April 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Save_Dosh wrote: »

I would assume it would be ok, I freeze tofu all the time. If you want to drastically cut costs, without flavour, you could make chickpea flour quiche (Google), not sure how SW that is though.


Can I be put down for £80 please. Went out of the house for the first time yesterday in 8 days - it was a painful experience - walking sticks, which i can't balance on or hold my weight, and then a wheelchair. Had an mri - I have a 'very' slipped disc. Not sure if there are degrees of 'slipped', but that's what the prognosis was. My daughter has cooked me up some meals and bought me a load of stuff, she won't take any money for it, so no actual spends and she is gong to do a big cook up, so I have lots of 'proper' food. To be honest I have been living on 'pot noodle' type things - but really needed some home cooked stuffed. Anyway, hoping this month will be a low spend. Have a good w/e everyone.

Ouch! Save Dosh, I hope that as well as giving you a diagnosis they set out a plan to fix your slipped disc and that you won’t have to wait for months for it to be resolved.

I have a £3 spend to declare in W8rose, which was on a bottle of their own-brand “Cashmere” wool wash. That brings my spend to £12.99/£120 so far for April, leaving £107.01 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

BrassicWoman

£3.98 on car snacks for tomorrow; long journey.


I am trying to think of budget and healthy desk snacks; my new office seems to be full of cake.

[Deleted User]

PipneyJane wrote: »

Ouch! Save Dosh, I hope that as well as giving you a diagnosis they set out a plan to fix your slipped disc and that you won’t have to wait for months for it to be resolved.

They've been amazing really. Went for the scan yesterday evening, they emailed the results through to my Dr immediately, my Dr's secretary phoned me today to say they couldn't find an acceptable date on NHS hospitals, so they are sending me to a private hospital to see a spine specialist and discuss treatment on 15th of this month. i'm wondering if it's worse than they are letting on, but I will remain positive.

pamsdish

Popped to Lidl to spend my £10 off £40 spend, testing a whisky and brandy as have another voucher, got cheeses and butter mostly bit of veg and some bacon, all good dates as will use throughout April. £30.52 spent.

Puddleglum

£14.87 spent in morries today. I wasn't going to spend anything but they had the P@kka teas on special offer and tins of coconut milk on offer at 50p each. It seemed rude to refuse as I use quite a lot of coconut milk.

I bought a chicken which is in the slow cooker and will feed me for the week. The bones and some of the veg can go to make stock tomorrow morning.

I almost bought some ground coffee as I'm out of it BUT as I'm watching the pennies, it's going to be herbal tea and water until I manage to make a bit more.

dollypeeps

Oh dear week 1 and failed ........not to worry though I can see where I busted this weeks budget and hopefully where I'm going wrong. It really is a learning process ..... Sticking to my list and better meal planning seems key ....also forgot a few items too so that put me over budget

Lidl £46.70 (£51.70 without voucher)
Aldi £14.55
Mr T £ 6.27

£67.55/ £60 per week so £7.55 over although could've taken it from 'local/top up shop' money

Vanlady

Morning all.
4/15 NSD
£77.95/£300

Had a visit to Azda last week as I'm ordering new varifocals from there. Had a nice browse around with a small trolley but ended up swapping it for a large one as ktc tins of tomatoes and chickpeas were on offer, they're usually 3 for a £1 and the offer was 4 for £1......so well and truly stocked up on those! In fact if there is an apocalypse, the van clan will survive for months with these:p.

Back in January I bought a big sack 10 kg I think, of chapatti flour from Mr m as it was on offer at £3 .....couldnt quite believe it! But we make a lot of chapattis and use them instead of flatbreads, pitta etc, great for mopping up hummos with. Does anyone know of any other uses for chapatti flour???? I don't think I can make bread with it due to the lower gluten level??

BrassicWoman

£12.07 in Aldi on mainly fruit and veg.



Got loads for my money - apples, pears, grapes, nactarines, mushrooms, avocados and baking potatoes, as well as some cripsbreads, lentil curls and vegan jerky.



The apples and pears are from their "wonky" range which seems to mean "tiny." I am sure they will be fine once they are fruit salad!


So it's burger and spuds, and mushroom risotto to start the week off.

PipneyJane

Vanlady wrote: »

Morning all.
4/15 NSD
£77.95/£300

Had a visit to Azda last week as I'm ordering new varifocals from there. Had a nice browse around with a small trolley but ended up swapping it for a large one as ktc tins of tomatoes and chickpeas were on offer, they're usually 3 for a £1 and the offer was 4 for £1......so well and truly stocked up on those! In fact if there is an apocalypse, the van clan will survive for months with these:p.

Back in January I bought a big sack 10 kg I think, of chapatti flour from Mr m as it was on offer at £3 .....couldnt quite believe it! But we make a lot of chapattis and use them instead of flatbreads, pitta etc, great for mopping up hummos with. Does anyone know of any other uses for chapatti flour???? I don't think I can make bread with it due to the lower gluten level??

Yes you can. I use chapatti flour for everything, including bread making. It IS bread flour, after all, if you think it through. Most of the time, it makes really good, light-wholemeal bread. Once in the blue moon, when the sack of flour isn’t as strong as it could be, I’ll use an additive from Lakeland to bump up the gluten a bit. (Sorry, can’t remember what it’s called; I think it’s by Doves.) I just buy the cheapest.

To make it into “self-raising” flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour. It makes very nice cakes.

I have three shops to declare for today: £6.80 at the farm shop; £26.29 at Lidl and £24.76 at MrT’s. That brings our total spend to £70.84/£120, leaving £49.16 for the rest of the month.

The Lidl spend included chocolate to be made into coconut rough for Easter (we have that instead of Easter eggs). Here is the recipe:

Coconut Rough

375g chocolate, either drops or bars broken up (I use 50:50 70% dark chocolate : milk chocolate)
60g copha (pure distilled edible coconut oil, sold white and hard in a jar or bar)
3 cups of desiccated coconut

Method

1). Break the chocolate up into small chunks if necessary.
2). Line a couple of baking trays with non-stick/silicon paper.
3). In a bowl suspended over a saucepan of boiling water, melt the chocolate and the copha and stir well to combine.
4). Stir in the desiccated coconut until well incorporated. Switch off the heat.
5). Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto the lined baking trays. Refrigerate until hard. It makes 30+ generous dollops

- Pip

elsiepac

Thanks for the tofu tips guys, I can't imagine it'll last long enough to freeze but good to know! The chickpea flour isn't SW friendly sadly Save Dosh but thanks for the tip! Updated your budget too
Pipney Jane recipe is added to the hoard and sounds lovely!