April 2008 Grocery Challenge

Sunnyday

JennyBee wrote: »

Sunnyday - According to my Delia book, the reason that some eggs are harder to peel than others is down to it's age. When an egg is fresh, the inner membrane is taut...as it gets a couple of days older, more air penetrates the egg and the membrane slackens. Therefore, if your eggs are a week old they're ideal for hard boiling as that membrane is looser around the egg!

Also, to tell how old an egg is put it in a glass of water. If it's very fresh it will lie horizontally (less air in it), up to a week old it will lie at an angle and it will sit vertically if it's stale.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Jennybee,
i knew about the air and looking to see how an egg lies in water but i didn`t know about the membrane.
I can see me spending quite a bit of time huddled over the sink now to see how old the eggs are and how they peel in relation to how they float :rotfl:
SD

galacticgreen

going to declare now at £199.39. Made it by a few pence. HAppy with that this month. Although my month doesn't finish till 30th, I know I don't need to buy anything else. Well done everyone. Even if you didn't make your target, you will have saved more than in previous months:T

chocolateteddy

Evening all.
Got my new month off to a good start spent £46.22 in Asda (stocked up on yeast for BM as on offer at 50p for 6 sachets. OH looked at the pile of boxes then at me... well it has a date of 2010 on it will never last till then LOL) and spent £11.73 in Lidl (bread flour mostly - should keep me going a while)

Made a wicked pizza dough in BM and tomato sauce base (DD has been watching too much Jamie at Home!!) and it was delicious even my other DD came back for 2nd's Very unusual, even wants the left overs for packed lunch tomorrow!!:shocked:
Now have enough sauce for 4 more pizzas and 1 lot pizza dough in freezer. I'm quite enjoying myself, just thinking about what I'm going to spend my savings on at the end of the month...hopefully!! not filling up the car which cost me £39 this morning(I don't include that in my budget or I'd be all spent out before I started:eek: ) Oh well off to update my signature:rotfl:

Kaz2904

Went in to Sainsburys today as we needed milk so thought I'd get the cravendale. Picked up 10 cartons of it so the fridge and the freezer are rammed full.
Had to do carbonnarra tonight as couldn't fit everything in the fridge so needed to use up the last pieces of cheese.
Bought myself 2 bunches of flowers from the kids for my birthday at 50p. Also got some whoopsied chicken liver and then found frozen chicken livers too so picked them up.
DD pleaded for grapes, needed carrots and apples.
Wanted something salady and got a reduced organic mozzarella so went to look for lettuce. Now quite costly and way more expensive than growing own but they had living salad £1.49 (4 types of salad leaves in a pot) and living mixed lettuce (£1.29 for 3 types of cut and come again). So I thought I'd give it a try as they can live inside on the window sill and we can just cut some leaves off for dinner (that's the idea anyway!).
Best update sig now for what I've spent so far this month.

weemissy

Haven't been on for a few days so have just spent ages catching up with the posts - skim reading I'm afraid. Anyway will declare this month over and I don't have a scooby what I spent but..................

MrsM - please put me down for £200 again for May (have I put this in a different colour? - I have zoontext and it doesn't let me see the colours)

I am annoyed because someone has been eating my box of muesli (a rare treat for me) as if it's a packet of SP cornflakes:mad: OH blamed DS and DD - they are in bed and are therefore unable to defend themselves, questioning will resume in the morning, even if it's only to confirm that the culprit is in fact OH. This has resulted in me eating the rest of it so he can't get anymore and now I have a sore stomach:( He did the same with juice at the weekend, a whole carton was drank in 1 day:mad: - blamed it on DS and DD again! I was at work and they only get one cup a day - watered down! where can I find the pig icon anyone?

Found a good recipe book when on duty at DS's school library last week, reading thru' the recipes when I was rudely interupted by small children looking to take out books - then one of them took it out:eek: Was tempted to say it was reference only but didn't have the heart:o
Will try and clear freezer over the next week or so. Have already dipped into May's shiny budget to buy aforementioned juice and SP flour all on special.

Has anyone tried ASDA jar of curry sauce that looks like chinese or the similar looking really cheap SP one?

Well done everyone who made it - the rest of us will catch up next month - we will we will we will!
X

edited to say - sorry about the big print didn't notice I had done that, eyes must be worse than I thought!

angelatgraceland

Dunno but Ive tried the really cheap one-about 9p and thats fine!

mrssnowy_2

Girl_least_likely_to wrote: »

Here

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, really appreciate it. I'm still gonna have the Tesco delivery but amend it nearer the time. I'll start a box to take with us with tea/coffee/ribena (OH is addicted :rolleyes: ), sugar, my Morrisons bran
Just hope the weather could be a bit more organised :rolleyes:

Just a thought ,have you checked that MrT deliver there-what is the postcode?
I live in MidWales and no supermarket does an onine delivery!!
Have a good hol.
J x

angelatgraceland

Well Ive just totted up my grocery spending for the last 4 weeks.
£329.53 so its £82.38 per week.
Ive decided to start the May challenge from Saturday 26th April and have a 5 week challenge. Judging by this months spend of approx £82 per week I will aim for £75 per week so for the 5 weeks I want to set my limit at £400.
Realistically I cannot see it going below. My upper limit will be £80 per week.
So a max of £400 but I'm hoping to only spend £375. This is for 5 people.(Adults)Food only-no pet food/household or anything else.
Im going to exclude any meals out as I rarely do this and the comparison of a meal out up by homecooked would throw the budget haywire!
In past challenges I have included it but with the massive increases in food costs this year I really don't feel I can.

KITTY_2-2

Morning all

An early start for me today. I'm moving earlier than a work day !!

It's DD's 16th birthday so wanted to make her breakfast etc before she heads to school. Last 5 hours of her Art exam today :eek: so figured she deserved bacon sarnies

Wish me luck please. I have a hearing at 10am for my divorce - hopefully no surprises coming, but we both have to be there Going to cheer myself up with a trip to the Archives to get lost in some genealogy for a couple of hours afterwards. Going to do some research for someone in Australia who can't get access to the Parish registers. Should take my mind off things :rolleyes:
Then splashing some cash on a ridiculously expensive coffee at one of the fancy cafe bars in the Peace Gardens. May even trot round the Millenium Garden for a bit.

Catch you later

scotsaver

Hi KITTY - Happy 16th to your DD_party_ , wish her luck with the exams;) and good luck to you with the Hearing - don't you find that everything all happens at the same time?

Can't remember who asked about the Free Range Eggs but I always buy mine from either Sainsbury's or Asda, bought some last week at Asda as they were on special at £2 for a tray of 18. Used half so far and all lovely and fresh and date stamped and free range stamped and lion stamped, couldn't fit anymore stamps on the egg if they wanted to:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:Hope that helps.