July 2012 Grocery Challenge

sonastin

Having stocked up on meat at C0stc0 at the weekend, I went and forgot to get some out of the freezer yesterday :mad: I hate cooking from frozen/defrosting in microwave & I had to get breadflour and marg anyway so bought yet more chicken breast while I was in L!dl. Another £12+ to add to the total.

Already at £157.95 / £225 with 3 whole weeks to go, including a week's camping holiday and a day-and-a-half entertaining MIL and her sister :eek:

I have enough meat to last into August (apart from what we buy on holiday) so should be OK on that front and August should be cheaper to make up for it. But I don't see how I'm gonna last to the end of the month at this rate!

dunworking

Bonglecat wrote: »

Thought it was going to be a NSD today as I'm working from home and had homemade vege soup in the fridge and plans to make a cottage pie for tea, bulked out with everyones favourite the lentil!! But realised at the last minute I hadn't got any veg to go with it so nipped to corner shop and paid £1.29!!! :eek: on a bag of frozen broccoli as they didn't have any fresh.

BTW does anyone remember a TV show in the 80s (I think) called The (Shirley) Goode Kitchen? I had her book way back (sadly not anymore) and particularly remember an illustration in it for reducing the cost of cooking by maximising your oven use. I was just wondering if I have found Flo's real identity :think: Come on Florenceem admit it, you're Shirley Goode in disguise, spreading the wisdom by any means necessary!!

shirley Goode writes a foodie blog every day called The goode kitchen.Her books are still available on amazon.hth

Make-it-3

Just milk and yoghurt purchased today (£2.74), decided I can hold off till the weekend on anything else. This seems to be my new tactic, thinking can I hold on another few days before I buy it.

GC total now stands at £80.23/£200

GreenFairy

Determined to have another NSD today. Have one big chicken fillet in the fridge for dinner and my first thought was to head to the shop for coconut milk to make a curry with it. It's never just that one item though, is it? Curse supermarkets and their "shelf psychology"!

Am going to cook it, shred it and make chicken quesadillas for dinner instead. Have all the other bits for that in already, including a lock and lock of refried beans which I've just taken out to defrost. Made bread this morning so lunch is the classic choice of "in a sandwich" or "on toast".

Coxy11

helen_jelly wrote: »

Hoping for no rain today as I have a little job doing a neighbours gardening and I need to cut their grass!!

Helen I feel your pain. As a 'jobbing' gardener I have been struggling to work at all lately - very frustrating!

DID manage to work this morning tho' the heavens opened just as I was getting back in the car.

NSD on the grocery front. Am going to try for another NSD tomorrow as I'm finishing off the painting I started at the weekend. Nothing like having a MrT plastic bag tied around your head to keep you out of the shops :rotfl:

jasmin10

I'm another vote for hm bread. Today infact I had to have a couple of slices of shop bread out of the emergency backup loaf in the freezer as I had run out of flour. No way did it fill me up as much as mine, it just tasted and felt like air. My hm loaf feels a lot more filling.

So, was shopping day today and did mr m, Aldo and mr t. Total of £39.73, under budget again. Really pleased, just need to pick my mood up now.

Sig updated

jumblejack

Coxy11 wrote: »

Helen I feel your pain. As a 'jobbing' gardener I have been struggling to work at all lately - very frustrating!
. Am going to try for another NSD tomorrow as I'm finishing off the painting I started at the weekend. Nothing like having a MrT plastic bag tied around your head to keep you out of the shops :rotfl:

:rotfl: the spectrum of tips we receive on here is amazing:T

I am in a bit of a quandary on my elderflower champagne adventures. I need a clever clogs to come along and point me in the right direction.

We had sausage (29p YS Cauldron meat free) with bacon, egg n beans for dinner followed with a fresh raspberry and strawberry milkshake with honey:j

Might do a flan or frittata later as I have cooked bacon leftover now to use up. I will incorporate some more nasturtium leaves into it as I have a bumper crop available.

A sunny spell is finally here:j

Now do I grab the opportunity and go for a forage foray with the sprogs whilst the sun shines and finish our project later, hmmm? Decisions...


Hope all are well n dandy. I'm not great today so could do with a sunshine pick me up

When picking the soft fruits earlier, I noticed that the blackcurrant leaves smell lovely. I am not a herb tea lover but am about to give this a try:

!!!The black currant tea is prepared from 2 teaspoons of leaves cut into small pieces, soaked in 250 ml of boiled water. It is consumed 3 cups per day, between meals, in long diets of 5-6 months.

I am probably not the best judge though as so far I have yet to try a herb tea that I like!

Will let you know.....

helen_jelly

Coxy - I only do 1 garden - hoping others realise my talents and ask me to do theirs lol

Whoops - fell asleep on the sofa but I was up at 4!
I've asked DH to get some bits from Aldi, hoping he onl;y gets what I've asked for!
Tea tonight for DH and me is something nice that he'll be cooking - its our 3 year wedding anniversary, we have zero pennies so no cards or pressies but we're not bothered about that anyway :]]

Catch up tomorrow, have nice evenings everyone

Helen x

jumblejack

Congratulations Helen Jelly:T

Have a lovely evening. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough for you to go for a nice hand in hand stroll after your dinner! Enjoy the meal

bossymoo

Hi all, just had a £19 spend in home bargains, mostly for the stash cupboard, and includes some cold and flu remedy, snack bars, pasta and tinned bits. I think my "just in case" store is coming along nicely!