February 2009 Grocery Challenge

Aril

Hi
Please can you put me down for £160. Will declare for Jan this weekend:D
Good luck everyone!
Aril

elizabunny

Just a little update because I'm sooo excited, I managed to buy a Mincer/Sausage Maker from a local hardware shop today. I am really struggling to hold myself back from dipping into my Feb budget because I wanted to buy meat and try it out. However, I've resisted and I can SHOP:j tomorrow.

This is all part of my plan to shop more selectively, hopefully buying locally farmed meat. I've just about decided which cuts to buy and it will be very experimental this month in more ways than one. Firstly because of my commitment to try and buy the best meat possible, secondly because of my tight budget and lastly because I have no experience of mincing/sausage making, but that will be fun.

I hope I'm still smiling at the end of Feb and not :eek: from going way over budget with this experiment.

Today we had HM Cabbage Soup (Yes it's nice) but only if you like Cabbage, if not you would hate it. Also, I retrieved a couple of portions of HM Mince Cobbler out of the Freezer and served them with Parsnip Chips. So that's me done and dusted for January and tomorrow's a whole new day.

Hope we don't get snowed in this weekend:eek:

PennyGrabber

Honestly, you don't come on here for a few days, and you get so far behind!!

It's so good to see so many new people trying to tackle their G budgets. It's the easiest, and hardest, budget to tackle all at the same time, I've found!!!

I've finally finished reading through all the posts, and I like the sound of a mincer/sausage maker. I also am excited by the whole timesaving element of doing a whole bag of chickpeas in one go! Does that work with other dried things too, like kidney beans, black eye beans, haricot beans, etc?

Spent a bit more today, but not sure how much, as I was buying clothes for DD mainly, with just a few bits of food. I'll tally that up and add it onto my sig tomorrow. Can't believe it's not even feb yet, and my budget's almost gone!!

Funny story - I had a letter from the tax credits people today saying my payments were going to be stopped. ARGHHHHH!!!!! I rang them, and turns out it was sent in error! Don't want to swear, but a lot of expletives were going through my head while i was on hold to them!!

Hope all doing well - I'm off to make some HM soup. If it's veggy, how long does it keep for in the fridge?
x

MRSMCAWBER

That was quick Elizabunny :j

If you need any recipes to try -let me know ..I have a book of sausage recipes;) .... and I can recommend

www.designasausage.com for skins n things

Whilst Im here -I have just made scrummy steamed coconut puddings in the remoska nommy nommy nom nom..and there are 2 left and extra custard for warming up tomorrow :T

Made some special egg fried rice for dinner and it went down well again ....
Tomorrow is the NAAFI run -so hopefully they will have some bargains in
have a good night everyone

fedupandskint

Well today I have been off sick from work and to cheer myself up I spent a couple of hours trawling the recipe thread attached to the first few posts on this one.

This gave me many ideas for cakes/loaf cakes/biscuits to make myself. I have so many of the ingredients unused in the cupboard so I made the delightful Mrs M's banana and ginger loaf cake and used up 3 manky bananas I would have chucked out a few weeks ago.

Many thanks to everyone who submitted a recipe, they have given me a new slant on things in the cupboard instead of constantly buying and topping up. I'm planning a baking couple of hours either on a Sat/Sun for things to take to work instead of buying :rotfl: Can't wait!!!!:rotfl:

fedupandskint

Also Mrs M sounds an expert with the remmy - stopped myself getting one for the time being! I made Delia's rabbit pie for tea with a suet pastry crust - it was ok.

I've got half of it left over - not sure what to do with it?

Boodle

Came in over my estimated total but still under my 25 quid budget :j I had forgotten to add the orange juice to my pre-shop totting up, and once I got there remembered I also needed some bleach. I also spotted a 2 packs of brazils for £2.50 offer and decided I would get some mixed chopped nuts to add to my flapjacks this week too.

elizabunny

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

That was quick Elizabunny :j

If you need any recipes to try -let me know ..I have a book of sausage recipes;) .... and I can recommend

www.designasausage.com for skins n things

Yes I know -I got so caught up with it and enthusiastic when I was chatting to you earlier and when DH came in from work we nipped out to the shop. I'm a bit impatient when I get a bee in my bonnet about something:o .

Thank you for your offer of recipes too, when I get my 'skins' I would love to try some out. I'll check out that website too for all the bits and bobs.

Had to laugh, even DH is suddenly very interested in what's happening in the kitchen and has offered to help make sausages. If ever DS1 & DS2 find out about homemade sausages (they're grown up now and live away) they will have me making them in bulk -what have I let myself in for:rotfl:

tessie_bear

good evening....hope everyone is well ....iv made a good start to next budget but only because everyone is ill and eating doesnt seem to hold the same interest iykwim my sainsburys shopping bill was £2.42 and £2 of that was on red nose stuff for my son...we need to get some nice fruit in i saw an ad for coop saying they have reduced fruit and veg so that might be worth a look....i spent some money in lush today...on the grab bags....brilliant value if u like lush (i love it) we are mainly enjoying:rolleyes: left overs at the mo.....i got some pepperoni for a hm pizza in mrs today and it cost me 12p so thats a reasonably priced pizza topping if u like pepperoni....i dont but dh and son love it have a lovely weekend tess

russetred

I usually cook up all my dried beans or peas.I soak them overnight then I use my pressure cooker,it only takes 10-15 minutes to cook them.I use some that day and freeze the rest in portions.Tomorrow I'm making a sausage type cassulet in the SC with some defrosted chickpeas.They're really good in well flavoured stews as they take on so much flavour themselves.

I picked up a copy of Cheap Chow by Kenneth Lo at a charity shop.It's a really good read on cheap chinese meals based on their philosophy of expanding savouriness.Basically the chinese reckon on feeding 5-8 people on 8oz of meat by cooking it along with 3 x as much veg in a well flavoured sauce then adding 5x as much bulk food like rice.The book explains how to make a master sauce and how to cook all kinds of cheap cuts. I gave it a go and from a 1lb of streaky pork slices I made two meals over two days for 5 people.1 was sweet and sour pork and the other was a chilli/garlic/hoisin pork rice dish.We were all stuffed!