May 2011 Grocery Challenge

boysma

Counted up my receipts from 27th April and they total 76.68:eek: I have a 4.00 off 30.00 spend for Mr T which i intend to use before 15th when it expires. Just have to get potatoes today for evening meal and have meal planned for nearly 2 weeks using freezer food. Will need a top up shop though to supplement it. Fingers crossed i can come under budget this month:D.

Savvy_sewing

Sorry I have been abscent most of the time. Have to confess I didnt follow any of my plans. Although I only did two major shops in April, I avent done my accounts! Oopos. But think I probably spent about £250 last month.

I will try harder this month. Please can you put me down for £200 for may please.

espresso21

I am finding this time of year difficult - as the weather gets better, my husband does more barbecues which are meat-heavy. Normally I cook meals which can be stretched in various ways but a bbq tends to be a slab of meat and some salad - it's a bit difficult to use the normal tricks to stretch the meals in this case.

hex2

Ragz, I have been experimenting with veg boxes for a while now. If by the Milkman you mean Milk&More I shouldn't bother, very poor value for money and it wasn't great quality. Google for box schemes in your area. I am lucky and can choose from two milkmen (the one I use - Kirby and West - does a huge box of F&V from Leicester wholesale market for £13), two local schemes plus the two big schemes of A&C and Riverford. If it has to be organic then A&C is great quality and you can stop them sending things you don't like - valuewise they are ok when I can get 3 for 4 boxes but I don't bother with the fruit as it is very pricey. The local schemes were ok but better in the summer gluts when I don't need a box, and I haven't tried Riverford. My 25 trips to the co-op were mostly not for fruit and veg BTW but we do tend to need more carrots and cucumber for small people who like them a lot.

Fedup, I am sure the recipe I use for pizza bases specifies normal flour.

Today will be a spend day but I am planning. I tidied the kitchen and swapped the stuff that was stored in our bedroom to the pantry. I can now see what we need for packed lunches so I can go with a list rather than make random purchases. Juice cartons for packed lunches, packed lunch stuff, cereal, tomatoes, carrots and cucumber. Tissues, and PG Tips if they have them on offer.

50p for butter in Asda looks very tempting but I would be making a specific journey and I don't actually need it.

scotsaver

espresso21 wrote: »

I am finding this time of year difficult - as the weather gets better, my husband does more barbecues which are meat-heavy. Normally I cook meals which can be stretched in various ways but a bbq tends to be a slab of meat and some salad - it's a bit difficult to use the normal tricks to stretch the meals in this case.

espresso21 - hi, can't you just try to convince him that you don't need to have a BBQ to eat outside, you can still have what you would normally cook but still eat Dinner outside?;)

I've updated my total with spends from the last few days, don't really know what it's been spent on as I still need to go shopping today to get some more Fruit. It's been a funny few weeks with the Kids having 2 weeks off for Easter and only being back at School 3 days and having the last 4 days off, back at School today and hopefully things will get back to normal - they just eat so much and when they have Friends over it's even worse.:cool:

Visited a Farm shop yesterday so with our DR Sausages tonight we are having some Steamed Jersey Royals, steamed asparagus and carrots.:D

Have been trying to use up the DR supplies so that I can place an order for the end of May, I've only had 2 deliveries this year and still have a lot of stuff left so quite pleased with how it's fitting into our Budget. We had the Sirloin steak on Saturday night and it was melt in the mouth, no shrinkage and definitely worth the money.

Have a good day everyone.;)

quintwins

susan946 wrote: »

My brother-in-law made some beautifully light bread at Christmas so I asked him his secret. He said he has adapted Delia's method. I have used his method and our bread is lighter. He made white bread and we always like wholemeal and that is always denser but this is how I do it.

Start with the tepid water. I test it with a finger and if it is just slightly warm that seems about right. I dissolve the dried yeast and sugar in the water in a jug, give it a quick whisk with a fork and leave it somewhere warm. I preheat the microwave combi oven to 150 and weigh out the floue - half and half extra strong white and strong wholemeal in the bm bowl with salt to taste. Turn the oven off as soon as it reaches temperature and pop the flours in. Leave for around 30 minutes (not critical) while you go and do something else.

By this time there should be a froth on the yeast. The flour should be just warm. Pop the bowl in the bm, start the programme and as the paddle turns slowly add the yeast mix. I always stand by at this point with a wooden knife to make sure all the flour gets mixed in. It should anyway but I have known it not to.

After that just let the programme run.

Our bread is much lighter made this way and it's worth the extra wait.

Sue

i do mine in the breadmaker tho so i just wing it in and go

i'm just back from my first school run of the week, now i'm off to the post office and to grab a few bits from town will update when i'm bk but since i only have £12 in my purse i can't see myself spending much

i don't buy a veg box because the only local place is very expensive and i tend to buy reduced fruit in te$co and frozen veg

ragz_2

Espresso21 - How about kebabs? Good way to stretch meat on a BBQ as you can load up the veg too, plus it makes it more of a complete meal... you can use marinades too so you get a lot of flavour. Also making your own burgers can be cheaper than 'lumps' of meat as you can bulk them out with breadcrumbs and grated veg (carrots in beef, apples in pork).

Hex2 Thanks for the tips on veg boxes, I had decided against the milknmore one as like you said its not great value. I've found a local one for the same price as A&C so I'll try that for a week or two and see how it goes.

Hoping for a complete NSD today, don't need anything. We were given a complete cider kit by a friend last night which will make 40 pints in 4 weeks so that should save us a bit on the booze next month!

rachbc

Can I go down fro £240 again please. Doing the Live Below the Line challege this week so mon-fri is £20 budget this week - spent £15 as had some stuff fo the challenege in already. Will no doubt blow the budget on a mega shop on saturday lol!

Going to keep at this for a few months before seeing if I want to shave anymore off - currently feels comfortable at this level

quintwins

just back spent 90p in iceland on milk, £1.68 in tesco on bananas and some orange juice (not cause i needed it but because i was dying for a drink and it was teh cheapest option) and £9.50 in next clearance on some new pumps for the twins, i nearly didn't buy them because i could get them elsewhere for the same price til i relised that next sells on better so i might aswell

tigerfeet2006

Have done a Tesco online shop for tomorrow morning and an Approved Food shop. When they arrive I will update my sig. when they arrive and I know for definate how much they are going to cost. The Approved Foods one was lunchbox stuff and trolls, as they are known here (toilet rolls that got written on the shopping list T.rolls and then t.rolls and then trolls as we got lazy.) Anyway hopefully I won't have to buy stuff for the lunchbox for a while which will hopefully make the bills cheaper, we'll see.