November 2017 Grocery Challenge

Islandmaid

MissRikki ((Hugs)) take care of yourself x

NewShadow

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Hoping to stretch the pack of mince, are oats better than lentils for dissolving in the mixture?

Not sure if this is too late but - Oats are great at completely disappearing and thickening a mince meal but too many of them can make it a little 'gloopy'.

Lentils have the right 'mouthfeel' when cooked with mince and aren't amazingly obvious - less so if you also grate a carrot or two into the mix.

Personally I use a roughly equal amount of diced onion, grated carrot, lentils and oats - plus the odd handful of TVP and a tin of baked beans. I don't use any water - I use tinned toms or cheap passata for all liquid - chuck in a stock cube and there's never been any complaints about lack of 'meat'

NewShadow wrote: »

I worked out my budget of £150 is roughly £37 a week - as this shop is being delivered on Monday afterwork but paid for now I'm going to count it as this weeks spend so no shopping on Saturday for fresh bits and bobs.

Musclefood meat delivery first thing this morning. Paid for out of last month's budget so no cost. Most of it's in the freezer and I've got a big piece of salmon out of the freezer to cook with this week.

They didn't have some chocolate I ordered for cooking in stock so they've refunded it and I've got a code for a free whole chicken that I might add to my christmas order as I only use them every few months. Can't complain too much as the chocolate was only an impulse buy but a whole chicken will feed me for most of a week.

Just got back from taking the cat to the vets - £31 but that's from a different budget because it needs to go to the insurance company.

On the way back I spent an impulse £2.50 buying me a cake and a homeless man a cuppa - I did buy the cake for him but he didn't want it so waste not want not :eek:

Means I'm slightly over budget for the week but my cashback for my earlier shop is tracking so when that pays out it'll balance.

Total spend so far = £38.63/£150

MissRikki *E-hug* :grouphug:

elsiepac

MissRikkiC wrote: »

Off work and under a blanket is where ive spent most of my time; however hoping to pick myself up today.

So sorry to hear this, hugs x :grouphug:

[Deleted User]

Had a couple of spends this month, first 96p on 3 bags of ys parsnips and today £7.25 in Sainsbobs on cashew milk, Linda Mc Pulled pork burgers, some spicy bean burgers, seeded wholemeal rolls and 2 packs of biscuits, plus some other stuff - fair bit of junk really - I will eat with salad. !!!! - Have a lovely w/e everyone - I have updated sig.

MissRikki - sorry to hear your news, best wishes to you and yours.

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Hoping to stretch the pack of mince, are oats better than lentils for dissolving in the mixture?

Personally, I don't like oats in mince, tried it once and found the texture to be 'slimy'. I use brown lentils, if I want a firmer mince and red if i'm using a lot of sauce, as they dissolve when cooked for a while.

dingdongsaving

So sorry Miss RikkiC. Take care and let yourself sit under that blanket if that's where you want to be.

BrassicWoman

An epic £50.25 to start the month!

Loads of fruit and veg - soup and casserole weather, and some cheeky avocados and posh bread to remind me of the summer.

Also a refill of crackers/cereal/ricemilk and general cupboard stuff

Yogurts and puddings, soy based and dated at least 2 weeks out, on offer if I bought in bulk. Sunday morning ready to cook pastries. Hummus and fancy oatcakes.

YS bread products for the freezer

And some vegan burgers - although had to push to get them in the freezer, so clearly I am not using them as fast as I think!

Target: no shopping at all til next weekend, then just F&V. Should save time as well as money!

Cherry_Burton

Hi all,

I'm a bit late starting this month's challenge. I've decided to increase the target spend to £125 this month from £100 because I have someone stay with me for a week.

I've been to ASDA for shopping, including items I can't usually find at ALDI. I spent £22.50 on things such as red lentils, herbs and spices as well as the mince, milk, bread and detergent.

My aim this month, as well as keeping at or below £125, is to increase the number of NSD. Now I've stopped buying lunches there really is no reason to go to the shops most weekdays. If I'm not in the shops I can't spend money.

Good luck everyone this month

CB

donnajt

3rd Shop: total so far: £15.84)

Big Shop Mr T = £ 152.97


Total £174.50

Bloody hell, shocked at what I've spent in less than a week :mad::eek:

Mrs_Cheshire

MissRikkiC wrote: »

Hi everyone, hope youre all having a good week.


Pretty awful week for me this week; without going into much detail at all; there was a very exciting reason that I wasn't drinking for the last few weeks and unfortunately that is no longer the case so I haven't been in a very good place at all. Off work and under a blanket is where ive spent most of my time; however hoping to pick myself up today.

Sorry to hear this, thinking of you at this difficult time

NewShadow wrote: »

Not sure if this is too late but - Oats are great at completely disappearing and thickening a mince meal but too many of them can make it a little 'gloopy'.

Lentils have the right 'mouthfeel' when cooked with mince and aren't amazingly obvious - less so if you also grate a carrot or two into the mix.

Personally I use a roughly equal amount of diced onion, grated carrot, lentils and oats - plus the odd handful of TVP and a tin of baked beans. I don't use any water - I use tinned toms or cheap passata for all liquid - chuck in a stock cube and there's never been any complaints about lack of 'meat'

Thank you, I decided to try oats as I've tried lentils before and found they were bit crunchy.
The oats worked really well as I had quite a lot of stock to thicken. No-one noticed so will try again. Managed to get enough from the mixture to fill a large and a small dish so have 3 adult portions left over. Have frozen the small dish, so it's ready for another day and will suggest Hubby eats the other portion for lunch tomorrow.

Popped to a couple of shops today, Picked up some porridge in A**a, I really wanted to try the toffee apple porridge from Quaker so bought 6 boxes as middle son loves porridge too, also got another box of the pumpkin spice one £7 and then went to Craws*aws butchers and got enough meat for probably 2/3 weeks, 2kg of chicken breast, a large lamb leg joint, over 1.5kg of gammon joint, and 5 packs of other meat : sausages x2 ( they had 50% extra free) bbq ribs, mince and bbq chicken drumsticks. Spent £32.97.
Going to finish my months meal plan based on this meat shop, hoping it'll last till the end of the month.

Doom_and_Gloom

OH spent £6.09 today. He got another joint of beef and two blocks of cheese.
I spent £5.02 today. For that I got a large punnet of grapes, 2 cucumbers, a lettuce, two aubergines, 750g peppers, 1kg courgettes, celery and mushrooms.

Bulk - £28.45/£30.
OH - £11.55/£50. £38.45 left.
Me - £10.69/£30. £19.31 left.

Total budget
£50.69/£110.
£59.31 left.