March 2008 Grocery Challenge

mhe

Hi all
2 days in the kitchen and not going on the computer and you fill in 10 pages for me to catch up on!!!!
Last month i spent £91 on all sorts of new bakeware - pizza crispers, muffin tin, baking sheets, pie dish doughnut maker....etc. Today and yeaterday put them to good use. Made doughnuts, 2 batches of muffuns, some of MRSMs tortillas for freezer, fruit bread, bread, bread rolls, 2 vats of HM soup for lunches for me, flapjacks and a steak and potato pie. Doughnuts have all been eaten (19 very diddy ones!!) by DH and DSs. I think ill have to get stuff into the freezer quicker in future. Last of steak in SC ready for tea tomorrow. Feeling very proud of my little self at the mo. Just hope i can keep it up. Good news is i sat in bed last night and worked out Meal plans for March and after FRidays blip in Asda we will be ok for all of March apart from veg and milk. Some of MArch is also a school holiday so planning on doing lots of baking and storing it in the freezer in my new freezer/microwave tubs from Lakeland. (had to buy them to be OS!)

funkyfunkymonkey

Hello mhe, I would like to make doughnuts but don't want to fry them. Could you please tell me more about your doughnut maker - how does it work? you said they were 'diddy' can you also make bigger ones?

TIA FFM

mark55man

Embarassed to say that my average grocery budget for (me, my OH, my 4 kids between 13 and 7) and 2 cats (in that order) is a whopping £850. This is based on a years actual spend figures.

This year has been slightly inflated by some stocking up on non perishable BOGOFs - :money: would be proud. so I am going to set an initial target for March of 800, with a view to getting it down to say £650 by July

Do I get a number ??

Glad to join the challenge & Good luck everyone

Mark

mumzyof2

£800 for 6 people?? what do you buy???? Do you buy the supermarket brand food? There good

mhe

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

Hello mhe, I would like to make doughnuts but don't want to fry them. Could you please tell me more about your doughnut maker - how does it work? you said they were 'diddy' can you also make bigger ones?

TIA FFM

you can only make 7 diidy ones at a time in it - you make up the batter and then wipe the machine with oil. It actually said put one tsp of oil in each hole but i ignored that and just wiped each hole with a pastry brush dipped in oil insted. Add i tsp of batter mix and close lid for 3 mins. Open up 3 mins later to find 7 yummy little doughnuts. I was going to buy the silicone doughnut tray from lakeland (9.99) but someone on another thread said the machines work better and are less cleaning and easier to get donuts out of and are the same size. machine was 15 from comet but they have cheaper ones online at tesco £5 just they are out of stock and i wanted it NOW!!!!

Dss enjoyef dunking them in choc covering/ icing / sprinkles etc and i think it is something they could do themselves if they were older.

funkyfunkymonkey

Thanks for the info mhe, I had seen the one at Lakeland for £9.99, so it is nice to know the pitfalls with that. The £5 from Tesco sounds interesting - I guess it would be more mse to wait ....

FFM

meanmarie

Hi all,

Welcome newbies...this is a great idea, having to set a budget and think about what you need and just buy that is a wonderful way to concentrate the mind, makes the cooking more interesting too.

IRS...the only time I tried to bake in the US I used whatever flour was in my BIL's house and the resulting scones would have been useful as doorstops! Should think that 'all purpose flour' would be your best bet for bread making. You have set yourself a hard task to survive on $100 for a month...I reckon that is only about €65! Have you ever heard of 'www.hillbillyhousewife.com' ? It might be worth having a look at as some of the products mentioned would be more familiar to you
than they are to me and you might find some useful tips on managing on very little. Best of luck in your quest!

Belfast girl...Not familiar with Morrisons so can't compare to Dunnes...was in Dunnes during the week and was amazed at how much their prices seem to have increased...I have been using Lidl for most of my grocery shopping of late and using butcher for meat and fish. I prefer Dunnes to Tesco most of the time, although think that Tesco has improved in recent times.

My meal planning tends to be a very loose structure...make sure to have lots of potatoes, veg (lucky enough to have had some bits all winter in garden), rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, beans and fish and then buy enough to top up to enough for the month...not easy sometimes as we have two extra mouths to feed since DD 2 had her baby.

Good luck everybody

Marie

Kaz2904

OK, spent so far today (yesterday) £6.79.
I have a horrid feeling that DH went to Asda too though while I was in bed so need to check with him tomorrow.
Went to MIL for lunch so DH and BIL could cook lunch for all of us. She's sent us home with enough meat to do 2 or 3 meals. So I have that, I've got stuff out for fish pie which I was making Sat but had carbonnara instead. So we'll have 2 fish pies this week. The gammon that's left will do 4-5 meals. There's a haggis in the freezer so that is 9 meals sorted.
I'm going to cook up a storm tomorrow and shove some frozen sausage rolls in the freezer for DD to have for lunches. They've been there since before Christmas and I want the freezer space.
Off to update sig now but I'm kind of hopefull that just this once I can actually make it on budget!

mumzyof2

Kaz2904 wrote: »

OK, spent so far today (yesterday) £6.79.
I have a horrid feeling that DH went to Asda too though while I was in bed so need to check with him tomorrow.
Went to MIL for lunch so DH and BIL could cook lunch for all of us. She's sent us home with enough meat to do 2 or 3 meals. So I have that, I've got stuff out for fish pie which I was making Sat but had carbonnara instead. So we'll have 2 fish pies this week. The gammon that's left will do 4-5 meals. There's a haggis in the freezer so that is 9 meals sorted.
I'm going to cook up a storm tomorrow and shove some frozen sausage rolls in the freezer for DD to have for lunches. They've been there since before Christmas and I want the freezer space.
Off to update sig now but I'm kind of hopefull that just this once I can actually make it on budget!

where you have put cook up a storm and shove some frozen sausgaes in the freezer? Doesnt that meant to say shove them in the oven? hehe as you said after that asyou need the freezer space
Im glad im not the only one up at this mad hour.

ubamother

my challenge this month is to work out exactly where the grocery money's going. I'm using the online spending diary somebody recommended (thanks - it's easy and sensible). Don't want to overcomplicate but would like to separate groceries into sections - like dairy, fruit/veg, storecupboard, frozen, meat, household, so I can see where I can best make savings. Please advise if I'm missing something obvious. Thanks