August 2008 Grocery Challenge

belfastgirl23

Back to declare a total spend of £205.43 which is so far over my target of 140 that it's not funny. Dropping to a target of 80 for September since I'm away for a good bit of the month. Our cupboards are pretty stocked though

Hope you all did better than me

Moniker

Hi everyone - have been away for a few days and haven't posted but am here to declare my August total as £254-03, under by £25-97. I am very pleased with this, but it was an unusual month being away a lot on our hols. I don't think I will do so well in September as I am back at work so won't have so much time to keep tabs on things - but I am going to give it a good try!

My new month starts tomorrow and I am going to try and last out till 2nd October which will be 5 weeks. For this reason I will not be reducing my total budget. I have spent an average of about £12 a day this month so I am going to try and reduce this to £10 per day or £350 for the month (5x7=35x10=350). This still seems high compared to what many of you are managing on, but I figured that it's best to have a target to come under than one that will set me up for failure - hope that's not cheating? I will post my new budget on the September thread.

Good luck to the rest of you - off to update my sig.

Moniker

cammumof3

kymbogs wrote: »

Had a couple of NSD's this week though I had to top up on self-raising flour and eggs yesterday which is mostly down to me making 3 banana loaves - all my nanas went brown and speckledy and I just can't eat them like that, so they got mooshed up and put in banana bread. So my mum got one, one is in the freezer and the other is fighting for room in the breadbin.

Will need to go to town tomorrow as I have a library book to take back, then again maybe I can ask DH to take it back for me on his way home from work, he finishes early on a Friday. Will save me bus fare and I'd rather avoid going into town this saturday as it more or less always ends up meaning stopping for coffee somewhere while we give one or other of the babies a bottle or some lunch.

Just had a better idea, I could wait till saturday then use DH's weekly bus ticket to go to town on my own while he stays home with the babies

It's chilli from the freezer tonight with jacket potatoes and some sour cream, yumyum.

Kimberley x

Hi

I was thinking of making banana bread
Is it done the same way but just add banana in to the mixture ?

Caz

cammumof3

EagerLearner wrote: »

Re hubbies, I nearly fell over last night when MrEL not only agreed to my proposed spending plan for him in terms of amount to go to his savings, but then he increased the amount by £10 when he was on the phone to the bank and grinned at me - I was very pleased! Plus he's been great with food shopping and is definately on board as he now makes our bread once a week and loves it. Plus he likes the HM yoghurt and batch cooking results.

Bad moment last night as I underplanned for our dinner, so he ended up spending £4.60 (ish, can't find receipt) on dinner at the Co-Op... plus £2.01 for bread and ham.

So I will declare my final totals once the Co-Op one shows up and I will enter it on www.spendingdiary.com to get my August tally...

Hi

I like the sound of hm yoghurt but have no clue how to make it.
Please could I have recipe, Pretty please
Caz

cammumof3

fluffysox wrote: »

Hi catmum you can also buy the bars of value cooking chocolate and cut into chunks- works out cheaper. I made some of the Milles cookies with white cooking chocolate from Mr Ts value range. They were gorgeous- they disappeared quickly though- I think the fairies pinched them cos it wasn't me honest:p . One bar of choc made enough chunks for two batches of cookies. (In between batches I just put the rest of the chunks in a sandwich bag in the fridge)

Hi

Thanks for that, I will get some bars tomorrow as going to Mr T for leggings for dd1.
When I got the choc chips from the co op today I was well pleased as I could make the cookies but the bag was exactly 4 oz, 1 batch of cookies:mad:
so was disapointed but at least I could make them

Caz

cammumof3

Just wanted to say I read on one of the threads last night about using squash bottles for hard items like pasta, rice etc.
Well this came in handy today as couldn't find my space saver with bread flour in so have emptied some rice out of one of my space savers and put it into a squash bottle I had saved (in case I needed it) and then had a space saver for my flour.
How brilliant is that, well pleased
Caz (might help some one else like it did me)

Sian_the_Green

cammumof3 wrote: »

Hi

I was thinking of making banana bread
Is it done the same way but just add banana in to the mixture ?

Caz

I make banana 'bread' by just making up cake mixture and adding some squashed banana to the mix at the end though I know there are some recipes that are more wholemealy and less sweet, don't think I would make it with bread dough though it might be an interesting experiment :eek:

susan946

cammumof3 wrote: »

Hi

I like the sound of hm yoghurt but have no clue how to make it.
Please could I have recipe, Pretty please
Caz

Caz there are links to recipes for hm yog on page 1 of this and the September threads. I have tried the slow cooker recipe and it's delicious and no added mystery ingredients. However the lack of stabilisers, emulsifiers, or whatever makes it more likely to separate. If this happens you can strain the liquid off. It doesn't change the flavour of what's left.

There must be a use for the strainings. Anyone any ideas?

Sue

BigMummaF

Hi Peeps...can't stop but RE: COOKING CHOCOLATE!

• Buy the bars of chocolate from the sweetie section cuz the value stuff is soooo much cheaper than in the baking bit.
• I keep some in the freezer then take out eg 1/2 a bar at a time, put it in between cling film/sarnie bag/bread bag & smash it up with the back of my wooden spoon.This method gives wonderful chunks that can be as big or mini as you prefer.
• It also makes a particularly good topping to a dish of ice cream or trifle.

HTH.x

LilacPixie

Well I have had a pants month. £307.62 whith a target of £250. I know what went wrong, meal planning went astray around week 2 and then 3 takeaways slipped in because I had no plans for tea . Not good.