May 2017 Grocery Challenge

Fruittea

Hi Zippychick can you please put me down for £150 again. I have quite a bit of home grown produce and I think I should be able to make the target this month.
Many thanks.

[Deleted User]

Pablosmummy wrote: »

Also planned coconut lentil Dahl this week .

Like the sound of that, do you have a recipe. I eat tons of lentils.

I don't need any shopping for the foreseeable future, might try to leave it 'till Tuesday, then do a veggie/salad stock up.

allmannerofthings

Pablosmummy wrote: »

Also planned coconut lentil Dahl this week so will get a few freezer meals from that.

I really like the sound of that, Pablosmummy. Another call for the recipe from me please!

I was very tempted to order a takeaway last night, but I resisted and we had pilchards on toast. Not much of a dinner, but it filled the gap and it didn't cost £20!

I'm making stock today from the chicken bones of the chicken I cooked Monday. I'll put it in the freezer to make soup with another time. For tonight's dinner I have leftover chicken so I'm thinking a chicken and vegetable curry for Mr AMOT and cauliflower and pea curry for me, I have a big bag of spinach to use up by tomorrow so I'll throw some of that in there too. Minimal rice as we are cutting down drastically on carbs at the moment. Mr AMOT has lost 10lbs in the last few weeks. I'm not getting on the scales...I don't feel any lighter and I don't want to depress myself!

mcculloch29

kkffoo wrote: »

Early 70s. Every party I went to, or had ourselves, salmon paste on white finger rolls. Crisps. Home made birthday cake. That was pretty much it, apart from the exotic few who went for beef paste, or white sliced bread cut into triangles. Vimto to drink, which must have been awful to get out of a carpet.

We didn't have Vimto in South Wales, where I grew up. It was a happy discovery when I found it in the North East of England after moving here.
I have a bottle in the fridge at the moment - sugar free, light blue top, £1 in Heron Foods. RTD sugar - free Vimto in a can is also a favourite. 39p a can or 3 for £1, Heron again.

About to go and vote and then cycle down to Mr T's, using a gift card and the Coinstar machine if it's working, to pay for my shopping.

Pablosmummy

http://kiwiandbean.com/white-girl-dahl-indian-spiced-red-lentil-tomato-and-coconut-stew/

Link for the coconut lentil dahl, I've never added the butter at the end cos it seemed like adding extra calories for no real reason.

mcculloch29

I got more than I expected out of my bag of copper and 5ps at the Coinstar machine. Yes, they took just over a quid 'commission' and I truly appreciated the thoughtful advice to use the self-service instead, but I couldn't have used my printed out gift card.
I also had a lovely chat with the customer service assistant at the till. You don't get that with self service.

£6.77 spent in Mr T's, on coffee whitener, (no lectures on this please, I like it..!), dried milk, salmon fish paste for Jack Monroe's Creamy Salmon Pasta, cocoa and honey for home made chocolates to use up some coconut oil (can't wait to try this!).
Plus a packet of EV Ginger Nuts. I'm convinced both these, and Aldi's ones-before-they-changed-the-recipe are the same as McVities. Aldi's haven't been available for ages, the factory that made the substandard biccies got closed down on the spot for hygiene breaches. I was very grateful the new recipe/supplier biscuits were carp and I'd stopped eating them.

I started the May challenge on April 20th with £140. In a fortnight I've spent a fraction over £40, I'm now at £99.78. No spends planned for the weekend.

Thanks to the Coinstar machine and using a Tesco gift card from survey vouchers to partly pay for today's shopping, I now have what I need for the next few days, more money in my purse than I had this morning and my bank balance is untouched.
Win-win.

XSpender

Thanks for all your memories of 70's party teas. I am really looking forward to it as I don't think we have had a proper party tea for DS's birthday until now. I've just remembered I haven't ordered iced party ring biscuits!

NSD today.

I have made one of our old favourites tonight, the sundried tomato and chorizo risotto off the recipe index. The tomatoes were OOD and the parmesan was a bit green on the rind but I am sure we will still be alive in the morning!:eek: I have frozen the other half of the chorizo ring as DH is a so-and-so for nibbling at it in the fridge if I don't hide it!

Must think of uses for the rest of the parmesan now I have remove the rind

Mr T order coming tomorrow and have got it down to under £65 which is low for us and includes everything but the cake for DS party tea.

Florence_J

A few spends means we are now at £110.93/£200 have done good work on eating from the stores and meal planning though so will keep that up.

PennyGrabber

Having done so well at the wkd for my weekly shop, I am ashamed to say that I have done two other shops this week... On Tuesday, both ch really wanted pizza, and I cba to cook, so was fine with that. We have a ffoods literally around the corner, but dd wanted the hut. DS and I managed to vote for ffoods, so some spent then, then dd had a friend round for dinner tonight, and they really fancied chicken nuggets and chips... Another trip to ffoods! I reckon that in those two shops, I spent nearly as much as the full weekly shop on Sunday!! I'll find the receipt from my purse tomorrow.

The ch are away tom night, so I'll have a uiu dinner, then we've been invited to a bbq on sat. I'll take some sausages out of the freezer for that, and dp will get some burgers. Will be lovely to see these friends, as I've not really seen them in ages (bgf - before glandular fever!!).

Night all,

PG x

lynnejk

XSpender wrote: »

........
Must think of uses for the rest of the parmesan now I have remove the rind ..........

You can grate it and pop in a freezer bag in the freezer. It doesn't go into a hard lump and you can just take out as/when you need it. It seems to keep for months. Keep any rind to add to soups etc
Lx