May 2012 Grocery Challenge

Winchelsea

Spent £34.75 this month, so came in under!

fozziebeartoo

Not very well today so it wll be a NSD - not going out.

Declaring at £293.67 for May and 14 NSD's.

Within budget :j but far too high

Knocking another £25 off the budget for June, see you over on the June thread! :T

Aldahbra

I'm still here, my June doesn't start till the 4th. Think I'll be here on my own.

iQueen wrote: »

I was taught to bake bread at school, erm, in the late 50s. We used bog-standard plain flour. I've never used Strong flour. I always make it by hand - don't believe in unnecessary, electricity-guzzling gadgets!

The wholemeal turned out to be the best ever too! Mr M's bog-standard wholemeal flour. Made 2 Farmhouse batch loaves, and just finished the first, for lunch. (Must get a grip, or I'll be putting on weight! :eek:)

Proper breadmaking certainly stops bloating/heartburn. :T


Recipe: 1lb flour, 1/2 teaspn salt, 1 1/2 oz butter/lard, 1 teaspn of sugar, 1/2 oz of fresh (Mr M's) yeast, about 1/2pt+ of tepid milk and water, mixed.

Crumble the yeast into a small bowl, add the sugar and mix with a teaspoon until liquid. Mix in half the tepid milk and water. Leave in a warm place until frothy.

Oil and lightly flour (tapping off the excess) a large baking tray.

In a large mixing bowl, rub the fat into the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, and pour in the frothy yeast mixture. Cover the liquid by sprinkling flour from edges. Leave for 15 mins to sponge.

Mix the yeast and flour together (with your hand or a wooden spoon), adding more tepid liquid, as needed, to make a soft, not too sticky, dough.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes, producing a soft, elastic consistency.

Lightly oil the inside of the bowl and the outside of the dough and place the dough back in the bowl. Cover top of bowl with cling-film. Leave in a warm place until the the dough has doubled in size.

Knock back the dough by tipping onto the well-floured surface again and kneading for 4 mins, Shape into 2 loaves and make light diagonal cuts across the tops. Place on the baking tray. Drape cling-film lightly over the loaves and leave in a warm place to prove for 45-ish mins, until double in size.

Place tray in the cold oven! Turn on oven and set at 230 deg C/450 deg F/ Mark 8. When temp is reached, cook for 10 mins, then turn down to 200 deg C/400 deg F/ Mark 6. Check done-ness after 20 mins or so, by tapping the bottom of each loaf - if it sounds hollow, it is done. Place on a rack to cool.

Try to wait 10 mins before slicing and buttering!

That has turned everything I thought I knew about bread on its head!

craigywv wrote: »

hi all 83.98 out of 200 so i was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay under!!! thats may finished for me so will be starting june as of this evening, reason so low was i MADE myself eat out of freezers so didnt need anything think it was 17 nsd so happy also with that see u all over in june thread.

:beer: Well done

Winchelsea wrote: »

Spent £34.75 this month, so came in under!

:T:TWell done to you too:T:T


This will be my 5th NSD in a row ~ It is so much easier not to spend if you don't actually have any money left. I will have to get some butter as none left for the Packed lunches tomorrow. On reflection today won't be a NSD after all.

mummyyof5

Declaring at £376.00...well under and pretty good I think for a family of 8.

Going for £450 in June as getting low on a few basics...happy to keep in my sig xx

Teatime

sonastin wrote: »

Too optimistic for me. The fat lady won't be singing until tomorrow in this house. I thought I had everything we needed by weekend and was ready to declare May. Was starting to get the point where we needed stuff again but I figured we could last until Friday and then it would be June! However OH wanted some stuff from A$da and I happened to be in the area today (L!dl, MrM, MrT and Ald! are all on my way home from work but a$da is 9 miles out of the way!) He gets the need to budget but doesn't get the month-to-month thing of why we need to wait 2 days. The special trip really wouldn't be worth it either so I spent another £11 today. Did my best to resist getting stuff that we're running low on but which could wait until we're in June proper but a few of those bits crept into the basket anyway. Could easily have been a £50 stock up so quite happy with £11. Even if it still puts me over budget for May.

Too scared to declare until tomorrow is over in case OH announces something else he's forgotten that's urgent. Currently sitting at about £232 / £200 (target) or £225 (budget) so fingers crossed that's it.

Depends how you report the statistics. You could have put the £11 into June's spend but you just did it a little early because you were in the area.

Only a few more hours of the month for me and those hours are all accounted for and nowhere near a shop so think I will have been ok to have declared already. *smug* *but not snug enough seeing as were over budget ahem*

ModestyB

An nsd today so am declaring £178.93/£200 for May.:j We've cut down that much we spend more on the dogs food than on ours.:rotfl: They're worth it though.

Well done to everybody whether you achieved budget or not. It's the taking part that counts.:T

See you all in June.

FlacosFloozie

Last shop for the month and total is £233.11 so have gone over again :eek:
On the plus side the house is fully stocked so I'm going to try and knock it off next months budget to make up.

sonastin

Teatime wrote: »

Depends how you report the statistics. You could have put the £11 into June's spend but you just did it a little early because you were in the area.

Only a few more hours of the month for me and those hours are all accounted for and nowhere near a shop so think I will have been ok to have declared already. *smug* *but not snug enough seeing as were over budget ahem*

I suppose you're right... but I know what I'm like with statistics. Once I start manipulating the numbers, I'll be finding excuses all over the place to slide money around! I'm keeping track in an overall spreadsheet so I know where the money is coming from for each overspend - its not like I need to make sure June comes out £11 under budget to account for this bit extra. But
I need to be rigid and stick to the "when I hand over the card" allocation or I'll have July's budget already spent on stocking up before I know it! And nothing left for the fresh stuff that I'll need when we get to July

NickJW

Hi All

I get paid tomorrow so it will be the start of a new month. A small £1 spend at Mr S brings my total to £124.72/£130

JUST under, so pleased with that!

Well done everybody and see you all in June's thread.

MrsCD

fozziebeartoo wrote: »

Not very well today so it wll be a NSD - not going out.

Declaring at £293.67 for May and 14 NSD's.

Within budget :j but far too high

Knocking another £25 off the budget for June, see you over on the June thread! :T

Well done for coming in within budget :T
Hope you're better soon. See you over on the June thread