February 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

euronorris wrote: »

Hi All


I've been AWOL and my grocery spending is ridiculous. I have a renewed motivation to get it under control and have made a meal plan (including snacks) for my little family, and have prepped a shopping list using mysupermarket to get things as cheap as possible (there are still some things that are branded, but I've tried cheaper versions and hated them - they are few though). So I'm all set for March (which will start from tomorrow for me - payday).


But, I have a question. One of the money saving ideas at the start of the thread is to make your own bread. But with own brand loafs at 50p each in most supermarkets, it doesn't seem like the saving is huge anymore. I sourced a well rated bread machine recipe from online, and costed out the ingredients per recipe based on buying the cheapest ingredients available, and it works out around 32p a loaf. A previous MSE thread suggests that the cost of electricity is around 6p a loaf, taking the total to 38p. So this is only a saving of about 12p per loaf. When you factor in the cost of a bread machine, second hand of course, is it really that big a saving?


I know there is, of course, the added benefit of home baked bread (yummy), but is it a big saving anymore? Is it a case that it used to be, but Littles and Allies growing as much as they have has seen prices drop?

Instead of specialist "bread" flours costing over £1/kg, I buy Atta flour/Chapatti flour by the 10kg sack, usually paying between £3 and £4 per sack from MrT's (so 30-40p/kg). I'm not loyal to a particular brand, just buy whatever's cheapest at the time (including Value). It's normally a fine, wholemeal flour and is fairly "strong" in the gluten/bread sense. Each sack lasts us about 9 months and gets split between 2 large, airtight Lock-n-Lock boxes.

By my costings, using Atta flour, a loaf of wholemeal bread made in my breadmaker costs me less than 30p.

HTH

- Pip

euronorris

PipneyJane wrote: »

Instead of specialist "bread" flours costing over £1/kg, I buy Atta flour/Chapatti flour by the 10kg sack, usually paying between £3 and £4 per sack from MrT's (so 30-40p/kg). I'm not loyal to a particular brand, just buy whatever's cheapest at the time (including Value). It's normally a fine, wholemeal flour and is fairly "strong" in the gluten/bread sense. Each sack lasts us about 9 months and gets split between 2 large, airtight Lock-n-Lock boxes.

By my costings, using Atta flour, a loaf of wholemeal bread made in my breadmaker costs me less than 30p.

HTH

- Pip

Thanks. I've actually got a lot of chapatti flour in stock at home following a previous grocery order mix up.


The flour I used for my sums is white bread flour from Lidl at 59p for a 1.5kg bag. That works out at 16p (for the flour alone) per recipe. If you are buying 10kg at £4, that also works out at 16p per recipe. 32p for all ingredients and 38p including leccy. If at £3 per bag, it drops to 12p (28p all ingredients and 34p including leccy), but I'm still not getting it as low as you.


Must be a difference in the recipe. This is the one I found: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/994/best-bread-machine-loaf.aspx


Cheers x

Suffolk_lass

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

Have you got a recipe for homemade naans? I’d like to try them. Regular bread I am absolutely hopeless at!!

I looked a few up and went for an American recipe - I have a range so actually cooked them on the simmer hotplate (and pulled the lid down so they cooked in the steam), but a cast iron skillet or similar would work just as well. I tried three different methods of cooking them and the best involved a drizzle of olive oil (instead of butter) wiped over the cooking surface with paper.

The recipe I used is this one

Homemade Naan Bread

INGREDIENTS
• 4 cups strong bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water (not boiling just hot tap water)
• 1 sachet of fast yeast
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• melted butter for brushing - I used olive oil
• garlic or herbs for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
1 In a medium size bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water (no hotter than your finger can take). Add the dry yeast to the warm water and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Let it sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture begins to froth and rise.
2 Put the flour, salt, bicarb soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
3 When the yeast is foamy and smells like bread add the warm milk and stir in the yogurt. Pour the wet ingredients right into the middle of the dry and begin mixing the wet with dry using a wooden spatula (or the dough hook on a mixer). When the dough is about to come together, use your hands to finish mixing. As soon as it comes together, stop kneading. It should be sticky, but should form a ball and be soft. Cover the bowl with a damp towel, hotel shower cap or cling and let sit in a warm place 1 hour or if not using right away overnight in the fridge.
4 When ready to cook divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and using a rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into an oval shape. It should be about 6-8 inches long and about 1/4-inch thick, but no thinner. Repeat this method with the rest of the dough.
5 Warm a cast iron skillet on the Simmering Plate (at simmering heat) until the pan is hot. For plain naan I just wiped the pan with olive oil but you can rush both sides of the naan with melted butter and if desired sprinkle on any spices you like such as cumin and garlic. Place the naan on the hot skillet, cover with a lid and bake for a minute or two, until you see bubbles starting to form. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, until large toasted spots appear on the underside. Brush with a bit of/more butter if desired (we didn't), then sprinkle with a little flaky salt, or herbs, if you want to (we didn't). Place the naan in a tea towel-lined dish. Repeat with the rest of the naans and serve. These are best eaten fresh, but will keep in a ziplock bag for a few days or in the freezer.

I made three and have frozen the remaining five portions for another day

Doom_and_Gloom

Since last post we have spent £13.79.

800g black grapes (organic), 500g strawberries (organic), 370g easy peelers, 510g bananas, 260g spinach, cucumber (organic), cinnimon and rasin bagels, crispy chilli beef and a beef yasai noodle pot.

Tempeh and vegetable stir fry for me tonight.
OH will be having beef stew and mash potato.

£189.61/£182.
£7.61 over.

PipneyJane

euronorris wrote: »

Thanks. I've actually got a lot of chapatti flour in stock at home following a previous grocery order mix up.


The flour I used for my sums is white bread flour from Lidl at 59p for a 1.5kg bag. That works out at 16p (for the flour alone) per recipe. If you are buying 10kg at £4, that also works out at 16p per recipe. 32p for all ingredients and 38p including leccy. If at £3 per bag, it drops to 12p (28p all ingredients and 34p including leccy), but I'm still not getting it as low as you.


Must be a difference in the recipe. This is the one I found: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/994/best-bread-machine-loaf.aspx


Cheers x

To be honest, I have no recollection of whether I included electricity or not when I worked out the numbers. (Typically, I can’t find the file and have no recollection where I saved it. It was a couple of years ago.).

My recipe is different to the one in your link. I use the one that came with the breadmaker: 575g flour, 375ml water, 1 tablespoon each of castor sugar, oil and dried skimmed milk, 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of yeast. It gives a nice, crusty loaf.

HTH

- Pip

JingsMyBucket

Hi y'all! Today and Saturday were NSDs but I added to my totals on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

$21.82 at Whole Foods on Friday for Greek yoghurt + fruit cups; 6x cheap bell peppers; ground beef; salad mix; and frozen cauliflower rice.

Saturday morning I made a quiche with some of the salad mix, half a pepper and some cooking bacon ends. I also made a chicken tortilla soup which really hit the spot since I've been craving it for weeks. I froze half of it for next month. Later I had dinner out with a friend. So, no grocery money spent that day.

Sunday I went walking around the neighbourhood to stretch my legs after a nice day of doing sweet jack nothing.

45¢ at a local market for 3 overripe bananas. I bought them to make banana bread/muffins this week. I'll use this recipe but will reduce the sugar and sub out the wheat flour for almond flour: http://www.shutterbean.com/2013/maple-olive-oil-banana-bread/

$2.00 on a pack of mushrooms at another local market.

TOTALS SO FAR:
$428.02 / $450.00
11 / 10 NSD

Nearly at my limit! I'll likely buy some eggs or sweetener alternatives tomorrow so that should take care of the rest of my budget. Here's what my cooking plan for this week:

Stuffed peppers - brown rice, cauliflower rice, ground beef, mushrooms - done
Quiche - peppers, bacon, spring mix, cheddar - done
Banana muffins or bread
Chicken tortilla soup - done
Shrimp, asparagus, tomato sheet pan dinner

tighteningthebelt

Re the bread conversation...
1.Don't forget to factor in the other fiver you spend when you pop to the supermarket for a cheap loaf!!!
2.You don't have to factor the breadmaker costs as you can make it by hand and cook when you've got something else in the oven. Or just keep a look out for second hand, good ones come up really cheap all the time.
3.Fresh bread is very much nicer to eat. IMHO.

euronorris

tighteningthebelt wrote: »

Re the bread conversation...
1.Don't forget to factor in the other fiver you spend when you pop to the supermarket for a cheap loaf!!!
2.You don't have to factor the breadmaker costs as you can make it by hand and cook when you've got something else in the oven. Or just keep a look out for second hand, good ones come up really cheap all the time.
3.Fresh bread is very much nicer to eat. IMHO.

Thanks. Number 1 sometimes gets me, for sure. But 2, I just can't seem to get right. I have tried soooo many times, and I always end up with a really dense bread! It rises great first time, but after I knock it back, it never really recovers. I must be doing something wrong, but I don't know what! And keeping an eye out for breadmakers at the moment.


And yes. Yum, yum, yum to 3!


Thanks also to Pipney for sharing your recipe x

Suffolk_lass

euronorris wrote: »

Hi All


I've been AWOL and my grocery spending is ridiculous. I have a renewed motivation to get it under control and have made a meal plan (including snacks) for my little family, and have prepped a shopping list using mysupermarket to get things as cheap as possible (there are still some things that are branded, but I've tried cheaper versions and hated them - they are few though). So I'm all set for March (which will start from tomorrow for me - payday).


But, I have a question. One of the money saving ideas at the start of the thread is to make your own bread. But with own brand loafs at 50p each in most supermarkets, it doesn't seem like the saving is huge anymore. I sourced a well rated bread machine recipe from online, and costed out the ingredients per recipe based on buying the cheapest ingredients available, and it works out around 32p a loaf. A previous MSE thread suggests that the cost of electricity is around 6p a loaf, taking the total to 38p. So this is only a saving of about 12p per loaf. When you factor in the cost of a bread machine, second hand of course, is it really that big a saving?


I know there is, of course, the added benefit of home baked bread (yummy), but is it a big saving anymore? Is it a case that it used to be, but Littles and Allies growing as much as they have has seen prices drop?

I make my bread so I know what is in it. It is not primarily driven by price, more by avoiding additives like flour improvers and sugar.

For the record, my basic loaf is 500g bread flour (19p), salt, a 7g packet of fast yeast (I bought a box of 48 online - they work out at 14p each at today's prices) and either a knob of butter or a little olive oil to grease the tin (allow 10p for salt and oil/butter) - 47p. Like others, I cook when the oven is on. I sometimes use a mixer with a dough hook to bring it together and then knead by hand (good for the tone in your arms!), or just do it by hand - it takes ten minutes, then another two after it has proved (in a bowl with a shower cap that was removed from a hotel bathroom on a work trip).

Not bad!

[Deleted User]

Hi, hope everyone is good. I am going to declare @ £90.57. It's £10.57 over budget, but i'm not really fussed. I will deduct the overspend from my March budget, as I really won't need to buy too much. I bought extra for my house guests, though we ate out all the time - different budget, apart from one breakfast, so I have bulging food supplies. See you over in March.