February 2009 Grocery Challenge

Kippaxmum

tessie_bear wrote: »

good afternoon....hope everyone is going well now in feb....on the subject of chips has anyone had any dealings with the tefal actifry ? it makes chips of quite a low fat content but cheapest ive seen is a £100 which is a lot to spend when it could be rubbish ...any comments gratefullt appreciated...im frit of chip pans and friers in general so for us it is no chips,chip shop chips or oven chips...i think some oven chips are ok others a bit pale looking....hm wedges are nice u wedge cut pots with bit of oil and herbs and bake on a tin in oven....ok but not chips iukwim......im told Easter eggs are bogof in wilkinsons ...i know its early but i plan to get a few for test and evaluation purposes tata tess

Hiya,

My mum has one of these actifry cookers and its fantastic! You can do chips, roast potatoes, sausages - anything you wo uld cook in a normal fryer but without the oil -not sure about battered things though (fish etc...)

Expensive but worth it for her - its used quite a lot!

Well, our first shop with the February budget and we spent a grand total so far of £48.54. Some fish from the market, veg & fruit from the market and the rest in Mr (and that included nappies!)

Fingers crossed we can keep it up - I think I like moneysaving!

Donna
x

searching_me

right i spent all day baking and tidying and i did the shopping both my freezers and fridge are full ... just need to get some pasta tomorrow i like mr s's basics and its only about 40p ... but i have spent £70 but as i say everything is full x

Frugaldom

I've been to S0merfields for eggs, milk, fruit & veg and extra lunch stuff for DS. I spent £20.23 in total and wasn't amused to find the [STRIKE]4p[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]8p[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]11p[/STRIKE] 16p per pack curry noodles that DS likes to have with his lunch being priced out of my budget! :rolleyes: I'm guessing he'll be having more homemade soup and bread and now plan on attempting to make my own bagels. If anyone has a quick, easy, fool-proof recipe for these then please PM me.

elizabunny

Different_Corner wrote: »

Angel,
Thing is those bags of frozen chips take up so much room in the freezer and always taste like cotton wool to me. I have a deep fat fryer that I dust off occasionally and always pleased with the results. But I guess it's always best to have emergency chips in the freezer

I make a kind of oven chip which is quite nice if you have the time. I just peel and cut up the potatoes into quite chunky chips. Parboil them for about 5-10 minutes until they're a bit softer but not falling apart. Then, add seasoning and a dash or two of olive oil and give them a little shake. Then they go into a very hot oven on an oiled tray. Really cheap to make and you don't have to get out your chip fryer or use loads of oil. It's just the time thing.....

candygirl

I've spent approx £50 so far this month on tescos delivery and bits from sainsbugs:D and got loads of stuff in inc toiletries and dog food, so fingers crossed i'll survive as it is a short month:D

mummyyof5

Well spent £64.45p in MrMs,making £74.95 spent so far but this included £2.00 in Saver Stamps towards Xmas.
Will be a NSd tomorrow,should be going to Home Bargains B&m and Aldis on Tuesday but this depends on the weather snowing here at the moment.

OH cooking a Roast Pork dinner today with all the trimmings (cant wait).

Not done my batch bake yet but Twinks hobnobs will be going in once the meat is out,probably do buns tomorrow,will double the quantities of everything half now and the rest in the freezer.

MRSMCAWBER

Evening all

NYK there is a bagel recipe on the recipe thread.... Its one I posted and they are easy
I know it won't be quite the same -or as cheap.... but I break up normal dried noodles into a pan... crumble in an oxo cube (lamb is my fave)...add enough water to nearly cover -put the lid on and place over a low heat... you need to stir occasionally to make sure they don't stick -and you may need a drop more water if the liquid has evaporated before the noodles are cooked... the idea is that at the end there should be nothing left to drain .. I sometimes throw in some frozen peas... and just have them in a bowl .. I love them
Perhaps you could try a chicken cube with a tiny bit of curry powder

dinner today was

• roast pork (whoopsied roast and sliced into the freezer a few weeks ago );)
• Hm stuffing made in the remoska -6 wedges in the freezer now
• roast potaoes -in the remoska
• mashed potato n swede
• brussels, carrots n cabbage

I have enough mash n veg left to make bubble n squeak tomorrow -we will have it with sausages mmmm

Hubby has a pot full of cornedbeef hash for his flask tomorrow -left from yesterday

hoping to keep this month nice and low again
have a good evening all

sashanut

Hi all

Well, have finished Jan's budget (AND my p/t job :mad: ) so the figures are finally in.....declaring massive £458.45 for Jan with a budget of £250.......so- £208.45 over :eek: However, it was an intended spend as I shopped in the staff shop every day I could to stockpile before I lost the chance. So, I think what I'll do is ask for a budget of £200 for Feb please Mrs Mc, I know a reduction of only £50 but if - as I hope - there is some left at the end of the month I will pay whatever's left off a cc debt...so I need to keep on track. Should be easy as I won't need any meat/fish/chicken/seafood etc for a very long time now; just need staples, pasta, tea etc milk, F&V & cat/dog foods.

Just an observation FWIW, whilst I have been working at M&S we have asked ourselves the question, 'if this item were full-price, would we buy it?' (& money no object :rotfl: of course) And to tell you the truth, there were very few things we'd prefer over home-made, hardly any at all in fact, including fancy desserts & made-up convenience meals. So, in the last month I have concentrated on just buying as much meat/fish/chicken etc from there as I could in order to make my own dishes from now on. Don't know if it's because our palates have changed but it all seemed inferior to what we could make at home. And also, caused us to put on weight, which we don't seem to do with home-made, even though including puddings &/or cake/or other sweetstuff most days.

Looking forward to embracing the GC fully now, having been awol most of Nov/Dec/Jan:T

Frugaldom

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

NYK there is a bagel recipe on the recipe thread.... Its one I posted and they are easy
I know it won't be quite the same -or as cheap.... but I break up normal dried noodles into a pan... crumble in an oxo cube (lamb is my fave)...add enough water to nearly cover -put the lid on and place over a low heat... you need to stir occasionally to make sure they don't stick -and you may need a drop more water if the liquid has evaporated before the noodles are cooked... the idea is that at the end there should be nothing left to drain .. I sometimes throw in some frozen peas... and just have them in a bowl .. I love them
Perhaps you could try a chicken cube with a tiny bit of curry powder

Thanks MrsM, I would do the above if it was for home use but DS takes a pack with him to work as a quick snack (much cheaper than a pot noodle). He's now taking a flask of soup, so I could probably batch cook pasta bake of some description and portion that into the freezer for single servings. It's his latest fad for bagels that's even more of a pest - I need to learn to make them ASAP, as the cheapest I can get them about here is 30p each and he eats them 2 at a time with cheese & ham. Off to seek out the bagel recipe now that I have a little bit of time

butterfly72

Please put me down for £250 for feb.

Not off to a good start tho... spent £70 today just for next weeks food. It was the venison sausages and organic chicken that bumped it up! I forgot we are away for the weekend so wont need it all anyway. Just discovered we have a farmers market near us, so will be visiting there weekly instead of/as well as Mr S.

Going to a 'do' in Grimsby next weekend so am going to get a box of fresh fish from the docks.. normally contains massive fillets of haddock at £1 a fillet plus other bits and pieces at wholesale prices! Bargain.:j