August 2008 Grocery Challenge

Congratulations Owens! I'll add your post into the Grocery Challenge thread where the others there can see what you've achieved.

Pink

Hi all, my name is EagerLearner and I fell off the wagon the last few months... I'm a foodieholic!

Our original budget was £120 and for a while it went well, then summer came along and we seem to be buying £140 average of food.

This month, for the two of us I would like to get back to the £120, intending to make it £110 in September. Please can I join up?

We are now making our own yoghurt, putting the slow cooker that had been in storage to much better use. I use a 600ml milk/4 tablespoons live yoghurt/2 tablespoons powdered milk recipe. This costs the £0.55p for the starter yoghurt, around £0.30 for the longlife milk and say 5p for the powdered milk = 90p. Makes enough for the original 500g batch, then I use 4 tablespoons of that and start again - this time it costs £0.35 total. Third time, £0.35 again. So 1.5kg yoghurt costs £1.50. I must be saving compared to the supermarket, plus it tastes yummy and has no packaging!

Thanks so much to the person who suggested Thai curry with yoghurt instead of coconut milk, what a great idea!

Today spent around £8 between Somerfield (for deals) and veggie market (eggs, bananas) and wheatgerm from Holland & Barret (£1.09 for Jordans, 375g). We have a menu plan for the week ahead and all we need are ingredients for our first attempt at baking tomorrow... will try to resist all other items unless nicely reduced!

I am thinking of now taking out £110 in cash for the rest of the month. I have no plan to shop online, so would just carry shopping money week by week.

Is there anyone else buying for 2 adults or that has a £120 target that wants to buddy up? I need encouragement!

EagerLearner wrote: »

Thanks so much to the person who suggested Thai curry with yoghurt instead of coconut milk, what a great idea!

That was me EL:D . I got an easiyo on freecycle last month and have greatly reduced our yogurt costs as we use it alot as milkcream substitute for weight watching reasons. You can use yog a lot in cooking it seems from my research: I made mac cheese last week half with HM skimmed milk yog and sauce flour (so no butter required for sauce). The flour 'stabilises the yog so it doesn't curdle. Made for a yummy 'low fat' sauce. I've also bought 1/4m muslin (45p)and strained it too which makes it much thicker which is great as a cream sub with fresh fruit or puddings. Mixed with butterscotch angel delight is a yummy treat too.
Sorry I can't buddy up with you - buying for too but I'm on a starting budget of £200 for our first month

Hi bails and Brighton Belle - thanks for the answers, I feel better about August now :T

Brighton Belle - ebay is great for muslin - I bought 12 huuuuge sheets for £6 around 1 year ago! Then cut each sheet up into 4. This makes 48 sheets, 12.5p each! I use them for beauty and makeup and also yoghurt strainer. In each sheet's last legs, then I use them as cleaning rags...

I am as I type making some yoghurt and also a chinese, which was reduced and I buy ready-made about once a year - just that MrEL is out and I didn't have any chinese ingredients, plus it was £1.50 instead of £3...

I thought folks might like this, just found it on Google:
http://incompetech.com/beta/cal-monthly/
Has an Excel monthly calendar you can print and menu plan ahead - for me I had only been doing it every couple of weeks, but am going to see if I can't plan August - daunting though!

Bails you up for that? :j

evening folks,

have spent the day helping a friend move house, am helping with the cleaning tomorrow (taking my stardrops!)

managed a nsd so am pleased with that, might get milk tomorrow but then again i think i might take a frozen one out, down to our last 4 frozen containers, 2x4 pints and 2x2 pints

Thank you all, i'm so pleased with my hair, it's like the girl doing it read my mind as to how i had imagined it.