April 2014 Grocery Challenge

Ches

SarahB1989 wrote: »

How do you lovely GCers put 'big' items into your budgets? I've got my eye on a bottle of gin, but its the same as a weeks food budget (I live alone, its not super expensive gin or anything!!). Would you count it over several months (as it'd take me that to finish it, ideally)?

I don't buy the booze OH does but if I did I think I would count it in the week I bought it as too complicated otherwise.

cw18

SarahB1989 wrote: »

How do you lovely GCers put 'big' items into your budgets? I've got my eye on a bottle of gin, but its the same as a weeks food budget (I live alone, its not super expensive gin or anything!!). Would you count it over several months (as it'd take me that to finish it, ideally)?

I bulk buy meat and cleaning products, and always count the full amount in the month I buy it. With meat I tend to bulk buy chicken one month, mince the next, stewing steak the one after and so on, so I guess it balances out anyway.

I bought a big box of washing powder from Costc0 in Nov 2012 (yes, I do mean 2012), and I'm still using it.... couldn't have handled splitting that over this many months I bulk buy toilet rolls the same way - bought 80 last time I was running short-ish and my brand came up on offer, and I reckon I average about 6 a month !

Florenceem

NSD.
For dinner we had HM Egg & Bacon Pie + roast potatoes/parsnip + roasted red/white onions + peppers + tomatoes.
Also made some JJ's Herby Cheese Bread.

Frizzle_2

lynnejk wrote: »

you could look at http://allrecipes.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/vegetables/carrots/ as I think they have about 200 recipes on there for carrots :rotfl:


£5.20 for one toothpaste - they must be having a giraffe :laugh:

NSD for us today

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday
Lx

Lol! It was for 4 kids toothpastes!

Frizzle_2

Used my leftover pastry to make apple turnovers! Hubby couldn't believe I had made them and they were soooo easy. Rolled out the leftover puff pastry. Cut into oblong shapes. Added some frozen sliced apples onto half of each. Folded over and then sealed and brushed with milk. Added some sugar topping. Put into oven until brown. I am now debating putting cream in them when they come out the oven. Although don't normally have cream hanging about so would need to be planned!
That is two things I have made this week using leftovers that have been unexpected successes!

MrsCautious

Spent £2.38 on a Hovis wholemeal loaf and some satsumas in Aldi.

Breadmaker bought off eBay months back remains unwrapped, think I will sell it. Just not realistic for me to have the time to make bread -- would anyone disagree, is it enjoyable/worthwhile?

malamay

I was going to buy bread today for sandwiches, but Hubbs pointed out he's only at work tomorrow, so we'd only use a few slices of it. He tends to have more complicated lunches when he's home, and we have enough in to do it! So an unexpected NSD for me today. In fact, my last 'spend' day was Friday!

Mrs_T_M

MrsCautious wrote: »

Spent £2.38 on a Hovis wholemeal loaf and some satsumas in Aldi.

Breadmaker bought off eBay months back remains unwrapped, think I will sell it. Just not realistic for me to have the time to make bread -- would anyone disagree, is it enjoyable/worthwhile?

I was gifted a bread maker about 6 months ago and I adore it. I'm home all the time, so I can use it whenever, but see if there is a delay function on it. If so, learn how to use it, and set it so that you can wake up to a fresh loaf of bread when you need it. I can make a loaf for ~16p (including electricity), give or take a bit, depending on what I put into it.

This recipe is by far our favourite, and a loaf only lasts 2 days if that! http://www.food.com/recipe/honey-oat-bread-bread-machine-4218 - I add 1 tbsp ground flax seed (we need to use them up, just be careful not to leave it too long if you add flax because the flax see can go rancid) and I use bread machine yeast instead of active dry. That bread is slightly sweet, but goes great with cheese and baked beans and toasted as well!

Oh, and wait until the bread is completely cooled before trying to slice. We can never wait on it to cool enough before slicing off the top bit and splitting between the two of us, but we wait on the rest. If it's still warm when it's sliced, it can get all gooey and difficult to slice.

cw18

I love the bread from my machine - problem being I eat a lot more of it which isn't all that good for the waistline

It doesn't actually take that long to put the ingredients into the pan once you've got the hang of it, and I often go out while it's doing it's work as I do a loaf using two-thirds white flour and one-third wholemeal but cook on wholemeal which takes longer, so my 1.5lb loaf takes just over 3 hours - plenty of time to run local errands, or even 'nip to the gym' for a class or swim if I go by car (I'd normally run/walk there and back).

MrsCautious

Thank you very much Mrs T M and cw18, that's all great to hear, I'm away next week and will try and plan to get going with it when I'm back, 16p a loaf sounds pretty good to me. I also have a slow cooker I have never used, ridiculous I know but so busy with work, children and getting my health sorted x