February 2010 Grocery Challenge

Coxy11

Well today will be a NSD as picking up DH and DS1 from scout camp later. They have been roughing it in bivvy bags in torrential rain - rather them than me.

Good news is, I will be 'gifted' the leftover tins/packets from the camp. As I have to do all the shopping for it (32 scouts/4 leaders) which takes time and petrol, I'd say I deserve it. Will wait to see what goodies come back home with them.

Just put SC on with a double load of bolognaise stylie sauce. I will cool it down and freeze later. Roast chicken for us today and may make a steamed syrup sponge too .

Coxy
xx

ragz_2

£45.67 gone from March budget in Lidl yesterday. Very dissapointed as they were out of all the veg I wanted, which put me off the rest of the shop and I missed loads off the list yet still spent too much! Arrghh, not a good start. Have to do Tesco today for all the bits I didn't get which will be about £30 (weekly budget is £74).

EC12345

Hello, haven't seen a new thread for the March GC yet so I will post on here.

Please put me down for £160 for the month of March - mine includes all toiletries (although am trying not to buy any) and cleaning products.

Thank you.

Goo luck everyone.:)

earthmother

Had a bit of a freezer disaster yesterday - went into the garage to find the door open. Luckily it was only the little one that holds bread and puddings, so not too much lost, but annoying all the same. It's not the first time this one has done this - I think the seal is going, so have shut it down until I can get the time to have a proper look.

Lost two tubs of ice cream, salvaged a bag of frozen peas that had somehow ended up in there, put a roly-poly and an apple pie in the fridge (had the poly last night, will do the pie tonight then the leftovers can go in the kids lunches tomorrow), and now just have the bread to deal with - 4 dozen baps (almost a months packed lunches) and 3 loaves. I know you can refreeze bread, but this lot's been done once before already, so don't want to risk it. Luckily I have a lot of dried fruit around, so tomorrow I'm going on a bread pudding extravaganza.

Anyway - to my question - I'd normally add candied peel etc to a bread pudding as the kids like it a bit lighter. How far past a best before would you go for these sort of things ? Found an unopened pot in the back of my baking drawer with last July on it.

And can anyone suggest any variations on a theme or other bread-using ideas - preferably that will keep a while.

ragz_2

earthmother wrote: »

Anyway - to my question - I'd normally add candied peel etc to a bread pudding as the kids like it a bit lighter. How far past a best before would you go for these sort of things ? Found an unopened pot in the back of my baking drawer with last July on it.

I'd use it, esp as it's unopened and olny 6 months or so OOD.
But then, we ate a 7 year OOD xmas pud last year!

If you have choc spread how about choc bread pudding?
I expect you already freeze breadcumbs? Always handy...

earthmother

We do have a pot of nutella in the pantry at the moment - wouldn't normally, but it was on a '2for' at pancake time. Chocolate bread pudding sounds nice - I take it it's a bread&butter pudding (butter bread, cover with egg etc) - is there a recipe or is it a throw it together sort of thing?

Spiggle

Hi All :wave:,

Just done the online order from MrS and had multi/special offers of £9+ and then applied the £10 evoucher so total including delivery was £48.62 which may seem high when I'm only 3 days into March but I stuck religiously to the list I had and it's all the bulky store cupboard things like flours, sugar, wash up liquid, loo rolls, etc which should get us through the month (I hope ). It could have been slightly less (about £3.80) if I hadn't ordered teabags but we are both such teapots that it seemed silly not to get them. Sig is updated.

By the way, if you use Kenco instant coffee you may have missed the real bargain refills (150g) in MrT where they were reduced from £3.50/70ish to just £2. They don't appear to still be on offer at MrT but Mr S now has the same offer only reduced from £3.58 to £2. A super buy when the 100g jars are £2.65 (MrS) and £2.25 (MrT on offer til 2/03 when go back to £2.65). Even more so when regular 200g jars are around £4.88 but £3 on offer at both now. And saves on packaging/bin space. We don't drink anywhere near as much coffee as tea so I bought 1 for work and 1 for home and they'll last us for ages.

Got a lovely piece of brisket in the oven cooking ever so slowly with onion, potatoes and carrots ready for a yummy meal later and for the next few days. OH yet again was extravagant and bought a piece far too big yesterday (£11.47 :eek:) but we'll take a fair chunk and freeze it ready to use in other meals at a later date. So I might forgive hime later.

That is such a pain jayjay, I really hate waste. Yes kimmee, it does sound really mouthwatering.

Thanks rosieben for the advice (and the recipes). :T

And finally, thanks very much MrsMc for adding me to the list. :A

Have a good day all,

Spigs

Disdisbiff

Hi has the new thread for March started yet?
Can i please set a budget for £340 have already spent £147 but this already includes a takeaway and a small eat out.
Hoping to try to get a least 10 NSD this month.

Spiggle

Oh, I forgot to say that having read what shopping and prices are like at MrM I am definitely off there later in the week when I need fresh things.

Does anyone know if MrM stocks Calon Wen (or other brand) NON-homogenised milk please? It is so much nicer than the bleached out homogenised stuff which we are sometimes forced to buy. And I love having to shake it to mix again - reminds me of being a kid. (Of course if I really want a treat on the cereal I don't shake it!) Ahhh such a long time ago ........

Thanks all,
Spig

JayJay14

Earthmother - when I had a freezer years ago which had a dodgy door I bought one of those stick on child safety locks, that kept it closed with no problem. Would save switching off and losing your freezer space (especially with all thos bread puds to find room for).