February grocery challenge

tiff

Welcome Sally, have a read through some of the threads in this forum. I'll start a March challenge thread for everyone to join in

Glad

jazzyjustlaw wrote:

Hi actually my names Jazzy but this forum puts sylvey at the bottom.

lot's of signatures got mixed up when we changed to the new site
to change/delete yours, click on 'Quick Links' above and select edit signature

crana999

ah yeah i forgot about pears. they're a bit of a pain though as they are usually rock hard then instantly go bad..lol.

Sainsburys basics apples are cheap (I think its 61p for 1.5kg?) and good. The pears are alright but not as good as the apples.

redsheep

Question - do you think we would all save money by shopping once for the month of March - and then a limit for fresh food ?

Curry_Queen

crana999 wrote:

ah yeah i forgot about pears. they're a bit of a pain though as they are usually rock hard then instantly go bad..lol.

The last lot of pears I got were very nice and didn't go off as soon as they ripened ... very juicy and sweet too!

Just went to the fruit bowl to check the little sticker for the variety but they've all gone :rolleyes: but they weren't the usual ones. I'll check my Tesco list and get back to you


Edit: Managed to find my list and the pears were Rocha, not one I'd ever tried before but I'd definitely recommend them

Curry_Queen

crana999 wrote:

Curry queen, what fruits do you get? I do find I stick with apples/satsumas/bananas and the odd kiwi..unless there is something reduced on the market.. is there some good reasonably priced fruit im overlooking?

I tend to go for whatever's on offer, half-price deals, BOGOF, £1 off etc ... I always check the special offers page on Tescos when I shop.

I've recently bought Gala melons, grapes (£1 off), strawberries, (half price), blueberries (half price), mangoes (BOGOF), nectarines/peaches/plums (half-price), kiwi fruit, passion fruit (great in smoothies and fruit salads or drizzle the seeds over a pavlova/trifle/cheesecake), pears, clementines (plus apples/oranges/bananas etc) and I always have a few lemons and limes in for cooking purposes

Anything that's starting to go a bit crinkly or past it's best gets used in baking or fruit salads so I have very little waste these days, but since introducing the 5 portion-a-day rule I find the fruit gets eaten anyway

crana999

Curry_Queen wrote:

The last lot of pears I got were very nice and didn't go off as soon as they ripened ... very juicy and sweet too!

Just went to the fruit bowl to check the little sticker for the variety but they've all gone :rolleyes: but they weren't the usual ones. I'll check my Tesco list and get back to you


Edit: Managed to find my list and the pears were Rocha, not one I'd ever tried before but I'd definitely recommend them

Rocha are indeed very nice but usually pretty expensive in S'burys compared to the economy pears. When just ripe, pears are great though.

fazer6

Jazzy making your own soup is trial and error, I tried a parsnip and apple which wasn't as nice as it sounds, french onion is lovely and leek and potato nice too. I got recipies from this forum so have a search through to find them all. I've got some recipies at home so I'll write them in here tomorrow. A bag of tesco value onions is 70p(ish) and you could make 2 pots of soup from that (one pot is 2 dinners and a couple of lunches I think).

Soup should really be using up whatever veg you have left so once you've done some proper recipies you can start experimenting to see what you prefer. I generally think I prefer the ones that have chunks of veg rather than blended soups.

On the cheap fruit thing I tried tesco value bananas last weekend. They're tasty, perhaps smaller than the normal ones, but cheaper per kilo and I don't think there's a taste difference and they don't seem to have gone soggy straight away either.

crana999

blimmmin sainsburies is always out of the economy bags of fruit, and they are so much cheaper than te other ones they sell.

the only time I ever manage to buy any is after dropping my BF off at the bus station, which is near S'buries, so I go at 8am on a Monday morning..! I get things off the market but the basic apples etc are actually cheaper on the Sainsburies basics..

Sallygirl

I got a kilo bag of pears on offer at 49p in Lidl this morning. They had loose pears too but they were three times the price per kilo

Lidl had their seeds out on display - 29p for small seeds and 49p for larger ones like peas and beans. A patio pot of swiss chard will keep growing all next winter and provide lots of cut-and-come-again spinach type veg, not to mention baby leaves to add to salad. The stalks of the larger leaves can be used in stir fry... I do like swiss chard! You can tell, can't you...

Sally