October 2017 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

£8.67 spent at the local posh supermarket, rushing around so that I could visit Mum this afternoon. But to set against that, a large carrier bag of vegetables was gathered at the allotment to go into tonight's stir-fry, and the meat (for us carnivores) came out of the freezer.

Not visiting again until tomorrow evening, so I'll be able to bake some hob-nobs and savoury flapjacks tomorrow; about £5 of today's spend was on quick things to eat for an energy boost, because we'd run out of things like that & I didn't have time to make any more.

elsiepac

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Will plan my weeks menu around what I've ordered and also enjoy writing it onto my free magnetic menu planner that Ocad0 are supposed to be sending as a free gift.

I want to do a layered vegetable and potato bake tomorrrow for tea to go with our lamb leg steaks. Does anyone have any instructions on how to make one. I've got a couple of potatoes, parsnips, carrots and butternut squash!

Ooh I'm jealous of the Ocad0 menu planner!! Re the veg bake,
I would slice thinly, layer, and either pour over stock or cream (alternative in my case lol)
and garlic, then just bake for 45-60 minutes - probably cover it for first 30 minutes to help "steam" the veggies to make sure they cook well.

MissRikkiC wrote: »

I've been having almond milk for the last 12 months and refuse to pay the prices of brands like alpro!

I get mine (unsweetened, but they sell sweetened too) for £1 for a litre from Ald1. Ita called acti leaf or something similar! And I use 3 litres a week usually, very nice! (Although I don't ever drink it plain 🤢)

Hth
X

I get this one too, it's pretty good and a lot cheaper than A1pro!

No spends since last post for me - I will be doing my last shop of the month tonight but apart from some fresh stuff I've run out of, I don't need that much as I still have a fair bit in my fridge.

On Tuesday I went out for a meal with some women from work (and wives of men I work with -
it's mostly men in my company) for a meal and lots of prosecco was drunk. Well, expecting to pay for it myself, I had saved money from my "spends" budget - turns out the big boss sent his wife with his card to pay for us all!! So the whole night cost me £13.25 (just taxi there as had a lift home, and one glass of wine!). So I'm going into the last week of my month with more money than I usually would, so I'm feeling really good!

Also, yesterday I decluttered 4 metal box files of all my paperwork - I now have it pared down to "essentials" only filling one metal file box, and best of all I then advertised the 3 empty ones of some Facebook selling groups and have a woman coming tonight to buy them off me for £10! Not really GC related, but feeling good! Although, I may use that £10 to buy my cashews - they are usually £6 for the big bag and I'm totally out, however they are on offer for £5.50 and since this is free money, I think I might buy them from that!

Doom_and_Gloom

MissRikkiC wrote: »

I've been having almond milk for the last 12 months and refuse to pay the prices of brands like alpro!

I get mine (unsweetened, but they sell sweetened too) for £1 for a litre from Ald1. Ita called acti leaf or something similar! And I use 3 litres a week usually, very nice! (Although I don't ever drink it plain ��)

Hth
X

For almond milk I do usually buy Alpro, it's nearly always on offer somewhere for £1. I buy UHT and buy in bulk. Though I have a carton of Mr S UHT unsweetened almond milk open right now, bought for £1 and its fine. I don't like to pay more than £1 a carton for my vegan milks so I stock up on the ones I use when on offer. I haven't been to an ald! in ages because of the rather long bus ride to get there and back.

pamsdish

£11 yesterday on eggs, butter, and a few others should take me through.

caronc

£18 today bringing total so far of £125/£200

Ginmonster

I've not posted for a while as my phone broke and I'm still waiting for a new one to arrive. I've charged up the tablet at home but it's not as convenient.

I've got several spends to log, mostly from topping up on fruit, veg cheese and butter. I also bought loads of sweets today in preparation for Halloween as we seem to get absolute hordes of kids coming to our house every year. I've got a horrible feeling my boy will want to go trick or treating this year as he's started school now and is beginning to be much more aware of what other kids do. I know it's the norm now for all kids to dress up as any old thing and just go round the neighbourhood collecting sweets but i don't really like it much. I don't mind dishing out the sweets i just don't really like the idea of taking my boy round the street expecting sweets from all all and sundry. I don't think it's worth a battle over though and i don't want to sound judgy of his school friends which i inevitably would if i tried to explain to a 4 year old why it makes me uncomfortable so I think the solution will have to be to send him out with his dad! :-)

Anyhow, my spends since my last post total £39.89 so I'm up to £59.71/£100. Not bad for 2/3rds of the way through the month but half term is next week so we'll see how that goes before i get too smug!

Need2bthrifty

Hi Folks,
I managed five NSD's in a row but today went to Mr T's and spent £5.10 I needed bread and coffee that leaves £14.89. I also want to go to L!dl tomorrow - I love the little bratwurst sausages they have and they're on special this weekend, also want to get bacon, sweetcorn, oven chips and naan bread.

Todays the start of my weekly menu - just finished my plan and I've managed to cover all my evening meals with stuff I have in the freezer :j.
Fri - Bean burger, Portobello mushrooms, parsnip chips, salad
Sat - Beef Casserole, mashed pots, brussel sprouts
Sun - Smoked Haddock Fishcakes, peas and sweetcorn
Mon - Chicken Curry, naan, salad
Tues - Macaroni cheese,
Wed - Moussaka, green beans, garlic bread slices
Thurs - Pesto crusted Cod

I still have a good selection of stuff in stock that I can have for lunches and breakfasts, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be the last spend of the month.

CRANKY40

Heading into week four so my total for the 3 weeks so far is £172.60 now that I've included cat food. Total budget for the 3 weeks was £210 so happy with this so far. I've been batch cooking for the freezer yesterday and today. I'm just hoping that I've made enough space taking things out to put the cooked meals back in :rotfl:

CRANKY40

Ginmonster wrote: »

I don't mind dishing out the sweets i just don't really like the idea of taking my boy round the street expecting sweets from all all and sundry. I don't think it's worth a battle over though and i don't want to sound judgy of his school friends which i inevitably would if i tried to explain to a 4 year old why it makes me uncomfortable so I think the solution will have to be to send him out with his dad! :-)

The House Troll has always been happy to stay in with me and hand out sweets, especially if it's raining. You may find that as long as your small person has some in his own treat bag he will be happy to help you. This year there's a special screening of Hocus Pocus at the local cinema so we're going to that instead. It's normal ticket price but includes popcorn, sweets and cake decorating.

butterfly2507

Went to Aldi yesterday and my spends came down to 13,02 €! We might need a few more things tomorrow but so far we're so far away from our 50 € per week planning