April 2008 Grocery Challenge

MRSMCAWBER

Hi moniker...

Don't know if it would help... but when you have baked your case blind, if you brush over a bit of egg white and let dry before you ad the filling -it should help "water proof" the case

As for cracking... when i used to use the machine to make pastry i always reduced the fat a little -so with 8oz of flour i would use 3oz of fat -half butter half lard for me......
The machine rubs in so well that you end up with a very rich pastry... very yummy -but it might be why it cracks

hope that helps

purplevamp

MrDT wrote: »

I have some stork and flora omega3 margerine if you think they might be better? They sound more cakey than oil to me, never heard of oil being used in cakes before I saw the yoghurt cake thread tbh!

Chocolate, although awesome, and indeed the answer to all the problems in the universe, would mean shopping so not really an option I'm afraid.

edit - oh and thanks btw, sorry, the frantic pace of this thread does nothing for my manners!

Stork or flora would also be fine, probably better. Look on the side of the tub and usually it has tiicks saying what it can be used for - most buttery things are suitable for baking.

I understand about the chocolate problem. The only chocolate in the house is the childrens easter eggs (yes, they STILL have some) but I have none

Your thanks has been noted and much appreciated. I know what you mean about the fast moving thread. I can't keep up, it makes me too dizzy :rotfl:

tattycath

Hi everyone. I've neglected this thread somewhat this month and I'm sorry...
I have been good shopping wise, I am emptying my freezers at the moment so I can defrost them and restock them again. Well done everyone so far. Continued good luck for the rest of the challenge. I've found my breadmaker but not the instructions so I am going to attempt to make some handmade bread today and see how it turns out. I appear to be on target with challenge for this month-so far.

KITTY_2-2

Happy Sunday peeps

Getting quite close to the end of the money and still 10 days left I'll be cutting out the lunchtime trips from work to see if that helps spread out the cash for a bit longer. I can't go over this month as just had a £197 phone bill to pay :eek: Not bad to say I rarely use it as I get enough free calls on my mobile. Must get DD to stop ringing her friend's mobiles from the land line.

Planning to use up the freezer contents over the next week or so. It needs a good defrosting as it has frozen up with the amount that's in. There isn't any air circulating as every drawer is packed full. I read somewhere that the freezer works more efficiently if it isn't stuffed to bursting That's my excuse for the muffins and flapjack that are now defrosting in the kitchen

Anyhoo - Just popped on to catch up and that was over an hour ago so need to get some more flying done. Catch you later

mandy_moo_1

oh dear :rolleyes:

it was the last day of the week for my budget, and i've gone over by about £12 :eek:

i bought a load of bottles of Herbal Essence cos it was half price in morrisons so i thought i'd stock up on it it'll last me about 3months so thats my excuse and i'm sticking to it!!

got some spag bol out of the freezer i made ages ago, so we're having that for tea. and i've just put the breadmaker on to make some pizza dough so i can make some garlic bread to go with it. i was gonna have a go at the garlic dough balls, cos then i can freeze some of them....but does anyone know if i make them into balls, put some garlic&butter in them and cook them, THEN freeze them, or should i freeze them raw, but still put the garlic/butter inside?

hope everyones having a great day xx

Mrs._Irwin

Oh deary me!
I've just been checking through our spending diaries. On a positive note, we've both been filling them in very well this month, which is a huge step and very helpful.
On the negative side, it means I can tell how much we've spent, which looks very, very bad!

My target for the month was £250, and, according to the rules on what to include that I set, we've so far spent £309.69! :mad:
I haven't even done the monthly online order yet!
Breaking it down though, there are some mitigating factors! I hadn't got into a routine for paying for the veg box straight away, so this figure includes payment for nine weeks worth of veg box, so about £35 should have been added to last months total.
About £90 is for takeaways, meals out, or other fast food eaten away from home, which is over twice as much as last month! A lot of this has been due to my forgetting to make the bread, and being very tired, going 'oh stuff it, let's go to Cooplands/KFC/etc.'
Many of the other bits and pieces that add up are us popping over to the local shop for pop and sweets and they are expensive!

It's quite infuriating, because I know that with actual grocery shopping, in the supermarket, I am doing well, buying sensibly, buying ingredients rather than ready-made etc. but it's these extras and takeaways that take up all the money.

I think for next month, I will have a separate budget for take-aways/meals out, as we like to have fish and chips on DHs payday - we have to have it as we live over the road and the smell would drive us crazy if we didn't have at least one a month on the horizon! Pop and sweets/beer/food at DH work, should come out of 'pocket money' which we don't currently do. That should definitely encourage me not to pop to the shop as it would be money I could spend on something much nicer.

Of course, our first baby is due any day! :j :eek: Which means that everything will go to pot I'm sure, but I'm putting lots of supernoodles in the online order so there's always something quick to eat!

Sorry for the long post, but it really does help to think it all out like this. Any suggestions always welcome!

Mrs. Irwin
xx

JayneC

Hello all,

Well I'm still under budget and my month ends on Friday. I think I might just make it:j

I've got enough in the freezer for meals and think I should have enough cereal, bread and stuff for sandwiches so will just need milk and probably eggs for baking (I hope). I did a big online shop of all non perishables last month and that seems to have worked well so I'll be doing that again:p .

I have a HM fruit cake in and am planning some hobnobs and some other baked goodies that I haven't decided yet;)

Went over York way again last week and found some good bargains in Netto; cucumbers 2 for 60p, packs of ham trim for £1.39, Can't Believe it's not Butter BOGOF 98p and 750g box of Frosties (Kelloggs) half price £1.07. Also got a few bits from Poundstretcher and HomeBargains.

Someone asked for Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe a while a go (sorry it's taken so long, I've not been around for a few days). It's a WW recipe, makes 12 slices @ 195 cals/3.5points per slice if you need to know;)

50g butter
250g caster sugar
grated zest of one lemon
250g SR Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
100ml skimmed milk
2 tablespoons low-fat plain yoghurt
juice of 2 lemons

whisk together the butter and 200g of the sugar until fluffy, add lemon zest, flour, baking powder, egg, milk and yoghurt and mix until smooth. Sppon into greased 2lb loaf tin or cake tin and bake at 180/gas4 for around 50-60 mins. Leave to cool for 10 mins.
place lemon juice and remainder of sugar in pan with 150ml water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Boil for a few mins until syrupy. Pierce the cake all over with cocktail stick or skewer and then spon over the syrup. Mmmm....

Can be frozen.

MrDT

Well, the cake is done (well, cakes are done actually) and cooled. I've cut the edges off one to 'test' It's not what I expected, very dense, but it tastes fantastic, so I'm happy with it. The strawberry compote is very nice, and silly easy to make so I'm pleased with that too

Off to my parents house for a sunday roast tonight, I'll just be supplying cake for afters, pretty good deal if you ask me Although the cake did rise it seems to have the consistency of pancake in the middle, not sure what I did wrong, but as I said it tastes good so I'll pretend that it's meant to be like that haha!

lil_me

2 NSDs for me, battling with my internet at the mo trying to get into my Tesco order as it's due to be delivered tomorrow late evening and I need to edit it, flippin thing won't load and don't want it to be too late, grump! I think the order will come to about £60 which should leave plenty for the rest of the week so hopingto come under budget again this month.

Still trying to decide when it comes to ordering from veg/fruit box schemes, we use a LOT of fruit, huge amounts but the rest of the family apart from me are really picky when it comes to veg, so thinking we might end up wasting more than we use.

bails

Hmmm, I thought I was going to manage this month quite well after all, but my plans have been scuppered by coming home yesterday to discover that one of our adopted strays is definitely pregnant! :eek: This means the budget is going to take a severe and unexpected beating, so I might leave out the extra cat food for now and have that as a separate budget (which I will play catch-up for).
Apart from that that the month has gone pretty well - just back from the last shop of the month, should only need a few bits of veg from the market next weekend to tide us over. The freezer has been mostly emptied and is now filling up with, among other things, a vat of veg chilli, yum!
I've forgotten who said it now, sorry, but how long is Doves flour on offer in Mr A please?(I just paid 89p for S own brand!) I don't have one near but might make a special trip to stock up before prices rocket! BTW, the Cravendale offer was still on in Mr S today if anyone wants to know.
Off to work out my various totals, and try to catch up with everyone. I know I say it lots but thanks so much to everyone who posts recipes on here - they get saved on my PC and will eventually be printed off into a folder - they really help with my menu planning and keeping things varied, so thanks again x