March 2008 Grocery Challenge

purplevamp

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Purplevamp... do you have a Home Bargains near you? only hubby can only use head n shoulders and out here it costs about €8 for a big bottle :eek: .. when i was back at home over xmas they had the 200ml bottle for 99p :T so i got 14 :rotfl:

No Home Bargain near me, but we do have the wonderful Poundland :j . I think I'll just get a cheaper anti-dandruff shampoo to see how it is. I don't have dandruff but won't stop using H&S incase I get it back (used to when I was a teenager).

While I'm on here I'll update you all...

Spent £17.50 in Woolies on Easter Eggs and 2 packs of seeds to grow carrots and baby toms, but I used my vouchers left over from Christmas so I'm not going to include this in the budget . Dinner was a [STRIKE]complete [/STRIKE]slight disaster. I decided to use up the kebabs my Mum gave me last month and have rice with them. After hacking the iceberg off them I put them in the oven, bit later I put the rice and corn-on-cobs on and set timer. Came upstairs onto poota and next thing I heard was the smoke alarm going off. Oldest son turned off the burnt rice for me :rolleyes: . So we did cous cous but I didn't have enough water so added a bit more halfway through, then had to drain it as then there was too much.

Turned out ok in the end.

Ooh almost forgot - spent £10.57 in Mr S today, which should tide us over for the week.

mhe

Her you go JAckie-w - not very MSE im afraid but very nomnom and people always think ouve bought them in M&S (you could show one to your colleague!!)

CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES

170g butter
170g 70% cocoa chocolate
3 eggs
160g granulated sugar
40g cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt


1. Melt chocolate and butter
2. In a large bowl fold together the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla.
3. Add cornflour to egg mix and stir well.
4. Slowly pour chocolate mix into egg mix and stir thoroughly.
5. Cover the batter and leave in fridge for 2 hours or better still over night.

6. Pre heat oven to 175 c gas 4
7. Scoop mixture into 6 muffin tin size cups
8. Cant be too exact on this bit as it depends on the size of tin used - bake for around 10 - 20 mins. The centre should be soft to the touch.

When you cut into them the centre should be all gooey and melt out a bit.

I have another recipe for this somewhere - will find it tomorrow and post that one for you as well.

TheBees

Hello everyone
It's taken nearly an hour to catch up on just 2 days of posts.
We also have 2 weeks left of the challenge and £31 to last!!:eek: Starting to panic and wonder if we will make it this month.

Plenty of meals in the freezer but running low on milk and fruit. DS and DD must be having growth spurts because they are eating like mad. I found some hobnobs in the freezer and also made a batch of plain fairy cakes for when they have a snack attack!

Tonight everyone in the family had a different meal to use up leftovers (macaroni cheese, stir in pasta and pesto and pasta). Tom night DH is at college so me and the children will just have beans on toast with an egg on top! We did have a lovely toad in the hole on Sunday which DH made using sausages that cost me 47p!:j

Welcome to all the new people on this thread. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Time for bed now!
TheBees

galacticgreen

Just updated my signature. Bought milk, cheese and easter eggs today. Not sure that we will do it this month, but we'll keep trying... Good to catch up with all the posts - there were loads!

candygirl

I've just made carrot n lentil soup n it tastes a bit floury, prob too many lentils:rolleyes: :rolleyes: Oh and my stick blender's blown up so i'll have to get a new one from Tescos tomorrow:mad: :mad:
Apart from that everything's ok:j :j :j and i'm well on target this month

KITTY_2-2

:wave: evening all. Just a quick update before bed.

Had 3 NSD's over weekend but made up for it today. Hospital day for wheelchair assessment, which is always tedious, so decided to do some baking this evening to cheer us up. Had to go to Asda for more bits of flour, chocolate, cream etc and spent £24.27 How do I manage it??

Anyway updated signature and wondering if we can make it to the end of the month with what's left. I have planned out our meals and we have enough in to cover the next 14 days. However I have to do some extras for the Easter weekend as we're having visitors and the weekend after is DS2's 14th birthday and party. Might be bread and jam fingers with SP jelly and cream for his guests :rolleyes2 Think I'll get away with it?

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all

Woke up this morning to snow on the ground -which not only looks lovely...but guarantees another NSD making 11 NSDs in a row .
Doing the tortillas with meatballs for dinner tonight and some HM coleslaw nomnomnom ..... hubby has requested that rather than freezing half for another day.."can we have the same tomorrow?" :rotfl: he claims he is only trying to help me be frugal... nothing to do with them being one of his favourites...honest :rolleyes:
Then ion Thursday will get off and do my fruit n veg top up...which will carry us over to the end of the month... not spending more than €24.33 i have left out of my €50 this month.... i refuse to fetch anything out of the bank ....
Next month is going to be a bit bigger budget as i will get a tray of milk, huge pack of loo rolls etc -which will cover us for May too.... just have to check my meal plan through , as since i have sorted out the baking/dried cupboards i have more stuff i would like to try and use up.... so i may make some changes to my meals....
Come on everyone...keep at it -not long to the end of the month now...then we get to start with a nice fresh budget

the_cat

Quick update.....

Have done my last 'main' shop of the month and have hopefully got enough for main meals at least until payday (26th) so that's good.

On the other hand, I have only £4.70 left for any bread, milk, fruit and veg:eek:

So will probably be a bit over. Not too disappointed at this as I usually allow about £25 extra per month than I have this time, so it won't be a complete failure. Maybe I have hit the lowest amount I am comfortable with, especially with all the price increases we have had recently

Will search the cupboards and try to use stuff up though in an attempt to come in on budget!

MRSMCAWBER

Just me again...

next time i mention NOT getting money out of the bank..please for a queue and kick me

... I was just about to get my brekkie when hubby came hurtling home from work... and i have just had to go to the bank and take some money out ... meggy moo.... our car has been struggling a bit, just a bit juddery and then this morning her engine management light has come on and she is juddering like heck:rolleyes: .. so he whips it off to the garage.. and its one of the special leads they think.... €60 a lead...so it could be €60 €120 €180 plus VAT :eek: so i have just had to withdraw €300 -extra -just in case its something else... Mind we can get a form off camp which means we don't pay VAT :j poor old girl is sounding like chitty chitty bangbang... mind -when i say "old" she is only 5 1/2 years:eek: ... The plus point is, that a few months ago -we wouldn't have been able to just put our hands on money like that so im a today... im feeling really pleased now as that €300 is what i put away from this month house keeping/shopping money... money that at one time we would have just eaten...

Hubby is going to give me back anything that is left and im going to keep that bit out as next months house keeping, plus what i have leftover in my purse..and when I get Aprils house keeping its all going back in to refill my account... I had just over €1000 in there -not bad to say i didn't open the account until JAN ... and i want it back up to that level ASAP

So i just wanted to thank you all for keeping me focussed and encouraging me along the way..... and meggy moo thanks you too

Savvy_sewing

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Just me again...

next time i mention NOT getting money out of the bank..please for a queue and kick me

... I was just about to get my brekkie when hubby came hurtling home from work... and i have just had to go to the bank and take some money out ... meggy moo.... our car has been struggling a bit, just a bit juddery and then this morning her engine management light has come on and she is juddering like heck:rolleyes: .. so he whips it off to the garage.. and its one of the special leads they think.... €60 a lead...so it could be €60 €120 €180 plus VAT :eek: so i have just had to withdraw €300 -extra -just in case its something else... Mind we can get a form off camp which means we don't pay VAT :j poor old girl is sounding like chitty chitty bangbang... mind -when i say "old" she is only 5 1/2 years:eek: ... The plus point is, that a few months ago -we wouldn't have been able to just put our hands on money like that so im a today... im feeling really pleased now as that €300 is what i put away from this month house keeping/shopping money... money that at one time we would have just eaten...

Hubby is going to give me back anything that is left and im going to keep that bit out as next months house keeping, plus what i have leftover in my purse..and when I get Aprils house keeping its all going back in to refill my account... I had just over €1000 in there -not bad to say i didn't open the account until JAN ... and i want it back up to that level ASAP

So i just wanted to thank you all for keeping me focussed and encouraging me along the way..... and meggy moo thanks you too

Think I may have to change my name, Meggy moo is a bit too close for comfort, ???????
I realised this morning that I had added a shop on to my total twice, so infact I am within budget. Hurray. Mind you I want to try not to get much more than fruit veg and milk for the rest of the month. Bills for this new house I moved into are coming in thick and fast now!!