June 2017 Grocery Challenge

Florence_J

Congratulations BB

lynnejk

Evening all

Huge congrats BB

Spends yesterday and todays were £40.14. This means I have one week left and just over £40 to go. Should be doable fingers xd.

Hope you all have a super weekend
Lx

Islandmaid

Just popping in to join in with the congratulations to BB x

I have been rubbish at keeping track this month DD has taken up a lot of my time and energy, new job and her 21st Birthday - think the queen got less fuss!!

I will take some time and count up receipts tomorrow, but know I have blown the budget, so must be extra specially good in July and penny pinch for Britain....

armchairexpert

Big Saturday shop done and I have $4.60 left until the end of the month. We will need some fresh rolls on Friday for pulled pork sliders but I need to be strict and not do any other top-up shops. There is SO much food in my house, and so many ingredients for making more, that I really don't need to. It feels like a daunting prospect to be this close to the wire, but for no reason!

Meal plan:

Saturday: Salmon poke and avocado salad
Sunday: Roast pork and veg
Monday: Tofu stirfry with noodles
Tuesday: Poached chicken
Wednesday: Vegetarian lasagne
Thursday: Baked potatoes with tuna and salad
Friday: Pulled pork sliders and HM coleslaw

Plus lunchboxes:
HM sausage rolls
HM pizzas
Lemon cake balls
Upside peach cake
Lots of dried fruit and things for salad veg pots

Plus the freezer has four kinds of HM soup in it, and there are tins of soup and noodles and things in the pantry. Ok I feel a bit better now.

mouche

OH wanted salad things yesterday so we were forced to visit the supermarket. We were able to reign each other in though so only salad and a few other essentials were bought for £10.20. So still a few pounds left in the budget unless I have missed something somewhere. I still have one week to go though. I have plenty of things in the house so must get meal planning.

pamsdish

£4.56 on oil, lemon juice and a big potato.

Skintmama

I have done my last main shop of the month, spending £54.55 yesterday. A few pounds are left to get any extra vegetables that I might need before the end of the month.

We have entertained more this month. This comes from a separate budget and keeping track of this has been a very useful exercise too. Whilst I think that I don't entertain extravagantly, it is surprising how much it all costs. I have certainly underestimated this in budgets as I tend to like to spoil people and to try out new recipes.
It reminds me that many cookery writers/chefs produce recipes with little or no thought as to the price of ingredients. I watched Tom Kerridge this morning on Food and Drink, making the most of the broccoli stalks by cooking them in 75g of butter and cooking cheap lamb breasts in half a bottle of wine, not to mention the 6 tbsps of extra virgin olive oil that went into a salsa to serve with it! Ironically, this programme was about how we can all eat well, cheaply!
I now intend to try to develop a collection of affordable but lovely recipes to feed my friends and family, all in the hope of reducing the cost of entertaining without compromising on deliciousness.
Good luck with all of your own food budget related goals

PennyGrabber

Sounds like a great idea, Skintmama!

And congratulation, BB!

A roast is fairly cost-effective, especially if you slow cook the meat and use super six veg. Then you can zing it up with fancy stuffing or something.
Another thing I've done when entertaining is to make two vats of food, eg a curry and a chilli, then have a selection of accompaniments - the guests think it's great and there's usually loads for my freezer!!!

I'm sure other people will contribute ideas too, but you're absolutely right about the chefs pretending to cook cheaply - they have no idea!! I watched one (can't remember who or when) that used saffron in a 'cheap' recipe! No clue!

I have my son's friend visiting for dinner on Friday. I know that's not real entertaining, but they've already chosen their menu... The exact same as I did for them last time! A big bowl of Mac n cheese, then smaller bowls of cucumber, sweetcorn, chopped ham and sausage, so they can help themselves. Should come in at around £2, and it'll feed my daughter too. Happy days! And the thing is, they'll love it because I'll put the food in my fancy dishes, and lay it out nicely, and they'll be able to help themselves. Win win all round.

I need to put some thought into next month's meal plan. Another super-frugal clearing-the-freezer one I think.

PG x

FoxFace

Well, did some of my weekly shop a day early... £60 cash withdrawn and in hand We had a drive a couple of towns over... it's very rustic and has a lot of farm shops and vegan/health food resources.

We found a fab little greengrocers, which had some amazing (mostly local) produce and the prices were great! We picked up some really nice veggies to work with, cabbage, potatoes, courgettes, peppers, celeriac, bananas and satsumas... didn't cost the earth either (about £7!) Yay for local businesses

We also picked up some Method washing liquid for half price in Booths and a couple of other bits. I have £23.50p left in my possession and that will be plenty as I mostly have what I need...

Menu plan is something like this:

~ Roast Celeriac, Carrot & Swede mash and steamed cabbage
~ Mushroom udon
~ Baked Samosa potatoes & Hummus
~ Stuffed cabbage leaves & jewelled giant cous cous
~ Polenta Bake with Peppers, artichoke and tomatoes
~ Vegan "Chicken" & Mushroom crepes w roast garlic sauce
~ Pizza night (as standard)

Very looking forward to some of this... I made myself hungry writing this :rotfl:

Edit: Decided to nip to T's and get the last few bits... 7p under budget I shall put that in my sealed pot

mouche

Another £1.50 on eggs from the corner shop; so much for no more spending! But still under-budget and intend to keep it that way if at all possible.