August 2011 Grocery Challenge

Hippeechiq

Hello :hello:

Thanks to all for the welcome back :kisses3:

I seem to have spent an alarming amount of my budget already Now standing at £186.79 out of £240, so only £53.21 left until the 31st, which is doable of course, but it freaks me out a bit to be half way through the month with only just over a fifth of my budget left :eek:

I need to stop buying meat and use what I already have. Real life has somewhat knocked the stuffing out of me lately, subsequently - among other things - my menu plan ran out 2 weeks ago and I've yet to do another. I just can't get motivated....I'm sure you've all been there, but nothing runs away with my budget quicker than a couple of weeks worth of non planned meals.

I'm trying.....recipes for all the meals I cook and previous menu plans are spread out on the dining table...but they've been there for 3 weeks!! It's very unlike me. Anyway, I've had stern words with myself today and hopefully I'll get some kind of menu planned during the next few days so that I don't run away with what little money I have left.

Before I go - I wonder if the green fingered among you could tell me what is ailing my tomatoes please.

Cherry toms seem very happy bar one plant and are producing lovely fruit

but the Shirley toms are all ripening like the picture below. I've tasted them and they taste lovely, I just wish they looked lovely.



I'm planning to whizz them up in the food processor and cook them until they reduce by half and then freeze and use like tinned toms, so it doesn't really matter how they look aesthetically. I'd just like to know why they look like they do.

freakyogre

£14.05 spent yesterday and today.

39p on a red pepper at Lidl.

£13.66 in Asda today on cake bars, milk, spread, oil, stock powder, tortilla chips, satsumas, grapes, cream cheese, sundried tomatoes, 4 x yogurts, red onions and 2 x pasta and sauce and 2 x super noodles for 'lazy' days. (Cake bars and grapes were reduced )

I've decided to try the stock powder as when I make cous cous, I find myself using a bit of an Oxo cube and the rest of it doesn't keep very well, so hopefully this will be better for that.

Also got 6 free eggs from my stepmum as she had quite a few to be used, so i'll probably make a quiche for lunches.

Long_tall_sally

Hippeechiq - you've had more luck with your tomatoes than I have had with mine! None of them are red yet & unfortunately we noticed this morning that one of them seems to have snapped in the wind. We have taken the green ones off the now dead plant but not sure whether they will just ripen by themselves now. No idea though why yours look the way they do although I suppose as you say that as long as they taste ok, that is the main thing!

NSD day here today as I haven't been near any shops.

20somethinghousewife

HIPPEECHIQ I've never grown tomatoes so I don't really know what I'm talking about but...
I think I've read somewhere that the skin looks like that when they haven't had a constant amount of water. Like if they're watered, allowed to dry out, watered again etc so they don't have the constant moisture while they're growing. There's nothing wrong with them though, they'll be perfectly edible, they just have stretch marks
Hope that makes sense, didn't explain it very well! Someone please correct me if I'm way off

rosieben

If you pick off your tomatoes as soon as they begin to show a bit of colour, they will ripen really quickly indoors, I put mine on the kitchen window sill; it lets the plant concentrate on growing more my sis does this too with her greenhouse plants, this year they don't seem to be ripening very well at all

Wisp

Hi, I'm new to this posting thing but here goes: I shop in Tesco, (large stores, Southampton) & whilst riffling through various vouchers the cashier volunteered to take a Sainsburys voucher of £2 off £20 as well as my £6 off £40 shop, (total bill was £44 less vouchers) I was stunned as I regularly get the S'burys ones when I pop in to get the odd £1/£2 purchase so I just handed it over this week shop and WOW this is just GREAT!
PS I only ever buy from my list unless it's reduced & tinned or I can freeze it.:T

Wisp

Hi, all my tomatos are windowsill grown year round (I'm a gardener now flat dwelling) Just pop the tomatos into a paper bag & hey Presto they ripen up.

boultdj

Got another £29.73 to add, but a fair bit of that was tin's and sugar [for jam and wine making]

cattysmum

Another 15.71 to add for yesterday from Asda, lots of tins of Baxters soup reduced to 22p and 25p, lots of time left on sell by date, other stuff in Woopsies baskets. Tesco 7.08 got some of the Heinze mini meals on offer for 18p, grandkids love them,Sainsbobs went for Colgate toothbrushes with vouchers and dettol wipes on offer. Biggest shop was morrisons lots of fruit and veg all on offer for 49p so stocked up. Few toiletries from boots with till spits 2.00 total for day was £48.94 Less a £2.00 gift voucher back from Asda for a miss price:j

Chloris

I have updated my signature, £251.77. I have two more main shops this month and not much money left . I am away for 4 days so that will be a different budget. I have got a lot of main meal food in so I am hoping I can do this .