March 2008 Grocery Challenge

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Hi guys, I seem to be spending quickly this month eeek! I have loads of food in though so hoping to stay in budget (please, please!)

Its hard but I'm taking each day as it comes and trying to use leftovers like a crazy person! I put all my stale bead in the freezer (make into breadcrumbs first) and then use for sage and onion stuffing. I made a lovely pud yesterday, here it is...

leftover pud.

grease a pyrex dish and put in sliced apple, and dried fruit (I had sultanas) sprinkle with lemon juice and sugar and cinnamon.

Make the topping by beating in a bowl egg, milk, sugar and vanilla extract. Add breadcrumbs, dried fruit and mixed spice. Sprinkle with sugar and bake in oven.

I served it with custard and it was great. If you have kids that eat only 1/2 an apple you could chop off the good bits and freeze it until you have enough to make this.

Also I went on the fish market the other day and saw them selling salmon bones/heads/tails for 50p per lb there seemed to be a lot of fish on it and I thought this would be good for making fish pie if you are prepared to put the work in. I suppose you would have to cook the bones and get all the fish off then make the pie.

findingmyfeet

Hi Mrs Mc ,
tried your tortilla recipe for the first time last night. everyone loved them. DD got them in school lunch box for today too, says she doesnt want anymore shop bought ones , yours are the best ! Real compliment coming from her, real fussy pants. Starting as I mean to go on, casserole in oven for tonight( doubled up of course to start my freezer stock). What soups are being made by everyone? Never made one but fairly good around the Kitchen. Any ideas welcome. thanks

MRSMCAWBER

Hi egon

For some strange reason ALDI only have 405 or the bread mixes in but i was so excited by my bag of Maismehl in "Real" i virtually skipped to the checkout i have forgotten now but there was a bag of flour that was even more yellow it was with the Maismehl in the "foreign" section... think it could have been polenta flour.... i only want some because its such a pretty colour ...i am sad i know :rotfl: - i will find some uses for it before i buy any... think i have a recipe for pastry using it -although i may just be clutching at straws in my desperation to buy some

I will have a look next time i go to jibi, ratio, or a martkhauf and see if there flour is any cheaper -thankyou

Don't know what im going to do when hubbies time out here is done - i will be running up n down the aisles like a loony...stockpiling like a mad woman - the selection of baking goods out here is just mind blowing.... i could spen an hour just looking in the baking aisle.... i really need to get a life don't i

thankyou once again for your help...im sure i will be back when my next quandry arrives

MRSMCAWBER

Finding my feet

Glad they went down well :T

In this house this weekend i have made soups for hubbies flasks :-

I don't use a recipe..

spicy goulash soup -was made up as i went along a couple of months ago and hubby loved it -so now i try and recreate it every month :rotfl:

minted pea n ham -is made using the water i cook the gammon joint in


chicken n sweetcorn-leftover chicken n carcass

veg n lentil - the VEG bit is whatever things i want to use..so usually cauli, broccoli stalks etc

And we have pork casserole in the freezer -so i now have enough soups for hubbies flasks for the month :j although im toying with a tomato based one with pasta at the moment

mumzyof2

MRSM when is your hubby done in germany? Do you like it out there? I really need to go to morrisons but need to make do til thursday as only have about £20

Platinum_Horse

So first time on our set £50-a-week grocery challenge, and we failed! (Perhaps we ought to budget monthly instead - It's hard to decide, as I'm paid monthly and my OH is paid weekly). However as we were shopping we saw a lot of stuff we buy every week, was on special offer (e.g Half price diced beef, from which we make a lovelly casserole, which gives us 5-6 dinners!) So we brought 2kgs of that for £7 - which would equate to 10-12 dinners for us!

So as we were seeing a these things we discussed a little, decided to make good of special offers - more so as some were going to end in a few days - and stock up on freezer/cupboard items, so we pooled together 2 weeks shopping into 1 week (it'd be nice to avoid shops for essentials for 1 weekend) and filled our kitchen up. We still went over budget by £20 :eek: (well £21.78 to be exact!)for the 2 weeks - but we have enough nappies & big pack of wipes to last us a month too..(well, again, in theory, i'm sure Alfie will have more to say on that than we will!) . .plus non food items we needed (Washing powder, shampoo etc).

So safe to say we failed on our budget planner, leaving us with £80 for, what in theory is, 2 weeks shopping we'll have left to do - but if as we have planned, that food lasts us 2 weeks, then it's not quite as bad as I thought it'd be! And we had to feed a guest who is staying for 4 days too!! (am I just making excuses now? lol!;) )

izoomzoom

Hiyall you lovely bunch :A

My challenge this month is £200.00

I know I went over last month but in January I had so much food left over from December's wobble that I couldn't help but stay in budget. Anyhow, I am quite sure I can manage £200 and I reckon the only way for me to do it is to read all the posts in the challenge ...

DH is complaining about lack of meat ! It doesn't really bother me but we went to friends the other night for HM curry and of course there was more meat than veg, which is the opposite to what I do, and of course my first veggie curry (meal planned for Tues) doesn't seem up to scratch now :mad: . Tough .... though, I am rather proud of my efforts and if he doesn't like it, he can donate some of his puff puff money to the grocery budget :rolleyes: .

Spends so far this month
£ 45.52 Mr T
£ 12.82 Mr S
£ 1.10 Mr S
£ 1.00 (local)

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£ 60.44 :eek: and it's only the 3rd :mad:

Suzy-Qu

I tried the challenge last month but failed miserably. Went way over budget and stopped counting when I got to £300 (my budget was £250). So please put me down for £275 this month and I'll see how I get on and try to keep a better record. x

jo1972

Well did a shop yesterday at Mr T's and didn't do myself many favours......managed to spend £21.41 of my £300 budget and only got dinner for yesterday and DS's packed lunch just for today :eek:

Where did it all go wrong

Well actually I do know, I didn't meal plan and didn't write a list. I will do a meal plan at lunch time today and be ready for my Mr T visit today

If I keep spending like that I won't be able to eat for the last 2 weeks of the month :rotfl:

lil_monkey

This is my First Month and I am going to give it ago, last month I tried and managed ok, realised how much I was over buying before:mad: - so its £50 per week or £200 for the month for me - That's 2 adults - but last month some weeks I only spent £20:j !!!! So I wish everyone good luck!:p