July 2023 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Silly season has already started. My sister is over with nephew and his wife for the next 3 days. My problem is that my freezer is ram packed and I need to prepare food for 2 weeks time when it is school holidays. I like to get as much made up and in freezer before people come to save on pennies and allow me to spend as much time as possible with our holiday guests. I did have a little bit of space but my repacking after cooking dinner tonight is not so good. I need to create some space for mince dishes that I need to make up with the mince in fridge. No room for another freezer and I always ended up in a muddle when I had 2. I only ran the freezer down 2 weeks ago. Thank goodness there are only 2 of us here normally!
It doesnt help that I have bought more frozen veg to compensate for grotty carrots and lack of variety in the supermarkets lately. 
Thanks for listening. I am sure that I will sort it. 

kayannie

mumtoomany said:

Don't like aniseed, I'm afraid. Not got enough sugar to make plum jam. I've made four jars of (HG), blackcurrant jam, might have been more if DGD1 had not been helping! She can eat her own body weight in fruit! The plums have been stewed, and all the stones pulled out. I may have to freeze them until i get more sugar. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

I stocked up on sugar a few weeks ago at S@vers as it's still much cheaper there than in the supermarkets, but I can't remember exactly how much it was. KA

diminua

£79.09 spent so far this month, including flat white and pastry yesterday. Bit ahead of where I want to be. 

mumtoomany

Thank you, @kayannie. I don't think we have a savers near here. I've just checked, and the cheapest sugar is Iceland, if I go on Tuesday and pay with the Iceland savers card, thus getting 15% off. Although I've just found out that DD2  may be coming this week, so Tesco with her staff discount may work out cheaper. I'll probably make about half of the plums into jam today, with the sugar I have in, and freeze the rest. I may then use them for crumbles/pies.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Suffolk_lass

I do that (freeze pre-prepared fruit and crumble mix). In plastic zip-lock bags - pre-prepared "stuff" - basic mince ragu mix in a ziplock, in a plastic box in the freezer until it has frozen, than out come the plastic boxes to gain, maybe 1/3 of the space back. I grate cheese and freeze it in ziplock bags too

Crazycatlady2

DH has requested pasta salads for lunch and we don’t want to buy the meal deal ones so trying to recreate them


how do I stop the pasta clumping together once cold? It says online to cook  pasta as normal then run cold water over it in colender and drain….does this work please? 

Already spent £360 😱 but well stocked up other than bread and fruit/veg for rest of month  

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

I have four shops to declare: two from earlier in the week and two from the weekend.  On Monday, DH popped into L!dl on his way home from work and scored a YS pizza, a YS pie, some mushrooms and nibbles, spending £10.51 in the process.  (What can I say? I wasn’t going to be home for dinner, so he had to fend for himself.)   He also went to Sainsbugs to buy another 600ml tub of crème fraiche, in order to make more homemade strawberry ice-cream, spending £2.09.  (I’ll post the ice-cream recipe separately.)

Yesterday, we went to L!dl to claim our “free” icecream reward for spending more then £100 there this month.  We also stocked up on cashews, buying 4 packets to take advantage of a 10% off offer, and scored another YS quiche.  £8.46 spent.

Today was our regular trip to MrT’s to buy the Sunday paper and to fill up DH’s car with fuel. We also stocked up on 3 travel-sized toothpastes on offer at 3-for-2 or £1.50 each  and 3 travel toothbrushes (also on 3-for-2 or £1.50 each).  £6 well spent.  With a few other things (gnocchi, birthday cards, shampoo, etc), we spent £21.

We are now at £124.50/£135.20, leaving £10.70 for the rest of the month.

That should last us, since we’ll be off on holiday on Wednesday and not back until the 27th.  (We’re going to Florida.)

- Pip

PipneyJane

@elsiepac Please add the following recipe to the index. 

Strawberry & Crème Fraiche Ice-cream

Ingredients

500g crème fraiche 
500g chopped strawberries (trimmed weight)
200g castor sugar
An ice-cream maker

Method

1. In a blender or food-processor, combine the crème fraiche, strawberries and castor sugar. 
2. Add the mixture to the bowl of the ice-cream maker and beat until ice-cream is formed.  
3. Pour into a container and store in the freezer.
4. When you want to eat the ice-cream, soften it in the fridge for 20 minutes-or-so before serving.

Note: This is perfect for home-grown strawberries.  (We currently have loads.) Also, my ice-cream maker only holds half the mixture, so I mix everything up and then make the ice-cream in two batches over a couple of days, storing the remaining mixture in the fridge.

- Pip

KajiKita

Crazycatlady2 said:

DH has requested pasta salads for lunch and we don’t want to buy the meal deal ones so trying to recreate them


how do I stop the pasta clumping together once cold? It says online to cook  pasta as normal then run cold water over it in colender and drain….does this work please? 

Already spent £360 😱 but well stocked up other than bread and fruit/veg for rest of month  

I believe that when you cook it you add a little oil (ideally olive, but other flavourless ones would work just as well) as well as salt to the cooking water - I think that’s meant to lightly coat the pasta and stop the stickiness. 

KK

PipneyJane

otb666 said:

398/600 16 days to go.  Had a few days in hospital as hubby went to see diabetic nurse for the first time and she sent hubby to hospital so had fish and chips and hospital parking etc.  We had to wait 4 weeks for an appointment for blood results with doctors and originally thought there cant be anything wrong or else they would have seen us sooner How wrong were we.

Big hugs @otb666.  I hope your hubby is on the mend and that his blood sugar can be brought under control.

- Pip