through the month....shouldn't be a major problem...;)

Linz4383 · 7 January 2012 at 12:59PM

well im hopin for another no spends day

ive currently got shingles so dnt wanna go out n spread my germs!!! although i cud do with a few bits to try a tomato sauce recipe for pasta to freeze (may as well make myself useful whilst bein stuck in!!!) may send my dad if hes in a good mood, off to my mothers for t so thats free

must start gettin through the bits in the freezer tho .. not sure i can fit much more in it!!!!
im likin the idea of freezin in a tub then takin out of the tub n puttin in a bag as i always run out of tubs, was thinkin of buyin sum more but with that idea i dont need too

and i have plenty of freezer bags

thanks guys

aberdeensaver · 7 January 2012 at 12:59PM

Hi All,

Just back from A**a to buy food for the week. Thought I was going to spend £30 ish, but ended up spending £50 so a bit annoyed however the silver lining is I found the dry food woopsie section of the supermarket and got a box of OvenPride cleaner for £1.50! My oven desperately needs cleaned, and I dont care that the box was dog eared! Also took back my tupelware box that split, as only one split from a pack of three she gave me a full refund and let me keep the other two boxes. OH doesnt let me complain so whilst he has been at work I have written to two companies whose products I have brought which have been rubbish and also called the company we brought our bed from, and after many attempts at delivery we finally have the bed and a cheque for £120 compensation!

This forum has taught me so many things, and I just wanted to say thanks. For the first time ever, I have just chopped up my LO celery and have popped in in the freezer, as well as some spinach (you can only ever buy MASSIVE bags of it!) as well as buying 12 garlic bread slices and seperating into 4's into the freezer for meals this week and next. Before I would have chucked the celery, spinach and eaten 6 garlic bread slices in one sitting!

E x

SueP19 · 7 January 2012 at 1:07PM

meg72 wrote: »

Re Branston pickle,I used to use a lot a this but a friend gave me a cheese and pickle sandwich and asked me if I thought the pickle was OK,I did and she told me it was SP,26p I now only buy this.A big saving on Branston.

I switched to value pickle an t sauce half way through the year, OH moaned but I stuck to my guns

Dragoncry · 7 January 2012 at 1:19PM

Afternoon all

Went to Mr T's Express and they had some cream reduced to 15p a pot so I bought the 5 of them to make some butter as it's waaay cheaper and salt free for baking and very easy :T
They also had a few other bits reduced so that was £3.92 total !

NSD day tomorrow and will only need to buy some milk next week before Sunday 15th. This month is only £120 between 5 of us and 2 cats as I have so much in the freezer and store cupboards to tide us over :heart2:

Love this forum, keep up the good work !
DC xx

rising_from_the_ashes · 7 January 2012 at 1:30PM

cw18 wrote: »

stews, casseroles, bolognese, chille - these I put a portion of the meat part into an empty rectangular 500g margarine tub and into the freezer. once frozen I tip the contents into a freezer bag. some people line the tub with a bag first, but I find the food freezes around wrinkles in the bag which means I can't heat it from frozen if I forget to pull it out/plans change (and putting it into the bag once frozen means I can tip it into the pan to defrost, which also means the bags are cleaner for washing/reusing)

I do almost exactly the same as Cheryl, except that I don't put the frozen block into a plastic bag.

I've lots of margarine tubs so don't have a problem with running out of them

and it means if I forget to take something out in the morning to defrost, I can take straight from the freezer, run the sides of the tub under hot water for a few seconds (literally) and the block then tips out into the pan. HTH:)

aberdeensaver · 7 January 2012 at 1:34PM

Please help, can I freeze risotto? My oh has just announced he is going out and I already have defrosted the chicken for risotto and there's too much for just me!

janiepopps · 7 January 2012 at 1:37PM

tracey12 wrote: »

I also use plastic boxes (like the ones you get from chinese). I put the soup, casserole, chilli, spag bol etc in the plastic box and put this into a labelled freezer bag and write on my freezer list. When the food is frozen I take out of the plastic box and just wrap in the freezer bag so that the box can be used again. It is easy to stack the food as well as all the food is rectangle you can fit more into the freezer.

I do that too Tracey, and then put the portioned out bags into different coloured carrier bags so it's always easy to find what I want. (ETA; I write on the portion bag with permanent pen before I out the frozen food in as the pen stays on better)

For example, frozen & bagged portions of raw meat go into a red carrier bag in the freezer, any veg (either leftovers or blanched stuff go into a green bag, HM 'ready meals' go into a Sainsbugs orange carrier and fruit in a Tesc0 bag.

Really easy when you need a quick meal to grab the orange bag and find something that just needs nuking to defrost then reheating.

Again, all my blocks are the same size and rectangular so they stack easily as my house freezer is pretty small.

I have made a note of the colour coding on the freezer door so OH doesn't just empty them all out trying to find what he wants.

LondonDreamer · 7 January 2012 at 1:38PM

aberdeensaver wrote: »

Please help, can I freeze risotto? My oh has just announced he is going out and I already have defrosted the chicken for risotto and there's too much for just me!

I never have it myself, but you can buy it as a frozen ready meal so I don't see why not!

Try this thread, should have more info: Can I freeze risotto?

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January 2012 Grocery Challenge

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