Anyone got a nice spaghetti and meatballs recipe?

jackiegibbo

spent £39.67 on groceries today so my total groceries for the month was £203.63 which although i failed my challenge i still spent less than last month so im seeing that as a positive.Many thanks to LIL_ME for all her hard work and to MRS M for marches challenge

LIL-ME CAN YOU PLEASE PUT MY TOTAL FOR FEBRUARY AS £203.63

TheBees

Well we now have £20 left until Friday and hopefully should only need milk until then. :j But I find it SO hard to avoid going into shops and very rarely have a NSD! Maybe I'll challenge myself to have NS days until Thursday when it's my day off work and an opportunity to go to Lidls followed by a big shop for the start of March on Saturday.

In the past few days I've bought marg, rice,cheese, bread, bin liners and a couple other essentials that I knew we would need as we go back to school and packed lunches for us all on Monday.

Yesterday we made a rissotto using some stir fry pork that was reduced to 99p, a shrivelled pepper that was lurking at the bottom of the fridge, half an onion and a bit of garlic. Tonight I've made a chicken curry in the slow cooker to have later in the week. To pad it out a bit I added some really finely chopped carrot, swede and butternut squash in the hope that the children won't notice it and I then only needed to use two chicken breasts - (In the past I would have used 3 or even 4!)

Tomorrow we are going to use up some pre-cooked minced lamb which I batch cooked and froze a couple weeks ago. It was a bit bland when we had it as a lamb cobbler so I'm going to add a more herbs and plenty of seasoning to make it a bit more interesting and put a pastry lid on it so it will be a pie! (In the past I would have probably thrown it away instead of trying to salvage it!)

Anyway everyone good luck to you all during the last week and thanks to Mrs Mc for taking over.
PS Just won £10 on the lottery tonight!!!
TheBees

TheBees

Hi JayneC

I love your idea to plan packed lunches as well as your evening meal. I've never thought of doing that but it would make life a lot easier as sometimes it's a real struggle trying to think of different things to add a bit of variety. I am going to copy you and do the same when I sit down to menu plan tomorrow. Thanks.

JoJoB

Started March challenge today. Lets give the £160 figure a go again. Did £29.50 in aldis today - hoping it will last the week!

lil_me

Bother!! My month ends on Sunday night but I have everything out for dinner tomorrow so DP will be told NO if he even asks for a takeaway when he gets back and I am still over budget. I did however do a Costco shop in that, £264.10....maybe I should have stuck with the £260. Anyway lesson learned will post my March target once I have worked through the finances for the month which I should have finished tonight. I do have a LOT in so maybe time to drain the supplies a little.

Mortgagefreeforme

izoomzoom don't use a sugar thermometer, you can test for soft ball stage by dropping a teaspoonfull of the mixture onto a plate of very cold water, wait a min and if it can be picked up reasonably well, a bit soft, but holds a good shape then it should be fine. You'll also feel the mixture thicken in the pot as it cooks. Hope that helps.;)

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Hi guys, declaring myself £20 overbudget at £270 (budgetted £250) still good though as I would have spent way more.

Even though I make my own bread I give the kids supermarket baps for packed lunch. I got a wholemeal loaf from aldi yesterday and split it into bags of 4 slices and got 5 bags...enough for 1 week. The loaf cost 55p and seems ok quality so thats packed lunches sorted for next week. The fillings are usually whats in...corned beef, cheese, tuna, peanut butter. I keep it simple as they eat a good brekky, tea and dinner.

Well done on the huge effort everyone!

savingfortravel

Hi everyone!
Mrs M-Will be attempting HM tuna, tomato and mascapone pasta sauce in March. You have inspired me.
Will be buying 2 x 700g jars of Passata sauce (in order to make enough for 4 meals for 2 adults). How many grams of mascapone cheese should I add to make it cheesy?
I intend to fry chopped garlic with butter. Add Passata sauce (which already has onion and garlic in it). Leave for a minute, add Mascapone and Tuna. Also would you recommend adding/varying the sauce in the future?
I worked out we spent about £10 per month on ready made pasta sauces, this could cut the cost by half or more!

By the way we followed your recommended recipe for HM fish pie yesterday and it was delicious!!! I am growing with confidence at cooking and it was lovely time spent with the OB. He is very laid back and a great partner to cook with. We made enough for 2 meals and it cost so little compared to the ready made versions we have bought in the past.
Thank you x 10000!

mama67

Yesterday was a NSD and today will be also.

I have grocery trip into town on Monday been checking prices on www.mysupermarket.co.uk and know what I'm buying where. Will be over this month but it is my first month and I have bought alot of bogofs which will be used up in the future.
I was obviously spending more before than I thought I was.

I'm not too bothered about being over this month as it should all even out during the year.

Have decided that as DS2 does not have school lunches anymore and I'm buying more packup ingredients, then I'm going to increase my budget by £20 next month So March will be £160, but will continue to use DS1 lunch money during the hols for freezer stock ups and buying yogurt mixes.

I'll post my final totals on Friday after finishing for the week.

Rowan9

Everyone has been doing so well here. I'm enjoying reading back through the threads.
I'm ok for budget this month but yesterday needed a treat so DD and I went to a lovely pub for fish and chips. It was soooo tasty. Just needed a meal out (ok, not needed, wanted) as we have been using up stuff from the freezer all month and following a menu plan (successfully) ...but....I just kind of felt waaaah! Next month i will make sure that I plan in a treat tea now and again. The good news is that the freezer is almost empty so I can defrost it and start more batches of cooking for it + we have money left for spending this coming weekend when I have in-laws staying + SS x2 and 1 girlfriend so we will be cooking and catering for 8. I don't know how you with big families manage that on a regular basis - I really admire you! I have my menu plan done though and will do some cooking beforehand so that should help to stop the last minute buys. I'm counting it all from the Feb budget since we look like coming in under. If it goes over, then it will come off March. Not sure of March budget yet.
Keep trucking along everyone - the end is is sight!
w