August 2015 Grocery Challenge

cw18

A few small items were purchased yesterday, and I finished off a long-term stock jar of gravy granules.

No purchases or long-term stock useage today, so budget now shows as being at £108.70 spent against £75.93 budget to end of today.

Will be (hopefully, but depends if the smaller local stores have what I want) picking up a few bits tomorrow ready for going away next weekend. Still need to figure out what I'm making for tea tomorrow, then I'm meal planned up to and including 21st. Then I've got 3 days of the rest of the month to figure out what I'm going to make.

Bluegreen143

Ready for my bed now! After realising today how close we are already to the end of the budget, I had a big cookathon and made:

- roast chicken, potatoes, Yorkshires, gravy and veg for dinner
- I then picked all the meat off, mixed a little with pesto and mayo and made DH's sandwiches for the next two days (froze the rest for a pie)
- made stock with the carcass and froze
- the above pictured loaf of bread (sliced and frozen)
- a massive pot of two lentil dhal, about ten portions all either frozen or in the fridge
- jam with the last of the jostaberries and gooseberries in the garden
- jam tarts with some leftover pastry
- some extremely hot chilli sauce

Pleased with a productive day of cooking hopefully I can keep it up over the rest of the month as I know it'll help.

lynnejk

Evening all :hello:

miss_try_to_save wrote: »

can I please join the august grocery challenge I would like to do £400 for the month to include everything for 3 people occasionally 5 and a cat so far I have spent £125/£400

A warm welcome to the thread and good luck with the challenge


Went shopping today and spent


S*vers..............£ 4.98 (2 x 200gm jars of N*scafe) :money:
L*dl..................£ 3.04
A*di..................£18.37


So a total of £ 26.39 added to month's budget. Still think I should be ok as only need some salad leaves this week until next week-end


Hope you all have a money-saving Monday
Lx

cw18

I'm hoping you wonderful GC people can suggest some meal ideas to me.

I'm trying to work out a 5 week meal plan (would love to get to 6 or 7, but looking to start with 5), and after 3 days of head scratching and recipe index browsing am still 4 meals short.

I've split meals into 7 categories, and am trying to get 5 for each with the intention of having one from each category each week. What I have so far is :-

Mince :
1. Chilli (rice)
2. Bolognese (pasta)
3. Macaroni casserole (mince, baked beans and pasta)
4. Mince and mash or jacket spud (potato)
5. Lasagne (pasta)

Chicken :
1. Risotto (rice)
2. Enchilladas (tortillas) possibly fish alternative for me
3. Supreme (rice)
4. Curry (indian or thai, rice) probably fish alternative for me if Indian
5. Cannelloni (pasta)
Will sometimes swap one of these out for chicken breasts with a spicy rub or a sauce of some type (have some Szechaun sachets in the house, and a lemon and something one for doing with chicken and noodles). This is the one category I'd have no problem expanding for a 7 (or even 8) week meal plan

Stews/Casseroles :
1. Beef Stew (potatoes)
2. Chicken Casserole (potatoes)
3. Sausage Casserole (pasta or potatoes)
4. Beef Stroganoff (rice or pasta).
5. ???
I will sometimes replace the chicken casserole with Coq Au Vin or similar, but don't want that as a seperate entry while only on 5 weeks as there's already a lot of chicken in my lists). Did consider a pork casserole, but the few I've done in the past haven't gone down especially well with anyone

Roasts :
1. Lamb Steaks (potatoes)
2. Pork Steaks (potatoes)
3. Gammon which will probably be a slow cooked joint so I have left overs for risotto, pizza topping and sandwiches (potatoes)
4. Chicken so I have left overs for risotto and sandwiches, plus stock for risotto and casseroles (potatoes)
5. slow cooked Brisket with left overs for sandwiches and so I can try making my own pies (potatoes)

Quick and Easy :
1. Pizza possibly fish alternative for me
2. Omelette
3. Tuna Pasta
4. Meatballs and spaghetti
5. Hot garlic chicken sandwich possibly fish alternative for me

Specials : These are things we haven't historically had regularly, mainly due to cost
1. Kiev - normally chicken breasts I stuff with garlic and herb soft cheese (potatoes)
2. Steak (chips)
3. Swordfish (potatoes)
4. Full English Breakfast possibly fish alternative for me
5. ???
If I can get hold of them I sometimes do exotic meats, such as venison, kangaroo or ostrich steaks. My local Iceland have this kind of thing at the moment, but I'd like a 5th option that I should be able to get hold of on a regular basis without breaking the bank. That then gives me opporrtunity to make the steak (expensive as son likes a huge slab) or swordfish (he's not really keen enough to have it every 5 weeks) once every 10 weeks, with an exotic meat replacing whichever I've dropped.

Other :
1. Burger in bun (chips or wedges) - sometimes beef, sometimes lamb or jalapeno. Sometimes more exotic such as venison, crocodile or ostrich. Could possibly do burgers twice in a 5 weeks cycle - one being beef, lamb or jalapeno and the other being an exotic meat. possibly fish alternative or a chicken burger for me - especially if beef burger for son
2. Sausages (pasta and sauce, savoury rice or potatoes)
3. Pie which will be a beef variety for son, but pretty much anything for me if buying rather than making (chips) possibly fish alternative for me - especially if a bought pie for son
4. ???
5. ???


I can't include any more fish meals (the two I have are the only ones DS will eat).

I also can't do vegetarian as he won't eat a meal that doesn't include meat (even throws away a lot of the veg I serve alongside meals).

I add lentils and oats to mince based meals, even though son makes some nasty comments if he spots the lentils (don't think he's sussed the oats yet though )

I wasn't doing too badly when he worked nights, as he took shop bought ready meals to work 7 days in every 14 meaning I was only catering for him half the time. But he swapped to days at the end of June so I'm now catering for him full-time - and he was laid off on Friday which means I'm going to have to try and work to a smaller grocery budget as well

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yippee!!

WantToBeSE

II have spent the first £100, so have £160 left. I dont need anything apart from some bread, tomatoes and fruit. Will pop to Lidl later for those.

dramarama

Good morning GCers!
I've spent just over £7 this weekend on food. Mostly fruit & veg. Going to have to spend a little on top ups of milk etc this week.
Now spent over £52.
Have a great day

joedenise

cw18 - rather than a pork stew in your stew/casserole section could you do something like pulled pork using a BBQ sauce or perhaps cooking a shoulder of pork in cider with maybe some apples?

Or perhaps something like the Hairy Bikers recipe for braised steak & onions, although that can work out quite expensive so might be better in your Specials category?

I'll have another think and can go through my old menu plans and and see if there is anything in those that might suit your missing dishes.

Denise

cyantist

cw18 wrote: »

I'm hoping you wonderful GC people can suggest some meal ideas to me.

I'm trying to work out a 5 week meal plan (would love to get to 6 or 7, but looking to start with 5), and after 3 days of head scratching and recipe index browsing am still 4 meals short.

Jambalaya classes as stew, right?
I know it's more chicken but if you put some chorizo and bacon lardons in as well it's not actually that chicken-y.

Duck for special? Easy to get hold of and not that expensive - compared to kangaroo anyway

Pork in a creamy mustard sauce with gnochhi?

BBQ pork ribs? Belly pork in some sort of sauce (JD maybe?)

Getting sad thinking of all the pork meals that I can't eat because I'm intolerant :-(

joedenise

Hi again CW18. I've had a quick look through my last couple of months menu plans and have come up with a few more dishes, only 2 of which are pork based but maybe possibles for your Specials section. If there are any recipes you'd like then let me know, either on here or PM me.

Duck breast, served with roast potatoes & veg
Corned Beef hash
Slow Cooker lamb kebab with pitta & salad
HM Cornish pasty
Lamb tagine/couscous
Sweet & sour pork/rice
Pork goulash

Denise