October 2014 Grocery Challenge

Ellie_BB

I seem to be doing really well this month. :j Grocery spends currently at £229.41 of 250 and am on target with budgets overall. And my month only has 3 days left :j :j :j

Have veg in the fridge so really no excuse to wander into shops. Must get bloomin slow cooker on! Any suggestions for celariac? Not entirely sure why I bought it :rotfl:

Mrs_Cheshire

Ellie_BB wrote: »

I seem to be doing really well this month. :j Grocery spends currently at £229.41 of 250 and am on target with budgets overall. And my month only has 3 days left :j :j :j

Have veg in the fridge so really no excuse to wander into shops. Must get bloomin slow cooker on! Any suggestions for celariac? Not entirely sure why I bought it :rotfl:

You could use the celariac for mash instead of potatoes.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all hope you don't mind if I join you all. I have a weekly budget of £60 for the 4 of us, 2 adults, 2 children aged 3 & 5. I'd love to reduce this even more but due to having a carnivore for a husband not sure it's possible. This includes all food, cleaning and nappies and wipes for the youngest who still has a nappy for bed.
Have had a quick flick through the first few posts, need to have a proper read as there seems to be a whole host of great information and recipes available.

lynnejk

XSpender wrote: »

I have just taken a GF Victoria sponge cake out of the oven and it has risen beautifully. My GF cakes taste nice but are normally flat as pancakes. I am not sure if it is the half a teaspoon of extra baking powder or the fact that I put in an extra egg by mistake and fished the yolk out but a fair bit of the white stayed in. .

I would guess that it's probably the extra egg. Yorkshires always rise better (and stay up) if you add an extra egg

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Hi all hope you don't mind if I join you all. I have a weekly budget of £60 for the 4 of us, 2 adults, 2 children aged 3 & 5. I'd love to reduce this even more but due to having a carnivore for a husband not sure it's possible. This includes all food, cleaning and nappies and wipes for the youngest who still has a nappy for bed.
Have had a quick flick through the first few posts, need to have a proper read as there seems to be a whole host of great information and recipes available.

A warm welcome Mrs Cheshire and glad to have you aboard :T



Had a lovely dinner today of Jacket potato, hm chilli (freezer), grated cheese and some hm guacamole. Then had fresh pineapple, mango and plain yoghurt for afters - very yummy


Hope you all have a super Saturday
Lx

dingdongsaving

Welcome Mrs Cheshire! Good luck at trying to sneak in less-meat...or even meat-less meals without hubby flinching! :rotfl:

No nsd here as hubby's at a conference 3 hours away with his work colleagues. He left at 5am (on a day "off" :eek:) and although they're sharing diesel costs & have taken packed lunches, they always have dinner out on the way home! (It's only twice a year though...and the conf. itself is free entry as they all pay prof. membership annually).

So, at the moment our only eating out costs this month are him with his pals on the 1st and now this! CHEEKY! I must be honest though, "the lads" (they SO wish they were still young enough to be called lads!) get to go out to eat about as infrequently as me & the corresponding ladies :rotfl: now that we all have children in the mix as well as all working (bar me on maternity leave as we type!)

Ok, probably should finish my cuppa & get dressed! Haha!
Hope you all have wonderful weekends.

Mrs_Cheshire

Thanks dingdongsaving, I'm managing quite well if it's something like spag bol or stew as you can get the flavour of the meat with a small amount and bulk with veg. I got 3 adult and 3 young kids portions out of 200g mince the other day! I struggle most when serving steak or bbq ribs.
I did start Meatless Mondays in a bid to do at least one vegetarian meal a week but it seems to have slipped recently. Need to find some more interesting veggie meals to entice him and shake things up a bit.

piglet27

Morning all,

I have had 3 NSD, mainly because I couldn't move, let alone get out of the house, . Ds caught a tummy bug, which he lovingly passed on and dd, ds and Bf all caught colds, AGAIN lovingly passed onto me!! What lovely sharing family i have.

Off to ikea today for light shades, rugs, cushions etc, etc. Will probably have lunch at their cafe as kids love it and it's a good bribe for them to behave around store! This spend will come out of entertainment budget. So no gc spends today, will need to go to a!di tomorrow for fruit and dairy. Need to make some bread at some point too.

Have a great Saturday.

dingdongsaving

We don't eat much meat here really...although none of us are vegetarian. Must say, it's not to save us that much £££ though as other things we like aren't particularly cheap to make. We try and balance things out by having 1 or 2 really cheap evening meals a week: cheese/ham/mushroom/tom/whatever! omelettes, scrambled eggs w/cheese on toast, grilled cheese sandwiches with a bowl of soup, cheesy beans on toast, spud night (tuna, cheese, beans, leftover sausages/burgers/chilli/whatever!) :rotfl:.

We've got a taste for Tex-Mex and "Southern" cookin as hubby is from Texas. We love quesadillas, enchiladas/enchilada casserole, fajitas, Mex-burger pie, jambalaya, gumbo, fried chicken, chicken fried steak etc etc. and we like to make pico de gallo, guacamole, trinity rice, hm ranch as sides...not cheap, but flavourful and def. stops us wanting to eat out as we just haven't found quality Tex-Mex here in the 10 years since we've moved back "home" (for me!).

Hubby does loves a cheese/onion pie, spag bol or chicken-spaghetti though...so nice cheapies there to throw into the mix too.

Mrs_Cheshire

I try to not to give my husband anything with bread for tea as he generally has toast for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. He also works in a bakery so would be sick of the sight of it if I gave him it for tea. We do have jacket potatoes sometimes, although the eldest usually has those at school for his lunch a couple of times a week so don't like to repeat too much.
I'm not a fan of omelette's, they make me feel a bit ill! May try a frittata for a change!

maria3104

Am still on £177 for oct, had some seriously NSD's really chuffed!
Target for oct £200