April 2008 Grocery Challenge

angelavdavis

Was chuffed at the weekend, opened a dusty old bottle of mulled wine that I had in the cupboard and added it to beef, spoon of mustard, teaspoon of sugar, carrots, onions, celery, swede and pearl barley - popped it in the SC and it made a very tasty Beouf bourginon!!! Lots left, so looks like it will be a pie filling for Thursday!

Am trying to delay my next shop for a couple of days by planning the next few days meals. OH called in on his parents house to collect more from the freezer there, its gradually going down! Some beef mince and a couple of salmon steaks should tide us over, with the leftover beef stew from Sunday.

savingfortravel

Hi everyone.
Been reading your posts with interest. Keep up the good work!!!

Question for MRS MCAWBER/Egon
I brought back a jar of something interesting from my recent break in Germany:
Fruchtaufstrich Moselriesling-verfeinert mit weiswein
I thought it was a type of marmalade and having googled the words found it to be apple spread with white wine but what do I do with it?
Any ideas??????????????
Many Thanks
SFT

galacticgreen

Made spaghetti bolognaise tonight and bulked it out with oats and grated carrot - can't believe I did this! Didn't tell anyone and they all commented how nice it was. Confessed to OH after we had finished and he said "Add some more next time, it was really nice and it will go even further!!" Got at least an extra 2 portions than usual. Made HM pitta bread in the bread machine. Thanks for all these great ideas. Not only are we saving money, but we are eating a wider variety of food. Made some fairy cakes as well.

Bit OT, but I have been given a big aloe vera plant - can I do anything practical with this, or is it just to look at and break off a bit if I burn myself??

clowe1

hi all,

As i said i am just checking in, i have entered my last week for April, child benefit arrives next monday so that starts May for me.

Target was 350 for 4 people - excessive i know but found i could be a bit more excessive and somehow still have more food than ever before, also takeaway at least once a week!!!!. - what i mean by this is I used to spend £600-£700 a month, and not know where the money went, had loads of wastage and also, money didn't last to the end of the month, now i meal plan, give myself money each friday (amazing how mentally this has worked, i don't feel like i have soo long to go before i get money again) enjoy takeaway and the odd meal out etc and still spend half what i used to????? - doesn't make sense but it works so i will continue!!!!

Anyway Target £350 - what's left £18.50, £8.50 for chinese takeaway tomorrow night and the other £10 hopefully just milk from here til monday - i make my own bread in my panny thanks to this site - it's beautiful!!!

Have some stuff in freezer, made beef biryani (gorgeous) there was enough for one portion left so cooled and freezed it, meanwhile (the biryani took 2 hours) i made a lasagne got 6 portions out of it, used 3 so far, made chicken fried rice - was't on my meal plan but i had all the ingredients - yippee!!

Oh yeah I also did an ingredients matrix, to make it easier to meal plan different dishes that share the same basic ingredients - well chuffed with this, it took all night to do but now all i have to do is check it against what's in the cupboard and make up my shopping list at a glance.

Rambling as usual

take care

will be entering May challenge to start next week, 5 weeks so £400 altogether.

Clare

mrssnowy_2

Evening all
Had a good day in kitchen yesterday.Made 6 lbs plum jam out of the flipping bags of plums that have been haunting me in the freezer!Had to slightly thaw them to squeeze the stones out-I did wear glovestho'.

The ham stock I found to go in the soup, for todays lunch, turned out to be turkey with loads of meat,so it was vveerry good,especially as I shoved in some RK beans-again lurking in freezer.
Really should label things ,but it makes cooking an adventure.:rotfl:
Recycled foil flan dish ,made a lovely small quiche,put in oven same time as HM bread.
Oh, also found a piece of boiling bacon -dated 2006:eek:
Cooked in SC,smells Ok,tastes OK ,stock now saved for pea soup,if we are spared!!
Trying to find a space so I can make that luscious sounding lemon ice cream,thanks to whoever that was.
Nice to go back to work for a rest.
You all sound so industrious with your gardening,too cold here yet to do much,hope it all comes up for you.

Only £53 left for a 2 week spend,keep posting the ideas(tho'I have bought food towards hol in Cornwall in early June!!)

J

angelatgraceland

JennyBee wrote: »

My lovely other half just looked at me like I'd gone mental. We had gorgeous sausage and red wine casserole for tea with a portion for freezing but there was loads of the sauce left so I was there dutifully putting it in another pot for freezing. Am I strange to do that? I thought it would be nice as a red wine "gravy" next time we have sausage and mash or something?

Please don't let this money saving thing be getting to me so much that I'm now freezing random food!!

No you are not going mad-unless I am too! That is also the sort of thing that I get odd looks for! Leave such items at the top of the freezer though and make sure that you label them because give it a couple of weeks and you will never work out what it was.:T

savingfortravel

Congratulations Clowe 1
Sounds like you did brilliantly this month
SFT

Skint_Catt

Spent £11.21 in Asda tonight stocking up on pasta bits and some fresh veg.

Catt xx

searching_me

ello everyone... just update my sig after a few days... after buying a few bits and bobs im left with £45 til the 26th... do'erable me thinks (well me hopes) ... currently feeling like poo... got the flu and extremely sore throat that just wont budge... any ideas how to get rid of it?... ive bought loads of cold and flu stuff and it just just aint working... any os tips people use... my step dad use to swear by a hot whisky (but i think he use to just like getting drunk lol) thanks xx

Savvy_sewing

clowe1, if you have finished for April already and its only the 14th, are you working on a different calander than me? Is it a 4 week period that your on?
I am holding back from tesco ordering. I have 2 days off work and so I am going to drive to some of the other cheaper shops like Lidl etc and see if I can buy my odds n sodds then. I usually get all my food from Mr T.