March 2008 Grocery Challenge

mrssnowy_2

Just given myself a fright-put in milk as £89 not 89p,serious overspend until spotted!!Am using spending diary despite thinking I would make do with paper etc,doesn't task my brain so much!
£46 left till 31st,DD,SIL and DGD coming for w/e,so will be over I reckon.
Just had 2 NSD,but really shouldn't have bought 2 bottles of bubbly earlier in month!(consumed when DS and fiancee came to stay-recently engaged,and she is lovely)
Night all,Jane

JayneC

Morning everyone,

Had to buy T bags yesterday as we're runnung short. I've found that savers do 300 typhoo t bags for 2.50 which is even cheaper than poundland which is £1 for 100! Also bought toothpaste which was on offer 2 x tubes of signal for £1.29 and bisto gravy granules 99p, so spent £4.77 will update sig. I'm over budget but trying to limit the damage :rolleyes: .
I forgot to tak my library books back yesterday so will have a fine:mad: . I put them right near the door so I'd remember to take them but forgot! And then I realised and I planned to ring up to renew instead but forgot to do that too! I think I'm going slightly mad!

Scotsaver re the leftover roast meat - you could slice it up and use for sandwiches for lunches. I sometimes do this as bought cooked meat is full of additives and rubbish. Or you could make a 'pot roast'. Just cut meat into cubes and add veggies and stock and cook on cooker top for around half hour, thicken with gravy granules - it's just like hot pot really. I serve it with bread and butter but you could make dumplings too. Or you can use beef or pork in curries, I prefer a tomatoey based one rather than a creamy one. You can just make it with tinned toms and curry powder - add some veg and/or a chopped apple and sultanas.

MeanmarieI can totally relate to the milk. I often get through 6-8 pints a day. DD2's boyf eats copious amounts of cereal (6 weetabix at atime:eek: ) and he gets through half of it on his own! I'm trying to wean him onto toast instead - he does like hot x buns but i've not bought any for the last week or so - keep saying i'll make them but not actually done it yet!

Have a good day everyone - long weekend yay:j

Angelraesunshine

Oh well i have blown the budget
Mr T arrived last night ( i had a £10 off voucher and did not want to waste it and had to be used, now) Spent £67.72 have got lots of milk and frozen it stocked up on a few offers ready for the easter hols as they start today at 2:15pm for nearly 3 weeks for me.

Still have to buy more as will need fresh fruit and veg and i think they will need orange squash before the months out, but that should be everything.

BigMummaF

The BM remains packed; after the shopping trip [completed in 1hr43mins!]I just had time to put away the cold/frozen before nipping back to me muvva's with a bag of stuff that had got mixed up with mine & then over to one of my luvverly offspring whose firm generously 'allowed' the use of tyre pressure & motor oil before today's journey:money:

Then it was home again to sort out some more of mum's shopping that had gotten put away with ours & a plea for some marg cuz she wanted to make a cake & had forgotten to buy some! And then I made 2x2 portions sheep pie for yesterdays' meals [damned shift work] & a 3-portion one to leave for the hoarde whilst I'm away, plus 2xbeef &2xturkey meals for Pup so he won't have to scavenge the neighbours bins either:pThe fridge is chocka or I would have done some stuff for the iggie too, but one thing I am sure of is that the offspring know how to use a phone...pity the same can't be said for their brains in the kitchen:rotfl:

I would not have believed just how much I save by scratching if I'd not had to buy things for the offspring to bung [scratch=cooking from; bung=prepared & ready to 'bung' in the oven] £32:25 today for nothing particularly impressive:eek: other than another pair of £4 trainers for me.....oooh I can't wait to get back home & start saving again:mad:

Hope your Bank Holiday Weekend is full of [free]Good Cheer...

JoJoB

Well my month ends on the 24th so not too long to last out now! Have to go to hospital today and tesco is on the way home so will jump off the bus and get a shop in (my fridge is bare again!). Should manage to be around budget or not too much over this month - definitely improving!

Kaz2904

I've been reading this since 6:50! Well it's payday today but it shouldn't be until Saturday so the budget has to stay tainted until then!
I have to say I'm not overly impressed with the hot cruss buns. I prefer sultana loaf. One of the situations where the shop bought ones are nicer I'm afraid!
I've got masses to do today but I think I'll be vegging out for a bit too!
I'm hoping DH will take DD to school today but don't hold up much hope as he's still in bed.
Nearly out of milk, whoever said about making it up to keep in the fridge, thank you. It makes powdered milk almost bearable! I reckon 1 or 2 pts will see us through.
Off for a picnic on Saturday so I'll go shopping tomorrow late vevening and may get some bargains!
I've gone from thinking I have nothing for tea to realising there's mushrooms in the fridge. I have pork in the freezer, cream, onions and rice will make a stroganoff type thing which I can use 1/2 of tonight and freeze the other 1/2 to have with a pie topping.
I'll have a little look through the freezer today and try to formulate a plan for the month coming.

Sorry about the kitty, Kitty. I love cats but DH he say NOOOOO!

getting-sorted-sarah

Weezl74 - Bread report: Got home early from work yesterday and had a go at your recipe. Ummm, not so good. I'm fairly competent in the kitchen but this was one of my disasters... firstly Tesco didn't have plain wholemeal - the only plain wholemeal was by a niche brand and 4 times what I wanted to pay. I settled for Strong Stoneground. I scaled down to make one loaf as an experiment, but put more yeast than you said - I had dried so about 3g I think - this really doesn't seem like enough....I wonder if you meant 5g per loaf?

Anyway - it didn't rise, at all!

So I then investigated the Grant loaf link you gave and made the loaf on that page, with some fat and more yeast. This went better, it didn't rise as much as I would like and the result is rather dense and "health food shop"-ish, but the crust is lovely and it is very tasty.

I'm not beaten. Will keep experimenting!!!

Have a good day everyone!

kunekune

This week has been good for emptying the corners of the freezer: I had such a shock the week I went to Mr S and spent nearly £200, just like the old days, that I've been trying to make up for it. And now, with the payslip already here, it seems to have worked. Thanks: without the challenge I would probably not have bothered trying.

Last night's meal used up two chicken legs that had been lurking. I cut the meat off, and then turned them into a chicken and bacon pie with a scone topping. The recipe is very rich (the topping consists of 2 cups of flour, 120 g butter and 3/4 cup cream!) so it was a bit of a treat. Son initially turned his nose up at it and went off to watch noggin the nog instead, but later, when it was cold, he came back and scoffed the lot. Well, except for greens the rest of us had. He doesn't do green.

Another night I used up some moroccan chicken kebabs that had obviously been frozen since last July! Had them with couscous and roasted veges, felt very virtuous.

I've just done my meal plan for the last spending week, and it looks as though I will come in below budget (although I'm not that accurate, so it could be £20 or so out). I know that I have a big budget by OS standards, but DH is just amazed that we're suddenly saving masses of money when 6 months ago we were only just solvent each month. I doubt I'll ever convert him to proper budgeting but he is more than happy to reap the benefits of my rough and ready version (he won't record things, so I have to do it like this).

Have a nice day, will try to do lots of work myself (it's extra, not my usual work, so it is good for the savings target).

KITTY_2-2

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. We will miss Nemo but these things happen for a reason. His brother and sisters are thriving though and Mummy cat (Coco) is doing very well with her first litter.:j

Had a quick check of the supplies this morning. We have more than enough for meals but will need a few incidentals. I may go over my budget this month but won't be as bad as usual. Keeping a check on the grocery spends has shown me that I spend a lot of money on nothing I no longer nip through the drive through if I fancy a drink or pop for a takeaway on busy days. I've counted these as grocery budget spends, but in the past they would have just got forgotten and then I'd wonder where the money went :think: I will be over with the animals as had a few bits to buy for the kittens that I had forgotten about, and the rabbit is ready for straw and hay. I have cut her food spend down as I've started giving her veg and fruit from the kitchen. I used to just throw carrot scrapings away, or bin the end of the lettuce, but she loves them - very frugal

Any hoo got lots to do so must be off.

:easter:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

even though i am not in the grocery challenge officially... i have been trying to stick to £120 per week ( hubby gets paid weekly) this is to cover everything.. as i have said before.. food, electric, coal, petrol, pet food, laundry etc...the last 3 weeks i have just managed to achieve this by pennies.... but with full freezers and cupboards...

so thursday the start of a new £120. week.. which is going to be the test... hubby is playing in his band in our local tomorrow night, so a night out has got to come out of that money initially, but he will get paid, so will cover most of the night out, plus the kids are off for 2 weeks...

so this is going to be a very testing week.... so i think a mega cooking spree is going to be happening on sunday.....

so in april i will join the challenge officially....