August 2008 Grocery Challenge

Astonished_2

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Hey, a friend made me some cornbread and it was really delicious, might be a cheaper alternative to that really expensive flour. This is an American recipe so the units might need a little translation but I can assure you this stuff is worth it . I know the Asian food section of our supermarket has massive bags of gram flour really cheaply, maybe that would be worth a shot for some tasty carbs
http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--1987/wheatfree-cornbread.asp

oooh, thank you for the link - some of those recipes look delish!! I will try some out shortly!!

Thanks again..:D

CherryBlossom_2

Good morning everyone. Well 1st month on challenge finished and I'm very please. Although I have gone over, at £237.75 for August I have lots in my freezer and storecupboard. Thanks everyone for all the tips and recipes. Please put me down for £230 next month -5 weeks for me.

Thanx again, CherryBlossom

mummysaver

Got remains of yesterday's pizza dough in the remoska at the mo, threw it in when I got home from work, so will be deep pan pizza for the girls and me for lunch, very deep pan looking at how much it has risen lol!

Tea is meant to be bean burgers and chips, but think that might be a bit too doughy after pizza, so will prob do hm pasta either in a tom and roast veg sauce or filled with feta and spinach. Have all the ingredients in the house so will not be spending today!

Actually oh has gone to the le creuset shop to collect my silicone cup cake cases, so they will come out of the grocery budget, still the August one at the mo though! Looking forward to trying them out in my remoska, think I might put a normal paper case inside though, so that kids can take them in for packed lunches easily.

Oh and to whoever said about butterscotch chips in their cakes or cookies, thanks for the idea, will be trying a crushed dime bar in the next lot of millies cookies we do!

Jaycee1972

Hi, I have gone over a bit but not to badly

I have decided to try to allow myself so much per week for september as I have tended to blow my budget early on and then struggle towards the end. September for me will start on Friday (first one after pay day) so there will be five Fridays in this month. Allowing £30 per week that will be the usual £150 for September.

I am intending to spend no more than £20 this week but at the moment only need mushrooms, cheese, potatoes, one or two spices (planning to make apple chutney), vinegar, cat biscuits, yoghurt, milk and bread.

I have quite a bit in my cupboards and freezer and loads of apples on my tree so will be having lots of stewed apple this month

Jane x

yellowmonkey

I was plodding along very happily today without a care in the world. I had never heard of a Ramosa before and now

I WANT ONE !!!!!!! :D:D

They dont half look good

ym

Astonished_2

Hmmm, I'm sensing that it's not us ladies who overspend but our dastardly other halves who go for a loaf of bread, come back with 4 bags of 'stuff' therefore putting paid to all our efforts to come in under budget!!

I'm not joking though when I say that I have banned my husband from going to the shops for anything at all!! And I think he is starting to realise that it is him who unnecessarily spends all our hard earned cash (I showed him the figures from the 'Money' programme that I use for keeping track of our finances) and it was quite clearly him, all him...:mad:

So, I have to provide food and drink for 13 people on Saturday night on a budget of £56.90 (I get palpitations thinking of how I'm going to manage to do this without going over budget!) and this is what I've come up with so far:

Beetroot and orange salad - Just pulled the beetroot fresh from the garden today, have oranges and vinegar in already - Cost £Nil

Potato and green bean salad - Green beans from the garden, will need a bag of potatoes, already have mayo - cost £1.

Hm coleslaw - Carrots from garden, will need a cabbage, already have mayo - cost £1

Jacket potato wedges topped with cheese - will need potatoes and cheese - cost £3.50

So that's the side dishes covered for about £5.50!! It's a start isn't it...:o

We have a fabulous local award winning butcher who does scrummy burgers for about 60p each x12 (I don't like burgers!) - cost £7.20 - A dozen sausages will cost about £3.00 and they do the most enormous chicken legs for 60p so I'll get 12 of them too - cost £7.20

A dozen nice bread buns to wrap around the burgers will be about £2
Total cost for meat items and bread £19.40!! :eek:

That gives me a grand total for food items of £24.90 for 13 people which is less than £2 per head (and is a whole lot less than I would have spent this time last year!! )

And that leaves me £32 in my budget to get some plonk - do you know, I think I might be able to pull this off and still come in under budget!!

Herewegoagain

Hiya all,
Have loads of mushrooms and only use a few at a time so how do you freeze them, cooked or uncooked, will pack in useable amounts as they keep going off too quickly and :mad: can't keep wasting them:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Have checked spends and am declaring £85.16 for Aug a saving of £14.84:j:j:j:T:T:T:T:T:D:D:D Mrs Mc/Nikki can I have £95.00 for sept please. I was only pennies over on my 1st CG last month so def on the up:j:j:j:j:j I can do better, I can do better, I can, so I can:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
HWGA xx

Sian_the_Green

Astonished wrote: »

So, I have to provide food and drink for 13 people on Saturday night on a budget of £56.90

Good work on the planning so far, very impressive, especially the home grown veg, very jealous! No chance you want to make the numbers up to 14 and invite me? :cool:Will these people not be bringing anything at all? I never turn up empty handed to someone's house, it's nice to take something with you, could you ask each of them to bring something small, say a packet of rolls or a bottle of ketchup? How squeamish are you at handling meat? I like making burgers but squashing up mince and egg isn't everyone's idea of a fun afternoon . I know that Mr T int he summer do some cheap BBQ packs, or you could season some cheap chicken portions (wings and drumsticks?) up yourself.

LearningToSave.

CAN I BE IN FOR £50 IN SEPTEMBER PLEASE!!!

i know its not a lot but storecupboards and freezers are amazing! and also have lots uht and juice in so should only need fruit and veg from markets and a few odds and ends that'll be bound to crop up.

Astonished_2

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Good work on the planning so far, very impressive, especially the home grown veg, very jealous! No chance you want to make the numbers up to 14 and invite me? :cool:Will these people not be bringing anything at all? I never turn up empty handed to someone's house, it's nice to take something with you, could you ask each of them to bring something small, say a packet of rolls or a bottle of ketchup? How squeamish are you at handling meat? I like making burgers but squashing up mince and egg isn't everyone's idea of a fun afternoon . I know that Mr T int he summer do some cheap BBQ packs, or you could season some cheap chicken portions (wings and drumsticks?) up yourself.

It's all about the planning isn't it?? Weekly menus mean you buy what you need rather than impulse buying and I've just applied the same principle to the bbq.

Our home grown veg has been fabulous this year - more than half of our garden has been given over for veggies and we haven't bought any for months and months now (except tatos coz we've scoffed the lot - but we have some tatos in for the winter so won't have to wait too long now for the next lot!)

Sheffield's not that far away from me but you might push us over budget and that can't be allowed!!

One friend has offered to make a pavlova (I've just delivered her half a dozen of our chooks eggs!) so that saves me making a pudding and I'm hoping that the others will bring something with them but I don't like to ask (although I always, always offer to bring something whenever I go anywhere) - I'm hoping that some of them will bring plonk with them and if they do I will stash whatever we buy away for another time!

How squeamish am I at handling meat - would it suffice to say that I have to use rubber gloves and a pair of tongs?? I absolutely could not stick my hands into a bowl of raw meat :eek: (makes me shudder at just the thought of it!) I am really funny about meat (even though I don't eat a lot of it) it has to be really good quality and I would rather pay a little more and get it from the local butchers who I know and trust - maybe I will cut down on the amount of stuff though and make them choose either a burger or a chicken leg but then I'd feel really mean...:o I will have a look in the co-op before I venture round to the butchers as their meat stuff is really quite good and if I can get the burgers, sausages and chicken legs cheaper there (but still as good quality) then I will do that. I don't eat any of the ruddy meat anyway - hmm, there's a thought - it'd be a damn site cheaper if I made them all veggies for the day...lol..:D