October 2017 Grocery Challenge

NewShadow · 29 September 2017 at 11:22PM

First day of the 'no-spend' plan tomorrow and changes already...

Monday and Tuesday off work unexpectedly, which is nice.

Then I manage to bag some free cinema tickets for the lego ninja movie, so I'm taking a friend and her son on Sunday - she knows the tickets are free but has offered a 'spoons Sunday lunch as a thank-you, which is doubly-nice.

I've also got cheap (£4) tickets to the theatre on Tuesday with a friend who again is buying food as thank you, so that's the hat-trick.

I'm planning on making some flapjacks for in the cinema and theatre (to save on buying the overpriced snacks) with a bottle of water and will be taking £20 'just in case' money' but trying to forget I have it.

I have made changes to the aforementioned plan in keeping with the unexpected happenings and slightly chillier weather.

Breakfast Porridge and frozen/dried fruit (might buy some bananaramas or applelles - need to check freezer stock)

Lunches
One 'free' Sunday lunch
Spanish style omelette x 2
Baked potato with beans and cottage cheese x 2
Soup-n-Sarnie x 2

Dinner
LO Beef stew
One 'free' after show dinner
'Pasta' something - possibly tuna or mackerel or cheesy veg x 2
Roast chicken dinner x 2
An eat-up/leftover day

Snacks
Flapjacks (may need butter - need to check the freezer)

elsiepac · 30 September 2017 at 8:03AM

BrassicWoman wrote: »

£49:41 for the payday shop; only bought items on special offer and had £7 off coupon. So have all the soup, soda, laundry stuff, shampoo, toothpaste, loo roll I could need for a month or two. Also some cooking sauces, peanut butter, cashews, and japanese chill mayo (vegan tastiness!) And a couple packs discontinued beanburgers for the freezer.

After the grim austerity of September it is nice to have the cupboards rammed to the point I can't fit one more thing in again. Not that I have oddles of cupboards; it just feels nice.

Ooh is that the new Flying Goose Sriracha mayo? I keep seeing it and thinking it looks vegan but but needed to check out the e numbers to see what they were!!
Think that'll be going on my list if it's confirmed!
I love sriracha!

Also, re your cooking sauces comment - Levi Roots sachets are still 50p each in Mr T but only until 3 Oct so time to stock up - they don't go off till 2019! I have about 20 of the Jerk ones as they are fantastic - really lovely thick paste with a brilliant flavour!
As I'm vegan I found a sachet will do x4 vegan quorn fillets, or a block of tofu sliced up, but I want to try it on veggies too! Jerk butternut anyone?!

Also, Blue Dragon have a range of kits I haven't seen before - there are 5 different ones in my Mr T - 4 different curries and a pad thai - they have coconut milk, toppings and stir ins, and a paste sachet. The pad thai one includes the noodles. You just add your veggies or (vegan!)
meat! They are half price each till 3 Oct too, at £1.34 each. I wouldn't have paid full price as I would just make it myself for that! But I thought £1.34 was really good for what you get -
they don't go off until 2018 and are cupboard items, so again, I've bought quite a few of those as they will be perfect for a treat meal instead of a takeaway for example, therefore saving money in the long run.

BrassicWoman · 30 September 2017 at 8:44AM

elsiepac wrote: »

Ooh is that the new Flying Goose Sriracha mayo? I keep seeing it and thinking it looks vegan but but needed to check out the e numbers to see what they were!!
Think that'll be going on my list if it's confirmed!

That's the one! Pointy bottle of orange goo

Everyone in my vegn facebook groups raves about it - a sweet chilli style mayo made with soybeans instead of egg. Haven't tried it but think it'll spice up a burger something lovely!

I love a Pad Thai, will look out for those Blue Dragon kits.

elsiepac · 30 September 2017 at 3:23PM

As usual, I've gone a bit madder than intended with my first two weeks/stock shopping. And at £158.33 / £220 already, it might look dire.
BUT!
I have 3 shopping days left this month, and dividing up the rest of my budget, this means I have £20.56 week 3, £20.56 week 4, and £20.55 week 5.

My fridge and freezer are bursting at the seams and all is looking good. I have less tinned tomatoes than I usually like to keep, however these are cheap enough that if I do run out, I'll be able to get some within that budget.
Also, I have so much fresh veg that some meals will be bound to be frozen!

I got super excited at some beautiful swedes and parsnips in Ald1 so got some in honour of the weather starting to get colder. Is swede soup a thing? I feel I want to make it! Or maybe a winter veg and barley stew? Yum yum, I just LOVE food!

The only thing I'm not happy about is that I've run out of cashews and with my crazy stocking up, I don't think I'll be able to realistically factor it into those weeks money, as I get a big bag for about £6 from the ethnic aisle as it's way better value than the "wholefoods" style ones. I'm sure I can survive this one month without creamy sauces, but I HATE not having my stock all filled up!

................................£220 Budget
Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining
26 Sep.....Ocad0.......£43.08....£176.92 (STOCK)
26 Sep.....Ocad0.......£20.62....£156.30 (WEEK 1)
26 Sep.....Ald1........£16.44....£139.86 (WEEK 1)
26 Sep.....T3sc0.......£22.38....£117.48 (WEEK 1)
28 Sep.....Ald1........£12.58....£104.90 (WEEK 2)
28 Sep.....T3sc0.......£36.31.....£68.59 (WEEK 2)
28 Sep.....T3sc0.......£06.92.....£61.67 (STOCK)

CattyCatX · 30 September 2017 at 4:16PM

Hi, I'd like to join in, if I may?
My budget for this month (1st-31st) is £200 (although this includes everything other than rent and bills, not just groceries... :eek:)

I did a stock take this morning and was pleased that there was nothing out of date and that I had much more than I thought. Especially some frozen sausage meat that I'd forgotten about but which should be fine to make sausage rolls with :j

Anyway, so far this month I've spent £20 (not touching any of that food until tomorrow though...) but I'm hoping to get nearly 5 days or so out of that. The hardest part of this challenge for me is getting my OH on board; he is proving difficult.

Out of interest - I have around 640 g of beef mince. I'm planning on making some spag bol, lasagna and chili con carne out of that - padded out with chick peas, kidney beans and other veg I think this will make quite a lot but the OH is adamant that it would only cover 6 portions max... I think it will end up being more (and he's not doing the cooking :rotfl:)... how many portions/meals would you get out of that amount of mince?

Thanks everyone and looking forward to joining this challenge!

chocoholic_chick · 30 September 2017 at 7:00PM

Can I be in for £300 this month please. Upped the budget as I need to stock up on meat. Found a local butchers today that I tried (tried muscle foods in August which was OK but don't think I'd use them again) and it seems good value - bought 5kg of chicken breast for £22, 2kg steak mince for £10, 3 small gammon joints for £5 and a tray of 5 big sirloin steaks for £10.

The gammon joints I plan on using for soups and the chicken will do ALOT of meals so I shouldn't need any meat for a few weeks.

Out of 640g of mince I'd probably split it and if I make spag bol I pad it out with mushrooms, courgette etc. I'd then make 2 lasagnes (each would feed 2) and probably have enough left to have a portion of bolognese for two. With the other half I'd make chilli and pad it out with two or three tins of beans (baked, kidney and mixed) so at least 3 portions of 2.

So in total at least 12 portions, but then I'm not bothered about having too much meat in my meals so it's not for everyone!

NewShadow · 30 September 2017 at 9:44PM

CattyCatX wrote: »

Out of interest - I have around 640 g of beef mince. I'm planning on making some spag bol, lasagna and chili con carne out of that - padded out with chick peas, kidney beans and other veg I think this will make quite a lot but the OH is adamant that it would only cover 6 portions max... I think it will end up being more (and he's not doing the cooking :rotfl:)... how many portions/meals would you get out of that amount of mince?

Personally - I'd add around the same again of red lentils to the raw mince and then about the same in grated or diced onion and/or carrot (so a total of about 2kilo).

I portion it out into 200g servings and freeze - when I defrost it I bulk it out with extras for that meal to make it 'different' and to hide the lack of meat.

Then I'd do the same as chocoholic_chick and allocate about 100g of the 'mince mix' per meal.

2kilo of 'mince mix' would do me 2 servings each of: Spag boll, Cottage pie, Chilli, Lasagne, Enchiladas, Nachos, Meatballs, Pasta bake, Pie, Meatloaf.

NewShadow wrote: »

First day of the 'no-spend' plan tomorrow and changes already...

I'm planning on making some flapjacks for in the cinema and theatre (to save on buying the overpriced snacks) with a bottle of water and will be taking £20 'just in case' money' but trying to forget I have it.

Okay, well I made flapjacks and I ate the meal I had planned for today:j

I did need to buy butter and dried fruit (which has gotten shockingly expensive!) and did go onto pick up a couple of extra 'bits' for the next week.

Purchased:
sainsbugs
5 x bananas @ 95p,
4 x lucozade @ £2 (for cold and flu season),

coop
1 x wholemeal loaf @71p (YS),
1 x sharing bag of popcorn @ £1,
2 x 500g dried fruit @ £3 (2for)
1 x 250g butter @ £1.50
1 x box of matches @ 21p

With NUS discount at coop, total spends = £8.75 + 25p off fruit or veg coupon for my next shop.

Assuming I can now stay out of the shop until next weekend - and assuming the popcorn and flapjacks save me money at the cinema - I'm happy with that...

Plan
Breakfast Porridge and frozen/dried fruit + Banana

Lunches
One 'free' Sunday lunch
Spanish style omelette
Baked potato with beans and cottage cheese
Baked potato with beans and cottage cheese
Soup-n-Sarnie
Soup-n-Sarnie

Dinner
[strike]LO Beef stew[/strike]
One 'free' after show dinner
Tangine style meal with aubergine and sweet potato
Tangine style meal with aubergine and sweet potato
Roast turkey dinner
Roast turkey dinner
An eat-up/leftover day

Snacks
Flapjacks x 15 (there were 16, but quality control happened:cool:)

lynnejk · 30 September 2017 at 11:55PM

Evening all and a warm welcome to all new peoples and returners :hello:

Thanks Zippy and Coxy for the new thread

Please put us down for our usual £200 for the month.

This is from the 1st - 31st of the month for DH and myself, and includes all food, toiletries, laundry and other household 'stuff'. Alcohol, petrol, entertainments and holidays have their own budgets.

Good luck everyone for October and hope you all manage a good month budget-wise.
Lx

kitkat71 · 1 October 2017 at 5:20AM

Please may I join in? Finances are pretty dire so really need to rein in the spending, the fact we haven't really been keeping track of how much and how often we spend at shops hasn't helped.

Anyway budget planner is in place so I would like to try for 250 for the month (to include all food, drink, alcohol and cleaning stuff ). This is for 3 adults and 1 dog ( 2 cats, they are a separate budget but may add them into the mix depending on how this month goes).

I have a sainsburys delivery coming later on today ( 20 off a 60 shop) 44.60 and spent 40.98 at lidl yesterday. This leaves 164.42 until 31st but was very sensible with aforementioned shops and stuck to lists so we have plenty in fridge, freezer and cupboards.

tiredwithtwins · 1 October 2017 at 10:16AM

ill dip in and join this month if I may

I usually budget for £50 per week for all groceries and laundry/loo roll ... been good at sticking to my budget but last month it wandered a bit due to getting some tax refunded, student loan overpayment repaid and outstanding overtime from 4 months ago (NHS payroll is very inefficient!).

theres only me and 2 teenagers now, 3rd teenager tends to flit between home and her boyfriends house, and buys her own food most of the time, but does join in the occasional family meal.

my October is a 4 week month, from 28th sept to 26th oct ... oct to nov is a 5 week month

I did a stock up shop at the Company Shop, which cost £42, plus £20 for taxi's there and back (don't have a car any more but it still works out cheaper to do stock up shop and get a taxi than weekly shopping in supermarkets).
I managed to get 6 x 6pack sausages, 6 x 980gpacks of chicken breasts, 4 x whole chickens, 5 dozen eggs, 2 x 900g mince beef plus bits of things like hummous, small packs of boiled ham and flavoured chicken breasts and a few treats. that should do us for the month, with about £20/week on fresh veg, salad and fruit.
I have store cupboards groaning under the weight of various pastas, sauces, tins etc so should be able to stay well within budget

Im dreading xmas this year so every little saving will help!

good luck everyone for October!!

Sue xx

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October 2017 Grocery Challenge

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