March 2012 Grocery Challenge

blackandwhitebunny

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Just be careful tho Rising, as there are the nutrients in cat food that they need which cannot be found in human food. My MIL has spent a lifetime on giving her cats more human food than she should and they have suffered loss of teeth, kidney problems and other health issues for this very reason. It's okay now and then, but still try and give her cat food as much as you can;)

I agree Rising, my vet said once that cats shouldn't have too much pork, which is why there are no bacon flavoured cat foods I understand though that it does depend on whether they are self sufficient at times, apparently the nutrient that they need is found in the brains and internal organs of their prey which is why even well fed cats will occassionally hunt and eat these selected bits. Does she eat biscuits as well? Many of these have all the nutrients they need. (I expect you know that )

Spiggle

Scotmumof3 I just wanted to add my condolences to you and your family. You're all in my thoughts.

Take care,
Spigs

MunniMuncha

I find it really hard to meal plan coz as a child my mum always discussed what we would have the following evening and I can always remember NOT wanting to talk about the next night's meal whilst I was trying to eat that night's meal!!! How on earth did I know what I would want for dinner the following evening? Not that I had much choice mind, as it was always my mum who decided and in those days we definitely didn't get a choice of what we ate, it was one meal - like it or lump it? Just think she liked to make us feel we were someway being included in what we ate:rotfl:

So all I do now is make a mental note in my head what I have in the freezer and have a rough idea of what we will have during the week - don't suppose it's very good way of doing it, but really can't get to grips with meal planning.

I do understand why my mum had to do it tho, as she didn't have alot of money, worked full time, had 3 children to look after, a sick nanny who lived with us, a dad who drank (up til I was 11) and was in and out of work - it was the only way she made sure we had a good meal inside of us which was healthy and wholesome - plus we ALWAYS had a desert! Am in awe how she managed to juggle it all and keep us fed, clothed and warm - thank you mum, love you lots:smileyhea

LondonDreamer

Farmer's market today. It's our posh local one, so I don't get the cut down prices others do but the quality is so good and the stall holders are all lovely so it's my monthly splurge.

Spent £30 on meat to fill the freezer, plus £9 on fruit and veg and £3 on eggs. Also indulged £3 on an artisan loaf of bread as we had a sample piece and it was absolutely amazing. So £45 total, putting me well over budget this week. :eek:

miffy257

Morning all, have updated my signature as we hit sainsbugs yesterday and did a big shop. Hopefully now will just have to get milk, bread and fresh stuff weekly. Have a good day all.

blackandwhitebunny

Kittenkirst wrote: »

One question, cananyone tell me the difference between butter, stork & trex? (just bought some trex to try in baking mow the Stork is used up!)

Butter is made from cream - with or without added salt.
Trex and Stork are both margarine products, they are made in different ways with different additives to have different characteristics. Stork is more a butter substitute, although it comes in hard or soft. Generally I find the hard version good for rubbing in method recipes such as pastry or apple crumble.
Trex is a white margarine which is more of a lard substitute, very good for making pastry but I wouldn't use it in cakes.
I hope this helps you.:D

Kittenkirst

Black & White Bunny; thank you for that! Fancied trying ti make little tarts next weekend so will use the Trex for that :-)

We moved out just under 6 momths ago & really enjoying having weekends to play in the kitchen
:0)

FrugalLina

Scurvy has been averted! I finally got some vegetables, spring cabbage, carrots, potatoes, swede as well as some apples and bananas. I also bought some SR flour, raisins and Stork so I can do some baking one evening this week. My first spend of March at £8.63, but that lot is plenty and will suffice for several meals.

Off to catch up with the rest of the thread now...

Spiggle

cleggie wrote: »

Me again!
Can someone please point me in the right direction to look for advice re meal planning?:o
I am trying to get to grips with it and have looked for a thread about it, but cant find one?
...
No SMs for me today!

Hiya cleggie, you're doing brilliantly! :T Shame about the car though. I tried posting this before but got shut out because I linked to threads (Have they disallowed this now? :question:). :mad: Anyway, if you go to the front of OS and use the 'search this forum' link, put in meal plan and it'll bring up about five pages. Hope that helps.

We really don't meal plan as such but I truly can eat the same foods for days in a row with a little playing around. I put this on the Feb thread a couple of days ago to explain how we get around this (and OH's previous buying habits of one meal at a time purchases, very expensive! ):

"Now, we agree on what our main meat purchase is going to be and we'll get that and some bacon and eggs from the butcher. Knowing what meats we'll be having gives a great indication of what veg we need and we're pretty standard on our fruit and so that gets bought from the greengrocer. Also because we have a rough idea of what we'll be eating we don't waste anything."

Where this varies is for instance last week we had a beautiful chicken that lasted quite a few days as standard meals with veg and then with chips and then OH made hm chinese stir fry for a couple of nights so it meant a couple of small shops for the sauce, water chestnuts, spring onions and beansprouts. But not a huge amount probably £3-4 spent but two nights of delish supper!

It struck me that I haven't reported back since getting the panny (as our panasonic bm will forever be known). It is one of the best purchases I've made for the kitchen, absolutely brilliant. :T OH was getting soooo frustrated with the MR bm as the bread was not comparable to bought in any way, was always quite heavy, had the paddle stuck in every loaf and the bowl 'jumped' off its spindle every time. :mad: He even started sneaking in shop bought bread!

His pride now with every loaf that comes out of the panny is truly something to behold! :rotfl: I have to look at each one, tap the top and tell him how lovely it looks. Quite cute really. :kisses3:

It also makes the most scrumptious raisin bread :drool: which he made yesterday after the normal loaf. We had friends round last night and most of the loaf got demolished while we played cards. What was left I've just put in the oven as a scrummy bread and butter pudding. He's got to make another ordinary loaf today but I'm trying my powers of persuasion for another raisin one after.

So our snap (pack ups) for tomorrow he's just made using some of the lovely gammon he got from coop for a fiver and cooked yesterday in the brill bread. He's also got a lovely shoulder of lamb roasting at the moment. He really is so good 'cos bless him his face is all swollen up today. He gets a very occasional allergy (we don't know to what) where he'll wake up and his face is up like a balloon. :eek:

In other news and off topic, I've gone and bought myself a kindle!!!!!:j Promised myself one if we went on holiday and as we're off in a month to hopefully sunnier and warmer climes for a week the time was right. :cool: I'll be getting an unexpected £250 shortly (not from work) so that will cover the cost. And it'll be so much easier than lugging the six books there and back that I took and read last time we went for a week. :doh: Your comments about the kindle on here really helped in my decision too, so thanks for that. :beer:

Right best go check the bread and butter pud. :drool:

See you all later,
Spigs

Coxy11

Scotmumof3 - Sorry to hear of your loss. Sending hugs to you and yours.

Just got back from MrT. Stair-rod rain here, so it was heaving in there. Had real trouble getting any decent (inexpensive) veg today. Wouldn't have minded if it had been late in the day, but they'd only been open an hour! Total spent £49.20 which is probably one of my lowest weekly shops yet. Also got the Easter Eggs, B1G2F, offer on until Tuesday 6th March, from a different budget.

Took my 2nd purse, and got some cereal and frozen salmon for my 'shop'. Definitely the reason my weekly spends are going down, so very happy with how it's going