realslimlady
Full Member
Having joined the 'Frugal February' challenge on the off topic board, I thought I'd start a food diary to log my progress.
Just to fill you in, the aim is to spend as little on food etc as possible this month - I've set myself a budget of £100, which is a lot less than the usual £500+ we spend in the supermarket every month for a family of four. We do, however, have a ridiculously well stocked freezer and cupboards, so we should be able to live off that for the month (and probably quite a lot of March too). We go on holiday at the beginning of April, so if I can stick to £100 a month for the next two months that will save us £800 to pay for it!
As we have just stocked up on things like toilet roll, dishwasher tablets, washing powder etc, the plan is not to go to the supermarket at all this month. I'm terrible for bulk buying bargains (hence the well stocked freezer!), so think I'll do much better if I get the fresh bits and pieces we need from the village high street, to avoid temptation.
I've just done a 'kitchen audit' - below is the list of what I've got in. I'll update it as I use it and hopefully it will dwindle to nothing by the time we go away (good opportunity to defrost the freezer!)
FREEZER/FRIDGE
4 x diced lamb
1 x leg of lamb
3 x diced pork
3 x pork shoulder joint
2 pork chops
3 x diced beef
3 x rump steak
2 x sirloin steak
3 x sausages
1 x pork and chorizo sausages
6 x venison burgers
2 x beef burgers
3 x Cumberland sausages
1 x large gammon joint
4 x chicken thighs and drumsticks
1 x chicken drumsticks
1 x chicken thigh fillets
6 x chicken breasts
1 x whole chicken
11 x salmon fillets
10 x smoked haddock/cod
3 x bag of prepared squid
1 1/2 x bag of king prawns
3 x fish pie mix
1 x bag scallops
1 1/2 x bacon
1 x ham
2 x smoked salmon
Chorizo
Stilton
Parmesan
Mozzarella
1 1/2 x cheddar
3 x Philadelphia
CUPBOARD
Arborio rice
Paella rice
Basmati rice
Thai Jasmine rice
Bulghur wheat
Cous cous
4 x 500g bags White pasta
2 x 500g bags wholewheat pasta
Wholewheat spaghetti
Linguini
Lasagne sheets
3 x chickpeas
9 x chopped tomatoes
3 x condensed mushroom soup
Cashew nuts
Walnuts
Almonds
Dried apricots
Sultanas
Sunflower seeds
Pine nuts
Sesame seeds
Reduced fat coconut milk
4 x tinned tuna
Tomato puree
Jar Szechuan sauce
Jar black bean sauce
4 x stir fry sachets
5 x baked beans
3 x tinned pears
3 x tinned peaches
3 x tinned mandarins
1 x tinned apricots
Plus lots of fresh fruit and veg.
Holy crap, that is A LOT of food lol!!! I didn't really realise how much was in there until I wrote it all down. Should keep us going for a couple of months with only minimal ups of fresh stuff like milk, veg, bread etc, and a few of the 'extras' the kids like (yoghurt tubes, baked crisps etc). Looking forward to this!
Just to fill you in, the aim is to spend as little on food etc as possible this month - I've set myself a budget of £100, which is a lot less than the usual £500+ we spend in the supermarket every month for a family of four. We do, however, have a ridiculously well stocked freezer and cupboards, so we should be able to live off that for the month (and probably quite a lot of March too). We go on holiday at the beginning of April, so if I can stick to £100 a month for the next two months that will save us £800 to pay for it!
As we have just stocked up on things like toilet roll, dishwasher tablets, washing powder etc, the plan is not to go to the supermarket at all this month. I'm terrible for bulk buying bargains (hence the well stocked freezer!), so think I'll do much better if I get the fresh bits and pieces we need from the village high street, to avoid temptation.
I've just done a 'kitchen audit' - below is the list of what I've got in. I'll update it as I use it and hopefully it will dwindle to nothing by the time we go away (good opportunity to defrost the freezer!)
FREEZER/FRIDGE
4 x diced lamb
1 x leg of lamb
3 x diced pork
3 x pork shoulder joint
2 pork chops
3 x diced beef
3 x rump steak
2 x sirloin steak
3 x sausages
1 x pork and chorizo sausages
6 x venison burgers
2 x beef burgers
3 x Cumberland sausages
1 x large gammon joint
4 x chicken thighs and drumsticks
1 x chicken drumsticks
1 x chicken thigh fillets
6 x chicken breasts
1 x whole chicken
11 x salmon fillets
10 x smoked haddock/cod
3 x bag of prepared squid
1 1/2 x bag of king prawns
3 x fish pie mix
1 x bag scallops
1 1/2 x bacon
1 x ham
2 x smoked salmon
Chorizo
Stilton
Parmesan
Mozzarella
1 1/2 x cheddar
3 x Philadelphia
CUPBOARD
Arborio rice
Paella rice
Basmati rice
Thai Jasmine rice
Bulghur wheat
Cous cous
4 x 500g bags White pasta
2 x 500g bags wholewheat pasta
Wholewheat spaghetti
Linguini
Lasagne sheets
3 x chickpeas
9 x chopped tomatoes
3 x condensed mushroom soup
Cashew nuts
Walnuts
Almonds
Dried apricots
Sultanas
Sunflower seeds
Pine nuts
Sesame seeds
Reduced fat coconut milk
4 x tinned tuna
Tomato puree
Jar Szechuan sauce
Jar black bean sauce
4 x stir fry sachets
5 x baked beans
3 x tinned pears
3 x tinned peaches
3 x tinned mandarins
1 x tinned apricots
Plus lots of fresh fruit and veg.
Holy crap, that is A LOT of food lol!!! I didn't really realise how much was in there until I wrote it all down. Should keep us going for a couple of months with only minimal ups of fresh stuff like milk, veg, bread etc, and a few of the 'extras' the kids like (yoghurt tubes, baked crisps etc). Looking forward to this!
), but the rest of the week has been very good - used up the rest of the roast chicken on lunches and kids dinners, and made myself a very yummy bacon and mushroom risotto when I got home late on Wednesday night.
