February 2014 Grocery Challenge

tessie_bear

love the flowery pie and the dinners and the pork looked nice

great to see you again cw18 cheryl...have you not been posting for a bit or i i just missed seeing them ? either way nice to read what your up to

poster who had last of milk used would it be worth having a cheeky carton of uht in the cipboard for such an occasion ? some people arent keen i dont mind it as a stand by we always get some in start of winter in case it snows and we cant get out

i am off in a mo to make a stew and put a chicken to roast in the sc to use for a chicken pie and some sarnie packups...we are having roast beef for tea

have a great day
tessa

ikesmummy

Pixie_Fairydust wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help. I will try to menu plan the evening meals first. Baby steps!



Thanks, I am a veggie, DS rarely eats meat (the occasional MacD :eek:) Its just nice to hear what other families do. I think the key is to organise myself!

Would you recommend investing in a bread maker? There is only me and DS at home now but I like to take sarnies to work and DS has hollow legs, so toast is a staple for him!

I also think I need to get a slow cooker. I did have a really basic one but it was very small. I guess if I'm going to the trouble of using it I might as well do plenty to freeze!



And its national Yorkshire pudding day! Your pic is great, even got the steam!

Thanks again to all who posted with their meal plans, its helped.

Pix
xx

I love my bread maker but was really lucky with it. I borrowed my parents when they went on holiday (for a month last January for there annual India trip) to see if I got on with one and would actually use it. I loved it and happened to post on Facebook how much I loved borrowing it, a friend replied to my post that she had one collecting dust in a cupboard would I take it off her hands?? I make bread in it of various descriptions but also use it a lot just to make up dough or Pizza or rolls etc. Think the good ones can be expensive though so ideal if you can borrow one initially to see whether you like them or not. Would guess second hand barely used ones may come up on selling sites a bit as think lots of people are more drawn to the idea than the reality of making bread at home??

Ladyluck1

No too bad £3.15 on corned beef and some 3 for £1.50 (1.35 because of staff discount!) veggies in Mr M

Suzexxx

Hi all

Spent £11.77 on baby milk yesterday, but this included a big tub which will last the week and a couple of cartons as we were out visting family today.

Also a cheeky spend of £1 on Malteaser bunnys from £1 shop.

Suze

mouche

Suzexx...Asda is having a Baby & Toddler event with the toddler milk on sale for £5 in case that's of any use to you.

xmillyx

Total for Jan was £103 - £3 over budget.

Target for Feb - £100

Spent today - £32.32

Franigan

Good Monday, people!

I wrote my post in bits and pieces since 9.30ish as I am at work and I lost everything because the page expired!! :mad::mad:

Very quickly: NSD Saturday and Sunday. We did spend on groceries but it was not me paying. That was already added up on Saturday anyway.

I am going to Mr T on my way home from work and I need to buy wisely so I can avoid s/m until Sunday the 9th. Here is my 6 nights dinner plan:

Tonight: Courgette and prawn risotto
Tue: Fish fingers with salad (shop bought FF )
Wed: Mac 'n cheese with steamed carrots/broccoli
Thu: Pea and bacon soup
Fri: Red Thai chicken curry
Sat: Veg indian curry (bought samosas and bhajis last friday and didnt use them all so I will have those too)

Mac 'n cheese, soup, chicken curry, veg curry all ready. Only veg/rice to prepare while I heat them up..

All I must buy tonight is:

- Milk 3 for £3
- Basmati rice £1.40
- Carrots £0.89
- Broccoli (going for frozen £1.20)
- Apples £1.00
- Tinned pineapples £0.65

Total: £ 8.14

I will report later how well/bad I did. Wish me luck!

Have a good day!

BlueMoo

Hi Everyone, Looks like most are doing well so far.


*****

Very very spendy weekend, not anything spent out of GC budget though.

******

Have eaten out all weekend, so no dinners to report.

******

Have decided to forgo the big SM this week, and shop in local small shop. More expensive, but only need Double Cream, Green Beans, and Butter.

Think I'm on around 93ish out of 100 - will have to find my old post.

******

Tiffany_Aching

Pixie_Fairydust wrote: »

Would you recommend investing in a bread maker? There is only me and DS at home now but I like to take sarnies to work and DS has hollow legs, so toast is a staple for him!

I also think I need to get a slow cooker. I did have a really basic one but it was very small. I guess if I'm going to the trouble of using it I might as well do plenty to freeze!



Pix
xx

I agree with ikesmummy, ask around and see if you can borrow one first to give it a try, if possible try a couple of brands. Different breadmakers seem to make different textures of bread, no idea why as the ingredients are roughly the same! I have seen a lot of posts on here with people saying that they either don't like the texture of the breadmaker bread or they don't like the hole that the paddle leaves. I'm not too fond of the texture of the fastbake loaves, but I love the wholemeal loaf and the white one is good, too.

I have a Panasonic which cost an arm and a leg (see siggy, it's part of that horrific debt!;)) and I definitely prefer it to other makes. My original breadmaker was a panny and when it eventually died I was given a Woolworths one (Woolies:D!!!). I hated that bread and quickly replaced it with a Morphy Richards that I had seen discussed on here - not happy with that, either:o In the end I gifted it to someone else and bought a panny again.

I would say 'Yes! Get a good sized slow cooker!':D I've got two slowcookers a huge Morphy Richards 7L one and a smaller 3.5L Crockpot - I use the smaller ones to make porridge over night for breakfast, stew fruit, make yogurt, rice puddings...they really are worth the space and save so much time - you just chuck it all in and forget about it! I've seen veggies on here say that they end up with brown mush, but I don't think they are using the slow cooker to it's potential! You can make lovely tomato based sauces for beans, pasta sauces, macaroni/cauli cheese, curries...the list is endless!!

Do you have a Freegle / Freecycle group locally? Ours often has breadmakers and slowcookers come up and if you post a request it may jog someones mind about that one they have lurking in the bottom of the cupboard, gathering dust.:)

maryarm

im back again. can you put me down for £500 again please. determined im gonna do it this month