Next week's meal plan & grocery update

Next week's meal plan  - beginning 12 November 2011

SATURDAY - beef & ale stew with carrots & broccoli - (substituted from tonight. We had fish cakes & veg instead)

SUNDAY - Roast chicken, rice with onion & bacon, peas & cabbage.

MONDAY - Stir fry pork with veg in soy, honey & chinese spice sauce.

TUESDAY - Spaghetti bolognese

WEDNESDAY - Pasta & pesto with veg & sausage.

THURSDAY - Chilli (frozen leftovers from last week) with rice

FRIDAY - HM pizzas

SOUPS - 1) Butternut squash & sweet potato
             2) Chicken & veg

I will also bake this week. Probably brownies, scones and lemon drizzle sponge.


GROCERY UPDATE

TESCO -

Tesco fruit yoghurts (various flavours) x 6 @£0.89  = £5.34
Tesco own brand cornflakes                                   = £1.48
Savoy cabbage x 2 (BOGOF)                                  = £0.76
English apples x 2 bags @£1.00 (BOGOF)                = £1.00
Curry sauce x 1 jar (Loyd Grossman, Balti)              = £1.00
Oranges x 2 bags @£2.00                                      = £4.00
Bananas x 2 bunches                                             = £0.97
Broccoli x 2 (BOGOF)                                             = £0.97
Honeydew melons x 2                                            = £3.00

TOTAL                                                                   = £18.52

LIDL -

Grapes x 2 punnets                                                 = £3.00
Leeks   x 4                                                              = £1.19
Red onions                                                              = £0.29
Potatoes - 2.5KG pack                                              = £2.49
Arla 1% milk x 4 @£0.85                                          = £3.40
Bavarian Ham x 3 @£0.83                                        = £2.49
Wafer thin chicken                                                   = £1.59
Free range eggs x 4 boxes @ £0.89                          = £3.56
Rapeseed oil                                                           = £1.29
Olive oil spread x 2 @£1.09                                      = £2.18
Poultry Kabanossi sausages                                      = £1.79
Lidl own brand 'Frosties' cereal                                 = £0.99

TOTAL                                                                     = £24.26

TOTAL SPEND                                                          = £42.78

November grocery spend to date  - £173.15 / £250.00

Balance - £76.85


I am going to have to watch the spends next week if I am going to make it until Nov. 27th on budget, although £250.00 was a pretty ambitious target for us!

The kids are devouring fruit & youghurts at the moment. I cannot complain about this though, so much better than wanting sweets. Thank goodness all of the Halloween sweeties are finished.

How are your grocery challenges going in November?

This week's meal plan

I forgot to update last Friday with the next meal plan due to a hectic weekend, anyway, it's a bit late but here goes;

FRIDAY - Macaroni & cheese

SATURDAY - invited out to Mum's for tea!

SUNDAY - Chicken curry, rice & flat bread

MONDAY - Kids - HM pizza's. Grown ups - sirloin steak, baby potatoes, red cabbage & red onion in balsamic vinegar & green beans. (found the steaks at bottom of the freezer, nice surprise!)

TUESDAY - Pasta, pesto, sausage & veg.

WEDNESDAY - Chilli & rice

THURSDAY - Smoked haddock kedgeree

FRIDAY - Beef & ale stew


Grocery shopping challenge update for 09.11.11

Tesco -

2 x value washing powder @£1.68 = £3.36
1 x value fabric conditioner            = £0.90
Bananas                                       = £0.64
4 x cans of tuna flakes @£0.45       =£1.80
1 x value mozzarella                      =£0.44 
1 x tub value soft cheese                =£0.40
2 x Weetabix minis                        =£3.00
2 x Tesco 'readybrek' @£1.32         =£2.64
1 x Cheerios                                  =£2.78

TOTAL                                         =£15.96


Lidl -

1 x butternut squash                     =£0.79
2 x sweet potatoes                        =£0.88

TOTAL                                          =£1.67


TOTAL SPEND                               =£17.63

Remaining grocery budget             =£119.63

Nearly time for next week's meal plan now.....

Busy Day

Up at 6am today as we have a lot on. So far I have made a batch of lemon curd muffins (from the River Cottage Every Day cook book), baked a loaf of bread and a large pan of leek & potato soup. 

I have also been to Lidl for my main shop, where I spent £36.41 on the following items;

2 x punnets of grapes (red & green) - £3.00
Large Chicken                                 - £3.58
Bananas                                         - £0.62
Vine tomatoes (2.5kg)                     - £5.15 (enough to make 2 x large batches
                                                                  of soup to freeze)
Honey dew melon                           - £1.29
Leeks                                             - £1.19
Red onions (2 x bags @ £0.49)        - £0.98
Broccoli                                          - £0.79
Cucumber                                       - £0.59
Lemons                                          - £0.79
Mixed peppers                                - £0.99
Celery                                            - £0.49
Garlic                                             - £0.89
Carrots (2 x 1kg bags @£0.29)        - £0.58
Arla 1% milk (4 x £0.85)                - £3.40
Bavarian Ham (2 x £0.83)               - £1.66
Danpak butter                                -£1.79
Tomato puree                                 -£0.35
Dark Chocolate (6 x bars @£0.29)   - £1.74 ( will use for brownies / chocolate
                                                                 sponge etc)
Beef mince (6 x packs @£1.09)       - £6.54

TOTAL - 36.41.

Now I clearly made a mistake with the tomatoes. I could have sworn they were marked as 50% off, which is why I got a big bag today but the receipt tells me otherwise. Hmmm, I think I will go back tomorrow if I get the chance and check again....

I also picked up a few things from Morrisons after that I couldn't get at Lidl, namely;

Morrisons pink salmon, 1 x 418g can  - £ 1.58 (for fish cakes)
Morrisons fresh orange juice, 2L         - £1.78
Yeo Valley organic natural yoghurt     - £1.28
Morrisons Value kidney beans, 1 x can -£0.15
Clementines, 2 x 750g bags @£1.00    - £2.00

TOTAL - £6.79


TOTAL Grocery spend - £43.20.

This is quite a bit lower than I usually spend each week but I have quite a good stock of store cupboard essentials at home at the moment, like flours & baking items, pasta, olive oil spread, cheese, tinned tomatoes, tuna, coffee etc. All bought when on offer previously. I also have quite a few meat items in the freezer also bought on offer. I also had quite a few yoghurts left over from last week so i'm hoping I won't have to do a top up shop during the week.


I have set myself a challenge of only spending £250.00 on groceries in Novemeber and would love to beat this. However I won't beat myself up about it if I don't manage it.

I start my 'grocery months' on our pay day, which is normally on or around the 27th of the month, so this is my 2nd grocery week if you like. Total spent so far is £112.74. Which leaves me with £137.26.

Fuel spend is not looking so good so far this month due to a lot of extra running about this week. Normally we spend about £200 a month but so far we have spent £180.06. I have had to fill my car up again yesterday. Both cars are full so I am aiming to use the car as little as possible (other than today and tomorrow due to running kids around to clubs and a sports competiton).

I will try and upload some images of the muffins (what's left of them...), the soup and the spelt loaf (rather organic in shape...) later today when I get back.

Have a good Saturday x

Favourite day of the month!

Hello and welcome to my blog. I have been hurting my brain wondering what my first post was going to be about... then it came to me when I realised yesterday was one of the best days of the month. That's right, PAY DAY! Yipee.

Now I have had lots of great days this month with my family etc but there is something so satisfying about pay day when I get to budget for the coming month, pay some extra off my large mortgage (very embarrassed at the size. Maybe i'll learn to share the amount one day. Until then i'm still in denial!) and just generally get 'my house in order' for the next 4 - 5 weeks.

Things I did yesterday;

• Checked the cupboards, freezer etc and the Lidl's leaftlet. I tend to meal plan around what is on offer at the various supermarkets and have been finding more and more thebulk of my shopping is being done at Lidl with smaller shops at Tesco and Morrisons.  I am a total supermarket tart and actually enjoy the whole 'shopping around' thing. I am aiming for no more than £250.00 grocery spend this month. I have reduced this from over £500.00 a month back around Spring time.

• I moved money around via on line banking, i.e. topped up the various on-line saving's accounts I have for things like annual insurance's, car running costs, holiday fund etc.

• Paid my credit card bill in full. I have a Tesco Clubcard credit card which we use for most of our shopping and petrol to take advantage of the points. However I always pay it off in full each month.

• Wrote out our weekly meal plan. I usually do this with the kids as they like to be involved and I think it is a good way of making them think about the food they like and about budgeting in general. I often take them shopping with me and talk about comparing things and the difference in price.

Meal plan for the coming week, starting tonight;

FRIDAY - Home made pizza. Usually served with raw carrot and cucumber sticks.

SATURDAY - Turkey Curry with home made flat breads.

SUNDAY - Lemon roast chicken with cabbage & roasted carrots and rice.

MONDAY - Pasta with pesto. (If I have enough basil leaves on the plant, I often make my own pesto but the best 'fresh' alternative is Tesco 'Finest' fresh pesto. I'll team this with any 'value' pasta I can get for 18p a bag and combine with any stir fry veg and perhaps bacon, smoked sausage etc. The kids love it and it's a fairly cheap meal for 5). This is one of my 'stand by' meals for nights the kids are off at clubs etc after school and it's chaos. You can have it on the table in under 15 mins and it's filling & nutritious if you use plenty veg.

TUESDAY - Fish cakes, made with tinned salmon. I usually team them with Cauliflower cheese or peas & carrots. 

WEDNESDAY - Beef and Ale stew. I will shop around for the cheapest stewing steak and bottle of the cheapest dark ale to use.  Team it with buttery mashed potato and any veg.

THURSDAY - Bacon & pea risotto.

Of course I don't always stick to the meal plan rigidly, I may swop nights around if we don't fancy a particular dish on a given night but I have found meal planning to be a huge saver in the cash dept and we are not eating lesser quality food although we are saving money every month.