January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Savvy_sewing

I am off for tonight. Bottle of wine well and truely sank!. Regrets tomorrow no doubt. But I will remember to send any of the basic recipes to those of you who hav pm'd me. night all. xx

Justamum

rosieben wrote: »

I do rice pudding in my sc too, it comes out beautifully creamy. I cant make rice pudding in the oven to save my life, never been able to

I'm rubbish at rice pudding in the oven too - it's like lumps of rice in milk. I made some on the hob last but it wasn't creamy at all. If anybody remembers Beryl's rice pudding in The Liver Birds that is what mine was like! I don't know if it's because I use soya milk. I'm trying the storecupboard challenge this month and have the best part of a bag of pudding rice to use up so it will be sliced rice pudding a few more times before it's used up! :rotfl:

Justamum

singlemum wrote: »

Quick update!! Popped into Co-op for bananas and 2 x reduced wholemeal loaves (which DD says shes " not eatin that rubbish" since I've converted them to homemade by telling them what goes into processed bread!!)

My son said he preferred bought bread, but I persisted in making his sandwiches etc with the homemade (I only buy bread in a dire emergency). The other day we had veggie hotdogs for dinner so I bought some hot dog rolls. Afterwards he told me they weren't as nice as homemade bread, and he doesn't want to eat bought bread any more! I tried one of the rolls, and one bite was more than enough for me. Yuck!!

Justamum

windowshopper100 wrote: »

Scotrae - :rotfl: Oh Blimey, everyone's at it now .

I don't think any of us has offended anyone... it's as rosieben says, it's the person who's down to their last 50k or similar and has to trade down from organic to free range probably. ....... and I'm not singling out HF-W (just in case he's reading this - I've got most of your books!!), there are plenty of people on the cause of the farm animal. I think chickens are the thing for 2008.

Anyway, thanks for all the replies.

WS100

Yes, some people's idea of "hard up" would make most of us think they were really rich. I remember a few years ago reading about someone stinking rich (it might have been the Aga Khan, but don't quote me on that!) who was really struggling, so had to downgrade the solid gold fittings on his yacht to solid silver. :eek: Oh dear, doesn't your heard bleed for the poor dear? We could probably live quite comfortably on the change in his pocket.

lil_me

What a load of chatterboxes :rotfl: I can't even catch up I don't think because it'll take me too long to read it all.

Spent just over £5 at the local coop since my last post. Still hopeful for coming under budget, got quite a lot in still. Hope everyones doing well. Yes my budget would include alcohol but I don't tend to drink (pleased as I am horrified at what some spend on it a month) so doesn't tend to effect my budget much.

Justamum

I've just finished catching up on this thread.

My month starts today, and I'm budgetting for £300 for the 5 of us, hoping to maybe reduce that as I go along. I'm doing as someone else mentioned, and dividing the budget between each week and instead of rolling over any unused money will put that into a tin for savings. Hopefully this month won't be too expensive because we are moving in two weeks (just a six month lease so will be on the move again in the summer if we can find somewhere to live - no doubt that will also be short-term :mad:) so I want to use up what I've got in.

fifi35

Oh dear so far in 2008 I have spent &50 on Groceries and £34 on wine.
I did get some good offers on Groceries though that should last to the end of the month.

full-time-mum

I've no idea how much I spend on groceries so, for a start, I am just going to keep my reciepts and see where I'm at - I have a feeling that I might be in for a huge shock.
I do try and be sensible about what I spend but I'm sure that I can do a hell of a lot better.

Does groceries include things like household cleaners/washing powder etc or just food?
Also, on this challenge, what happens if you stock up on something that is on offer? For example, I recently brought 12 bottles of squash as it was on 3 for 2 or bogof where I would normally only buy 2 or 3. Does one take divide the cost over the next 3 months or does it come out of that months budget (presumably leaving a bit surpless next month?

cheerfulness4

Quite pleased with myself so far this month. I've had another 'essentials' spend at Tescos but not doing to bad. They still have some reduced xmas stock so just had to grab my last bargains.

Spent £6.22 on:

Soap powder £2.86 (but 100 clubcard pts )
2 x lindt reindeers @ 57p each
sugar 79p
huge bag sausage rolls 75p
2x bag carrots @ 10p each
4x chikoos 10p the pack
tv mag 38p


Okay so the reindeers were a luxury, but well worth the splurge when I saw the kids faces when I did the 'close your eyes, open you hands' routine my mum used to put me through. They went racing off jingling the bells on their collars. Wouldn't think they were 18 and 14.

The sausage rolls will definitely be handy, the carrots blanched and straight in freezer and the chikoos were simply because I was intrigued and wanted some cheap fruit. When it said tastes like caramel I leapt on them. Just had one actually. Very nice.;)

Need to get my food inventories up to date as I've added so many batch cooks to the freezers. Have just discovered 8 tins of tuna in the pantry, too.:eek: Lovely little suprises like that rarely happen to me.

windowshopper100

catherineblack wrote: »

I've been buying free-range chickens for a few months now and find they do taste better. There is much less fat in the stock/pan and though they are leaner I think they have more good quality tasting meat. I still find I can make a total of 4 meals from one free-range. And the stock is lovely in soups.
The cost is more, but not that much more. But as people have pointed out - it's hard to go free-range on a budget. I certainly cannot afford organic.
BTW, as pointed out on Hugh's Chicken Run tonight, the packaging can be misleading. Organic or corn fed doesn't always mean free-range. I've nearly picked up the wrong type many times!
I'm not a complete convert though - I still sometimes buy a pack of 'normal' chicken breasts if reduced. All the other meat I eat is not free-range. I find myself eating less and less meat these days. My friend is going to loan me the book Skinny B***h - apparently that will put me off meat....not sure what it's all about....

Hope you enjoy trying free-range!

I agree. The greatest complement you can give any animal, regardless of husbandry method, is to use ALL of it. One lady on Hugh's prog yesterday, when he was making the risotto with leftovers, said that she usually took the breasts off the bird and that was it :eek: !!! After all, if it wasn't for the animals, we'd all be living off bugs and leaves, cheap but not something I'd look forward to of an evening. Does anyone have any beak and feet recipes - only kidding .... although the Chinese do a good line in feet dinners I believe.

To be honest, when it comes down to it (my view only I stress), all animal farming is a means to an end, once it's dead, it's dead and the life it lead prior to that is now largely academic. I'm going to try free-range, or at least a higher grade of rearing from standard because I'm interested in the past comments about less fat, denser meat.... but I can't be held responsible if there's an offer on. I call it compromise rather than cop out .

Thanks for listening all.

On a lighter note - I include drinkie in the GC budget, only because I want to drink less...

WS100