February 2011 Grocery Challenge

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  • minnie2 wrote: »
    anyone seem any cheap airers anywhere?

    argos got some reduced im picking 2 up on monday or B&M have a couple h t h
    2nd purse challenge no040£0 Sealed pot challenge ???? £2 trolley find not counting small coins till end year
  • OMG Just completed wonderful spread sheet. Not gd news on the Grocery Challenge. I declare £454.91 Over my £400 budget but could have been worse?!?

    Won't b shopping 2mo!!!!

    Keeping my budget at £400 for March - will try harder - honest
  • Billie-jo
    Billie-jo Posts: 1,221 Forumite
    edited 27 February 2011 at 7:17PM
    Hippeechiq and Spiggle - I have to agree with you on the national anthem. Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all far superior to England’s which is so dismal and uninspiring it can often put you to sleep. Better not say anything else or may have to take a trip to the tower to get beheaded.

    Have a very old cookery book - early 50’s I think - some bits missing other bits worn, dog eared and held together with a rubber band :eek: but never the less much loved. It was my DH mums and that woman could cook. Have just found coconut ice and peppermint cream in it, the treacle toffee is one of my aunties recipe slightly adjusted by yours truly….. ME. I was always told to - ‘Remove any children out of the kitchen’ when doing the treacle toffee. My eldest is now 34 and I still tell her to stand well back. :rotfl:

    COCONUT ICE:
    Dissolve 1lb. Loaf sugar in ¼ pint of water and boil till turns to syrup (240 F) if you have a thermometer.
    Remove pan from heat and add 4oz desiccated coconut. Stir until mixture thickens and then as quickly as you can pour half of this mixture into a greased tin. Colour the remaining half pink and then pour this onto the white one and leave to set. When cool cut.

    PEPPERMNT CREAMS:
    Sieve 1lb icing sugar, add lemon juice and 1 egg white then mix until a stiff, pliable paste. Flavour this with some peppermint essence and if you like tint green with food colouring. Roll this out and cut into what ever shapes you want.
    For other flavourings you can use grated orange or lemon rinds and colour accordingly.

    TREACLE TOFFEE (one of my favourites)
    1lb brown sugar
    ¼ pint water
    4 oz. Black treacle
    2 oz margarine
    4oz. Golden sugar
    malt vinegar
    In a strong heavy saucepan dissolve the sugar in the water then add everything else apart from the vinegar. Bring this to the boil and heat until 270 F. Stir once or twice but not too often. Now add 1-2 tsps vinegar this makes it set hard. It also makes it bubble so be very careful at this stage. Now carefully pour this into a greased tin and leave to set.
    If you like me haven’t got a sugar thermometer drop a small ‘blob’ into a jug of very cold water. If it goes hard quickly then its done, if it doesn’t heat a little bit more BUT be very careful as it can easily take on a horrible burnt taste. To clean the sticky saucepan cover in cold water and heat slowly. Repeat if necessary.
    MARCH £62.38/250
  • looie
    looie Posts: 706 Forumite
    I am going to declare at £99.18 for this month as won't be spending anything tomorrow.

    Only had couple of little spend in t's over the weekend - yoghurts which were on offer. Got a real taste for the shape greek ones ... yummy ! Got some brocolli for my bunnies and 4 loaves of reduced bread for the ducks at our local park.

    Hope everyone's ok :D
  • minnie2
    minnie2 Posts: 513 Forumite
    argos got some reduced im picking 2 up on monday or B&M have a couple h t h


    thank you will have a look!!! whats b&m?
    Frugal living challenge - need to revisit its been.a while !! Need to reduce our debts!!
  • It did turn out to be a NSD for me today, although I was really tempted to go for a mooch, but the children wanted to stay at home, so they helped me to have a NSD! Going out for dd birthday dinner tomorrow, but that's budgetted for separately so will/should still be a NSD tom too. Tried and failed to count the NSDs this month, got a bit fraught towards the end. I reckon it's got to be more than 15 though, which is over half way!

    I'm going to go and fiddle with my online shopping order now - trying asd@ for the first time. Realised I put chicken on there. which I won't need as I still have loads left in the freezer, and really, how much chicken will I eat in a month?!! That'll be comin goff, as well as a few other things... I'm going to finalise my meal plan too, and see what else I can use up next month.

    Thanks for all the sweet ideas, keep them coming! What about boiled type sweets?

    Night all,
    PG x
    Grocery challenge for family of three - me, dd(12) and ds(11), feeding dp 2 or 3 x a week too. Only food, not toiletries. Jan £87.97/£100 Feb £0/£100
    Frugal 2018 needed! Saving and NOT spending
  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Billie-jo, have added all your sweets recipes to the index, thanks :)
    ... don't throw the string away. You always need string! :D

    C.R.A.P.R.O.L.L.Z Head Sharpener
  • fedupandskint
    fedupandskint Posts: 10,358
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Well I made the bread rolls from the recipe in the BM book and they were gorgeous!

    Why did I never consider this before? Super easy just left to prove and that was it, split into 8 rolls and bake for 12 mins and they turned out better than shop bought ones. Might try the ciabatta next, this will take a bit more thinking about to prepare as its done over 12 hours but thats it and should turn out quite a bit cheaper than shop bought ones and nice too I imagine!

    Well had the BM for 3 years and only ever made a loaf. A whole new world of dough products await!
    final unsecured debt to repay currently £8333
    Proud to be Dealing With my Debt
    DFW Nerd 1154 Long Haul 155
  • helen_jelly
    helen_jelly Posts: 2,982 Forumite
    Hi all
    Had another spend to day of £25 - split between L!dl and W!lko's

    Need to find my other post with total on it so I can update my siggy

    Helen x
    Projects made for craft fair - 40 :)
    1st fair on 13/4/14 :j
  • angelatgraceland
    angelatgraceland Posts: 3,342 Forumite
    edited 27 February 2011 at 8:12PM
    I was watching Hugh FW last night or the night before and he was being very moneysaving! It inspired me again today to use my chicken carcass which is now on the stove and will become a soup and a risotto later on tonight.
    DD has made a lovely carrot cake which I will have apiece of later. I made some apple curd last night again which I will freeze for the future-I potted it up in 5 small tubs. I made the smoked salmon pasta from the http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html site last night for the first time and I have to say it is excellent! I didnt have cream to hand so used half a tin of evaporated milk instead. Ive frozen a couple of portions-it made enough for 5 rather than 4 so I was very pleased as it only works out at about 40p per serving and yet seems rather luxurious!
    Going to tot up my spends asap but Im sure Im well inside my budget!
    Annual Grocery budget 2018 is £1500 pa £125 calendar month £28.84 pw for 3 adults
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