April 2013 Grocery Challenge

WantToBeSE

Morning all.
Still no spending for me today.
I made some raisin scones using water instead of milk (no milk left) and mixed dried fruit instead of raisins, and bicarb instead of baking powder.

i thought they were going to be a disaster, but they turned out to be lovely They are more like puffy biscuits than scones, but they have filled a hole!

Determined not to spend ANYTHING until Friday, so will go without my cups of tea (no milk), or try it black...we'll see!

lbnblbnb i am impressed with you managing on £200 for a family of 4, i struggle to keep in that budget with a family of 3! Good luck to dreamingofmoney

Bluegreen143

lbnblbnb wrote: »

bluegreen that looks lovely. We all love gnocchi and I have half a butternut squash already roasted in the fridge...!
Would you mind sharing your blog? Always interested in delicious but frugal recipes. X

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post it here (though there's no ads or anything, I don't make money from it) but its listed as my homepage in my user profile

Edit - very impressed with your low budget, mine is £185 for two of us!! But OH does like rubbish like crisps, coke etc. If I stay in budget I'm going to try reducing again next month but its getting hard to stick to now...

SpendingSensible

Started the month with a NSD, but went to MrT today for shop. Was supposed to be mainly top ups, fresh veg and milk, but ended up stockpiling some offers, so total spend was 49.20.

And this also included 6.99 for flowers and one of those pyrex dishes (discounted with points from 9.99 to 3.99), so I actually think it's not that bad for the amount of shopping I got.

Meal plan for rest of the week is:
Today: lamb chops, peas and potatoes
Wed: toad in hole, broccoli, carrot
Thu: salmon with potatoes, mixed veg
Fri: HM pizza

Might swap Wed with Thu depending on what we fancy on the day itself
Have not done any baking this weekend, but will see if I can whip up something today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone is able to enjoy the sun today!

pinkypig

Bitterly cold here today and trying to snow so today will be a NSD because I can't face venturing out.
Had family over for dinner last night which was lovely. We had roast beef but because it was a large joint I only carved and put out half of it but did loads of veg, mash, roasties and gravy. Everyone was stuffed and there were two decent slices of beef left plus the other bit of the joint will do us two more meals. I have made a meat and pot pie for the freezer with the left over slices, veg and gravy. We will have the rest tonight with peppercorn sauce and rice and the remainder in hot baguettes with fried onions, wedges and salad tomorrow. Feel less guilty about spending £10.45 on it now:)

Also had enough left over pastry to make a quiche for the freezer and 8 jam tarts :j
PP xx

sheeppappar

hurrah just went through my receipts and actually spent less than i thought - £80 so far instead of £100 as other stuff was birthday presents and the dvd and buckets i had remembered.. hurrah!
hope everyone's enjoying the short week x

Welsh_Poppy

craigywv For you:-) Thanks for making me bold or would have missed the post.

We went to Prague and my DH had this and wanted me to recreate it it is the best I could do and it is his favorite meal.

Wp's Hungarian Goulash

740gm beef shin
2-3 tablespoon oil
2 onions finely sliced
1 red pepper chopped
2 tablespoon paprika
10z plain flour
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 pint beef stock
Bouquet garni
1 teaspoon dried thyme
seasoning
1/4 pint natural yoghurt
parsley to garnish

1.Saute meat in oil in a large pan,remove to a dish
2. Lower heat and saute the onions and red peppe in the remaining fat in the pan until softened.
3.Add the flour and paprika,cook stirrng for a minute and then add tomatoes and stock and bring to a smmer Stirring constantly.eturn meat to the pan along with Bouquet garni and thyme and sesoning.
4.Transfer to slow cooker and cook on a simmer for 6-8 hours
5. Make dumplings and add to slow cooker.
6.Serve with fresh parsley and a dollop of yoghurt (or cream)on top and enjoy.

Welsh_Poppy

NSD today so 2 days without sending money.
I had poached egg and beans on toast out after long walk so just a roll for dinner for me.

Menu Plan
Wednesday....veggie meat loaf and salad
Thursday Mushroom,onion topped with mash potato and veggie sausage(making veggie toad in hole for DS who is visiting)
Friday lentil burger and potato wedges
Saturday sausage and bean pie(topped with mash not pastry)
Sunday Roast dinner minus the roast part:-)

liz-paul

Today I have baked apple & banana muffins, giant choc chip cookies (used an easter egg to make the choc chips ), flapjacks & I have brownies in the oven which are nearly ready. Was thinking I would do scones too but I'm a bit fed up with baking now

I'm fed up with myself cos I baked the cookies for too long and they are hard rather than soft & chewy. Still perfectly edible but not quite what I wanted.... Once it's all cool will sort out freezing some and work out what else will be for what days (I have 2 days childminding, one play date at our house and another at a friends house this week so need stuff for all of those.....).

Meal plan for this week in no particular order:
Chicken in mushroom sauce (from a jar)
Chicken tikka masala (from a bake in the bag kit)
Roast gammon
Falafel & wraps
Fish lasagne
And one night we're going out.
I don't normally use a lot of things like sauces in jars but I bought some recently because basically my kids are fussy and its depressing to cook for them sometimes & I'm sick of eating the same few meals all the time. This way I can eat something a bit different without making any effort and you never know we might find something they like!!!!!

bargain_hunter_2

£4.60 spend in ffoods on milk bread and some roasties
oh goodness -just checked auto spell and it had changed roasties to rosaries :rotfl:
Hopefully don't need much at all this week, freezer and larder full to bursting !

K9sandFelines

SpendingSensible wrote: »

one of those pyrex dishes (discounted with points from 9.99 to 3.99)

Do you know when this is on offer until, i have three on these tokens but shop online? I am however passing a store after half-term, when i have an Audiology appointment.
*edit* Just looked 26 May 2013

I have had a spend of of £6.21 in Co-op; everything yellow sticker bar one item ... chicken thighs @£2.09, which i de-skinned/de-boned (fed between dog (cooked off in Actifry) and one cat ... the other cats didn't like the raw meat and bones). This has been half frozen and the other half is in slow cooker, in Szechuan sauce. Also got, 2 x 2pks of Cadbury's trifles @55p, 3 x wholemeal rolls @35p, 2 x 8 pks of sweet pancakes @55p, 1 small Hovis best of both @40p and 3 cartons of o.juice for 47p. M-u-s-t n-o-t b-u-y a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g e-l-s-e t-i-l t-h-e 5th (when i buy DD's cake) or my top-up allowance will be gone :embarasse!!

Managed to come across vouchers for Thurs' shop plus £5 off generic voucher, means i have got about £20 worth off offers and money off, so bringing it to the required £40 spend!!!

Sig updated, plus 10p i missed offyesterday's shop.