May 2012 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Just back from Aldi and B&M and managed to spend £10 on two big bags of F&V and salad and £7 in B&M on 12 cans of diet pepsi, handwash, 5 packs of ham reduced to 20p each (4 safely in the freezer now), eggs, beetroot and pickled cabbage.
So a total of £17 and that should be it for the week.
Meaning that I'm well under the budget this month - hurrah!!:j:j:j

freakyogre

I'm ducking out of this month as totally lost track! Had some sort of flu earlier in the month and went off food for a couple of weeks so meal plans also went out the window. I suspect I am no where near my total as haven't bought much but fruit, but have lost most of my receipts.

I will try again next month!

EverTheOptimist

Evening all

I have been very AWOL this month. Once i got so far behind, i just couldn't catch up. But I have been tracking my spends and have spent around my £200 budget. Am under by pennies.

New month starts on Wednesday and will set £200 again. I have sort of filled the cupboards, so should last a week or two.

I am trying another new tactic this month as the others havent been successful. Am going to try and set £50 per week. instead of one big shop and a few smaller ones. Bring on June.

Hope everyone is well, and i promise to keep up with the June thread, as i love seeing how creative everyone is because i am so not. And i have really started to enjoy baking so am going to try some of the cake and biscuit recipes too.

Florenceem

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

NickJW - Potato salad is fine with any potatoes, and hot or cold. I chop up the potaoes into chunks or leave them whole if they're hot or small and add chives or finely chopped raw onion or spring onions (39p from Aldo this week) and then add mayonnaise and a dash of lemon juice or salad dressing (tangy enough without the lemon) and black pepper. Yum! As you can see, many variations and all good and all by eye not measured. I like a finely chopped raw chilli to give it kerpow too :eek:

To those of you with frrezers full of crumble - I freeze the fruit and the crumble separately in plastic bags or re-used ice cream boxes and assemble immediately before putting it in the oven - takes up much less space in plastic bags! (not that I need encouraging to store more - my name should be Suffolk Siege lass!)

Blown it for May and I blame it on me. Stopped meal planning on the 18th, went shopping on 19th and 20th with no list and back to my old ways. Everything is back up to stuffed and I am back to storing food for the supermarket and paying them to do it again. I had to throw away another blown tin and a tub of Spreadable Lurpak today. I am very cross with me and I have been very naughty. Sorry Flo, thought I would pre-empt you! :rotfl:

Good luck especially all the Newbies - well worth reading the first few posts. There is some excellent start up advice and links to second purse (Mothership's original and Linz's great spreadsheet) to get you going if you want to hoard (I'm trying not to) in post 2 and loads of recipes and our target list that Helen Jelly maintains

All the best
SL

Spoilsport - taking away my opportunity to scold! :rotfl:

Florenceem

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Re blanching veg before freezing, I never do it. i always freeze things on a baking tray, them put in a bag when frozen, otherwise you get a solid lump and end up having to cook it all! Other than that, no fussing.

I now have a question - I've always made cakes with caster sugar, but it's twice the price of granulated. Can I use granulated instead of caster?

TIA

PG x

PS - I've managed SEVEN NSDs in a row!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always grind granulated into caster sugar in a liquidiser on top of my Kenwood. Then I store it in a jar with an added vanilla pod. I have in emergencies ground granulated even finer for icing sugar but it turns out a bit grey and grainy - not too bad if colouring.

Suffolk_lass

PennyGrabber wrote: »

I now have a question - I've always made cakes with caster sugar, but it's twice the price of granulated. Can I use granulated instead of caster?


PS - I've managed SEVEN NSDs in a row!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi PG - You can make caster sugar from granulated sugar if you whizz it in a coffee grinder (the base of my liquidiser) and if you whizz it too long you will have icing sugar or powdered sugar as the US call it

Very well done on the NSDs

All the best
SL
snap Florenceem!

MrsCD

WELL DONE Barbeduk - that's amazing :T

Fiasco55 wrote: »

Anyway the grand total for this month is £89.01 which is way under my £140 budget :T:T. Since I have been out stalking the YS bargains, support and ideas from this fab thread and getting to grips with freezing my LO; I can't believe the change in my spending habits and shopping lists.

I am going to revise my budget for next month down to £100. Seeing this written down is a little scary.

Well done Fiasco55 you've done really well :T

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Re blanching veg before freezing, I never do it. i always freeze things on a baking tray, them put in a bag when frozen, otherwise you get a solid lump and end up having to cook it all! Other than that, no fussing.

I now have a question - I've always made cakes with caster sugar, but it's twice the price of granulated. Can I use granulated instead of caster?

TIA

PG x

PS - I've managed SEVEN NSDs in a row!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes PG, I agree with you about the solid lump. I have a couple of lumps of frozen berries lurking at the bottom of my freezer!:o
Well done for 7NSDs :T
As far as sugar goes, I've used both for cakes with little or no difference, but it depends on the type of cake. For meringues I would say use caster, but for everyday cakes granulated would be ok. What does Florenceem think?

Just read Flo's post - I've never tried to make caster sugar, but it's worth a try.

jumblejack

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Re blanching veg before freezing, I never do it. i always freeze things on a baking tray, them put in a bag when frozen, otherwise you get a solid lump and end up having to cook it all! Other than that, no fussing.

I now have a question - I've always made cakes with caster sugar, but it's twice the price of granulated. Can I use granulated instead of caster?

TIA

PG x

PS - I've managed SEVEN NSDs in a row!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice tips, PG.... :rotfl:

Regarding the caster sugar, I NEVER use it and I've never had any complaints! I use standard granulated sugar with every type of baking where caster sugar is called for. No difference at all. The price difference is shocking.
It should be the same price as it is the same ingredient:mad: I wouldn't buy it even if there was a difference in the baking!

I do buy icing sugar though but I don't tend to use icing as much as I used too.

Florenceem

I have at last come to the end of my stock of J cloths. I want to be frugal - does anyone here use old towels/flannels cut up and hemmed for cleaning?

jumblejack

If anyone is going to Tesco, pick up the price drop leaflet. There are lots of coupons.

One is for £1 off £3 of mushrooms.
Buy 2 of the buy one get one free mushroom packs at £1.60ish. The machine registers the total before the discount so you get the mushrooms at a total of around 60p. Not bad, 30odd pence a pack with a good date on!

It works as I've just tried it;)