February 2017 Grocery Challenge

meg72

Only one week to go for me and I am thrilled haven't touched Feb budget at all. Spent £56 of the £70 savings from Jan, stocking up the pantry and fruit and veg when reduced.

Still enough in freezer for March and beyond, lol. So am hoping that in April I will have enough to buy the new fridge freezer I want

elsiepac

Island Maid Just make it lol - it can be love for your tummy!

Yesterday I did my hour of chopping again - I really like this method! Basically I choose about 4 or 5 recipes for the week when meal planning. Shop to list. Then commit an hour or two on a Sunday (I had yesterday off as leave so did it then) and do ALL the chopping required for the recipe, one at a time and store the relevant bits together. E.g. one of my recipes this week is a favourite - African Peanut Stew. In the recipe you use onion and garlic together, then sweet potato, chilli and red pepper later in the recipe. So I have two containers storing these chopped items separately.
It makes cooking in the week SO much less of a chore when there is no chopping involved; it's just a case of putting the items together to cook. I need to make this a regular thing because every time I do it I eat well and healthily that week and am less stressed in the evenings, plus spend less money!

This week I have:

- Appropriate for getting over illness - On The Mend Spiced Red Lentil & Kale Soup
- Indian Lentil and Cauliflower Soup
- African Peanut Stew
- Jambalaya (new recipe I haven't tried yet)

The Spiced Red Lentil and Kale Soup I made yesterday after doing my prep. It's very frugal but very delicious and easy!

1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 sticks celery
1 tsp olive oil

1 bay leaf
1 1/4 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tin chopped tomatoes
1.5 litres vegetable stock
190g red lentils

A good couple of handfuls kale (you could easily use spinach or cabbage or chard or any dark green leafy thing!) - I use a whole bag of kale, remember greens go to nothing when they wilt!

1. Saute the onion garlic and celery in the oil until onion translucent
2. Add the spices and bay leaf and stir for a few seconds
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, the stock and the lentils and stir REALLY well
4. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for up to 25 minutes, although I usually find 20 is sufficient for the lentils to break down
5. Add in the kale or other green, mix well and cook for a further few minutes until it has wilted. Taste and season ( I usually add maybe a pinch of salt, but I use two knorr veg stock pots in this recipe for the stock, and unusually for me I generally find it salty enough).

sitesafe

Afternoon to everyone!

I'm just updating, panicking a little as I realise we're only half way through the month and I've spent quite a bit. I hope with careful planning I come in under budget given that it's a short month anyway.

Couple of trips out for shopping during the week. Bought ys turkey breasts and cod instead of salmon as it was cheaper. Had a lovely stir fry yesterday - all from scratch other than the sauce and noodles of course - didn't overdo it on the veg this week.

Bought wine the other day from Tesco - it was on the lower shelf with a few others at £3.50 - thought it wouldn't be that nice but pleased to say it was perfectly fine - think it was a South African white but was pleased to find a pleasant enough drink for that amount of money.

New spends
£1.81- Co-op - baking potato, coriander, parsley
£14.28 - Tesco

New totals
£76.53 - food
£4.44 - indulgences (choc etc)
£22.07 - wine
£2.87 - McD's pitstop

TOTAL £105.91/£130 - REMAINING £24.09/£130 (so around £12 each week for the next two weeks)....

I'm going to have to have a good look at how I can make this work but I'm hopeful that I will...!

[Deleted User]

Yay finally had my second spend of the month and lashed out a whopping £27 20 in Aldi's and Lidls. Pretty full cupboards now until around the 25th hopefully :) slowly working my freezer down

sitesafe

I just came across this blog where a lady does food challenges for £1 a day per person for her family, there is also a £10 a week for two people shopping list and one for one person (although that one is going right back to the basics). I still think it is a useful site ... The lady writes shopping lists and then a menu for the week where you can use up stuff from the day before etc....I found it hard to find the actual shopping lists at first as I was going straight to the recipes, but then found I had to double click on the 'shopping list' on the dropdown menu to get to the actual lists. Again, a bit like 'a girl called Jack' this blogger has access to lots of great ethnic shops and markets that stock things cheaper than the supermarkets however there is a vegetarian section and even a gluten free section. She uses her own fresh herbs which is something I would like to start to do as I'm tending to spend £1.50 a week on these at present....

https://eatnotspend.wordpress.com/

Willowx

February has gone a bit to pot as the fridge freezer failed at the end of January, didn't lose masses when it went down but certainly spent more when it was down than I normally do as well as eating out a bit more which also comes from my grocery budget. I'm at £118.56 for February out of a theoretical monthly budget of £130 (I budget annually). After January's cupboard stocking (thankfully not freezer!) I'm further ahead than I'd like to be but will hopefully have a few cheaper months soon!

Islandmaid

Another NSD here.

Avoided the temptation of the Icecream, but did make Chocolate Fondants as a Valentines treat.

JensFeet

OH IslandMaid... That looks simply amazing. WOW. Damn this being on a diet thing lol... Slobber central over my laptop keyboard at the minute... Phwoar.

NSD #10 for February today. Yeay! I do need a shop tomorrow for a few bits so off to L!dl after swimming with the kids tomorrow with my list. Going to double up on the bread and dairy to try to keep away from the shops as long as possible. It's really helping me break the 'need' to go and spend. So it will be a bit bigger than a top up shop as need fruit, veg, bacon, ham, cheese etc.

Hope those who celebrate Valentine's have had a lovely day x

zafiro1984

meg72 wrote: »

Only one week to go for me and I am thrilled haven't touched Feb budget at all. Spent £56 of the £70 savings from Jan, stocking up the pantry and fruit and veg when reduced.

Still enough in freezer for March and beyond, lol. So am hoping that in April I will have enough to buy the new fridge freezer I want

Just one word for it 'wow' that's will power, no wonder you are thrilled. Hope you get your new fridge freezer.

[Deleted User]

sitesafe wrote: »

I just came across this blog where a lady does food challenges for £1 a day per person for her family, there is also a £10 a week for two people shopping list and one for one person (although that one is going right back to the basics). I still think it is a useful site ... The lady writes shopping lists and then a menu for the week where you can use up stuff from the day before etc....I found it hard to find the actual shopping lists at first as I was going straight to the recipes, but then found I had to double click on the 'shopping list' on the dropdown menu to get to the actual lists. Again, a bit like 'a girl called Jack' this blogger has access to lots of great ethnic shops and markets that stock things cheaper than the supermarkets however there is a vegetarian section and even a gluten free section. She uses her own fresh herbs which is something I would like to start to do as I'm tending to spend £1.50 a week on these at present....

https://eatnotspend.wordpress.com/

Just had a quick mosey through the site and its very interesting The shopping list and prices are from 2015 and some are dearer now obviously because of rising prices but excellent advice on how to cut corners and save a few shillings here and there. I tend to try and find my herbs un-jarred if I can I have a small collection of glass jars with lids that my DD gave me left over from pots of yogurt from Aldis.I have made some labels and use those to hold my herbs and spices etc.These I stock up on when I go to see my sis-in-law in Faversham as near to her is a terrific farm shop called Macknades and they sell herbs in cellophane packets from around 40p upwards.The Schwartz ones are very expensive for what they hold and I can buy twice as much for a fraction with out the need for a fancy bottle. I also have a pot of chives on my patio that I use fresh and a small rosemary bush in the conservatory. I have noticed that pepper has shot up in price lately so I am looking round to source a supply at a more reasonable price .One of the posters on here pointed me towards a shop just outside Margate which may be a good place to look next time I take my DGS out for the day Today we are off to Hastings for the day so I will keep a sharp look out for any small independant shops or asian grocers that I amy get something from There are few and far between where I live . I have bookmarked the site though and thank you for putting it up.Every little helps as they say :):)