January 2012 Grocery Challenge

bupster

Just spent a total of £4.01 in Aldi and the Co-op - half a cucumber and a pack of pork chipolatas reduced (sandwiches and sausage stew with polenta, as well as linguine with sausage and broccoli) - then freezer bags, nine onions, fresh yoghurt (to eat and as a starter to make my own) and half a dozen eggs.

Very pleased with myself until I got home to be reminded that last year I idiotically agreed to cater a meeting I'm having on Sunday - £3 a head for 20 people. Arg. I can afford the outlay (and will be repaid) but don't know where to start. My head hasn't really got in gear for the new year yet! Any suggestions?

Meadows

Boxes of Dairy Milk Chocolates now only £1.25 in co-op, as well as the reduced selection boxes and biscuit tins. Most have April's date. Large Toblerones with 2013 dates on them now £3.

ms_night_ryder

Just to add £5.16 to my total, kicked off healthy eating by getting, grapes, satsumas half price and apples, a soup, pack of frubes and a pack of lemons.

Have the start of a ham soup in slow cooker and will add to it when i make dinner, the soup will do for lunches all this week hopefully!

njk1012

Today will be a NSD here, we just had some HM chilli for lunch packed with veg and the plan is left over pork, chips and egg for tea. Will probably have to nip out for milk tomorrow at some point, might get bread too but hopefully I will remember to turn the bread maker on in the morning and hold off on buying any for a bit.

SpagBol

I'm up to £116.57 now and wishing I hadn't included the shop last week!!:eek: I have a freezer full of meat (enough for the next 3 big weekend meals), enough for 2 weeks of lunch boxes and loads of pasta, pesto and beans and pulses with which to make curries so I'm hoping my spends even out over the next 2 or 3 weeks. It's my Birthday next week so will have friends and family over for wine and nibbles but they usually bring a bottle so I'll just get a few bottles of vino and packs of crisps to cover it on Friday (payday!!). Other than that I'm confident for my £270 target

sistercas

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Can I ask how you did this please?

certainly

how to make butter from double cream

1.tip the double cream into a mixer using the balloon whisk

2. whisk ( it will go through the whipped stage - keep whipping it goes to a yellowy looking stage , then into little balls of yellow )
keep whipping it will eventually separate into butter and buttermilk ( if you dont have a cover on your mixer use a towel to cover as the buttermilk will splatter all over )
the final stage the butter will collect in the balloon whisk and the buttermilk will be in the bowl

3. rinse the butter under a cold tap ( its important to remove the buttermilk from the butter otherwise it will go rancid within 24hrs)

4. squeeze the butter to remove any moisture

5. you can season the butter with salt , garlic anything you like and thats all there is too it - took about 5 mins in total

edited to say : it will freeze for up to 3 months

123budget

wasn't going to buy any food today (famous last words)
popped into town to get a box for xmas decorations so popped into the sainsbugs while I was there:
whoopsies taste the diff batch loaf 89p, ttd rolls 89p, ttd teacakes 69p, covent garden soup 2 @ 49p ea. , 4 chicken legs £1.89, cooked chicken pieces (for wraps/sarnies/pasta) 2 @ £1.89 ea.
Also bought some lentils for 98p so spent £9.95 today.
Spending seems to be creeping up but mostly whoopsies for freezer and back to just going to shops once a week when I go back to work so should be on target or under for budget. Payday is 25th Jan so my month will end there.

mumsiemum

A quick trip to Mr S after dropping son at a friends house to do 'homework' - didn't have any books with him though!



Spent £5.18 on bread & veg for the rest of this week. Going to try and stay away from shops until next weekend. Baking this afternoon for snacks etc


MM

tracey12_2

I spent £15.99 today in Mr T but did get some meat in the 4 for £12 deal. I got a chicken, lean steak mince, casserole steak and 14 rashers of back bacon.

I have made chilli with the mince and added a handful of porridge oats and extra red kidney beans to bulk it out and will freeze into portions later. I will cook the chicken in the slow cooker tomorrow and this will last a few meals. I have put the steak in the freezer and will use this for a beef stew and the bacon has been split into 2 rasher portions and frozen for when needed.

Tracey

spendaholic

Gosh, this thread gets longer and longer quicker and quicker. Sorry I've not had time to catch up with everyone.

Last week I overspent, so my £35 weekly budget dropped to £30 per week for the rest of the month. This weekend my shopping came to £29, so I was chuffed with that.

I've reduced the amount by buying bottles of pop instead of cans, sticking solidly to my shopping list, totting up the total in pencil on the back of the list as I go around (rounding it up or down to the nearest 10p), and by resolving to only eat home made cake, cookies, biscuits and "ready meals". I have a baking cupboard full of ingredients and should be using those really.

On Saturday I made pastry - why don't I make this more often when it's so easy and quick? - and baked a quiche lorraine (out of the BeRo book) and a dozen cherry buns (old family recipe). I still have shop-bought biscuits to finish off but I made extra pastry so I can make a turkey and ham pie if the turkey hasn't started to move by now.