November 2017 Grocery Challenge

Wysiwyg49

Hi all been MIA due to a catastrophic PC failure, has literally taken 2 weeks to get all set up again! Groceries for November so far are £246.50 which doesn't look good I didn't post a target this month but as its nearly 5 weeks will go for £450.

I need to do the bulldog clip thing and keep receipts as I keep finding the odd Sainsb transaction through my account that I have totally forgotten about - lots of little topup shops are bad, as I really should know by now!!

XSpender

PipneyJane wrote: »

Please share the recipe. Please.

1kg potatoes cut into chips
4 SW or low fat sausages, halved (more if you have room)
4 eggs
Chopped parsley

Par boil the raw chips for 5 minutes, drain and shake to fluff up a bit.

Spread the chips in a baking dish sprayed with frylight. Stick the sausage halves into gaps in the chips and spray with frylight. Bake in a preheated oven for 25 mins at 220/200/gas 5 or until chips are golden and sausages are cooked.

Remove from oven and make 4 wells in the chips. Break eggs into wells and put back into the oven for 5 minutes or until the eggs are cooked as you like them.

Season and sprinkle with parsley.

ETA: Mine was spicy sausage as I only have the SW chorizo sausages in the freezer!

Ginmonster

Xmas market-triggered spends today as I couldn't resist the Snowdonia cheese company stall and spent £12 on 3 truckles of delicious cheese. They're supposedly for Xmas but I think I'll struggle to keep my hands off them until then!

£57.13/£100

BrassicWoman

I've had a really awful couple of days with challenging family and work stuff.

I almost dropped a couple of hundred on beauty products I don't need (in my hand!) and won't use, but left Debenhams and went to Aldi instead.

Budget almost blown but I have nice fruit, almond butter, vegan stollen and fruit pastilles, posh museli, nut bars, almond butter, crisps, nice lunch for tomorrow, and a couple of semi healthy Soulful meals. You get a lot for your mini-binge at Aldi and their vegan range has got so much better - just need them to get some soy yogurts in now!

The ready meals were half the price of Waitrose and frankly the week is not going to get better so anything that gets some veg in me for minimum effort is good. I do have a soup mix that I might put in the slow cooker if I get in at a decent time tomorrow, but that's a bit vague just now...

PipneyJane

XSpender, you’re a star! Thank you for the recipe.

I’ve finally had a chance to update my records. We spent £12.71 on Sunday in Mr T’s and another 60p in Sainsbugs on Monday. That brings our total spend this month to £21.88/£155.69, leaving £133.81 for the rest of the month.

For those of you who are wondering, we did our big shop at the end of October and haven’t made it to the farm shop yet this month.

Mrs_Cheshire

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

It sounds more glamorous than it actually is

I steam or boil the cauliflower and leeks till they are barely cooked, chop the gammon into chunks, make a cheese sauce, then its a case of assembling everything in a shallow pie dish, pour over the cheese sauce sprinkle with some breadcrumbs & grated parmesan and pop under the grill until bubbling and golden on top.

You could also assemble everything in advance then pop into a pre-heated oven 180c for about 30mins - just like a pasta bake

Thank you, ended up making spaghetti carbonara, as I had half a leek, some mushrooms, the gammon and a packet of pasta.
Will definitely try your gratin sometime soon

PipneyJane wrote: »

Working on the "when it's gone, it's gone" principle, we take our housekeeping/grocery money out in cash at the start of each month and keep it in a separate purse. Ditto the meat money (which is a separate budget for the butcher). Both go into a biscuit tin in the kitchen, otherwise known as "the kitty".


I have an iPhone and an iPad so use a Numbers spreadsheet to keep track of the totals. When I empty the shopping, I slip my receipts under the kitty and do a tally-up and a declaration on here when I have time (for instance, I haven't done last Sunday's spend yet). I'm using Numbers simply because it is easier to grab my iPad than it is to boot up my laptop.

Think I'm going to give this a go this month. Although will be putting the money onto a top up debit card as I don't like carrying large amounts of cash around. Also makes it easier for keeping track as all spends will show on the statement online.

Mrs_Cheshire

My new budget starts tomorrow, going to increase the budget slightly to £400 for 4 weeks, as I'll include the majority of my Christmas shop in this.
Really need to defrost the small freezer so will be planning meals based around the food in the freezer for the start of this budget.
Hopefully the youngest son will have a nap on saturday afternoon so I can clean my food storage shelves and organise them a bit better. I'll do a food inventory and plan to use up some bits that have been languishing for a while.
I know there's a bag of gram flour, anyone have any recipes that they'd like to share?

Ginmonster

I forgot a spend of 44p yesterday on some carrots for snacking on. Hope my colleagues don't hate me for crunching carrots at my desk.

£57.57/£100

Islandmaid

A quick whizz around Aldi today £52.23 including cat food, shower gel, toothpastes, shampoo and conditioner - how come all these thing run out together!!!

Meal plan written, should be able to push next shop to next Friday

Doom_and_Gloom

Okay so I have very little of my personal budget left, just £1.43 for two weeks :eek:, however I only have to buy bananas, a cucumber and maybe an orange for the rest of the month. It is doable. I just have to avoid the reduction section, well I will look but only to look for what I'm already after buying!
OH is doing better but then he started with £20 more for the month and basically has that more than me now so...
My dinner - curry in the multi cooker with rice noodles. So yeah curry for the next few days.
No idea what OH has planned for today for dinner, probably something quick like soup/ravioli and bread, instant beef noodles or cheese toastie.

Bulk - £28.45/£30.
OH - £30.73/£50. £19.27 left.
Me - £28.57/£30. £1.43 left.

Total budget
£87.75/£110.
£22.25 left.