March 2011 Grocery Challenge

cutiepieabf

janie-h wrote: »

Hi all :wave:

First spends of the month

A**i - £35.40
Iland - £24.03

MrsM Thanks for those great recipes.

Can anyone point me in the direction of inspiration for meal planning? I really, really want to try this... although last time I tried was a complete failure! Kept changing - someone didn't fancy particular thing or things cropped up to scupper plans. And only tried for 1 week and wracked my brains for things to cook. Don't know why as I have numerous cookbooks and 2 files of SW recipes!

NickJW Congrats on being debt free. Enjoy treating yourself and saving!

see above for step by step guide. ^^^ hope this helps.:)

slbhill

fedupandskint wrote: »

Just thinking ahead to pancake day next week and wondering what I can do with pancakes to make them into a savoury meal - any ideas?

Dutch-style pancakes yum yum yum :-) Take pretty much anything you might put on top of a pizza (cheese, chunks of bacon or other meats, pineapple, peppers, whatever's your fancy). When you put the pancake batter in the pan, immediately sprinkle bits of (cooked) toppings on top. When you flip the pancake (probably best to avoid tossing them as the bits haven't always sunk in LOL) the toppings end up on the bottom and get heated up. Cheese & ham or bacon is my favourite. Not as good as in Dutch restaurants when they're cooked on a griddle and about 18 inches across, but still tasty :-)


Just updated my signature with first spend of the month - £25.70 at Lidl, mainly fruit & veg plus stocking up on chocolate biscuits (8 Fox's "Classic" for 49p - :j as well as various other cheap deals). I should have enough for the whole month or a bit longer. Also picked up 4 fruit bushes (raspberry and blackberry) for £5, let's hope I don't kill them too soon - my gardening skills are only beaten by my "sense" (hah!) of direction :rotfl:

rosieben

janie-h wrote: »

...
Can anyone point me in the direction of inspiration for meal planning? I really, really want to try this... although last time I tried was a complete failure! Kept changing - someone didn't fancy particular thing or things cropped up to scupper plans. And only tried for 1 week and wracked my brains for things to cook. Don't know why as I have numerous cookbooks and 2 files of SW recipes! ...

just to add to the very good advice from Cutiepie, we have a weekly meal plan thread you might like to look at for inspiration and you might find something useful in the 101 Meal Planning for Dummies thread

there's a link in the front page index to a meal planning article too

Here's my meal plan on the monthly meal plans thread

helen_jelly

Rosieben - just looked at those links [thanks honey] and yours is by far the best way of doing it - gonna talk DH into trying it as he does the cooking

Helen x

fedupandskint

Thanks for all the pancake ideas - much appreciated and I bought some bacon today to use in the cheese and bacon pancakes followed by a few with lemon and sugar!

Yummy!

Anyway a top up shop to last next week from Sainsbugs coming in at £17 - off to update siggy now to see how much is left for the rest of the month

cutiepieabf

helen_jelly wrote: »

Rosieben - just looked at those links [thanks honey] and yours is by far the best way of doing it - gonna talk DH into trying it as he does the cooking

Helen x

i tried.....................

rosieben

cutiepieabf wrote: »

i tried.....................

I think Helen means my monthly meal plan cutie, not the advice I gave; your advice was excellent :T

cat_smith

cutiepie Don't worry - I appreciated your suggestions Can't really plan next week 'til DH gets home and tells me what he's doing next week. Could be anything!

Spiggle

NickJW wrote: »

Welcome stuckindebt - you're not the only bloke here
Welcome also to all the other newbies

My first spend was £7 in Co-op today - stocking up on a few lunch items for the week.

Congratulations Nick on the DF! :T

All the best,
Spigs

roger_ramjet

Day 4 - still no spends yet.

Used up some carrots on the turn last night to make a carrot cake.

Tonight it is a brisket and oxtail stew - frozen left-overs from last Sunday.