April 2008 Grocery Challenge

JennyBee_2

Hey Ess-six

Have a go with the gardening! I've got a veg patch luckily, but also got a couple of pots outside the kitchen door with lettuce, rocket, baby parsnips, herbs and strawberries in. Everyone can grow something, which is one less thing you have to buy!!

As a wise man (!) once said...Every little helps!

tara66_2

Hi All,

This is my first month in the GC and have spent £61.11 so far, which is a bit more than I hoped but have stocked up and needed to get some baking equipment.

Have had my first cooking Sunday on the GC and have loved it. Getting flapjacks right has eluded me for years but thanks to OS I have just made loads and they are spot on. Sounds daft but I am over the moon.

All the tips are really helping, and you are really making me feel determined to come in on budget, so thanks a lot.
Tara x

tara66_2

I just thought, the other thing that I have given up on in despair is houmous, if anybody has any ideas I would love to try them.
Thanks T x

beingjdc

tara66 wrote: »

I just thought, the other thing that I have given up on in despair is houmous, if anybody has any ideas I would love to try them.
Thanks T x

I'm lazy and buy it, I pretty much only eat it as a sandwich with mango chutney and/or avocado, but here's my friend's recipe, usually stuff she makes turns out right!

http://www.earth.li/~kake/cookery/recipes/hummous.html

666paw

Morning all.

Made some more Twinks hobnobs with chocolate as oh wanted some. Fri oh decided to have a chinese so thats £8.50 gone, bacon i've already added was £3.90 (not £3.09), herbs/spices from the market £2.25 and 24 organic free-range eggs from the chicken farm £2.50.

Its scarey really, i've used over 1/4 of the budget and we are only 7 days in. I've got to go shops tomorrow for a couple of bits (more ingredients for the hobnobs) so hopefully no more than £5.00.

Going to make sw blueberry muffins and carrot cake and then decide what to do with the left over chicken.

Sweet dreams everyone.

P.

Kaz2904

DH spent 65p on a little packet of rice today- he didn't realise that I'd bought some when I went shopping the other day.
Never mind heh? I got out some of my pre cooked mince last night (1/8th of a kg cooked = 100g). I decided to make a shepherds pie. So I blitzed 1 lge onion, 4 mushrooms, 3 carrots, 2 parsnips, and dry fried with 2 oxo cubes (I know about the MSG but need to use them up!). I then added the mince and 1 tin plum toms. Filled the tin with water to rinse and added that. Added about a handful of soya mince by which time it looked like a bolognaise. I then added 8 frozen chopped spinach portions, and about 1/3 tins worth of frozen sweetcorn and the same frozen peas.
I topped it with mashed potato made with 1 large sweet potato too.
When I put it into the oven dishes I had one oval dish, one lasagne dish (large) and 2 smaller lasagne dishes (2 portion). I served it with cabbage.
Trouble was I didn't get up until 6pm and there was no-one to be seen so when they finally turned up at around 7.30 the kids had already eaten- yay even more food for freezer!

chardonnay_2

Justamum wrote: »

Does anybody else make meals to go in the freezer, then not want to use them up?

try waiting till those nights you are knackered or fancy a takeaway because you can't be bothered to cook and these meals will seem like heaven

chardonnay_2

returned asdas own rice crispies as they were horrible and customer service woman only gave me a refund - i challenged her on 200% own brand guarantee and she said is it on there - clearly marked on side of box -and then managed to find a huge binder marked 200% guarantee:rotfl: . i used to get kelloggs then tried asdas (yuck) and then tescos ( quite nice)

people on customer services should blooming know their companies policies. i am going to complain as the next day we were overcharged on self scan twice and we just got our money back, we didn't want to complain twice in a row, but we should have got a 2 quid gift card. worst still it was the same assistant and the previous customer was returning 3 items she had got via home delivery which were all out of date the next day and she only got her money back, no apology etc.

chardonnay_2

EmptyPurse wrote: »

Spent £15 at the butcher's and £30 on cleaning stuff/water filters etc at the hardware store yesterday. Oh, and a fiver today on a few basics from the corner shop. So, that leaves me with £50 for the rest of the month. No idea how on earth I'm going to achieve that - and I'm only spending on stuff for myself. Quite how anyone manages to feed an entire family for a month on £100 is beyond me!

a good idea would be to perhaps post what you bought for a month and i'm sure you would get loads of cheaper suggestions/ alternatives- might be worth a try to reduce your bill

JayneC

faye1978 wrote: »

What a FAB idea about the potato peelings...Do you just fry them? Or dry them out in the oven? I guess you could top them too? :T

Hi,

I do them in the oven - warm some olive oil in a roasting tin first and then add the potato skins and toss them in the oil. Sprinkle with salt (and spices if you like, chili powder is good) and roast until crispy. I often sprinkle a bit of grated cheese over too (after they're cooked:D ). You can also do the same with carrot and parsnip skins;)