March 2017 Grocery Challenge

Islandmaid

Elsiepac - so sorry for your loss x Rats are such great personalities, so intelligent Hope you have a more positive weekend x

NSD here - nicer weather supposedly for the weekend, so may venture into the garden for a tidy round.

purpleybat

detoured while getting my prescriptions this morning and popped into the coop, I only wanted a french baguette and only had £1 on me to get it, well they didn't have any but they did have a cauli for 35p.
I seem to have a bit of a thing for cauli recently and have eaten loads, I thought i'd make some cauli cheese with the stuff I can't scoff over the next couple of days, does it freeze okay?

Suffolk_lass

purpleybat wrote: »

detoured while getting my prescriptions this morning and popped into the coop, I only wanted a french baguette and only had £1 on me to get it, well they didn't have any but they did have a cauli for 35p.
I seem to have a bit of a thing for cauli recently and have eaten loads, I thought i'd make some cauli cheese with the stuff I can't scoff over the next couple of days, does it freeze okay?

Yes indeed it does. If I know I am going to freeze it I cook the cauliflower for a couple of minutes less than normal

purpleybat

thankyou very much for answering. I like it on the crunchy side so considering not cooking it at all.

t14cy_t

spends of £5 in sainsburys yesterday, used giftcards earned from survey site, and money off coupons to reduce from£60 shop, so happy at that, and still have £21 in budget, yippee!! I only count as a spend if I use card or cash. xx

WantToBeSE

Went a bit off track last week...oops!
Back on track today though, so going to walk to the ATM and withdraw my grocery budget.

I dont really think there is anything that we need, but the fridge is almost empty so that means we need salad and a few other bits.

Florence_J

Sorry I have been largely absent this month, my personal life got a wee bit chaotic but it may be on the mend now.

My March food month ended yesterday and despite the fact we had a birthday (and hence a birthday cake), multiple guests round (including those with specific dietary requirements) we managed to finish £198.87/£200

See you all on the April thread.

[Deleted User]

elsiepac wrote: »

I'd love to see one of your meal plans for a few days if you'd share?

I didn't go shopping in the end, planning to go today. My meal plans are really done VERY loosely, like 'mince something'. I tend to keep a stock of various freshly cooked things, which I freeze like fruits, cooked savoury mince, cooked swede & carrrot mash, soups, etc and these can make a variety of things, but this is a good example of what i'll be having.

BREAKFAST fruit smoothie with frozen fruit, plant milk & protein powder, I also have spirulina, chai seeds, gogi berries etc, so I will randomly add stuff like that OR breakfast muffin (usually Aldi or Lidl about 39p for 4), houmous/salad, coleslaw etc.

LUNCH usually homemade veggie soup out of freezer OR a protein roll depending if I had a smoothie for breakfast, with houmous, coleslaw, maybe mashed avocado, salad etc

DINNER - mince something, will be pre-made mince out of freezer (I buy supermarket veggie mince, Morrisons or Tesco) and cook with onions, carrots, peppers, bulked out with lentils and spiced up - this will make wraps with salad, shepherdless pie topped with sweet potatoes/swede & carrot mash, jacket potatoes with mince, coleslaw & salad, spag bol/chilli, pasta bake etc.

DINNER 2 - tagliatelle, which I do with a variety of ingredients I always have in stock, maybe some of the mince above, or with fried onions, a garlic creamy sauce/or french mustard sauce, or cheesey sauce (made with nutritional yeast), sometimes with added vegan quorn/or meatballs, usually with Alpro Cream, or tomatoey with frys meat sausage stuff from Holland & Barrett (forgot what its called, have it cut up in freezer). EDIT -- it's called Frys Meat Free Slicing Sausage Polony.

DINNER 3 swede & carrot mash with onions & gravy & Linda Mc Sausages.

DINNER 4 sweet potato, chickpea & spinach curry - I tend to have a batch (or three) ready made in freezer, which I usually flavour with Tesco Thai chilli paste, anchovy free, but at the mo am using a nice tasting curry powder and sometimes add Alpro Cream.

I also have junk food on standby if I have used all the pre-cooked stuffed, so I will have a supply of ready made burgers, spicy bean quarter pounders being a fave from Tesc or Aldi, or Morrisons meat free burgers are really nice, Linda Mc Sausages, Lidl garlic bread pizza, which I top with veggies etc, to make pizza, which I have with salad and Sainsburys Caramelized onion cheese. I LOVE salad, so try not to run out. I tend to just mix it all together, eg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot, onions, advocado, sweet roasted peppers and might mix together with cut up and fried Linda mc Chorizo sausages or roasted veg or even just some falafel, which can also be flung into pitta pouches or wraps.

Sorry I can't be more precise, I just tend to make sure I have the bones to make a variety of meals. Your meals sound a lot more healthy, but I do have a 'lazy streak', hence pre-cooking stuff. I am working towards being a lot healthier.

K9sandFelines

Sorry not posted at all, still using up stuff though had a bit of a blip and been buying stuff that probably weren't necessary. So far spent, £255.42. Need conditioner soon ... vegan ... so may have to do small Ocado shop to stock up on this and astonish/ecozone stuff but not much food. Should still be under target, so all good and no bulk buys to get i don't think.

In for April, so going to post over there now.

JingsMyBucket

Howdy folks. Plunging back in after two weeks of a bit of stress. I just added up my spends for the couple weeks and I've blown my budget but I'll keep going nonetheless. I'm currently at €263.20 / €200.00. Included in there were a few emotional splurges along with some restocking. We ran out of both onions and garlic! We did our shop today and tomorrow I'd like to plan my/our meals for the week so we can avoid spending money.

I've updated my sig with the new amounts. I also had 4 extra grocery NSD bringing me up to 10 for the month. If I assume €270 for March, that would divide out to €54/week. I think I'm comfortable with that but would prefer to have it be lower, in the €40/week range. Thoughts?