August 2008 Grocery Challenge

smetf

Hi all
Was planning to finish catch up of posts but you lot are too chatty

Have updated sig and got just over £40 left till end of month I have the main bits for my meal plan but will need basics like milk, cereal, bread and fruit. Haven't managed to get back into the BM habit but I really should

DH fanices the dine for £10 deal at M and S (had it bought for us before but never splashed out ourselves) and as we are going to be in budget it'll be a lovely treat for BH weekend.

Bought whoopsied carrots at Mr M on Thurs so have made huge batch of carrot cakes, 30 in the freezer, 15 in the fridge with cream cheese frosting on and 5 have been eaten purely for testing purposes I have lots of frosting left (cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract) do you think it would freeze OK??

Off to ebay for Brownies uniform!!

Take care everyone

Smetf

perrywinkle

gsysezz wrote: »

I have a little question for the marvels on this thread. Which items do you recommend buying on their last date for freezing. At the moment I seize on pastry for throwing in the freezer and any yoghurt for turning into a yoghurt cake. I'm not very good at knowing what can be frozen for a later date. Is butter okay?
Thank you!!

Hi gsysezz,

Whilst you're waiting for a marvel to come along (you know how it is - three will come along at once now!!) - just to say I freeze butter all the time and have no problems - I even slice off pieces from frozen and leave the rest in the freezer if I need some for a particular recipe - depending what you are using it for you can give it a short time in the microwave if you are going to cream it and need it to be soft.

HTH
Perrywinkle

ShelBell

smetf wrote: »

Bought whoopsied carrots at Mr M on Thurs so have made huge batch of carrot cakes, 30 in the freezer, 15 in the fridge with cream cheese frosting on and 5 have been eaten purely for testing purposes I have lots of frosting left (cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract) do you think it would freeze OK??

I think to be on the safe side you should just eat it with a spoon. For me. Please. Mmmmm cream cheese frosting.

September budget = £50 per week please

belfastgirl23

Okay just dropping in to confess. Out of my £150 budget I have spent £194.17. And it wouldn't surprise me if I'd spent another fiver or so that isn't receipted. I did end up unexpectedly catering for a couple of party type things but this only accounts for about £20. I just seem to have lost my grip at the moment. Although I am also trying to stock up a bit since we are off on hols for most of September which means I can set a very low budget for september to make up for some of it. I'm guessing I'll have another fiver or so to spend on fruit as well before end of month.

Hope everyone else is doing better...

KAAT_LADY

see you tomorrow

Flylady_Flower

schueys_girl wrote: »

hi all sorry for what might be a strange question: but when you talk of the monthly totals you spend on groceries...is this strictly groceries i.e food? or is it other things? Such as kitchen roll, cleaning stuff etc? Also, some people may be including health and beauty stuff such as shower gels etc... thanks all

Hi Schueys_girl, I know others have answered this, but thought I would add my tuppence worth to see if it helps...

There are [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] 3 of us in total (DD19 only pops round when she wants something ), Me, Hubby and DS15.

I have tried various methods and have found this best for us so far. I have 3 budgets on top of my general bills - Fuel, Groceries and Extras - Fuel is pretty much a guestamate at the moment because of my work, I put £60 away for groceries each week - these include food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, etc. - anything that I use for the house basically, and £20 per week for extras - this includes anything not included in bills and the above - prescriptions, school stuff, etc...

We have been stockpiling stuff this month as we were like ol' mother hubbard last month and the cupboards were well & truly bare, but are now getting quite full with HM readymeals and stuff - best thing I can recommend to you is to buy lots of "takeaway" containers (£1 for 10 in poundland) or freezer bags (or keep the inserts of cereal packs too) for any cooking that you do so you can freeze it for those times when you "can't be asked to cook" I have saved myself a fortune by not buying takeaways when we get in late or just have one of those days... If you're cooking, you may as well make big batches (cottage pie is a fav for this for us) and have it later.

Hope that helps you, just don't beat yourself up about it the first couple of months and see how you 'settle in'. Good luck with the challenge and with the move - how exciting for you!:T

Mariel

Everyone seems to have done so well! I have a few receipts to add and I'm probably over already by a bit BUT it's my first month and I'm going to allow a bit more next month, and hopefully my life won't be quite so stressful - things haven't been at all good lately - maybe I'll even come in a bit under in Sept.

cammumof3

Money_saving_Diva wrote: »

Really really sorry if this has already been posted - I try to keep up with the thread but it grows so fast, I have to skim some pages...:rotfl:

... and thank you to whoever posted this in the first place.. I copied it into a file so don't have the name, but thank you..

• 1 packet pasta and sauce (we use the cheese & broccoli one) - make it according to the instructions and use it to make the bottom layer in a lightly oiled (frylight !!) quiche/flan dish and allow to cool a bit.
• Stick in some chopped veg - peppers, tomatoes, onions, etc etc - whatever you like best.
• Mix together one tub of low fat cottage cheese with 3 beaten eggs (I give it a quick zizz with a hand blender to smooth the lumps a little)
• Pour onto the pasta layer, grate about 25g of cheese on top and put in the oven for about half an hour until puffed up and golden on top.

And it is very tasty!!

Diva.x

Hi
I too like the sound of this recipe, but can any one tell me the cooking temp please.
I have a recipe book where I add my own recipes, before I joined msn it was getting filled up very very slowly, and now it's going so fast I would have filled it up soon. I think once it is full I will start writing out the recipes and keeping them in a folder.

welcome any new members, I started in July and msn has helped so much in the that time.

cammumof3

ARGH
I just posted a recipe and something went wrong with my connection and my post has not appeared, I think I will re write it tomorrow
Caz

Money_saving_Diva_2

cammumof3 wrote: »

Hi
I too like the sound of this recipe, but can any one tell me the cooking temp please.

I cooked it at about 180 degrees...

Sorry I left that off last time!!

Diva. x