January 2018 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

Hubby spent 90p on a hot cross bun loaf, should do breakfasts over the weekend or mid morning snacks for my hungry 3 kids.
Going to do a batch cook, probably on sunday and make some muffins for the kids desserts and snacks next week.

JIL

£66 left but I have had a busy week, so I am having an ocado delivery tomorrow, really can't face the shops, just less than£46. Milk, bread, veg, fish on the list.

I usually buy bananas at the weekend but they aren't getting eaten. I do make a banana bread but I'm getting a bit fed up with it, I did see an alternative where the mashed bananas are stirred into a thick batter and fried like donuts but the calories must be horrific. I just won't buy any.

£20 left but only one more week end so should be ok.

Grannymolly

JIL wrote: »

£66 left but I have had a busy week, so I am having an ocado delivery tomorrow, really can't face the shops, just less than£46. Milk, bread, veg, fish on the list.

I usually buy bananas at the weekend but they aren't getting eaten. I do make a banana bread but I'm getting a bit fed up with it, I did see an alternative where the mashed bananas are stirred into a thick batter and fried like donuts but the calories must be horrific. I just won't buy any.

£20 left but only one more week end so should be ok.

Weirdly having the same banana issue, my kids went through a phase of eating a lot and now there’s 4 black ones in the fruit bowl... bored of banana bread too so may look up the donut thing too. Sounds yum!

£27.43 Mr A delivery this morning because I’m not well enough to go out, should be okay for the week now bar bread and milk :j

Takes me to £180.05 hoping to make it around £200 this month....

Suffolk_lass

Freeze bananas and make shakes, smoothies or ice-cream from them?

Esthermate

I have spent 70p this week. Bananas.
I did go away last weekend and I had lots of cheese in.

I love this experiment. I am not feeling at all deprived and I don't need to buy anything but I feel almost tempted to go to Aldi through habit.

klbooth

Picked up a few Easter bits, some biscuits for OH and 4 loaves of bread to stock the freezer.
Popped into Home Bargains yesterday which normally ends up being a disaster but was really restrained and just a couple of bits put away for Easter in the hope I am not in there again before then, lol, well, you never know..... and the paracetamol I went in for.

Total now £381.18/£450

Still need eggs at some point and will need more milk before month end, however now lookslike I am heading to Costco to pick up a couple of bits so that may end up tipping me over, will see how restrained I can be, note to self - follow the list woman!!!!!

[Deleted User]

JIL wrote: »

I usually buy bananas at the weekend but they aren't getting eaten

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Freeze bananas and make shakes, smoothies or ice-cream from them?

Yes, that's what I do, in particular banana ice-cream, you just blend frozen bananas. Leave them out of freezer for 10mins.

£2 spent a couple of days ago on beef tomatoes and avocados. Off to the man who grinds coffee in his shop window, also the veggie market. Still doing 'no plastic January'. It's not been an absolute success. I forgot about 'crisps' AGAIN, bought 2 bags, so 3 crisp packets in all, a plastic peanut butter lid & an 'oh so tiny' snack pack of falafel (that's for the month), which I squashed into a tiny square, to convince myself it was much less 'pathetic'. {{Dilemma}} - I want to make someone who is vegan and doing work for me, pizza - they are missing it. It would mean buying non dairy cheese. I will end up getting Vegenaise, as it's next to it and I have no coleslaw (plastic). Only spent £15ish this month, my lowest ever, but I am pulling stuff out of my stores and trying to only spend £5 or so on fridge stuff pw, also making my own oat milk and veggie burgers, which has become 2nd nature now. So thrilled to read Iceland are doing away with plastic on their own brand foods in the next 5 years - THIS IS MASSIVE and hopefully will have a knock-on effect with other supermarkets.

Esthermate

Reading back, some pp enjoy the chat so this is what is working for me:

Live alone so that you only need to please yourself
I genuinely like the following:
Baked potatoes
Vegetable soup
Pasta with pesto
Porridge

I am doing dry January and that helps a lot with sleep and focus

Use up your stores. I have found loads of lazy garlic in the cupboard under the stairs

I am not tempted by any junk food and we don't eat bread

I get given eggs but don't eat that many; probably should eat more for health.

Do not go to the shops!

My dirty secret is smoking. I hate it. This challenge has shown me how ridiculous it is.
I knew that anyway but this has bought it into focus.

lil_me

Creeping close, but I’ve sort of said well i didn’t know what we were spending for such a long time that I don’t want to get hung up over it. It’s made me more mindful when spending that I declare here, so I’ve spent less than I probably would have .... just waffling now.
Will try harder next month to be more realistic and save more
I’ve been taking much more notice of shelf prices which will help
Had a few NSDs which help too

XSpender

JIL wrote: »

£66 left but I have had a busy week, so I am having an ocado delivery tomorrow, really can't face the shops, just less than£46. Milk, bread, veg, fish on the list.

I usually buy bananas at the weekend but they aren't getting eaten. I do make a banana bread but I'm getting a bit fed up with it, I did see an alternative where the mashed bananas are stirred into a thick batter and fried like donuts but the calories must be horrific. I just won't buy any.

£20 left but only one more week end so should be ok.

I make banana bread but add cocoa and/or choc chips as I am not keen on plain banana bread.

I also make banana pancakes which are gorgeous with yogurt and berries. There are lots of recipes on line and they can be made with very few ingredients