December 2016 Grocery Challenge

Florence_J

Been a bit absent this month as life has got in the way!

Have done some serious overspending as only have £3.81 left of the budget. Luckily it does end early this month due to the early Christmas pay, so I only have 9 days to go and it should just be milk and bread we need to buy.

meg72

Went into town yesterday as needed a new roasting pan, I passed Iceland and noticed an offer on the wndown, FREE roasting pan with McCains Roast potatoes £2 so went n to check it out. Really good quality tin.

As the tin was coming out of Christmas money decided that the roasties were free, lol

Don't need anything but will have a look at the ys this afternoon if its not raining.

elsiepac

Save_Dosh wrote: »

1 tin chickpeas
1 1/2 tsps peanut butter
1/2 roasted pepper (out of jar)
3 x garlic (minced, which I freeze into mini cubes, so not sure how much)
BLEND
Add salt, pepper, a tiny dash of chilli powder & a little bit of lemon to taste.

Save Dosh Thanks for your recipe - looks great! I'll have to try when I next have roasted peppers!

kkffoo Thanks you so much for sharing your meal plan- some really great ideas there that I can definitely build on!

I've got 12 days left of my December budget so I'm pretty happy with how it's going. A larger budget has definitely eased up the pressure but I do need to get it down. However I will probably keep it at £150 for January as it'll be a longer month.


Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining
25 Nov.....BF........£53.11.....£106.89 (Health Food Stock Up Shop)
26 Nov.....Steve.....£01.00.....£105.89 (for crisps)
26 Nov.....Mark......£01.50.....£104.39 (for bakery)
26 Nov.....T3sc0.....£21.18.....£83.21 (proper groceries shop)
5 Dec......T3sc0.....£22.95.....£60.26 (stock up grocery shop - baking things, tins, salt, stock cubes etc)
7 Dec......T3sc0.....£01.94.....£58.30 (croutons for me for a salad at lunch - last minute using up iceberg which I never normally have! plus rice for my boss... hopefully I'll get that 84p back!)
8 Dec......Co-0p.....£06.45.....£51.85 (kale, spinach, lemons, coriander, tomatoes, limes and peppers - was £8.13 but I used £1.68 on my membership card)
9 Dec......A1d1......£02.17.....£49.68 (onions, peppers, brown sugar)
9 Dec......T3sc0.....£02.19.....£47.49 (salsa, houmous, broccoli)

[Deleted User]

Another NSD for me, though I will be grabbing a few bits tomorrow. Today I made 'Oat Milk'. So easy - another recipe I will be tweeking, but made 1 litre from a cup of oats and its really lovely in my coffee.

PennyGrabber

Well, I went to aldililly to get my weekly shop, and I'm really pleased with myself. I spent the grand total of £8.59, which consisted of bread, milk, 2 long life milks for porridge at work, brioches, cucumber, yoghurts and cheese. Was a little miffed when I rearranged my fridge to find a new cheese already in there, but we get through cheese really quickly, so it won't be long before it's needed anyway.

The menu plan has changed for this week already, as I spoke to the children's dad this morning, and I'm now keeping the children on Thursday night. That's brilliant news for me; another day with the children is another day to celebrate as far as I'm concerned. Just need to tweak the meal plan now though. It's ok - I realised I'm not even feeding dd on weds anyway as she's with a friend, and I don't finish work until at least 5:40 but need to be somewhere at 6, so I'll get ds a happy meal and I'll have something later, then we'll have the soup on Thursday as that's a rushed day too. The run up to Christmas is always so hectic!!

PG x

meg72

£2.40 spent today on satsumas and pears 1.50 and 90p on reduced loaves, wraps, rolls etc. 9 items at 10p. Enough to keep me going for weeks.

£8.90 spent so far this month.

thriftwizard

Well, I haven't spent any of our grocery money for the last three days, because I was looking after Mum following her cataract operation. However I left £45 on the spice rack for the Offspring to buy anything they felt they needed, and there's £10 left, so I've added £35 to our total. I have no idea what they spent it on though I can see some shrink-wrapped broccoli in the fridge, so they went to W8rose rather than the market... hmmm!

I've also come back from Mum's with some food, as I'd bought some in down there (from her budget) which we didn't use in the end & she won't use up herself. So we're a chicken to the good... tomorrow's supper sorted!

wishus

Hey everybody! You know some of those YS bargain's I got the other day? Well one was a pack of ox kidneys for 29p, and I just used them to make an offally good casserole.

Not tried kidneys outside of a pie before, where they are usually grey mushroom-like slivers, but they are fantastic! I'm definitely converted!

Kidney Casserole:
for 2 people

• 1 pack ox kidneys
• medium onion, cut in chunky wedges
• 2 large carrots, sliced chunky
• 4 largish potatoes, or more if you like your carbs, chunky pieces
• spoon or two of frozen peas
• a few broccoli florets, or any other veg you fancy. Some cabbage on the side would be nice.
• beef stock cube, made into stock and/or gravy granules/water.
• Parsley (dried, a sprinkle), pepper. Probably won't need extra salt.

Turn oven on: 180*C
Seal the kidneys in a frying pan for a couple of minutes over a medium heat.
Pop the kidneys in a casserole dish along with the raw veg, parsley and seasoning.
Cover with stock.
Put lid on casserole dish and put in oven for around 2-2.5 hours.
You may want to check part way through that the gravy hasn't all gone, and top up with stock or water and gravy granules as necessary.

Serve in bowls.

lynnejk

Evening all

Shopping today was £16.53 in Al*I.

I really need to get a butcher order together, but trying to get round to defrosting the freezers first this week.

Hope you all have a super Monday
Lx

JAMIEDODGER

Wow, such a lot of posts to catch up on!

Had quite a few spendy days recently, so not a lot of NSD's so far this month.

Spending so far:

1st - Lidl - £27.63
2nd - NSD
3rd - NSD
4th - Morrisons - £1.75
5th - Tesco - £31.72 Lidl - £10.46
6th - NSD
7th -NSD
8th - Lidl - £26.91 B&M - £4.69
9th - Coop - £1.94
10th - Sainsburys - £32.22
11th - Tesco - £9.50 Sainsburys - £7.19

Total spend so far: £152.07/£400 (£247.93 remaining) and 4 NSD’s.

Planning a NSD today, however I do have to pop into town for a few things which aren't part of my GC, and if I see any bargains I will get them.

Got some YS bargains last night in Tesco and Sainsburys, a lovely joint of pork which has gone in the freezer to possibly have on NYD, and numerous small bits which have gone in the freezer for a later date when I can work them into my meal plan:)

I've nearly finished buying all my bits for Christmas now, just need a joint of beef and a chicken, plus veg and salad stuff, everything else has been bought on offer/YS etc. Doing the big day for 6 of us, plus 3 separate buffet style lunches, so lots of baking etc will need to be done starting next week.

Well done to everyone sticking with this challenge through one of the most expensive months of the year!!:T