June 2012 Grocery Challenge

rafspender

Hhi...:)
this week i spent only 9£!! i used to spend about 20£ per week
and still i have some food for next week :T

XSpender

debbym wrote: »

We decided to treat ourselves to this book by Mary Berry et al - the title says it all really.
Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets

I use a Mary Berry all in one victoria sponge recipe and it is always a great success ad easy to do too.

I am nearly at the top of my budget with 2 shops still to go! The cupboards are groaning with food as we needed a lot of basics like coffee and olive oil and I took advantage of a £13 off £90 Mr T voucher. Also bought some clothes for DS so this helped me reach the minimum spend.

They gave me a £5 off £40 voucher for this weekend and we still need dog food (couldn't fit it in the trolley!) for the month and some painting supplies as we are redecorating the living room at the weekend as the weather has put a dampner on our original plans.

I went to the dietician yesterday for the first time and got a big pack of GF pasta free. Must sort out my annual prescription thingy to cut the cost of my bread and stuff.

I sympathise with the GF poster who struggles for time to cook from scratch with a FT job. I have the same time constraints and with 2 part time college courses and wanting to spend time with my 2 year old son when I finish work I too find it difficult to cook from scratch as I used to. It doesn't help that I am veggie so cant just russle up meat/fish veg and potatoes. Most of the meat replacement things I used to eat when pushed for time are not GF.

I have told DH that I am going to spend at least one afternoon cooking this weekend and have planned to make a big pasta bake to portion for the freezer for my lunches, lentil bolognaise and some GF fruit scones as I am making a pavlova again and will have some left over cream.

Does anyone have any GF biscuit recipes they would like to share? There isn't much on google.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

sistercas

just popped to local shops and spent £2.30 in the fruit shop on a punnet of strawberries and a bag of grapes and £2.08 in c00p on double cream and whoopsied pork pie for DH

ive found a butcher who sells meat from local farms, its a bit more expensive than SM meat but i think i am going to try him , i will have to rejig my budget. that said the fruit from the fruit shop is cheaper than the SM. :T

freezer roulette for tea

Kitchenbunny

Ugh, was hoping for an NSD today, but we had ran out of milk so Mr KB had to pop to the shop and get a pint. So, another spend of £0.56. I'll update my sig accordingly and will hope that tomorrow I can have my first NSD of the month!

Tonight's tea is going to be the meaty pasta I had planned from last night. I had a terrific headache last night so resorted to some pizzas we had in the freezer ... not overly healthy but at least having some food eased it a little. I think the link is at the beginning of the index. I think I'll make some of the cookies from the recipe index today to put in the biscuit tin - still trying to lose a bit of weight but if you can't have a treat on a Saturday night ...

Have a nice weekend everyone. I'm slowly realising my little problem of spending being too easy. I need to learn willpower and will definitely do my best this month! Today there is a list of housework for me to do and still some work in the garden.

Take care, everyone. (((hugs))) to those feeling the pinch or a bit down.

KB xx

DundeeDoll

Phew made it to the june list at last. Only spending so far was getting back from nottingham so can claim back for that. Bought the special deal from tesco extra next to the train station so mse habits spreading
Got a bit ahem forgetful end of last month so had to make guesses (never good) this monh will make sure i write it all down. One of problems is OH not telling me everything so when credit card bill comes in there's a couple of forgotten items! Also to be fair she loves spending money, i love saving. We were doing well with allowances but she's now well into june and i've quite a bit of may's money left and i think after 4.5 months she's got bored. Unfortunately our outgoings will leap again in sept when #3 goes to uni. Hmmmmmm. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Suffolk_lass

XSpender wrote: »

Does anyone have any GF biscuit recipes they would like to share? There isn't much on google.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

XSpender - I was wondering if this recipe could be adapted - it was on More4 yesterday evening - you would need to make sure the Oats are labelled gluten free as some are prepared in the same place as wheat or rye but I expect you know that!

http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/honey-peanut-butter-booster-bars/

I was thinking you could reduce the size of the chopped fruit (or the amount) and use half the recipe so it is flatter and I would bake them as indiidual flattened "cookies" rather than in a slab to make bars.
The most important thing is to let them cool completely before moving them or they become sludge-cookies (I have some experience of this method!):rotfl:

debbyM - BTW an extra egg in the Vic sandwich is my top tip to ensure it rises beautifully and looks and tastes fantastic!

SL

NickJW

Hi All

It's good to see so many new faces! :j

First spend of the month in Mr S - went in on a mission and stuck religiously to the list! Spent £24.14 - however I had a £3 off £20 spend voucher and a manufacturer coupon to get a free bar of Dairy Milk from Cadburys sent to me for my birthday - I wouldn't have got it otherwise

So £20.55 to add to the signature. Pretty pleased with that since I've got everything I need for this bank holiday weekend as well as most of the things I need next weekend also.

Didn't get another MOC as a till spit, so I won't do a big shop next week unless I get another one (if I don't I'll either do a smaller shop at my works Mr S local or do an online shop since I've got a free delivery code). I only received a 15p 'Brand Match' coupon - it helps I guess.

Today I'm using a LO tortilla wrap with some tuna mayo and lettuce for lunch and for dinner I grabbed a pack of bacon out of the freezer and am having a pesto, bacon, mushroom, crème fraiche and basil fusilli.

Living_proof

I had an appointment in town yesterday so did most of the weekend shopping then, and was surprised by the amount I bought, spending over £16. However, completely out of the blue my son turned up for a few days so I must have had second sight to cater for his huge appetite. If he is around for longer I will have to make adjustments to the target as he eats twice as much as I do and will probably incur more petrol use as well!

XSpender

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

XSpender - I was wondering if this recipe could be adapted - it was on More4 yesterday evening - you would need to make sure the Oats are labelled gluten free as some are prepared in the same place as wheat or rye but I expect you know that!

http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/honey-peanut-butter-booster-bars/

I was thinking you could reduce the size of the chopped fruit (or the amount) and use half the recipe so it is flatter and I would bake them as indiidual flattened "cookies" rather than in a slab to make bars.
The most important thing is to let them cool completely before moving them or they become sludge-cookies (I have some experience of this method!):rotfl:

debbyM - BTW an extra egg in the Vic sandwich is my top tip to ensure it rises beautifully and looks and tastes fantastic!

SL

Thanks Suffolk Lass. They look lovely. I have some GF oats so will give them a whirl:)

Just need to find some GF wraps now to adapt my favourite enchillada recipe.

WelshWoofer

Just back from Mr T's - I hardly ever go there anymore but fancied a change from Aldi. Managed to spend £21 on what seems like not very much.
I bought Kelloggs cereal for the first time in about a year (just fancied some) and was shocked at the price:eek:. Better be nice!
Also got 2 packs of nice bagels for £2, some nice square wraps, BOGOF salad, reduced strawberries, raspberries and a few veggie things for the freezer. Other than that it was just run of the mill bits and pieces.

One thing I did notice - the value chocolate spread used to be about 80p now its £1.32! 50p more:mad:

The £100 budget now seems very small..... but I'll do my best.