August 2009 Grocery Challenge

rosieben

Glad I didn't offend, Maitane :beer:
well, spurred on by Tashja's achievements today, I have several lots of pastry chilling in the fridge (will freeze some of it); I made lovely rolls using thriftlady's soft bread roll recipe :T and made 2 sponge cakes (which I thought were going to be pancakes :rolleyes: but they did rise a little) so one is sandwiched with jam, the other is iced. I have stuffing left over from dinner so will use some odds of sausages/bacon from the fridge to make some sort of pie/pasty for dinner tomorrow. Might also make an almond tart tomorrow if MrS delivers my ground almonds as promised ... :cool:

off to look at my meal plan for the next few weeks

finnigan

I've now spent £330 so dissapointed as I am I can console myself with knowing some of this went on school uniform (5 of the little ratbags to kit out :A) and I treated myself to the economy gastonomy book to keep the rest of the cookery book shelf company.
I have food in for the rest of this week and my month runs for another week after that so I hope I'll finish at about £400 this month and aim for £300 next month as I'm a little more organised, still, its better than the £800 :eek: odd I used to spend.

Tonights delight was pasta bake. I use a base of boiled up pasta and cheese sauce and then mix in whatever I have to hand. Sometimes its a tin of tuna but tonight it was a couple of carrots and leeks with a handfull of sweetcorn and some chopped up ham. I buy the packs of odd bits ham that usually has some slices and a thick 'end' bit which is perfect for this.

In a similar vein I also have a huge pack of bacon misshapes, some of this is thick and some is tiddly scrappy bits (but its cheap ) anyone got any ideas as to what I could do with this?

lambanana

Doing my last shop of the month tomorrow, have £36.59 left in the budget and have written my list with the help of mysupermarket so should spend £32.38 without any whoopsies sneaking in. Will also pop in to MrS at lunchtime from work to get some of their "basics" stuffing mix. Should come in under budget, am writing meal plans and hoping to lower my budget for September.

Fire_Fox

finnigan wrote: »

Tonights delight was pasta bake. I use a base of boiled up pasta and cheese sauce and then mix in whatever I have to hand. Sometimes its a tin of tuna but tonight it was a couple of carrots and leeks with a handfull of sweetcorn and some chopped up ham. I buy the packs of odd bits ham that usually has some slices and a thick 'end' bit which is perfect for this.

In a similar vein I also have a huge pack of bacon misshapes, some of this is thick and some is tiddly scrappy bits (but its cheap ) anyone got any ideas as to what I could do with this?

I braved pasta bake today to use up some milk, cheese and eggs and it came out pretty well for first ever attempt!! I used scrappy bits of bacon yesterday - half in a hearty storecupboard soup (stock, broth mix, frozen corn, onion, iffy mushrooms) and half in a brocolli, cauliflower and potato bake. :cool: Would either of those fit with what you have in stock?

My next challenge is to use the oldest item in my freezer - smoked trout. We bought it straight from the fish farm, but I didn't realise how smelly and offputting it would be (I love fresh trout). I have lemons in the fridge so when Mr. Fire Fox returns it seems the ideal time to address the fish issue. I am thinking fish cakes, but any other ideas whereby the pong is disguised/ diluted gratefully received!!

mooomin

flying_fresian wrote: »

Pepsi £1.20 (2 bottles) It's tasty and there's a comp to win a phone The comping board has a lot to answer for!
Tomatoes (Tinned) x 6 £2.10 Should see me through at least half the month!
Macaroni £1.79
Rolls 29p (Whoopsied)
Puddings 3x9p = 27p (Whoopsied) Ooh, forgot about them, shall grab one now!!
Eggs £1.45 Will last 2 weeks
Bread 70p (Whoopsied)
Peppers x 2 packs £2 To be chopped and frozen tomorrow
Fajita seasoning £1.44 (2 packets)
Mushrooms £1.09 To be chopped and frozen
Caramel digestives £1.24 (2 packs) Half price, I have just been paid and there's a comp with these too! :rotfl:

Felt that I had to nip back and justify some of those spends I am doing a lot better though - the old me wouldn't think about freezing veg, just use what I need and chuck the rest. No more!! Can I freeze excess onions too? Was thinking of just double-bagging them....

I have bought some junk food, but I just got paid so this is normal for me and I'm hoping to win £1,000 on the McVities competition

Didn't post this earlier as Mr Fresian already thinks I'm odd for telling the internet what I buy at the shops and I was trying to do a sneaky post :rotfl:

Herewegoagain

Hiya guys,
Not been well so not been on for a while, still sticking to supermarket of HWGA giving me 16 NSD for August.:money: Have spent £30.65 so still have £59.35 till the end of the month.

Will now go and catch up on posts. Good luck guys:T

HWGA xx

Tashja

Morning !!

Rosie - Glad you were spured on by my baking/cooking episode !! The kids are thrilled that there are flapjacks in the house and DH has gone to work with the biggest lunch ever !! i added sultanas to the flapjacks and they are so scrummy !!

Flying Fresian - If it helps I went to Aldis yesterday and spent 3.96 on 12 tins of tomatoes. This will last me the rest of this month and some of next - I use tinned tomatoes so much !! Also they had some fab offers on veg - celery was 29p a bunch.

Todays menu is Shepperds Pie (leftovers from yesterday) for the kids dinner, I will have a sandwhich made with the C&T bread and for tea chilli and wedges and the kids will want an "indoor picnic" which is ideal for using up odd bags of crisp, biscuits and sandwhich stuff !!

Might do some baking as I really want to do a grate cake - no lemon though - will this be ok do you think ??

T xx

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Tash

I didn't use the lemon this time either -and I used ordinary granulated sugar in the top -not the golden,,, and its just fine
oohhhh and just to say that the almond sponge topping I did yesterday got a double thumbs up from hubby -its really nice ....

Ninno820

Flying fresian - yep you can freeze onion. Often I only need half an onion so I chop the rest and put it in the freezer - then its ready for me next time.

rosieben

I was checking through some old threads last night and revisited thriftlady's Meal building blocks for the freezer thread; I'll post the link here as it might be of interest to someone