April 2008 Grocery Challenge

chimp_choker

savingfortravel wrote: »

Chimp Choker
The coffee thing?????????
Sounds interesting???
SFT

The coffee thing ?? I was adicted to coffee so much I had to have an expresso machine by the bed and have 2 large expresso's before i got out of bed. That followed on with around 20 pint mugs of any coffee I could get. I heard on the TV one day that large amounts of coffee ( like 5 normal cups a day) was bad for you so I stopped over night. Got hospitalised for 6 days while they did tests to see why my body was "dying" .
Eventually they found out i'd stopped coffee overnight, gave me a boll*&* g and sent me home to wheen myself off coffee over the next 3 years.

As for the milk thing, I got the tip off one on here. I'm sorry I can't remeber the ladies name but I pour one pint of a 4 pint milk out into a spare bottle then fill this with water. Put a further 1/4 pint of water in the spare bottle and you have 5 and a 1/4 pints for the price of 4.

The really sad thing is that I have to do this as a means to budget and we live in one of the richest countries in the world in the 21st century and people have to water down milk to survive.
I reckon I'll stand as an MP !!

Chimp for PM !!

angelnikki

SFT Coffee thing - putting cheap coffee into the nescafe jar

TheBees I think Tesco has started doing codes that can only be used by once now so unless they start with XX I would avoid posting them (but I may be wrong about this)

I'm just doing my online shop at the moment and so many prices have gone up in the last week! :eek:

My mealplan for the week just using up all the stuff in the freezer:

Sat 29 Mar 2008 - Cheesy Chicken & Rice
Sun 30 Mar 2008 - Salmon & Noodles
Mon 31 Mar 2008 - Lamb Chops & Mash
Tue 01 Apr 2008 - Red Pepper Tuna Pasta
Wed 02 Apr 2008 - Cottage Pie
Thu 03 Apr 2008 - Chicken pies & Chips
Fri 04 Apr 2008 - Cod Mornay

Nikki
x

Bertiebots MrsM will add you to the list when she sees your post

chimp_choker

weemissy wrote: »

The other thing I've done for this month is split my mince up more as I'm going to do the padding out thingy.

I've actually done this today for the first time ( conciously) I used 2 x 500g mince (£4) 5 onions, 2 tins of tomatoes, spices and a good 600g of mixed lentils. All in all I got 4 x 400g tinfoils, 3 meals tonight each of 300g and even gave the dog about 300g. All told that will be about 10 meals for under a fiver... well chuffed I is!!

Telute

Hmmm, not sure i'm doing very well - but on the plus side i tidied my cupboard yesterday and discovered enough couscous to feed several armies.

My current meal plan for the week is as follows, but prone to change

Tonight - fish and salsify fritters (already eaten and v. yummy :j )
Sunday - fennel + goats cheese risotto
monday - tomato sauce + pasta
tuesday - chicken noodle soup
wednesday -roast veg chicken couscous
thursday -roast veg risotto

haven't planned my work lunches yet, but i think goats cheese sandwiches will be featuring.

mandy_moo_1

Well i've done a meal planner for the next 2 weeks, using stuff out of the freezer and cupboards, so i'll only have to buy milk, veg and fruit this week i think.

i can probably manage on what dog food i've already got, so i shouldn't need to buy anymore till next week

mind you, i'll have to re-stock my freezer in week 3, so the first 2weeks should be pretty easy with only a bit to spend :rolleyes: mmmm, just hope it works out like that.......it hasn't before, so i'm determined to be really strict with myself this time!!

MrDT

nicky1306 wrote: »

Mr DT,

Your bacon casorole recipie looks luurvely! When you say "cooking bacon" I have a smoked bacon joint in my fridge that I would normally boil and have as boiled bacon and veg, could this be used? am i being dumb?!!

Hi Nicky, that sounds like it'd be fine. A lot of these old welsh recipes are basically 'use up what's left from sunday roast' kinda meals (proper old style!), a similar one (lob sgows) uses stewing steak instead of bacon, but isn't as 'nomnom' as tatws pum munud in my opinion. If anyone tries it with stewing steak - add a dash of lea and perrins when cooking, and plenty of brown sauce and white bread when serving!

Mum uses gammon steaks for her version of tatws pum munud, but i'm still in student mode and use the 70p packs of bacon mis-shapes, bacon joint will be delicious I'm sure. Let us know how it goes down please!

edit: teedy23 is right, it's not worth wasting a bacon joint if it's expensive to buy (can't say I've ever bought one so wouldn't know) just use a 70p pack of bacon bits it'll turn out just fine of course, you can posh it up with a joint if you like!

TheBees

Thanks AngelNikki I didn' realise the codes could only be used once so I've edited my last post to remove it.

Weemissy -Here is the recipe for sweet and sour I used to buy jars but tried this recently and it turned out fine.

Serves 4
4oz Onions
6oz carrots
1 red pepper
1 x 200g can pineapple chunks in juice
1lb diced chicken
25ml veg oil
300ml water
1oz caster sugar
25ml soy sauce
40ml vinegar
4oz tomato puree
half teaspoon mustard powder
20g cornflour

Peel and slice the onions and carrots finely and seed and slice the pepper. Drain the pineapple reserving the juice
Fry the chicken in batches until browned then remove. Fry onion, pepper and carrot until softened. Return chicken to pan and add the pineapple juice and the water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, tom puree and mustard. Stir and simmer for approx 10 mins or until chicken tender.

Add the pinapple pieces. Blend the cornflour with a little water and add to the mixture. Stir over the heat until sauce thickens and pinapple is warm.

Thanks everyone who has posted their menus for the week. They've given me lots of ideas to try.

Off to bed now.
TheBees

Mortgagefreeforme

Found you all, I didn't realise the April GC had started already:o . In my defence I was makeing a HUGE pot of lentil soup for pack lunches:T . Nothing at all to do with the pile of Easter eggs I felt compelled to eat, well they would have went off wouldn't they

clowe1

i'm in for April on £375 for 4 weeks starting 21 March so well into second week. £375 give me £90 per week basically, which is excessive i know but i used to spend somewhere between £600 and £700 per month and not get to the end of the month, now i have my little money bags in the house and look forward to friday to get my money - i even get take away too - and having saved money on groceries and bought my Panny I haven't bought bread in at leat a month now!!!!!!!!

good luck everyone

Mellika

bertiebots wrote: »

Hi fellow GCers...just wondering being new to all this ...do I add my own name to the list or does the thread starter do it . I posted my amount yesterday but it hasnt been added, dont want to make a mess of the list:o !!!! Just to save searching threw its £220.Forgot to mention that budget also includes toiletries:rolleyes: as well as the food for 5 people 2 dogs and 2 cats and household/cleaning stuff !

OMG :eek: How do you DO it??? Here it's just me, OH and 2 cats and though I haven't joined yet, I intend to do it with at least £260 to spend... Please tell me how you do it