January 2012 Grocery Challenge

MissOrganised1972

Hi all. Been MIA for a few days, just with the general 'hecticness' of family life!:). Will catch up on thread this evening.

I have just been to Aldi to buy a few things. Spent £9.89 on parsnips & Grana Padano (for the parsnip muffins), a bag of chicken breasts, apple juice, tissues, craisins & potatoes. Will nip to Tesco on way to collect kids from school JUST to buy apples & bananas (approx £1.50) & that will be it! I am so pleased that I will be at budget plus about £1.50! Thrilled :j

New budget starts on Wednesday. Kids are school dinners on Tuesday & Wednesday & so just have to be inventive on Monday for the packed lunches as have no sandwich fillers in except jam! Hence the parsnip & Parmesan muffins! May have to change Monday's meal plan as well as had planned on salad and haven't got any lettuce/ leaves. I WILL not be entering a SM again before Wednesday!


Just checked spend diary too & have managed 14 NSDs! This is first month of keeping shopping diary & so have nothing to compare that with. Am pretty chuffed with that start but I CAN improve on that!

Suffolk_lass

aberdeensaver wrote: »

Any idea how I stop the crust braking my teeth? I have tried adding some milk powder and wrapping in a tea towl out the oven but still very very very crusty!!! I am tempted to give up and buy bread machine but is not cost effective for us as not massive bread eaters.

Queen D*lia does a soft bap recipe where the top is brushed with milk and flour immediately before baking. She also cautions against cooling on a solid surface to stop the crust from softening - so you could try doing this to soften it a little (probably the same as the tea-towel).

You said you are not great bread consumers - my basic recipe contains an ounce of unsalted butter (helps it keep soft a bit longer) and Nigella suggests using potato water for the same reason.

BTW I don't use a breadmaker (got a range) but now I use the dough hook on a mixer to do most of the kneading (I just do a couple of minutes after the mixer has done 10 to make me feel I have contributed) and I think this is probably what helped with my housebrick tendencies (probably not doing it long enough by hand) - that and white flour, I think. As I say, I'm not very experienced at bread-making. Good luck and keep trying

quintwins

well i decided to wait til monday to buy spuds so there fresher longer, i did get £3.50 worth of fruit in the market and 6 litres of milk for £2.70 to see us threw the weekend, have updated my sig

Need2bthrifty

Hi everyone, another spend to record. Went to @ldi, Lid! and MrT, picked up some chicken, pork belly, fresh fruit & veg along with a couple of tins/jars for the store cupboard. So a combined spend of £13.67 leaving me 17.47 for the rest of the month.

But as I intend to stay away from the shops I'm keeping this money safe as there's a tin of paint for the bathroom that I have my eye on

SuziQ1962

OMG- I have so failed this month-look at sig to see what I mean, but in my defence I have bought loads of veggie sausages,sausage rolls etc on offer at £1 a pack from AS*a to fill my emptied freezer and 24 tins of beans again £1 for 4 from Li*l so have enough probably to last me next month so hopefully will only buy basics-will have to do better in February! I may combine this months total with next months budget and work over the 2 months to see if I can breakeven-wish me luck!

kit77

I have been lazy over the last week not updating my spend but yesterday my month ended and I have about £4 left over :j not very much but I am happy as it means we came in under budget.


Just waiting on Feb challenge to post my spends for feb. Pay day for me so my new month starts today.

mi_jardin

Another spend for me today £8.01 for a pork log joint, baking powder, stock cubes, mushrooms, OJ, beef & guiness pie, gammon steaks and bananas.
That leaves me with £28.87 to last until Friday, but my budget is four weeks, and at £100, thats just over a quarter left so on target!
I got a large joint that will feed us for at least 2 meals, probably sandwiches too, I find thats the most economical way to buy meat.

123budget

did my last 'main' shop of the month today so I know I will def be under budget this month - I haven't had to buy any meat this month (just some whoopsies when I have seen them) so I know that next month will be a little harder.

Aldi wasn't too good today - NO big bags potatoes, NO milk, NO bananas and the celery had gone back up to 69p from 39p - was going to buy quite a bit to make soup, wish I had got it last week:mad:
so finished off at Tesco where I was really annoyed to find that the pack of bacon I buy (24 rashers) has gone up from £4.25 to £5.00:eek: What was worse was they had a lovely big red £5 sticker on them as if it was supposed to be a bargain!! I have all the sm within a short distance so think may give Tesc* a miss next week and try Asd* or Mr M instead

mrs-moneypenny

well done on coming in under budget kit77
hoping my list tommorrow will be light enough to rein my total in a bit

Islandmaid

NSD today, will probablybuy a few basics tomorrow but don,t need anything more than rolls for lunches and a bit of fresh veg