March 2008 Grocery Challenge

savingfortravel

Chardonnay
Thanks very much....I picked up some organic mushrooms in the reduced section and want to use them later in the month.
I'll go and slice them now and chuck them in the freezer.
SFT

JayneC

just a quick update then i'm off to bed.

Had Mrs Mc's sausage stuffing/pie(!) for tea - i think i made it a bit too sloppy, but all but one ate it all and are happy to try another - more crispy i think! Also had the leftover apple pud but we all prefer my usual apple crumble so we'll be back to that in future.

I decided to try and plan my main meals until april starts (25th Mar) as I've only about £30 left.

Mon. Pork pie, new pots and salad
Tues - HM spag bol/cottage pie
Wed - baked spud with tuna or cheese and beans
Thurs - HM potato and leek bake with beans or salad
Fri - Hot dogs with spicy wedges and salad
Sat - tuna pasta and salad
Sun - HM pasties with veg and spuds
Mon - HM burgers on buns with spicy wedges and salad
Tues - chicken and potato roast
Wed - Fish goujons (gonna try and make them myself - wish me luck;) ) with new pots and salad
Thurs - corned beef hash
Fri - omlette, cheese or mushroom with HM oven chips and salad
Sat - tuna pasta and salad or pizza
Sun - cottage pie/ chilli and rice
Mon - Cauli/broccoli cheese, not sure what with yet, maybe chips

Not planned desserts but will be HM. Brownies tomorrow as I've some left.

I've got virtually everything I need, may need more tuna, cheese, veggies and salad but that's all:j

Frugaldom

Just popping on as I forgot to mention that I managed to get frozen fish fillets. I got a bag of these last weekend from Mr T and tried them tonight for dinner - simmered in a little milk/marg/salt/pepper and served up with boiled potatoes, brocolli (steamed over the potatoes) and cheese sauce. It tasted delicious, so I can recommend Mr T frozen fish fillets. Also meant to mention about their offer on fresh brocolli - it worked out cheaper buying the loose stuff than the prepacked 44p 'bargain'.

TheBees

Evening everybody

Here in the south west the wind has just started blowing but nothing to get excited about yet.

This weekend I spent money on lots of ingredients for baking, some fruit and milk. The freezers are full of food for 2 weeks of meals but I have noticed we are getting low on cat food, potatoes, eggs, cartons of drinks for packed lunches and penguin type bars. Will probably do a Lidl shop on Thursday if I can last that long.
I know it would be more cost effective to give the children bottles of drink which I fill up daily but I can't seem to find containers that don't leak all over their sandwiches. :mad: Any suggestions?

We have £109 cash plus £25 still in the bank which I didn't withdraw to last to the end of the month so I'm pretty sure we should manage the challenge this month.

:j We are all excited as we are about to book a skiing holiday over Christmas. We have never been away at Christmas before and will be doing it on a very tight budget! It will be a challenge buying each other small, inexpensive gifts that won't take up too much space in the car so I'm going to start buying when I see things.

Have a good week everyone. My personal challenge is to have a couple NSdays but i always seem to need something!!

TheBees

Kaz2904

TheBees wrote: »

I know it would be more cost effective to give the children bottles of drink which I fill up daily but I can't seem to find containers that don't leak all over their sandwiches. :mad: Any suggestions?

DD's school don't allow them to have drinks in their lunches. They have to take something to drink from (cup or bottle) and are given water at lunch time. I prefer to give her a cup because she never puts her lids down properly and I end up getting wet feet when I pick her up from school.
Out of interest we had a letter recently requesting that they weren't sent in with crisps or chocolate either so hers must be one of the healthiest lunch rooms around!

mhe

The Bees - in ASDA there is a plastic bootle with a screwlid - when you turn it one way the sport top comes up and twist it the other way it closes - my two use this and no leaks in our lunch boxes. They are silver for boys and metalic lilac for girls. Alternatively in the bargain section in LAkeland they have sipper cups. My eldelst used these when he first went to school - dont hold too much and dead easy to use. I stopped using it after a year cos hed bitten the end and i couldnt replace it as John Lewis had stopped doing them. Now ive found them in the discontinued section !!!!

mumzyof2

I wanted a nsd tomo but i made a brew today came bk to kettle bit later and noticed the kettle was on and no water was it in, so now its broke...i been boiling water on my stove LOL for a brew. cheapest one is argos £4.69...does anyone know them anywhere cheaper? tesco is 9p cheaper but cost more to get to tesco, woolworths kettle is £5

mhe

Betterlatethannever - ive had lettuce soup and agree it sound weird but tastes delish!!! Heres my recipe

1 lettuce shredded
1 medium onion chopped
1 medium poato diced
10z butter
3/4 pint milk
1/2 pint chicken stock
salt and pepper

fry veg gently in butter for 5 mins - dont brown.Add milk and stock. Bring to boil. Simmer for 15 mins. Blend. For entertaining and a whirl of cream to top.

Doom_and_Gloom

Cleosmum wrote: »

If you get any left over chicken bones they love those, great for the teeth and they love the marrow. Generally rats love anything but steer clear of anything citrus. If you google you can find lists of things rats shouldnt eat, but if they were out in the wild they would just get on with it, so maybe us humans are being over cautious on occasion lol. I have some fleece here and Im going to attempt to make some no chew type hammocks using net wire, hopefully it will come out ok and save me a fortune in hammocks lol. Bedding wise I only use Carefresh, helps with odour. I dont use woodshavings as it causes respiritory problems in rodents, otherwise it would be tons cheaper. Sounds like you are doing it all right, and your rats will be well at home in their converted wardrobe lol.

Hehe, I don't eat chicken as I'm vegan but my parents and boyfriend do and will be giving them some later as they had chicken lol.
I refuse to buy the store hammocks as they are so expensive and are just going to get chewed to pieces that's why I make them. Your idea about the meshed one sounds good, I would be a bit wary about fleese though as I don't think it's great material for them as they will still chew the hell out of it so could damage them if you know what I mean. I've got dust free bedding of high quality and LOTS of it hehe, maybe enough for the whole of their lives and didn't cost that much as it was a 25kg bundle so got it cheap and from a wholesaler so very good.
The converted wardrobe won't be for at least half a year as we aren't going to do it untill we move out of my parents place. I can see it already though, what it's going to look and be like for them, and I can not wait.
I did buy the Rat Nuggets and they cost £1.99 for 1kg and says will last 50 feeds a rat but thats just that on its own. Should last about 2 months. As they like it next time I'll be getting the bigger bag, 6kg I believe, that works out less per kg than at the moment.
In the morning I will update my spends and everything for everyone to see but it's late and I'm a little to tired to write more .

JayneC

TheBees wrote: »

I know it would be more cost effective to give the children bottles of drink which I fill up daily but I can't seem to find containers that don't leak all over their sandwiches. :mad: Any suggestions?

TheBees

I re-use bottles that have had drinks in them, water, oasis, cola, whatever! I save them and wash them out for DS2 to use in lunchbox. I try not to use them for too long though as apparently the plastic 'leaks' into the drink eventually!