May 2008 Grocery Challenge

juliejim

Congratulations Searching-me!

mophead

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

A few posters have asked in the past about how many oats/lentils to add when bulking out mince. As an example I bulked out my chilli with lentils and oats, 2kg mince, 200g lentils, 200g oats. Everyone said it was good - not that they knew anything about the lentils or oats :shhh: . Made 12 meals for 4 in total for £5 mince (Tesco buy 2 x 1kg for £5)

FFM

I've been doing this for a while i got the tip whilst on parenting forum, i did it gradually adding a little more each time and they never noticed. My DH who is supposed to hate anything resembling a lentil/oat say's how much my Shepard's Pie has improved:rotfl: . When i told him he was suprised and one of his favourite meals is my Curry,Lentil and spinich soup with HM Rolls.

Had a busy day yesterday made 2 Loaves which were eaten the minute they was cooled. So i stayed up late to make my DH some rolls for his dinner today (cheese,onion and salad cream) when i got up the morning he has gone to work and left them:mad: .

Today i have my baking day, once i have cooked my roast joint i will use the oven to bake the weeks supply of biscuit and scones etc.

Bye..x.

victory

Just made red lentil soup, far too watery and tasteless, don't want to throw it out not very MSE:D any ideas on how to make it tasty and save the soup?:rolleyes:

In_Search_Of_Me

Trying to keep up with the thread by regular popping in! Made potato bread yesterday whch is yummy & with flour so expensive & pots relatively cheap its a good un! Plus the texture is lovely - much nicer than any other HM bread I've done! Mrs M can relate to cupboards full etc. Why is it then that we still find ourselves shopping! Mad isnt it! Am going to try now & not shop & get organised with help from Wezzle on planning me thinks!! Feeling very inspired by it all so thanks all! Mind you did fail & got a marie Claire mag yesterday but with the excuse that there was a freebie body lotion worth £5 in it - to go with the other 6 million body lotions I have!

ifonlyitwaseasier

hey everyone,

well am still at inlaws, go home tomorrow, and today i'm cooking steak and ale casserole in the slowcooker (which i brought with me) and as mil bought the food it's going to taste even better.

btw whilst in mr m's i got some lentils (ta mil) for 68p for 500g, so cheapest small bag i've found, even julian graves was 95p for the same amount

ifonlyitwaseasier

hey victory, how about adding some chopped up sweet potato and simmering for a while? it will get softer and eventually melt in and thicken it, or normal potato? or mashed potato?

leonlala

:hello: Morning everyone.
well deserved Victory!!
just an update dd went to a party yesterday spent £3.94 on present to add to what already had.
( she's got another party next sat too. that will have to come out of week following budget :rolleyes: just to keep on track )
Its her bd at the end of the month and wants lots of friends and a high school musical theme! luckily I've allocated some money towards that already.(only £20:eek: ) any ideas welcome.
also spent £2.50 in local charity shop on a piny for me as i get covered in flour when baking:rotfl: , and some baseball boots for dd, unfortunately too small, but will keep for ds for when bigger.
all this comes out of my household /grocery budget ( same thing for me)
determined for a no spend day, oh at work, he finishes at 2:30 pm, village shop closes at 12. I can't drive, next nearest shop 3 miles so could do it althou oh wants to take kids swimming after work, always temptation there. will send him with a tub of twinks hob nobs and bottle of water. bring it on!
off to update signature.
have a good day everyone
lala

galadriel

jak wrote: »

Do you just use ordinary porrige oats? Which lentils do you use? I need some ideas as dh likes his meat!

I have spent 9.77 at ASDA -dh went and didn't use coupons!!!!!!!
Also today I spend 1.52 in Tescos.
Do you include you toilet roll and stuff in food and groceries or do you have a seperate budget for that?

Hi jak, I think some people do include everything, some have a separate budget, it's up to you. I am including all toiletries/cleaning stuff in my challenge as I usually buy them as part of my supermarket shop.

moo2moo

I include everything I buy at the supermarket in my monthly grocery budget on the basis that if I wasn't in there I wouldn't be tempted to buy whatever it was that leapt into my trolley be it cleaning products, clothes for the kids, books or whatever. My overspending tends to be on that sort of thing anyway so including it in my budget makes me think a bit more before I buy things.

High School Musical Themed Party... have asked my eldest. She'd be hoping that you were watching High School Musical 1 and 2 in PJs whilst eating pizza and popcorn and perhaps Karaoke-ing along with the soundtrack afterwards or worse still the PS2 singstar version for High School Musical (all of which you should be able to borrow from her friends if you don't already have them). I think that all depends how old she is. Mine is 8 (going on 13) and sleepovers are the latest big thing.

miserly_mum

Hi, i'm in again this month (bit late sorry) To run from 1st-31st May.

My budget is £235 again. We are a family of 2 adults and 3 kids (10,8 and 2)

Budget is to include all food, cleaning stuff, toiletries plus nappies and wipes for the youngest

Good luck everyone