February 2017 Grocery Challenge

Doom_and_Gloom

So we have so far spent £17.83.

For dinner I'm having vegetable pasta (tomato sauce, onion, peas, sweetcorn, peas, carrot, courgette, chickpeas) with sweet potato, broccoli, brussel sprouts and parsnip with salad leaf and cucumber.
Meanwhile OH is having duck spring rolls with smokey chorizo tortelloni.

Plenty of the pasta dish. Done as we are going out tomorrow, so when it cools it will be put in the fridge for tomorrows lunch. Better than spending at least £3 for a meal deal or simular.

£17.83/£140
£122.17 left.

medsdemon

Good evening everyone.

First spend this month today in A.di but got some bits i'd run out of in the store cupboard including olive ail and spices. Spent £8.74.

Cooking a recipe from Nigel Slaters cookbook but with out sausages that it's supposed to have because I forgot to buy them!!

May do our big shop tomorrow after work so we don't have to at the weekend

MissOrganised1972

Did my second weekly shop of the month yesterday. Spent £24.78 in Aldi and £17.04 in Tesco. My list was a lot bigger than I could afford (replacing items I was running low on) and so I just left some things on the list for another week when hopefully my general spending will be less. I did manage to get some replacement items like deodorant, DH's hair gel, kitchen towel & snack bags.

My one bargain was a pack of nine slightly battered bananas for 22p! I made 3 of them into a banana loaf with some leftover Black cherries from Christmas. Then used another 2 for banana pancakes for the kids' breakfast. 4 left for something else but I haven't decided what yet.

Couldn't afford a joint or similar for this Sunday and so will have some of the leftover turkey & pigs in blankets, out of the freezer, from Christmas!

Lauralozzle

Reporting a NSD - just another 14 to go!!!

pinkypig

Hi everyone, my first spends of the month total £30.08 which included restocking basics for store cupboard(stock cubes, pasta, chickpeas, passatta etc), dog food and lots of frozen veg. I'm definitely coming around to frozen veg as it's quick and reasonably cheap and there's no waste. My freezer and stock cupboard were seriously depleted last month which is good but a restock was definitely needed:)

One thing I didn't buy was iceberg lettuce. Has anyone else noticed the huge price rise? 49p to £1.19 in the Aldi near me:eek::eek: needless to say I made do with a whopping white cabbage instead:money:
Good luck to you all for the rest of the month.
PP x

Suffolk_lass

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Red lentils - I don't make soup very much due to lack of time, although I do have a slow cooker, so could pop the ingredients in over night.

Gram flour - I bought to make onion bhajis which weren't very successful. Any other ideas?

suet and pre made dumpling mix - we don't have stew very often due to the children not eating it. Any other uses?

Sachets of bread sauce mix, other than making up to serve with turkey, is there anything else I could do with it?

leaf gelatine????

Red lentils - I always add a handful to any dish with minced beef as the base - so chili, bol, meatballs in sauce, and so on - after they are in with all the other padding (celery and carrots, maybe a bendy leek) I promise nobody will notice - these are excellent for reducing expensive ingredients by simply using less and adding the padding for variety.

You can make a suet crust - it's just an easy pastry to put on top of a stew to make it more "pie-like"

No idea about ready-mix bits

leaf gelatine will keep for ages - just wait until there is a big pot of YS cream and make panna cotta (yum!) - easy but strictly as a treat when the cream is reduced!

HTH
SL

Mrs_Cheshire

meg72 wrote: »

You could make a sultana suet pudding with the dumpling mix, I jus add a few sultanas and a bit of sugar, make up as normal and
cook in microwave, lovely with custard.

Thank you, already have sultana's and sugar in as well as custard powder that needs using. Will give it a go.
How long should I cook it for? Would I put it in a pudding bowl, like Christmas pudding comes in and cover with cling film?

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Red lentils - I always add a handful to any dish with minced beef as the base - so chili, bol, meatballs in sauce, and so on - after they are in with all the other padding (celery and carrots, maybe a bendy leek) I promise nobody will notice - these are excellent for reducing expensive ingredients by simply using less and adding the padding for variety.

You can make a suet crust - it's just an easy pastry to put on top of a stew to make it more "pie-like"

No idea about ready-mix bits

leaf gelatine will keep for ages - just wait until there is a big pot of YS cream and make panna cotta (yum!) - easy but strictly as a treat when the cream is reduced!

HTH
SL

We don't eat minced based dishes as the kids don't eat them, we only have pork meatballs ready made from aldi, although the lentils might work as a thickener to the sauce. I'll give it a go with a handful next time I make it.
I'll look into the suet crust, hubby loves steak and kidney puddings, I wonder if I could use it to make those?

Ooh never made panna cotta, fortunately my budget allows me to buy full priced cream, what sort would I need?

Caterina

First NSD of February - grocery, that is. I bought a wall mounted rotary dryer that will allow me to remove all the drooping washing lines in the garden. But hey, I am only counting the GC spends at the moment, so will go and update my sig.

JensFeet

NSD for me today although had planned to get the final bits I wasn't able to get yesterday... I just couldn't be bothered going out of the house! Result for the budget but only delaying the inevitable as I *need* peppers for tomorrow night tea... Well okay... I want peppers for tomorrow nights tea and also the laundry and loo roll and toiletries as listed yesterday.

Loved the ideas for using up Mrs Cheshire's suet - reminded me of my dad making us suet crust pastry dish called 'meatball' but wasn't meatballs... Just steak and onions and mushrooms stewed in gravy in the pressure cooker before being plonked in a pyrex dish lined and topped with suet crust... Phwoar. Loved this as a special Saturday night tea with mashed neep and tatties and loads of lush gravy... No wonder my hips are the size they are. Also reminded me of jam roly poly and spotted !!!!. Actually would be tempted to add suet to the shopping list in a couple of weeks BUT me, my hips and family don't need it (sadly)...

I think staying out of the shops is my main aim - can't spend if I'm not there - so aiming for at least 50% of the month to be NSD's.

[Deleted User]

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

I've got some bits that need using in my storecupboard so if I list a few items here could you all give me some ideas.

Red lentils - I don't make soup very much due to lack of time, although I do have a slow cooker, so could pop the ingredients in over night.

Gram flour - I bought to make onion bhajis which weren't very successful. Any other ideas?

Red Lentils - If you pop in a slow cooker, they will be reduced to nothing, which I sometimes do - like someone said to pad things out.

Gram Flour (Chickpea Flour) - You can make egg free omelettes (vegan friendly). Just add water to flour, to get required consistency, some black salt (Kala Namak - not really black), which gives a really eggy taste and then add whatever else you want. YouTube chickpea flour omelette. Very economical and healthy.

Spent £6.94 on some bits, need some dairy free cheese, to use up some pizza bases I have - that's all I can think of.