March 2008 Grocery Challenge

Mollymop5

Oh my.i've just found you all.Thanks Mrsmacawber for adding me to the list.I've already spent £15 as I popped into asda for something nice for tea tonight as I'm on my own.Bought a curry and bottle of wine and couple of other items.
Then my dad rang and invited me out for a meal.If only he'd rang earlier i could have saved some money.Anyway curry going in freezer and I'm off out for free feed

savingfortravel

Hi everyone!
Wow, this Grocery Challenge club is really growing............
Well we've been to our grocery seller (lovely roadside stall), Aldi and Lidl today.Very pleased with 3 pepper pack for 59p and 1kg of Penne pasta for 89p in Aldis.

Tried Sainsburys but it is being developed and their was no where to park!!!

Spent £32.72 in total of March's budget so far. Very pleased with our progress.

Dream of finding reasonably tasting long life O.J for less than 58p each (Lidl)......

Anyway been sent some interesting recipes by the county council-lovefoodhatewaste.com for using up leftovers:

• Fish Cakes with a Twist (for left over fish and mash potato)*
• Tuna Crumble (for using tinned tuna and leftover vegetables)*
• Winter Pudding (for using leftover bread)
• Topsyturvy Tart (for using over ripe or wrinkly fruit)
• After Christmas Chocolate Cake (for using leftover dried fruit, glace cherries, angelica, nuts and biscuits from festivities)
• Parcels/Tortoises (for using leftover meat from Sunday's roast)

If anyone is interested in these recipes I'll type them out.
Everyone has been so helpful to me.....
(* planning to use these in April-Mrs M you'd be proud)

JayJay14

Well the new month has begun (11 pages!!) so far today I have spent £25.00 exactly, some basics at Asda and the local freezer shop plus a piece of beef and free range eggs at the farm shop £1.98 doz ex large not bad at all.

I have this weeks menu plan worked out - I don't think I could stick to a whole month one - but everyone has their own ways.

IRS wellcome from across the pond, It's bee very much a windy city here last night - chimney pots falling for second time tis week what with the earthquake on Weds. By the way we'll all be happy to explain things as we go along - two nations seperated by one language we are.
For one thing Asda which lots of us mention is WalMart owned. A cup is about 4oz in the recipies but an English pint has 20oz against a US 16oz one.

I was last in Chicago in 1976 on a road trip from Boston in a Winabego - Ahh memories:rotfl: :rotfl:

Bobbykins

Hi savingfor travel....could I please have the winter pudding recipe? (We very rarely have left over bread since I've been making my own but it just so happens that I'm going to have a bit left tomorrow or Monday.)

Thanks in advance

Bobby

Becky_2

Yesterday I did my first food shopping in the March food challenge and I spent £25.42 in Sainsburys ,but that should last at least 2 weeks or so. I bought several buy 1 get 1 free items, so now I have got 6 packs of juice since they were on offer.

Today I have cooked sausages, onions with stir fry vegetables and that should last for the next few days or so. Next weekend I am planning to cook gammon and lentil soup.

Have a nice weekend.

Becky

savingfortravel

Hi Bobbykins
Winter Pudding recipe
Ingredients
10-12 slices of stale bread (dependending on size of dish)
900g mixed berries (i.e., blackberries, raspberries, blueberries)
4 tsp sugar
A little powdered cinnamon
3 whole cloves
Cream or creme fresh to serve

Method
1 Gently heat sugar and the fruit in a saucepan to release the juice from the berries. You will need about 1/2 pint of juice so add water to make up if necessary. If you like add a little red wine. Add the cinnamon and cloves.
2. Strain and reserve juice and fruit.
3. You need a large shallow rectangular dish (about 30 cm x 25 cm)
4. Dip one slice of bread in the fruit juice and lay face down in the dish, repeat covering base completely. Cut bread if necessary so there are no gaps.
5. Cover the bread with berries making an even layer.
6. Repeat step 4, covering the fruit with the bread slices, this time with juice side uppermost.
7. Pour the remaining juice evenly over the bread, cover with cling film and place a heavy weight on top. Refrigerate over night.
8. To serve remove the weight and cling film, cut into squares or slices, sprinkle icing sugar over the top and a mint leaf can be added. Serve with cream or creme fresh.
Summer option: simply leave out the cinnamon and cloves.

jj171

earthmother wrote: »

We started going bagless about 18 months back, and now rarely have any plastic ones in the house (been like that since about October) :j
Edit - Oh, and a tip for bagless deliveries - have a couple of boxes/crates by the door, just pack the shopping into them and unpack at your leisure once the driver has gone

Do you buy bin bags then? I always use mine for rubbish. I don't want to have to buy them.
Cheers
JJ

JayneC

Can't believe it's 11 pages into this thread already!!
i've already posted some spends on the Feb thread as my month starts on 25th. Since then I've spent £5.07 at Mr T on Wed, managed to get 4x boxes of free range eggs for 30p each in reduced so I was well pleased! And spent another £5 today on milk at fruit at grocers. I need to check my cupboards before I do a menu plan and shopping list, but i think I've quite a bit in from last week's shop.
Total so far is £107.76

earthmother

jj171 wrote: »

Do you buy bin bags then? I always use mine for rubbish. I don't want to have to buy them.
Cheers
JJ

We utilise other packaging for rubbish - food bags from the deli and grocers, cereal inner bags etc.

I do buy some rubbish bags, yes - I get a roll of biodegradeable ones and it lasts me for about 3 months, maybe more. But I bought them anyway as carriers were too small for the kitchen bin, so it's not an extra expense.

I doubt I spend more than the equivalent of 50p a month on rubbish bags (would be less if I didn't get biodegradeable, but what's the point in going bagless only to buy stuff that is as bad?) - and if a bag tax comes in, or everyone takes up M&S/Lidl etcs practice of charging for bags, carriers would cost more than that each month anyway.

jj171

purplevamp wrote: »

I
Changing the subject, I did a shop in Asda on Thursday and we normally go to Sainsburys. I thought the prices would be cheaper but they are exactly the same . Will be going back to Mr S next week.

This is interesting. My OH is always telling me how cheap Morrisons is. I hate Morrisons - but felt guilty! This week I did a test shop at Mr M. I used mysupermarket.com to price up my staples at Mr S (Morrisons aren't represented on this site for some reason), then went to Mr M armed with this list.

A lot of things were exactly the same price. Where things were cheaper, it was by pennies or because it was on special offer. A lot of goods that I buy were actually more expensive at Mr M. I was surprised - but glad. Morrisons always seems such a muddle to me. Back to Mr S for me. I just have to stick to the list:rolleyes: