August 2008 Grocery Challenge

the_cat

Hi everyone:hello:

Just back from last shop of the month so need to declare at £307.40

That means I'm just over for this month, although in my defence there were loads of whoopsies (inc meat milk fruit and veg) which along with the VERY large stock of bread/cake making stuff I have accumulated over the month will see me through for the next 2 weeks at least.......... will still go whoopsie hunting a couple of times a week though, I know I won't be able to resist completely!!:o

Will need to go through all the cupboards etc and make up a meal plan for September and will post a target after I have done that - I'm hoping to make it a very low one for me and use the extra money buying fleece throws, warm clothes and energy saving stuff ready for winter.

calleyw

Sorry not been back in awhile.

I have £20.70p left in the pot with one week to go.

I have a chest freezer ram packed with food so it is only fresh and milk to get.

I have some powdered milk so will get away with that one. Will have to go down to sainsburys when they are reducing to get my fruit as I have been getting citrus fruit for 10p a bag.

Yours


Calley

susan946

Haven't been on for a few days. Wow this thread moves on a pace!! Haven't read all the posts yet but will get round to it. We have gs with us during the days (except we and bh monday) so am busy keeping him amused and fitting in some bits of my own.

Went to Mr T a couple of days ago to use last Sundays NOTW voucher. Spend wasn't too bad but gs is quite a fussy eater so bought things I usually wouldn't touch with the proverbial barge pole. Good thing is though that he's very keen to learn to cook so thanks to all for the super recipes. I'm having a subtle mse influence on him!!!!

IOIWE - I hope you had a wonderful wedding day.

OrkneyStar - sorry to hear about your back problems.

To all newerbys than me - welcome. I have had enormous support and inspiration from this forum. I've cut my spending from over £500 to - I estimate, this month's not quite over yet! - around £300 in just two months. Everyone is just so friendly and helpful.

To all with problems and worries Hugs.

Sue

philsmum

Hi everyone,
Not done too bad this week, will update sig later.:D
I was talking to my neighbours this morning and I was saying
I need a bigger freezer. Someone said that someone they knew was
selling a small one for £10 so I hot footed it round. It is a table top freezer and just fits nicely on top of my fridge freezer,:j Now to start batch cooking will just go and look at all the recipes on here.
Schueys Girl. I have a copy of Sophie Grigsons book if you pm me I will post it for you.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. :A

dazzle21

Evening all... my first post since joining the challenge! Just done a top up shop this evening at Mr T's was rather concerned as thought i was going to be over budget but needed some basics like milk/pasta/rice etc etc! Anyway got home and totalled up for month so far...£196.83p and we have a freezer of food so hopefully only need some fruit/veg and maybe some more milk..crossing fingers that we can stay within the £225. This month we've been naughty and had 3 takeaways and 2 meals out which i've included in the £196, i know its bad but baby had such bad colic and reflux that i just wanted to collapse in a heap! Hopefully next month we won't be quite so extravagant and the total could be far less!

scotsaver

Hi everyone - just logged on to update my total and to catch up on the thread - can't believe how many pages I've had to read since logging on yesterday morning!! Caught up with them all now, so here goes:-

OrkneyStar -hope your Back is better soon, I can sympathise as I put mine out years ago and had to spend a fortune visiting Osteopath to get it sorted.

jackk - so sorry to hear about Boo, we've had 3 Cats in the past, all sadly gone now. Hope your Mouth is better now after the Op and have a fantastic time Camping.

sashanut - thats fantastic news about the Cat - one of ours went missing years ago, Neighbours were doing some DIY, had the floorboards up and she had gone under without them noticing until they heard her that night.:rotfl:

MrsHayes & astonished - welcome, you'll soon be addicted like all of us.;)

Sosh - have a great time at Eurodisney.:D

ioiwe - thinking of you on your Big Day.:D

Hope I've not forgotten anyone!!!!!!!

Went to Dartford Market yesterday, bought a few bits from one stall but have stashed them in the freezer so will take that out of Septembers total as my new month starts in 5 days.;)

This morning we went down to the Thames Barrier, had a walk along to the O2 and back and then treated ourselves to Lunch(comes out of another Budget as it's the School Hols), sat outside in the sunshine to admire the view - at long last the sun has decided to shine.:j Then visited Woolwich Market and bought some fruit, will have it all eaten by the end of the weekend the rate the girls are going through it. So much better buying from a Market as I think you get much more for your money but we don't have a Market close to where we live.:mad:

Sorry for this long Post, I am waffling a bit this evening!! But finally, I just wanted to ask if anyone is having a problem with their Tomatoes not ripening, I've got hundreds of Green ones but no sign of Red ones and I've not done anything different this year and they are in a Greenhouse and I live in Kent. Anyone having the same problem or any ideas on how I can get them to ripen.

russetred

Just done a quick tally and it's getting tighter than a duck's bahooky with one week left.I made rolls and savoury muffins for breakfast and a fruit loaf for nibbling on over the weekend.I have milk in the freezer and plenty of fruit.Bags of crisps from the voucher I got for my complaint letter so I should be okay.If I can just stay away from the reduced section I may even get to defrost the freezer at the end of the month!

perrywinkle

Hi all,

welcome to all newbies - it's great to have so many new people coming along and sharing their thoughts and ideas - I've learnt so much so far and I've so much still to learn.

Made potato, onion and bacon hotpot tonight using the remoska and it is so simple and delicious. I got the details here originally and have pasted them below but can't take any credit for this:

Potato, Onion and Bacon Hotpot.

This is not my recipe. I found it on one of these grocery challenges a few months ago but am afraid I have no idea who posted it originally.
We thought it was really tasty and simple to do.

Slice a medium potato per person into thin slices (2mm thick)
Slice one large or 2 small onions
Chop up some bacon or ham (1 rasher of bacon per person?)
Make a basic white sauce (we made ours cheesy) Half pint milk quantity.
Grease a deep oven proof dish. Layer the potato, onion and bacon, season with pepper. When you've half filled, put some of the white sauce in then continue filling and finish with white sauce on the top.
Bake in oven at 200c covered for 1 hour then remove cover and finish for another hour at 180c.
DELICIOUS.


Although for the size I did I used 1 1/2 pints of cheese sauce, I just layer up the potatoes, onions and bacon using as much as I think it needs as it really depends on the size of dish you are using for the number of people you want to feed. It reheats really well. I also use chopped cooking bacon (the packs you get with all the mis-shapen end bits)


On a separate note, probably like many of you, I received a newsletter today from Boots with a coupon for £5 off if you spend £30 in a Boots store this weekend and it gives you the option of forwarding it to a friend by entering their email address and on the actual section you enter the addresses it says you can separate muliple addresses with commas so there does not appear to be a restriction on who you can forward it to. Therefore if it is of any use to any of my friends on MSE for using this weekend then just PM me with your email address and I will forward it to you.


HTH
Perrywinkle

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Scotsaver...

A lot of people over on the greenfingered board are having similar problems with the tomatoes .. Mine are all outdoors, and even though it isn't that warm im averaging 12oz to 1lb ripe enough to fetch off a day :T .. Have you taken off some of the excess leaves? It helps let warmth get to them -plus the plant has more energy for ripening etc... Also my grandad always swore by putting banana peel around his toms and hanging off the branches -they give off some gas that speeds up ripening .. Are yours starting to go translucent yet? thats a good sign as they go from dark green to translucent and then ripen.... ooh and also if you want to speed them up -you could take a few off and place them in a warm window (i have done this when the wind has battered some green ones off)and they ripen up lovely

KAAT_LADY

GOOD NIGHT ALL