July 2008 Grocery Challenge

jackk_2

Just updating sig, after dashing out for six bottles of wine at tescos, before the 25% off ends at midnight .

sub total = £28.74

Multi buy savings
Wine 3 for £10 = -£8.74
Wine discount = -£7.19

Total to pay = £12.81 :T :j :T

Jackie x

gillaman

Spend update - £4.92 in Asda. Went in for pens, flour, milk and peas. Came out with these plus Sunnybix (for cake) and frozen peas when I remembered I hadn't got any. Don't eat any processed cereals but they have a May 09 sell by. Will try the cake now and then let my grandson make it and the brownies when he comes to stay in the hols. Had to buy the flour because I found a creepy in the pack I bought only last week. Does anyone know of a cheap clip top/airtight range of storage boxes? Also someone (can't remember who and can't find the post) was asking about borax. I looked for some in Boots today but couldn't find any. I'm trying out soapnuts (cheapest I've found is £3.99 for 250g from stopforbreath website, no delivery charge) as I'm trying to go chemical free as far as possible and I've heard borax will soften the wash. Interested to hear about vinegar - might try that as well. Have used bicarb in the wash - seems to help with stains.

Sian_the_Green

I have built a 7 storey pyramid of supercook sprinkles and oddments...
It looks good

hev_2

Parsnips - probably not properly OS but I'm still learning...

Today I diced some potato and cut parsnip and carrots into chunks. I put them in a basin with a dollop (scientific term) of cooking oil and a large dash of cajun spices and stirred them round really well so that all the chunks were coated. Put them in a hot oven for around 40 mins - very yummy indeed! No idea how to put it like a proper recipe - just went by rule of thumb and eye.

On week one of my meal plans for this week I didn't manage to get a single meal cooked according to plan.

So far this week...

Sat - meal plan said a treat from my shopping trip, but felt like death so didn't go out so raided the freezer and store cupboard.
Sun - meal plan said roast meat but due to not doing meals on last weeks menu plan I needed to use up veggies so we had ratatouille.
Mon - Had the roast meat that we were going to have Sunday.
Tues - had the cold meat and home made 'wedge type thing' that I should have had yesterday with frozen peas.

Now, if we are following the meal plan but one day shuffled on, then tomorrow should be fish cakes and oven chips. However there is so much meat left over that it would be criminal to just use it as a sandwich (plus I couldn't eat that much meat by myself). But I don't want to just do oven chips because that's almost the same as tonight. Unless something dreadful happens my plan is to chop ham small and mix with mushroom (from freezer, after last week's chaos), onion and condensed mushroom soup and put mashed potato on top like a shepherd's pie.

My track record on this isn't good, though. Added to this, Thursday is down as a stir fry but I didn't get out at the weekend to get the fresh veggies, but I do have loads of peppers. If Thursday was one day shuffled on then it would be a chilli, so I may try stuffed peppers. That is the most adventurous I have been for years, so I shall see. Whatever happens I do not want to buy anything more. I don't think I will be able to bring in the challenge this month, but there is such a thing as going down fighting!

angelnikki

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

I have built a 7 storey tower of supercook sprinkles and oddments...
It looks good

Thats not fair Did you actually need to get 7? I cant just go to the shop and stock up on stuff when they are on offer as I have ME so I have to rely on waiting and getting all I need from my MrT delivery that I have once a week. If stuff is out of stock then I have to go without. By the time my delivery came tonight everyone had already cleared the shelves of most of the supercook stuff and I only got 1x sugar flowers and 1x sugar strands.

With cake decorations its not a big deal but this happened a couple of months ago when there was a panic that the price of bread flour was gonna go up (which it didnt) so everyone cleared the shelves in the supermarkets and I got none for 2 months!!

Please be responsible when you shop and leave things for other people too! I cant go round all the supermarkets to find what I need and have to go without a lot because stocks have been cleared of things unnecessarily [/rant]

roxy7699

hev wrote: »

My track record on this isn't good, though. Added to this, Thursday is down as a stir fry but I didn't get out at the weekend to get the fresh veggies, but I do have loads of peppers. If Thursday was one day shuffled on then it would be a chilli, so I may try stuffed peppers. That is the most adventurous I have been for years, so I shall see. Whatever happens I do not want to buy anything more. I don't think I will be able to bring in the challenge this month, but there is such a thing as going down fighting!

BUT, you didnt buy anything new and you didnt get a takeaway so in my eyes you did good.

zoe260373

gillaman wrote: »

Spend update - £4.92 in Asda. Went in for pens, flour, milk and peas. Came out with these plus Sunnybix (for cake) and frozen peas when I remembered I hadn't got any. Don't eat any processed cereals but they have a May 09 sell by. Will try the cake now and then let my grandson make it and the brownies when he comes to stay in the hols. Had to buy the flour because I found a creepy in the pack I bought only last week. Does anyone know of a cheap clip top/airtight range of storage boxes? Also someone (can't remember who and can't find the post) was asking about borax. I looked for some in Boots today but couldn't find any. I'm trying out soapnuts (cheapest I've found is £3.99 for 250g from stopforbreath website, no delivery charge) as I'm trying to go chemical free as far as possible and I've heard borax will soften the wash. Interested to hear about vinegar - might try that as well. Have used bicarb in the wash - seems to help with stains.

hi,just thought id say...my dad is very green bless him and he bought some soapnuts but didnt rate them highly im afraid so if you find them ok id be interested to hear,im using a combo of washing gloop and bold!:rotfl: (already had a huge catering size box when i joined this thread:o )
anyway,best of luck.thanks for the tip on bicarb,i use vinegar,it really does soften the washing,stopped using it on the towels though as i like them a little bit crunchy IYKWIM? :rotfl: x

catnap53

Just waiting for my first Artisan bread to cool properly then I can go to bed. Went out to check and cut a huge chunk and had that with butter and apricot jam, needed to see if it really was going to be good for breakfast.

If I can resist it I am going to put it away now, or there will be none left.

Made Twinks earlier too, put ground ginger in half for DD, she said it wasn't very strong, but I thought it was OK.

Another NSD to add for today.

Goodnight to anyone still awake.

Zzzzz

hev_2

roxy7699 wrote: »

BUT, you didnt buy anything new and you didnt get a takeaway so in my eyes you did good.

Bless you - I read stuff on here - like Weezl's threads - and I feel such a rookie. I tell you, there is no way I am spending any more than I have to on food this month! Coming on here to confess keeps me strong and the people on here are such a good example - there are some really lovely people on this board.

zoe260373

sorry if this is a daft Q...but what is artisan bread? my ds(15) looked on net earlier but said he couldnt find a recipe just pictures,ive meant to look myself but baby brain syndrome allowed me to forget:o (do the brain cells ever return after giving birth??:undecided: ) so...al you lovely,helpful peoples out there,could you please let me know what it is,thanks soooo much.x