May 2018 Grocery Challenge

klbooth

Been a bit awol from the forums with various personal crises but have still been recording and keeping an eye on the spends. Have managed to come in under budget last 2 months so dropping my budget by another £10 to £400 for May.

Tales17

Just done fiinal check in for April, got a few days behind in my checking this week, I think most people are now on this thread so thought I would update here as well!

- £16.29 on Pet Things (Toy and bedding for hamsters!)

- £30 on 2 Fruit & Veg Boxes

- £13 Small Tesco top up shop by other half

- £7.98 Small Tesco top up shop by other half

- £55.69 Weekly Click and Collect shop at Tesco

Bringing in my final total for the month to £548.65, just over £50 under budget! Quite impressed with that!

Just looked at May so far but only one small spend so going to add that in on my next update!

PipneyJane

Anyone who is going to MrT’s today, I found two incredible bargains in a small Tesco Metro yesterday: Simple foaming face wash, normally £3.30 each on sale at 3 for £5; and Nivea Soft moisturiser, normally £2.75 each, on sale at 2 for £3.

(I bought them out of my own money, so they aren’t part of the grocery challenge.)

pipkin71 wrote: »

We followed this recipe today, from the recipe index in post #4: Bean curry (slowcooker).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=24741253&postcount=192

The recipe suggested about 2 pints of water. So far only 1 pint has gone in with the other ingredients but it is still very watery. More of a soup than a curry. Will see what it is like once it's cooked. Does taste nice though and the bonus is, all the ingredients were in stock so I didn't have to buy anything.

How did it turn out? In my experience, every slow cooker is different, so you have to experiment with the liquid. My first had a really well fitting lid, made out of the same ceramic as the base. It didn’t leak steam, instead formed a seal. Whatever liquid a recipe quoted, if I put in more than half, it’d turn out watery.

My second slow cooker had a glass lid with a metal rim. It leaked a bi of steam but only as much as a stew cooked slowly in the oven. My third, on the other hand, is terrible. It has no seal. I have to put in double the amount of liquid and it’ll still boil dry. When I can find one that is large enough, I think I will buy a real “Crock Pot” - the original slow cooker - which has a rubber gasket on the lid and forms a tight seal. I want a 10L one, which is great for parties.

- Pip

pipkin71

PipneyJane wrote: »

How did it turn out? In my experience, every slow cooker is different, so you have to experiment with the liquid. My first had a really well fitting lid, made out of the same ceramic as the base. It didn!!!8217;t leak steam, instead formed a seal. Whatever liquid a recipe quoted, if I put in more than half, it!!!8217;d turn out watery.

My second slow cooker had a glass lid with a metal rim. It leaked a bi of steam but only as much as a stew cooked slowly in the oven. My third, on the other hand, is terrible. It has no seal. I have to put in double the amount of liquid and it!!!8217;ll still boil dry. When I can find one that is large enough, I think I will buy a real !!!8220;Crock Pot!!!8221; - the original slow cooker - which has a rubber gasket on the lid and forms a tight seal. I want a 10L one, which is great for parties.

- Pip

That's interesting about the seal Both my slow cookers have a great seal so the liquid doesn't evaporate.

I blended a portion of the mixture earlier, for a smooth soup and it was really nice. Definitely one to make again - either as a soup or as a curry but with less water Trial and error really

supersaver1000

So a trip to Aldi, Wilko, Card Market and Morrisons today. I knew I had a £5 voucher to pick up from Morrisons so I put a couple of items through and picked up the voucher first to use on the rest of the items.

Bought cards and presents for a couple of birthdays and a few things for the garden. More than half way through the budget and barely a week gone by, still I managed to sell an item from FB so made a fiver too. Also got someone else interested in another item (although they have been messing me around with when they are coming to collect it so don't hold your breath type of thing) and have sold another item on ebay so got over a tenner in profit there.

Current Totals: £169.04/300

I slow cook curries a lot and agree that they don't need too much water. I tend to put lentils into mine and any veg left over e.g. mushrooms and potatoes - so we end up with a kind of curry, with tarka dhal plus veg dishes all in one. Have been doing that with my pot roasts lately (recipes courtesy of the BBC Foods slower cooker pot roast) and put all the veg, wine, stock in the bottom with the meat on top - would definitely recommend the winey carrots, turnips and just about any other veg you can think of tastes better cooked in red wine :rotfl:

YorksLass

YorksLass wrote: »

Tomorrow I'll sit down and do next week's meal plan before I do a trip into town on Friday. I'm taking a trip into Morrisons and also Heron Foods for a reccie as to what they have, prices etc. Not planning on buying anything (or at least, not much), so watch this space!

Thanks to the meal plan, I realised I didn't need any shopping so the trip to Morries and Heron Foods was put on hold. No hardship though, 'cos I loathe shopping (of any kind) especially when it involves going into the city centre. DH did his usual Friday market and spent £17.10 but that did include a lovely leg of lamb that we're having today and there will be enough to give us at least another 3 meals.

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

I read this and sang, “And a partridge in a pear tree!” :rotfl:

Ha ha, love it! :rotfl:

On to Week 2, with £114.75 left in the budget and a total of 4 NSDs.

PipneyJane

I have two shops to declare. The first was a quick trip to Mr T’s last Sunday for hummus, salad leaves and tortillas, to which DH added some reduce priced mushrooms. £6.70.

The second was yesterday. We were in Rochester, attending the Sweeps Festival. The food stalls are full of regulars, so we went prepared with coolbag and ice blocks. £20 spent at the Giggly Pig sausage stand, which netted us 2 packs of faggots and 5 packs of their excellent sausages (6 items per pack). These are the sausages I use for Toad In the Hole and cooked breakfasts, because they have texture and flavour (unlike a lot of supermarket sausages). They’re already in the freezer, for later in the year.

These spends bring May to £26.70/£120, leaving £93.30 in the kitty for the rest of the month.

- Pip

(I am certain DH has spent some money but he hasn’t given me the receipt.)

PipneyJane

CRANKY40 wrote: »

I need to update my freezer inventory but that can wait until there's room to move things around. I'm following (or trying to) the slimming world plan but I've also started the couch to 5k app and on the running days I seem to be more hungry although that could be all in my mind. I'm doing each week twice as I'm overweight and asthmatic but the couch to 5k is still doable. If anyone has any tips on nutrition for an apprentice runner I'd love to hear them.

Protein is what springs to mind. It keeps you feeling full for longer. When are you running? If it’s first thing in the morning, then I’d suggest sprinkling a tablespoon of sunflower seeds on your breakfast cereal. If later in the day, eat a handful of cashews or sunflower seeds - the extra fibre and protein does make quite a difference.

I’m doing Couch to 5k too, running first thing in the morning, although I will probably have to start again after a week off with various gut problems and dehydration. I was only on week 2. (I managed to get severely dehydrated a week ago at work. Stupid, stupid, stupid.)

- Pip

(Apologies for the multiple postings. I’d forgotten Cranky’s post until after I made my last one.)

Doom_and_Gloom

Spent £5.13 today.
Steak cut chips, French fries, mixed pepper stir fry mix and smokey chorizo tortellino. Yeah chips not needed but :beer:.

£43.76/£155.
£111.24 left.

JingsMyBucket

supersaver1000 wrote: »

Thanks Thriftwizard that's really good to know. I seem to forgot if I don't post almost straight away.

Jingsmybucket - can I ask how much saffron you got for that price. I've just bought a small 0.4g jar from Sainsbugs for £2.10. Making Paella tonight too

So another £16.20 spent, on paella ingredients. Seems like a lot I know but it makes a lot and is a lovely meal.

Current Totals: £104.94/300

@supersaver1000 I finally looked at the weight of the saffron I bought. In the glass bottle, there are five small red cylinders that each contain 15g of powdered saffron. So, 75g for €4.14. On the store’s price label it said something like €380/kg. I nearly choked, but said screw it as I probably won’t buy more for another couple years.