August 2008 Grocery Challenge

EagerLearner

susan946 wrote: »

Mmmm I know - it's scary!!!! Just wondering whether I can pay for lakeland yogmaker on Septermber's gc on the groungs that it will save on the grocery budget.......

Susan - do you have a slow cooker? I use mine to make 1 litre yoghurt weekly and it works so well... £0.95p for 1 litre. Plus the yoghurt maker itself is pricey and can only be used for yoghurt, whereas slow cooker can be used for loads, and the yoghurt sachets are also expensive as a running cost

OrkneyStar

angelnikki wrote: »

PS someone in lowestoft has bought all the hovis mixes :mad: So I doubt I will be able to get any for months now :rolleyes:

Not me, would not even know where that is!
At least you have had some, they don't seem to stock them here EVER!!!! :mad:

OrkneyStar

susan946 wrote: »

Good morning

HWGA - Sorry to hear of your loss

Caz - I feel for you. Anniversaries are always tough.

Rachel mk - Glad your move went well. Don't work too hard!!

BigBird - Hope you had a wonderful birthday


Nsd grocerywise yesterday and should be today as well - unless I see some bananas!! I shall defrost some pork chops for supper with beans (a gift from a friend) and mash.

Took gs to London yesterday. It's kid's theatre week so his ticket was free. Used Tesco Deals to pay towards lunch and contributed an extra £1.35, so not expensive. Back is complaining after that so a quieter day today. Taking gs and a friend to Bicester to look at the new hobbycraft and lakeland. Should probably leave my cards at home!!!

Sue

Susan946-When we were at my mums I went to the Hobbycraft at Glasgow Fort- set myself a CASH limit lol, and actually was quite good. Spent some pennies on craft stuff in local shop yesterday (well £33) but included 3 Christmas card kit thingies so not too bad.
Also got a cross x key ring, MrsM, thought of you and remembered you were looking for ideas of stitch gifts - how about key rings ? You would just need to stich a small pattern and cut to fit in a key fob (putting a backing on if you like to cover back of pattern). Key ring fobs should be pretty cheap too!
Just a thought. x
HWGA- I forgot to say yesterday, sorry for your loss. I hope you get through it ok. Hugs. :grouphug:
Meant to say angelnikki- is there another Tesco who would deliver to your area ? For some bread mix. Maybe the mix was just popular and it was not one person who bought it all ? :rolleyes:
[STRIKE]NSD hopefully today[/STRIKE], need to take DS to clinic to check his weight, and otherwise a lazy day (we both slept until 9.30).
x
Edited to say: well to save another post I will just put a line through what has changed! Decided to use up the last £5 of the BOGOF budget as have now done away with this silly (for us anyway) category.
Also got DH some yogs (Activia 3 for £3 in the COOP) as he forgot tell me he needed some and apparently the Lidl cheap ones are a bit runny! The Scottish Coop actually has some good deals on:
Canadian mature cheddar £2.69 bogof
Thirst Pockets Kitchen towels 2 pack £1.09
Activia 4 pack 2 for £3
and various other offers too which I did not partake of.

gillaman

Bigbird - I too would like the muffin recipe please.

NSD again today. Thought I might need milk, but I have milk powder in and don't mind that in tea and coffee. Also running low on margarine but just remembered I have a pack of butter in the fridge bought for making a cake that I didn't in the end make.

Had half a very large potato and half a very large sweet potato to use up so last night I chopped them into chunks and fried them gently with some onion and hm garlic in my PC, added some chilli powder, then added vegetable stock, cooked on high pressure for 5 minutes, then added hm green pepper chopped and remains of bag of sweet corn, plus some black pepper, simmered for about 5 mins and mashed it all a bit in the pan to thicken it, had this with grated cheese and slices of hm bread for dinner (made two bowls and ate both!). Yum. Followed by a pear.

mummysaver

EagerLearner wrote: »

Susan - do you have a slow cooker? I use mine to make 1 litre yoghurt weekly and it works so well... £0.95p for 1 litre. Plus the yoghurt maker itself is pricey and can only be used for yoghurt, whereas slow cooker can be used for loads, and the yoghurt sachets are also expensive as a running cost

Hi there, please could you tell me how you make your yoghurt in the sc? I tried the other day with UHT, small pot of Yeo Valley and powdered milk - it was really thin and powdery tasting. Used to make it in a flask, but big flask seems to have vanished :rolleyes: Any help and idiot proof instuctions and tips would be much appreciated, thank you!

*BigBird*

As requested, here is the recipe. This came off the packaging for my Jamie Oliver (by Tefal) muffin tin, so I guess it is one of Jamie's recipes.

Ingredients
240ml/8 1/2 fl oz organic full fat milk
70ml/2 1/2 fl oz extra virgin olive oil
115g/4oz cheddar cheese, finely grated
85g/3oz parmesan cheese, finely grated
140g/5oz fresh spinach, half finely chopped, half roughly chopped
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
3 large organic eggs
455g/1lb plain flour, sifted
4 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of sea salt
225g/8oz goat's cheese, crumbled
1 handful of sesame & pumpkin seeds to sprinkle over the top

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas 4

In a large bowl, mix together the milk, oil, cheeses, chilli and eggs

Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and gently mix together

Divide the muffin mixture in half, and spoon into the muffin moulds with equal amounts in each. Then crumble some goat's cheese into each and divide the other half of the muffin mixture over the top. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the sesame and pumpkin seeds and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until risen and golden.

Cool slightly before popping out of the moulds.

This is as per the instructions on the packaging, but there appears to be a fundamental error in the method as it doesn't mention when and where you add the spinach Hopefully someone who is a better cook than me can suggest a suitable amendment to include the spinach - as this is divided in half, maybe one half goes in each portion of the muffin mixture when that is divided in half??

As it is a 12 muffin mould, I guess this is intended to make 12 (don't take my word for it tho - I'm a rubbish cook! ) The blurb also says these are "delicious any time, but particularly good for breakfast or a light lunch with a nice tomato salad"

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi all!

I made home made bread yesterday with a Hovis mix... My OH is used to the huge loaves from Sainsburys or Tescos so his first comment was ' Oh it's just like bread - only smaller!!'.. I had to laugh but my arms were aching for ages after 10 mins kneading! It tasted a little stronger than I imagined but it was still cheaper than buying a loaf so all is good. I also baked ginger muffins and we did lasagne for dinner, so the oven wasn't on needlessly.

I really just wanted to say to everyone who came in under or on budget CONGRATULATIONS!!! :beer: And to those who didn't - well, just imagine how bad the spend would have been if you hadn't tried at all..

Hugs to all - hope you all have a good day!

Diva.x

rockie4

After nipping to MrT's for a looroll :eek: and some cat food this morning I'm pleased to say I've come in at £180.37 so about £20 under my budget and a lot less than I have been spending Hoping to prune even more off it next month!

*Bigbird* thank you for that recipe, I'll be making some of those this weekend!

leebarton

This is great! Will you be doing a September Grocery Challenge? I actually sat down last night and worked out what meals we will have next week and put an order in which came to £72. We are trying for £75 a week - about £300 per month. We had been buying daily from local shops which works out very expensive!

fluffysox

Off to Mr Ts to buy a new toaster (old one died) and a phone for the hall. Will try to avoid grocery shopping but would be very surprised if I buy nothing:rotfl: :rotfl: .