May 2008 Grocery Challenge

jackiegibbo

Hello to everyone im not posting so much now but i am keeping up to date with everyone.Good luck to you all,my spend so far for the month is £175.15,is it possible that i might just break even this month:rolleyes: no probably not but you are all doing brilliantly:T :T :T

angelnikki

Hi Victory glad to hear your family enjoyed them :T

The only difference from using all butter or 1/2 butter & 1/2 lard is the taste so that shouldnt affect the pastry working.

From what you've said I would maybe add a bit more water to the pastry to keep it together. Using a knife to add the (ice cold )water is to prevent melting the butter too much. Also I would use the butter straight from the fridge as this affects the pastry too. You need to keep the pastry as cold as possible until it is put in the oven. HTH

Nikki
x

savingfortravel

Hi everyone!!

Bought a few items from Mr T today. Couldn't use vouchers as self scanners were down.

That could be it for May.. but never say never...

Got a free Rosemary plant from a newspaper last weekend so will enjoy having a supply to use on our roast potatoes. Have been stealing pieces from mum and dads, my sister's next door neighbour and eyeing up all the bushes in the neighbourhood (so many people grow them-some are huge-could just snip a little....)
Strawberry plants have so much blossom on them..

Will be meal planning for June and working out the shopping list this weekend.
June is a 5 week month for us (including half term) so need to think carefully..

Have a good evening everyone!!!

SFT

frankerooney

frankerooney wrote: »

As we're switching more and more of our shopping to T Value range, I've recently been using Value tinned tomatoes but we found that they tasted really acidic :eek:. Has anyone else noticed this, or did we just get a bad batch?

Thanks MrsMc & Angelnikki for your suggestions in reply to my tomatoes question. I'll give them both a try.

taplady

evening all!
just updating my spending total. Went to Tesco and spent £67.82 plus some bananas form a local shop for £1.11 so my total this month is £196.40 out of £300 leaving me £103.60 for the rest of the month. I am pleased with my spending so far which has been helped by me making my own bread again and DH getting some free milk as he's a milkman(allowed a certain amount a week free:T ) we have to still buy some but it really helps especially as DS2 has a liking for milkshake.

angelatgraceland

shelley1977 wrote: »

i tried the 4p curry sauce from asda last night an was surprised how nice it was.it wasnt too hot but wasnt really bland either.going to buy some more jars next shop.thought it was strange though the label on the jar said 27p

Can you verify if this is actually in a jar or a tin? Ive been buying a tin for 4p.

angelatgraceland

Victory-I use a block of Stork or Asdas baking margarine-also in a block for cooking. Easier to weigh than anything in a tub. I use the empty wrapper to grease my tins with at the end.Sometimes I keep an ounce of margarine in a wrapper just for this purpose.

jackk_2

Just updating signature, it's gonna be tight :eek: .

x

Pip-squeak_3

managed to keep the shop to £9.14 this week but still have to find cheap tomatoes. Mr S does not seem to have the 53p carton so will have to try the market tomorrow. Went to several shops this week and found Cross and Blackwell baked beans 4 tins for £1 in Iceland. Can get value tins cheaper but they never have as many beans. Also Tetley Red bush tea for 99p in Waitrose. My target is to never spend more that 1p (and hopefully much less) on an 'normal' teabag but for red bush, which OH loves this is good value.
Got my free milk from Mr S but had to ask for the coupon at the checkout and the cashier did not know what i was talking about and had to ask for some coupons!!

On the 4p curry sauce theme I buy Mr S 10p mint sauce and add a dash to plain yogurt with onion, honey and chilli if i have it to make a cheap raita to serve with curry. A pot of mint sauce lasts for months.
Have now spent £57.09 of my £100 so am feeling hopeful.
Good luck to everyone

High_Peak_Lass

Spent £105.36 out of £200 in Mr T and Aldi.
Did Aldi first but all the veg on offer had gone:(
Never mind, spent £11 on toiletries and cleaning stuff
£25 on booze
so £69 on groceries isn't too bad, have 2 groaning freezers now and cooking day on Sunday:j
Ended up with steak, mince, chicken, chicken, chicken(!), diced beef, sausages, bacon, lamb chops, corned beef, mozzarella, pasta, bags of frozen veg and lots and lots and lots of stuff!

fajitas, cottage pie, chicken curry, bolognese, lasagne, hm burgers, hm pizza, chiili, wedges, corned beef hash, sausage casserole, 'mush on a plate'...................

Also bought some stork and bicarb to make the famous MSE hobnobs:cool:

I think we'll come in on budget food-wise, here's hoping! hope you're all having a good Friday night.x