March 2012 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

elsiepac wrote: »

Today I bought 3x milk substitutes as they are on offer in Mr T for £1. I got one Kara, the coconut based one, and 2 Alpro, the almond based one. They are both MUCH nicer than real milk which I've never been a fan of anyway.
LC

Hi LC,
Not sure if you've tried the rice based milk substitute; r*** dream? My friend who is lactose intolerant has it and I've had it in tea and it was OK (I like milk though so might not be best for recommending alternatives). My friend describes it as being the gentlest alternative. When she was looking I know she tried a coconut alternative but I'm not sure what else. Anyway, HTH

Good luck with the meal
You could make coconut ice-cream to go with the pineapple cake - there is an asian non-dairy recipe here:

Ingredients:
· 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
· 1/4 cup superfine sugar or granulated sugar, or to taste
· 1/8 teaspoon coconut extract, optional
· 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
· 1/8 cup toasted coconut, optional
Preparation:
Combine the coconut milk and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the extract and the coconut flakes. Chill in the freezer, stirring occasionally until hardened, or prepare in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Top with (optional) toasted coconut before serving
SL

tessie_bear

hi...happy mothers day...off to lidl later ...as didnt get there yesterday..the fridge is empty so need to sort that out...need to get some yogurt and other bits for puddings as presently have nowt

got chicken for lunch...so thats sorted....thinking of doing the frugal fast just need to pick my week

meg your crumble sounds nice...i might try that
take care tess

meg72

FrugalLina wrote: »

and DundeeDoll

It was here in Fife and only a very small market. To be honest, it was a bit like those Continental Fairs they have in the larger towns, I recognised some of the stalls. There was some lovely produce, but some of it was very expensive. Arran cheeses, flavoured oils (£7/£8 a bottle!) beautiful jams and chutneys, some lovely baking, huuuge olives, some sweets and a chocolates. All well outside my price range. There were some meat stalls, but I don't eat meat, so I didn't check prices. The vegetables were great though (and the smokies)!

I do wonder it it was good value really because, in order to get a few vegetables (saving approx £2) I spent £3.35 on the bus, paid for a Big Issue £3.00 and the smokie was £2.80. Hmmmm.... not really good OS shopping!

I think it was worth it if you enjoyed it,we must have treats sometimes.
Bus fares seemto have gone up horrendously,I am very lucky in having a buspass as I am sure if I didnt I wouldnt be going anywhere different at all.

MunniMuncha

EverTheOptimist wrote: »

I have bought mine on line for the last 2-3 years as has hubby. I am pretty sure when it comes to the payment section it gave us a choice of how to pay and we ticked the debit card choice then entered our details, this was only the end of Jan that we did it.

Have you tried paying over the phone by debit card?

Ninno820 wrote: »

Ditto - I have just used my direct debit card as well - its also a visa. The site does say that you can use both.

Grocery wise its a nsd here - just on the count down to payday next friday. I have some unidentifiable meat defrosting from the freezing with a view to slow cooking it tomorrow.

Hes tried every time to pay with his debit card coz, as you say, it gives that option, but every time it comes up and says card cannot be used on this occasion please pick another card (or something like that anyway) and even using other debit cards from other accounts it is only the credit card it accepts.:mad::mad::mad:

Now I know it can be done, think I'll take a bit more interest and have a look and see what he is doing wrong. Unfortunately ETO, we normally forget until it's too late and it's some ungodly hour when there is no-one there to phone, but will try and be more organised next time it's due for payment! Having 2 cars and 2 motorbikes it won't be long until one of them is due for taxing!!:(

Many thanks for your comments - so glad to know that other people can pay for their tax by debit card:T

MunniMuncha

tracey12 wrote: »

I paid for my car tax last month with my debit card and had no problems

Tracey

Sorry didn't include in above post, but missed your one for some reason - anyway thanks for letting me know that you too have paid by debit card for your tax - am now on a mission :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

MunniMuncha

DundeeDoll wrote: »

Wooden spoon noooooooooooo

Look at the positives, at least you won something :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

MunniMuncha

Glad to hear from you HelenJelly - was worried there for a bit (phew);)

DundeeDoll

You're right MunniMuncha, after all wooden spoons are very useful
So didn't manage to stick to my £20 in Lidl but did £43.33 which was considerably less than last week. Have again analysed into Protein (P), Fruit and veg (V), Dairy (D), Groceries (G) and Munch (M)
Date...Total.......P.........V.......D........G.........M
04/03..73.65...33.96....5.27....4.99...14.89...14.54
11/03..65.77...22.68...12.13....4.00...15.45...11.51
18/03..43.44...10.63...12.58....3.00...13.88....3.35

Munch not quite so good as it looks cos we gave DS £7 to spend on munch for his w/e away with band camp. But am definitely getting much cleverer at YS and half price protein.

Lovethenight

Hi everyone, will try not to gloat too much after yesterday's fantastic result!!:beer:

Spent another £20 in co0p today (i'm blaming it on feeling delicate after last night's celebrations!):rotfl:

£10 of that was on 2 enormous packs of steak mince (£4 each) and a whole chicken. Usually only buy FR chickens, but the meat was on 3 for £10 offer, so £2 seemed too good to pass up. Will use it up on curry, sandwiches, salads and soup so will keep us going for lunches most of the week and a few dinners too.

Of to update sig and put some more washing on - it's a lovely sunny sunday afternoon here. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
LTN

hex2

Had to crack and buy sugar in the co-op. 99p so less than I expected, and £1.45 for 1kg icing sugar. Would have been cheaper in local town but £3 in fuel to go.

Cheese on toast for lunch with the last of yesterdays HM bread, and the dregs of the cheap post c'mas cheese. Depressing when cheese on toast is a treat.

Dinner is RTC chicken with all the trimmings. Must get another carcass out of the freezer so we have decent stock for soup.

Chocolate cake in for the boys, last of the stork and some HM butter. Just used cocoa (T value reduced fat) rather than cocoa and value chocolate. Be interesting to see if they notice.