Anyone got a nice spaghetti and meatballs recipe?

Mint1955

Hi I am new to this and am wondering if there is somewhere on the forums that does menus or shopping planning or even hints and tips on spending less. I would love to spend less but due to many many years of the same old shopping habits I cant see where to start as my kids have me believe I am mean already as I wont buy al the advertised on the tv stuff!
Sheila

jackie_w

Just a quick question. I dont have much soap powder left, however, I have soda crystals. So, would you just use the soda crystals until you really really needed to go to the shop, or, would you just go and buy soap powder anyway.

Ive never used soda crystals to wash the clothes before. Do you need to add anything else to them?

Jackie

mama67

miecherox wrote: »

Hello all,

This morning when I woke up I had £23.27 left of my budget this month for milk and fresh fruit & veg. (I do a big monthly shop at the beginning of the month). By 1000am I had -33p.:eek:

Prior to my moneysaving days I had fruit, veg and milk delivered from an organic box scheme - cancelled this when realised we were living WAY beyond our means but forgot to cancel all weeks - hence we had a delivery for £23.60 this morning!!!!:eek:

So... have taken remaining money from "going out fund" for fresh milk for the rest of the month (£18.)
Luckily I don't have to worry about nappies as I use washables and the boys' formula is on prescription due to allergies.

What I need to do now is make what fresh fruit and veg I have preserve or freeze to use througout the month.

Made parsnip and leek soup today and that fed two adults three under twos, dh for his pack up tonight and a portion has gone in freezer.

In the box today I got...

potatoes (no problems)
carrots (use in cooking/carrot & orange soup)
brown onions (use in cooking)
jerualem artichoke (Help!!)
swede (use in cass/cooking)
cabbage (Just found recipe for cabbage soup)
leeks (pasta with leeks)
chard (Help!!!)
red pepper (any recipes for a meal with these??)
aubergine (Prob moussaka - any other ideas??

oranges - got loads of these - (do they need to be seville for marmalade as have fruit sugar in cupboard?)
grapes (no probs)
apples (stewed apple)

Any help with above ingredients would be appreciated - I cannot buy anything else this month but have lots of cooks ingredients in cupboards and pantry.

Thanks in advance

M x

Jerusalem artichokes are nice just washed and roasted, take about the same time as parsnips.

Chard can be used instead of spinach - is very similar.

HTH

BigMummaF

Just a quick Hi...may not complete this month's challenge.

My BIL passed this morning, & just now saving a penny or two isn't high on my list of priorities.

I wish you all well tho, & will hopefully change my mind several times over the next few weeks. Just wanted to let you know if I don't get round to updating my sigs.

Cheers then.BMFx

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

BigMummaF wrote: »

Just a quick Hi...may not complete this month's challenge.

My BIL passed this morning, & just now saving a penny or two isn't high on my list of priorities.

I wish you all well tho, & will hopefully change my mind several times over the next few weeks. Just wanted to let you know if I don't get round to updating my sigs.

Cheers then.BMFx

condolances BMF, so sorry to hear about your BIL, I understand what you mean about the challenge now, please come back when you get sorted, hugs from desp.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

miecherox wrote: »

Hello all,


jerualem artichoke (Help!!)
-
M x

Hi there! I make a lovely jerusalem srtichoke and carrot soup from delia smiths book.

Fry onion in butter, add artichokes, carrots and stir in with onions for a couple of mins, add chicken stock, season and simmer. whizz it all up and it tastes very velvety and delicious. I made some this week as the kids love it.

izoomzoom

BigMummaF wrote: »

Just a quick Hi...may not complete this month's challenge.

My BIL passed this morning, & just now saving a penny or two isn't high on my list of priorities.

I wish you all well tho, & will hopefully change my mind several times over the next few weeks. Just wanted to let you know if I don't get round to updating my sigs.

Cheers then.BMFx

Sorry to hear about your BIL :grouphug:

Sunnyday

Hi all,
not been on the thread much this week so i`ve just managed to catch up.
i`ve not even updated my sig with last weeks spends yet either and DH is at the shops this morning doing this weeks shop.:eek:

Hopefully i`ll get it sorted later.

Bigmummaf so sorry to hear your bad news, hope you`ll be back as soon as you feel able, we`re all thinking of you (((hugs)))

SD

Cruiksl

Well not done so good so far today. Went down to Mr T's to get the icecream and managed to spend £13.36 :eek:

Got the icecream, strawberry sauce, wafers, cookie mix, cookie heart shaped cutters, 2 bread mixes, potatoes, valentines card for dd and 2 pastry cases !

The pastry cases are one sweet and one savoury - now looking for ideas to fill them..........

carolt2

Mint1955 wrote: »

Hi I am new to this and am wondering if there is somewhere on the forums that does menus or shopping planning or even hints and tips on spending less. I would love to spend less but due to many many years of the same old shopping habits I cant see where to start as my kids have me believe I am mean already as I wont buy al the advertised on the tv stuff!
Sheila

Hi and welcome to the grocery challenge.

If you scroll to the top or the page. In between the "start here" red coloured icon and "post reply" blue icon there will be a item called "indexed collections" here you will find a variety of menus and ideas.

One tip for spending less that has been mentioned on here is the downshift challenge.. When you go out shopping you buy a brand lower than your usual one..
For example Tesco. they have value range, own brand range, , branded range (kellogs,heinz) and the premium range (finest)
So if you buy branded cereal,try tesco own brand.
There are certain things that you may want to keep as they are but some items you can switch to cheaper brand. In the long run you could save some money. Dont change everything at once do it buy trial and error.

I hope this helps.