April 2008 Grocery Challenge

teedy23

Morning all, who all have the sore heads induced by me talking about Gin & Lemon ? Sorry about that lol. I,m off into town to take another pic of my M.S. as the first one was rubbish. This wont cost me as I,ll walk or take the train. I must stop faffing about and get things done. I will try to have another NSD.

faye1978

nopot2pin wrote: »

For the jaffa cake thingy that everyone is making....

I used to make a similar type thing a few years ago... but I used the packaging of the flan case, lined with cling film, to set the jelly. Then when it was set, lifted out the cling flim, and put the flan on top of the jelly, then turned the whole lot over.
It stops your flan going soggy.

Also, I used to use orange juice instead of water, in the orange jelly. I know it bumps up the cost, but it makes it extra orangey

What a great idea about the jelly!!! I have also heard about using orange to make the jelly extra orangy.

Mmm! May have to pop to Tesco to get the stuff to make one of these. Sounds delish

MRSMCAWBER

morning all

Planning another grocery NSD today... although if hubby is home in time... i will be getting him to take me for some more compost..seperate budget though .... think im getting carried away with the veggie planting.. if everything makes it - i think i should set up a veg box scheme :rotfl:
I have been sat out on the patio potting thing up -in the rain..how sad

hubby came home with a beautifull bunch of really dark raspberry roses for me yesterday..they are soooo pretty -but im too tight fisted to buy them oh and he handed over €30...my share of what he had won on the slot machine :T ..he always does that even when i don't know he has been on :j so i may use that for my gardening supplies

Dinner last night was lovely... made beef meatballs with caramalised onions, peppers n mushrooms in tortilla wraps (dough from freezer ) with salad and hm coleslaw nomnomnom

I think tonights is going to be feta salad, with potatoes for hubby... or thinking about it, I might turn it in to a frittata as we have quite a few eggs ..and i can put veggies and feta in there..and have it with salad..hmmm will decide -eventually

I need some fruit n yogurts soon...but im going for a walk round the golf course with hubby tomorrow...and will be dropping off at the naffi on the way back..so im holding off to see what fruit they have whoopsed..last time it was 2 kilo of navels for €1 and they were lovely..so i will wait and see what they have...then go and get my yogs from aldi as always and pick up some fruit if naffi don't have any

I have decided that if there are any "to good to miss" items in the naffi then i may use my extra €50 that i always keep in reserve for taking advantage of super bargains.... I find that it saves us a fortune to be able to use this for buying things in advance ready for the future months ....

right i had better get off and get something done.... a cup of tea first me thinks ..then i will make hubby some cheese n mustard and cheese n marmite twists -using up a pack of the whoopsed dough out of the freezer and some of the whoopsed cheese i got :rotfl: ...see a pattern forming

hope everyone has a great day

clair2305

yippee.

Just reading new posts from yesterday evening and updating sig.

And on that....

I don't do meal plans, I mean I rarely do the cooking (all done by OH), but also with a lot of stuff in the freezer (which I love) it is sometime hard to be spontaneous....find myself saying "shall we have chicken tomorrow?" so that I can get it out the night beforehand.

Am up to £83 of my £130 budget for April and it's only the 11th!!! Bit scared. And I think my fridge looks a bit empty, there's a few yoghurts, cheese....there is food, but normally it's packed (especially the first week of the month). I've been trying to buy fresh stuff (cheese, ham, fruit, salad) as I need to keep it to a minimum to avoid throwing stuff out as well .

faye1978

Sosh wrote: »

Hi,

Have been lurking around for a while now and have managed to cut nearly all my monthly budgets. All I need to cut now is my grocery pot. I currently spend £390 a month for 2 adults, DD and a currently weaning DS. I am ashamed at our budget, but have begun to make improvements. I've recently aquired a breadmaker thanks to freecycle and have cut down to mainly value products. My main problem is that I'm buying for 2 households, (We have a caravan which we use every weekend and all school holidays).

I think it's too late to join this the April Challenge as my "month" begins on the 25th, but thought I'd say "hi". I'll definitely be joining in properly in May.

Sophie

I have looked on our freecycle and even tried to join as it's a join only thread but no-one has come back to me in over a week. :mad: I wanted to look for a bread slicer.

lillythecat

Hi everyone, I spent £37 in Mr S yesterday which included the ingredients for a 'special cake' for OH 'big' birthday celebrations next weekend so feel quite pleased with myself. I've got most of the other stuff for the weekend of celebration in the freezer so shouldn't cost me too much. I haven't posted spends so far this month. So on top of this weeks £37 I have also spent £60 at our local independent suppermarket/butchers. £20 at Mr T's near DS2's University (also topped up his basic food supplies for the term pasta/tin toms etc but not counting this here) so not too bad so far.

Mr DT - I also much prefer cooking what I fancy rather than sticking to a plan. I'm still working my way through our two freezers which I never quite seem to see the bottom of!!! So plenty of choice.

Its snowing heavily here today so looking forward to baking the celebration cake (something else for the freezer!!) and some cooking for the weekend. I should really be makng a start on some freelance work that's just come in but I'm not in the mood & it'll wait 'till Monday.

faye1978

clair2305 wrote: »

....so just time to update my signature, up to £81.87 of my budget, had to spend £5.23 in Mr S yesterday, and there's still 20 days to go!!! Not sure if I am feeling confident?!?!

A couple of other updates...

* - tried freezing the baby plum tomatoes, when used in a pasta disk straight from frozen, yes the skins did slip off but i thought this made it all the more yummy and the tomatoes still actually tasted like tomatoes

Question?:

1 - has anyone tried freezing the mushrooms (cooked or uncooked)? Any successes?

2 - bread making, so on average how much to people think a loaf costs to make? Noticing how much bread is rising (in cost) and it seems as though I'm buying the bread I don't really like cos the ones I likes are £1.20+ per loaf.....so was thinking of lending my friend's BM to have a go before buying one.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.....just waiting to hear if i've been successful at my interview yesterday

Well Bread flour is 49p ( I can get 2 x 2lb loaves from 1 packet)
Yeast is 60p for 6 individual packets and you use approx half pkt per 2lb loaf so 5p + a tsp salt/sugar & tbsp oil you're looking at around 35p per loaf which (after getting used to the BM as it takes a little time) is every bit as good as the fresh bakery bought bread - probably better.

faye1978

Sosh wrote: »

Hi lil_me.

Tha main probelem with our caravan is lack of freezer space. We only have a larder fridge. I do make all ds's food at home, but haven't got anywhere to store it at the caravan, so he tends to have packets / jars there - which I hate.

We're off down there this afternoon, as soon as the breadmaker has finished, but as we're going for a week, I'll have to buy bread at some stage.

Just got back from Makro, they have triple velvet T rolls, 18 pack on buy one get one free. Works out very cheap, so I now have enough to last until at least June.

Enjoy the sunshine everyone.

Sophie

Hi,

Jut an idea but can you not save some jars up and put his food you make into the jars, take what you need and store them in the fridge when you get there?

faye1978

Mollymop5 wrote: »

mmm my porridge oat loaf has just finished in breadmaker and is smelling fab.I thought it would be something different to try for breakfast

Ooo! I looked at that recipe when I put myfrench loaf in the BM and wondered what it'd be like. Do let me know won't you? :j

SmellyOldSock

Morning all

Have just spend $2.50 on milk and veg for the weekend. My week finishes on Sunday so am well chuffed with how its all going. When I think back how much i use to spend without thinking!

best wishes
Charlotte