October 2018 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Oh dear, XSpender, your DPiL kind of need a reality check there. Well done you for taking back control, but surely they know that their behaviour is somewhat self-indulgent & not in his best interests? Is it can't cook, or won't?

A miserly £4.50 spent here since last weekend, on bread, rolls for OH & beansprouts. Main shop will be done tomorrow, as I'm out all day on Saturday. I've just been told I'll need an operation very shortly, so I may have to duck out for a couple of months, depending on how mobile I can be afterwards; I'm really glad to have had a few months to get the budget back under control, but let's see if it can stay that way hurtling up to Christmas!

YorksLass

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

I was thinking of trying to do a beef stew in the slow cooker this week - will that type of beef be very expensive? I have never done beef in the slow cooker for some reason, I have put nearly everything else in there haha!

A cheaper cut of beef (eg shin beef, braising steak, brisket) is ideal to cook this way and enriches the gravy. Sometimes it can be a bit fatty but, if you cook it the day before you want it, the fat can easily be removed once it's cooled. Bulking out with lots of root veg will make it go further as will adding pearl barley and other pulses. Enjoy!

Took a carrier bag of clothing to the Sally Army clothing bank today and popped into the nearby Co-op for a packet of chocolate chip cookies, on promotion at £1 minus a 50p coupon = 50p. Also bagged a large head of broccoli and a punnet of mushrooms, both ys, so total spend of £1.43. Tomorrow's shopping list adjusted accordingly.

Meal plan done for next week using mainly stocks from F/F and cupboards and I think I should come in on budget, maybe even under!

luckofthe_irish

YorksLass wrote: »

A cheaper cut of beef (eg shin beef, braising steak, brisket) is ideal to cook this way and enriches the gravy. Sometimes it can be a bit fatty but, if you cook it the day before you want it, the fat can easily be removed once it's cooled. Bulking out with lots of root veg will make it go further as will adding pearl barley and other pulses. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for this - I have taken a note of those types of beef and will have a look in the supermarket tonight to see what they have! I plan on lots of root veg & padding it out with beans and quinoa :T

pamsdish

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

@pamsdish, how much did those 30 chicken thighs cost you? I'm just wondering. You're also in Scotland, right? I'm curious because of our possible move over there early next year.

HI they were from Tesco think branded Willow Farms, I always pick the packs with 5 in, I have weighed them and work out best value compared to the 4s or 6s, think each pack was marked £1.35 ish, but scanned through checkout at £1.24, so 25p a thigh.
I am in South Wales.

franticflyerSue56

Feeling a bit cheesed off now. I have come to the end of my salary month. Whereas I was celebrating the fact I had kept my groceries spend to under £70 a week, I had not taken into consideration that we have had a five week month. So to all intents and purposes, my projected spend of £280 has been blown right out of the water! What a schoolgirl error to make,grrrrrrrr!

caronc

£31 today which I hope will be my last spend until my new month starts on the 30th. Total so far £126/£200 so anticipated extra budget hasn't really been used. Needless to say it's been used elsewhere so a spendy month overall!

thriftwizard

£45 spent at the market today; I'm still just about on target but we'll have to see how next week pans out. I've just been told that my surgery will probably be on 29th/30th, so I may need to stock up for the troops next weekend & kind of do November's non-perishables run whilst still in October, as I won't be able to drive for a while. On the other hand - they're all adults now, and we do live 200 yards from a supermarket, albeit not a cheap one!

Doom_and_Gloom

Since last post we have spent £10.15.

200g radishes, 882g celeriac, 200g spring greens, cucumber portion, 2.5kg Maris piper potatoes, 4 yellow peppers, 1 orange pepper, 575g courgettes, 910g bananas, 300g organic mushrooms, 330g ruby jewel plum tomatoes, 365g parsnips, 635g easy peelers, 5 organic lemons and 1L whole organic milk.
Again a lot of the above was reduced.

Portion of the vegetable chilli with a sweet potato and salad for dinner.
OH will have stir fry for dinner.

£157.67/£200
£42.33 left.

MadamMim2013

£3.85 to add for basics and some ys chicken goujons!

JingsMyBucket

pamsdish wrote: »

HI they were from Tesco think branded Willow Farms, I always pick the packs with 5 in, I have weighed them and work out best value compared to the 4s or 6s, think each pack was marked £1.35 ish, but scanned through checkout at £1.24, so 25p a thigh.
I am in South Wales.

Wow, that is a really good deal! Thanks for taking time to respond about my mundane question.

The past few days I've racked up 1 NSD and 5 shopping trips.

€40.67 at Delhaize getting frozen shrimp, eggs, loads of small containers of soups and other stuff. I bought 8 500mL tetra packs of soups because they were 2 for 1 and would make an excellent size for OH to take for lunches over the next month or so. I saved €10.47 buying them, so I'm happy.

€10.90 at Lidl getting a bunch of Italiamo sauces since it's Italian Week over here.

€18.99 at Lidl again today to get more stuff for dinner party tomorrow evening as well as staples like onions. I was shopping while hungry so bought a bit more than intended.

€5.53 at Delhaize afterward for limes, strawberries, and shredded carrots.

€3.99 lastly for toilet paper.

TOTALS SO FAR:
€216.14 / €300.00
6/12 NSDs

I'm close to my budget, but this should be fine. Tomorrow I just have to get coconut milk, some herbs and something for dessert and that should be it for the next few days. We still have a lot of beer and wine leftover from my birthday party so that will be served tomorrow evening. I have enough fruit to last me until Tuesday and there's a lot of meat in the freezer. I was digging around in there earlier this week thinking about ways to make room and realized how much I had in there. It may be time for another freezer audit.