August 2017 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

pipkin71 wrote: »

Meat is one of our biggest expenses, which eats into the grocery budget so a meat money fund sounds like a good idea

It's been a lifesaver for us. With the odd exception, we buy our meat from a specialist butcher, restocking the freezer once every 4 months or so. The odd exception usually being cooking bacon - at 60p for 500g - +/- whatever looks decent in the Condemned Counter at the supermarket. Before the Meat Fund, we'd end up with an empty freezer and nothing available to pay for restocking it.


We also have a Christmas Fund, which gets used for Christmas food and Easter eggs, and a Bulk Fund (for when I go mad in Costco). Christmas grows by £10 a month, while Bulk grows by £20. I like a goose at Christmas and have paid £60 for one in the past. Ditto when I get a turkey. (I buy the largest one I can fit in the oven/freezer. I've been known to measure the bird for length and height, much to the amusement of my butcher.)

quintwins

Went shopping last night and spent £29.75, this included nappies for the week, and cleaning stuff for the month. I'm at £48.90 for the month so far. Planning to get a sack of spuds and dog food for the next 6 weeks on sat.

DaisyWalker

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've created a spreadsheet for myself with details of what to include and exclude so I'm consistent, and have a column for vouchers so I can assess my real spend against potential spend. Now I just have to work out how to take discounted gift cards into account.

It's only day three and very interesting so far. A big Tesco delivery arrived last night, they replaced my usual cereal with an own-brand one which is less than half the price. It tastes the same! Feel silly for buying the expensive one now but I'm learning.

I also cleaned my fridge shelves and drawers before I put things away. Hoping this will help me take better care of my groceries, be more aware of them, hopefully waste less and therefore spend less.
Today I bought a cup of tea on the way to work but I prepared my own lunch and breakfast so this is major progress.

So far this month I've spent £96.10 for the two of us. Scary. But you have to start somewhere right?

euronorris

You're doing great Daisy, don't worry!


Milk and bread needed topping up today, as well as bananas and pears. Sadly, was unable to resist a pack of mini eggs, so they crept in too. All from Lidl for £4.67. Total now £221.17/£300.


ETA: Oh yes, and pizza dough came out lovely. So have frozen 6 portions for another time


Both little freezer above fridge, and our big freezer are currently full to the bursting now! Whoops! Going to have to have a bit of a 'eat from the freezer week' next week I think, before I can do anymore batch cooking.


I've still got loads of mashed/pureed fruit and veg in freezer from when DD was little. Any ideas on how to use it up? Includes mashed banana, pureed peas, mashed potato (but quite watery), pureed broccoli (I think) and mashed sweet potato. Don't want to waste it, but equally, don't want her to have meals with just mushy food (and neither does she).

elf06

euronorris wrote: »

I've still got loads of mashed/pureed fruit and veg in freezer from when DD was little. Any ideas on how to use it up? Includes mashed banana, pureed peas, mashed potato (but quite watery), pureed broccoli (I think) and mashed sweet potato. Don't want to waste it, but equally, don't want her to have meals with just mushy food (and neither does she).

Add it to soups? Or casseroles? Of even to bulk out spag bol type dishes?

quintwins

euronorris wrote: »

I've still got loads of mashed/pureed fruit and veg in freezer from when DD was little. Any ideas on how to use it up? Includes mashed banana, pureed peas, mashed potato (but quite watery), pureed broccoli (I think) and mashed sweet potato. Don't want to waste it, but equally, don't want her to have meals with just mushy food (and neither does she).

Make an apple pie/crumble and throw the fruit in it. Add the veg to soups or pasta sauces.

PipneyJane

DaisyWalker wrote: »

I also cleaned my fridge shelves and drawers before I put things away. Hoping this will help me take better care of my groceries, be more aware of them, hopefully waste less and therefore spend less.
Today I bought a cup of tea on the way to work but I prepared my own lunch and breakfast so this is major progress.

Not wasting food is a big part of cutting down your grocery budget. I also find that a bit of planning goes a long way, e.g. thinking tonight about what we'll eat tomorrow night, so that the right things have defrosted slowly in the fridge. Even if you menu plan in a big way, you may find that you have to swap things around because the carrots are looking ropy.


One other thing that I do: we eat a reasonable amount of dried lentils and dried beans each month. (My lunch today is Yellow Dhal and we probably have chilli once a week.) Lentils can be cooked from scratch but for beans I prep in advance, in stages. It takes 3 minutes work to weigh out 500g of dried kidney beans or chickpeas, soak them overnight, drain them, tip them into a freezer bag and shove them in the freezer for a few days. (Freezing soaked beans cuts the cooking time by breaking down the cell walls.) I'll then defrost them in the fridge - which has a marginal beneft to your electricity bill by enabling the fridge to keep cold while running fewer cycles of coolant - and cook them in the pressure cooker for one third of the time recommended on the packet. 500g dried gives 2.5 to 3 times that weight cooked, which I'll divvy up into recipe portions, cook tomorrow night's dinner with one and freeze the rest. Including washing-up time, the whole process probably takes 10 minutes effort on my part but can result in considerable savings.


(NB: I started doing the above when I got fed up buying cans of value kidney beans and finding that they were still hard and needed additional cooking time. Pretty rubbish if you are using a can of beans to make a salad.)

DaisyWalker wrote: »

So far this month I've spent £96.10 for the two of us. Scary. But you have to start somewhere right?

Yes, you do. Is that for a week's worth of shopping or should it cover several weeks? You will probably find that your shopping bill will drop once you've got your larder stocked with basics. When DH and I moved in together, my first shop was over £150. That's when we had no storage containers and no herbs/spices in the larder. I buy my spices in bulk from the Asian food aisle in the supermarket and, initially, stored them in ice-cream tubs. (My husband will happily eat his own weight of ice-cream if I let him.) I now use Douwe Egbert coffee jars, which are air tight. Weight for weight, those big bags of spices are considerably cheaper than the little jars.

DaisyWalker

PipneyJane wrote: »

Is that for a week's worth of shopping or should it cover several weeks?

It's hard to tell, my shopping habits are so random, I tend to do one big shop each month then visit the local supermarkets several times a week (both Sainsbury's and Tesco are less than five mins away so sometimes it's just one item at a time). I'd like to think the big shop (which was £84 without the £9 voucher) will last a few weeks with regular top ups of fruit and veg, bread, milk, and cheese (forgot it).

But (prepare to be shocked) currently we get sandwiches or takeaways around three times a week for evening meals, I'll do the same for lunches though my partner doesn't so much, plus I'll buy breakfast a couple of days a week when I've forgotten/ been to exhausted to prepare it the night before (I don't have time to eat at home in the mornings I go to the office). This means that the usual stuff I buy for cooking might not last that long as I'll do more of it.

We have a well stocked kitchen too so that £84 wasn't even the basics which I already had. Seriously, I'm so rusty at cooking and so used to getting a takeaway instead of having to plan meals that this really is going to be a challenge. But so very necessary.

TLDR: I've been away from OS far too long and have let things slide. Want to get back into cooking, planning, and to get myself organised.

BrassicWoman

A whopping £12:60 today, although £11.50 was clubcard vouchers/ nectar, but it's all food. Vouchers burn a hole in my pocket, sadly. No idea why.

I got tinned fruit, as I am eating too much bakery sweet stuff and it's prob. better for me, a fancy rustic loaf, 3 very long life big vegan yogurts, and soya meatballs for the freezer. So things that will keep for a while, and I will def, eat.

Also took some quinoa pots to the foodbank; never gonna eat em!

pipkin71

PipneyJane wrote: »

It's been a lifesaver for us. With the odd exception, we buy our meat from a specialist butcher, restocking the freezer once every 4 months or so. The odd exception usually being cooking bacon - at 60p for 500g - +/- whatever looks decent in the Condemned Counter at the supermarket. Before the Meat Fund, we'd end up with an empty freezer and nothing available to pay for restocking it.


We also have a Christmas Fund, which gets used for Christmas food and Easter eggs, and a Bulk Fund (for when I go mad in Costco). Christmas grows by £10 a month, while Bulk grows by £20. I like a goose at Christmas and have paid £60 for one in the past. Ditto when I get a turkey. (I buy the largest one I can fit in the oven/freezer. I've been known to measure the bird for length and height, much to the amusement of my butcher.)

I get our meat from the butcher as well. I don't eat meat but one of mine only eats chicken, the other isn't keen but likes red meat and partner is a pescatarian plus the dogs eat a fresh meat diet, so the bill can be quite high.

A meat fund definitely sounds like a good idea