March 2008 Grocery Challenge

alli_baba2

I may not have posted on the thread and am glad to declare my March total as £205.39 saving just under £95 - wooo hooo!!!!! Thanks everyone for the tips (I may not have posted but I have read diligently) and this month I have succeeded in making my own bread and cakes - yay.

So can you please put me down for £250 for April (just in case it was a fluke).

Thanks everyone for inspiring me.

galacticgreen

Hi, going to declare for March at £199.72. Won;t need to spend any more before the end of March. Just made it again, but really pleased. Had to be a bit imaginative towards the end of the month. Menu planning wasn't very thorough this month, so will have to try harder with that for April. I think that might help me stock up on stuff. Well done everyone. Will head off to the April thread now, but will pop back at the end of the month to see how everyone has got on:j :j :j

WendysWorld

BigMummaF wrote: »

Good on yer Mandy---I can totally relate to your situation having done the same thing myself....just wish I had MSE around when they were younger:o

No advice on the herbs/ spices for making a 'southern fried' coating then ...I'll have a play, but I get me cayenne confused with me paprika so it could take a while:p

Went to Somerfield yesterday cuz of a flyer that came thru the door, & what a surprise THAT was!!!! Bear in mind that this particular branch is in a more 'affluent' area but even so

---

£2-99 for Marmite that has been £2-12:eek: 65p for soft Stork marg that was 50p in MrT last week:eek: :eek: But I did get Fairy Concentrate laundry liquid for £3-39 in their £1 off special offer. They're the only place I can get those huge yorkshire puds & at 30p ea I don't really mind, cuz I can't make 'em that big.

Did get an XL chicken for a fiver that'll do us for 3 good meals,240 Tetley t-bags @£1-99 & we had the BOGOF Birds Eye burgers for dinner last night with the yorkies, HM wedges & mxd veg...mm-mm-mmmmm.......v.nomnom:D

This branch also has a Tchibo section but I was very VERY good & resisted a luvverlee radio that would fit up under my wall mounted cupboards. It was under eight quid & I tried to argue that by getting it I would be freeing up some counter space. Then I heard you lot telling me to come look on t'net cuz it's probably cheaper on pigs-co:rotfl:

So the first shop of the new budget is £25-35. Good Luck for the new month folks!

Hi BigMumma, probably by the time you read this it will have been answered but I do have a recipe of sort for a southern fried chicken style coating which has been adapted from the Cook yourself Thin program:

For coating (coats around 2 breasts cut into thin strips)

80g Polenta (fine or coarse - I used coarse which worked fine)
30g finely grated parmesan
2 good pinches of cayenne pepper
good pinch cracked black pepper
good pinch salt (sorry can't be more specific!)
1 beaten egg

Combine the polenta, parmesan and spices. Dip the chicken strips in the beaten egg and then into the polenta mix and set them aside on a plate. You can then either deep-fry or shallow fry them. Obviously nicer deep fried but kinder to your waistline if you shallow fry!

Hope this helps!

BM

mrssnowy_2

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

:wave: Hello lovelies,

I.

We came in at £288.01 this month, but that included about £40 worth of easter eggs so if I take those out of the equation and put them into my newly created "Special Occasions Budget" then I'm under. By £1.99.



Love and hugs all round,

Love Jacks xxx

Jacks ,love you to bits:A I was over budget because of the bubbly stuff and you have just legitamised it for me!!Thank you,thankyou,thankyou.
Am now fed up with March so declaring at £199.85 MrsMc,which is just under my £200 GC,and have started April GC(though officially 31st,but don't tell anyone)LOL,as I bought loads of stuff from the market, enough to last about 10 days anyway.
Well done all
J
April GC £200 again please MrsMc

icandream

Hi all

Thanks to the inspiration, we just managed to come in under budget, though we did decide not to include the odd takeaway and use a separate budget for that. I've really enjoyed this thread, and it's made me think a lot more carefully about what I buy and how I use it. The recipes have been a terrific help.
So our total for March is £264.12.

boredofbeingathome

Hello, well i came in under last month and over this month-£240 gulp. I have included a lot of baking cakes in this and a week without a cooker as we had to have flooring taken up and relaid, so as i was also ill- OH and family survived on takeouts. Cant believe how much difference this has made after all careful budgeting month before. So i am now on a mission to recoup it back.

meanmarie

Not kept very accurate account of what I have spent...a couple of sizeable donations from DDs 2 & 4 confused me ( not really very difficult to do most of the time!) so I am going to put me down for having just stayed on budget...probably about right.

So €350 for me Mrs MC

Marie

jessie18

Hi everyone,
just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who lists advise & recipes on here. Ive finally realised just how much money ive been wasting. Its taken me a long long time to wake up, too many years in fact ...but i finally feel i may be on track! Cant remember the days when i ever had my account in credit its been overdrawn for that long. But ive finally ended up paying it off ,thanks to all the great advise on here. Been shopping at aldis and lidls, & had some really great savings, also found a lovely local farm shop which is really good. Have a great weekend everyone :beer:

Could you please put me down for £375.00 please Mrs Mc x

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Jessie18...

The April thread has now started ... didn't want you to miss out .. its at the top of the front page of the Old Style board..i will go and put your name on the list...and welcome on board :T

BigMummaF

I just want to say a big thank-you----well a few really---to those knowledgable souls who find their way around the maze that is the WWW! I'm not that good at putting the right phrases into search engines & come up with some weird & wonderful sites that I would never wish to view again:eek: So many thanks for indulging me:o


The best tho is for the Marvellous Mrs Mc:pYou've done a sterling job with the thread this month & thank you so much for taking it on so we can all have somewhere to [STRIKE]moan[/STRIKE] discuss important issues;)
For you, I would have gotten chox but you're on a diet or a hamper but you'd spend all afternoon breaking down into three months of puds, so I chose flowers just for being pretty:D

Also to the unsung hero of the Mac kitchen, I would like to pass this on to MrMc for his devotion in the role of [STRIKE]guinea-pig[/STRIKE] Chief Product Taster! BMFx