August 2018 Grocery Challenge

Nicki_Sue

My month starts tomorrow so we've been very creative with the little we've had in and I've nearly finished a meal plan for the next week and my first big shop of the budget.
I need to find a freecycle chest freezer! My fridge freezer is great but now we've moved to a monthly budget it would be advantageous to be able to buy in bulk and freeze, especially with Aldi's meat at the moment. ours had some chicken thigh in, a fairly big pack, for £1.69!

elsiepac

Hi all - new thread is up for September (back on track this month!)

September 2018 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

Shopping done for the day and I'm going to dive into a bunch of cooking cleaning.

€14.00 at my market square for bananas, raspberries, peaches, strawberries, spinach and a bag of onions.
€3.30 at the rotisserie truck
€5.10 at Carrefour for unsalted butter and some cheeses.

Tomorrow I'll head to Delhaize to buy Greek yoghurt and a couple €1.00 wonky veg bags which will do us for the rest of the week.

TOTALS SO FAR:
€313.31 / €300.00
11 / 12 NSD

Lauralozzle

This weeks shop, within budget, and we haven't succumbed to a takeaway!

Shopping is now at £200.68/£250

We also have some reduced meat we've popped into the freezer which will last until the end of the month. Should hopefully make next weeks shopping fairly cheap.

I'm really happy about this so far - it's the first time the shopping budget appears doable and that's all down to menu planning!

thriftwizard

I did manage to fly to the market yesterday & buy some meat, so £10 spent on that, and £1 on broccoli, which I forgot on Friday & DD1 can't possibly be expected to live without! It's a pretty harmless indulgence, really... NSD today; was away working. At the moment, it looks like we'll get through the week without needing any major top-ups; fingers crossed!

Nicki_Sue

Payday!
I transferred £450 into groceries and have spent £65.68 in Aldi and 50p in Tesco. That leaves me with 383.82 in the grocery account to last until 19th September.
Thank goodness for having Lidl and Aldi nearby!

pamsdish

I have had to replace my T.V. an unwanted expense, dogs boosters Wednesday, none of which impact my grocery budget, but really hurting general finances.

berries

Please can I join this for September. I get paid Friday so I will be trying my best not to waste my money away. First time doing this i am normally carefull . Just lately I seem to be going into my overdraft and getting some charges so wasting pennies there!!

I normally budget £25 per week. I have plenty of meat fish in the freezer so it's the fresh items etc. I work in retail so get some really good bargains which I only buy if it's needed or can go into the freezer. I'm currently off work sick with purlese so feeling pants can't do normal things as docs said must rest hence trying to get keep my brain busy.... Nothing better than pulling finger out of !!!! to sort this out and stop wasteing my pennies!!!

So I'm hoping £100 month will be enough. There is only me and my 3 dog's which have their own account so food comes out of theirs. Raw food too which I need to stock up on this month so that could be £60. Haven't sat down and worked out what I'm getting them this month. Job to do today.

Gosh sorry for rambling on I get carried away at times! !

Merlin's_Beard

£85.11/£100, but since I'm working every day between now and the end of the month, I reckon I'll make it. And that includes me having an emotional breakdown and buying Dominos at the weekend with cheesy doughballs AND dessert. (sadness = melted cheese and dessert in this house!!)

elsiepac

berries wrote: »

Please can I join this for September. I get paid Friday so I will be trying my best not to waste my money away. First time doing this i am normally carefull . Just lately I seem to be going into my overdraft and getting some charges so wasting pennies there!!

Hi berries and welcome!

If you head on over to the September thread and pop your budget goal in there, I will add you to the list of the challengers at the top of the thread. Great to have you with us

___

I've broken a toe bone! Not a toe itself - but the bone actually back into the foot, right at the base of it, nearly all the way through! My first ever broken bone (at 34 years old!) which I don't think is too bad. Slipped in the bathroom and ended up almost doing the splits and landed on my bum, but my whole weight was behind my right leg which slammed into a corner of wall - VERY painful!!
So movement is limited and I'm supposed to be resting it - I have crutches as not supposed to put weight on my foot (not that I can right now) but they are a pain in the backside!

Anyway so I've done a very simple meal prep for this week - had virtually no money so great chance to use some freezer meals, which all seemed to be curries lol! So for the rest of this week I have:

2x chickpea and lentil curries
1x sweet potato, chickpea, red pepper and spinach curry
1x another curry I can't remember!

I've cooked up some rice in a stock cube and got it in the fridge ready, and washed and chopped 2 broccolis (£1.10) - so each evening I need to remember to get out a curry from the freezer for the next day, then on the evening dish up some rice, add the curry, add some broccoli, cover in cling film and nuke, which should steam the broccoli. Simples!
I also made a one pot thing for lunches - let's call it:

Harissa Butternut Soup
Makes 4 good portions and if you're on SW it's syn free)

Ingredients
2 small or 1 large red onion
3 cloves garlic
1 "rich and smoky" stock cube (I get these in Tesc0)
2 tsp Harissa seasoning (in powder form - you can absolutely use the stuff in a jar but if on SW be aware it has syns then)
4 tbsp tomato puree
Water
1 large butternut squash
2 tins borlotti beans (I wanted to use pinto but didn't have any)
1 big bag spinach

Method

1. Put about 1/2 inch of water in a big saucepan and water saute the onion and garlic for about 10 minutes, adding splashes more water when needed
2. Stir in the stock pot and enough water to make about an inch in the bottom of the pan and stir until it dissolves
3. Add the harissa seasoning and the tomato puree and mix well
4. Now add about 1 pint of water and bring to the boil while you chop your butternut into small ish cubes and add them to the pot
5. Drain and rinse the beans and throw them in
6. Bring to a low simmer for about 15 minutes, stir in the whole bag of spinach and cook for a further 5 minutes
7. Enjoy!