July 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

To update my last post, yesterday’s spend was £7.92 in MrT’s (2x£1.25 YS Gammon, 4x Yeo Valley yoghurt - this branch still has the 2 for £2 offer - YS bagels 40p, Peppers £1.02) and £1.04 in Asda (2x 54p mushrooms).

That brings our GC budget to £105.08/£120, leaving £14.92 for the rest of the month. I think we’ll be OK - there’s plenty of food in the house - but things may be a bit tight by the end of the month. No doubt, we’ll need onions and carrots by the 27th, so another visit to the farm shop will be on the cards in the last weekend of the month.

- Pip

CRANKY40

Good evening all,

No food shopping today but I did have to feed the HT as he was sent home from school at lunchtime with a migraine. This led to a late lunch for both of us and subsequently we've just had a snack type evening meal.

Breakfast - cereal for HT and banana on toast for me

Lunch - ham sandwich and home made brownie for HT, Save Dosh's mushrooms on toast for me

Dinner - we both had cheese on toast. The HT had his with tomato puree under the cheese and some chopped up ham sprinkled on top. I had mine with Worcestershire sauce drizzled on the cheese

Supper will probably be a mini ham wrap and a packet of crisps for him and a sliced beef mini wrap for me

It's the HT's last week in school before the summer break so I'm expecting my grocery bill to go up a bit when he's home all day. I'm also hoping to teach him to be slightly more self sufficient instead of expecting all meals to be made by me.

thriftwizard

I'm celebrating two NSDs on the trot, as last night's fish & chips came out of the Entertainments budget as a late celebration of DD1's birthday, at the end of her "holiday" (i.e. a week off! But she dipped in for some lovely weather, and we've been able to head down to the beach several times)

Breakfasts this week have mostly been toast made from home-made sourdough bread - which I'm gradually getting the hang of! - or rolls/buns from The Book of Buns. I made a soup with the ham cooking liquor, which ran out at lunchtime today, and did a pasta Milanese for supper, leaving just enough for a sandwich or salad tomorrow lunchtime. Tomorrow's supper will use up the leftover pork from Sunday, probably in a pork & peppers casserole, with some of the bargain Jersey Royals and allotment-grown runner beans. I shouldn't need to buy anything... famous last words?

elsiepac

thriftwizard glad you've sussed the sourdough recipe, I bet it's delicious!

Yesterday I was gifted a GIANT cucumber so I changed my dinner plan from "something from the freezer" to a yummy cucumber noodle salad:

I spiralised the WHOLE cucumber (can't even describe how big it was!).
Then I put it in a sieve and sprinkled with salt, and massaged it in and squeezed as much water out as I could.
I left it draining some more whilst I cooked some rice noodles and made a sauce.
The sauce was tahini - about 1/4 cup, juice of 2 limes, a thumb of ginger, a clove of garlic, about 1.5-2 tbsp light soy sauce, a splash of chilli oil and a splash of coriander oil. I whizzed this to make a smooth thick sauce.
When the rice noodles were cooked I drained and rinsed them to cool them, then combined with the cucumber noodles, then used my hands to massage the sauce all the way through really thoroughly.
I topped this with lots of fresh coriander, some sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and a few pine nuts.
It was delicious and very refreshing!

[Deleted User]

thriftwizard wrote: »

Glad to hear of your excellent recovery, Save Dosh! Pretty much back to normal here too, I'm delighted to report.

Really pleased to hear that.


OK, confession time. The drinks budget has been blown out of the water. I like cocktails, but guess i'm begrudging paying the high price for them and mostly finding i don't like them. Another thing, i keep forgetting what i dont like and order the same yucky thing again, so i've bought a few (soon to be more) bits to make some at home cocktails. The only cocktails i remember liking are Pina Colada (my favourite), Martini Expresso, and Long island Tea. The list of dislikes is long and includes Manhattan, Cosmopolitan, Blue Curaco. There are many more that i have wasted money on, but that's all i remember. Anyway here is the drinks i've ordered - thus far - Amaretto, Creme Caramel, Cinnamon Whiskey, White Rum, Malibu substitute (it's honestly the same). I'm working on a skinny version of Pina Colada (mentally), which involves frozen banana, almond milk and coconut extract. I'm only having a few cocktails on the w/e, as i don't want to totally unravel my healthy living and/or put on weight. Anyone know where I can get coconut extract. Truth be told, I've lost a very good friend of 40 years to cancer (we bury him next week). I went to see him in hospital before I went in to hospital. I was wheeled in to see him as I couldn't walk - we conversed from our relative hospital beds and were going to meet up when we were better - sadly not to be and I have another friend of 35 years, who has terminal cancer, so I need to let rip for a bit, without totally losing the plot.. Hopefully it all goes to plan and if it doesn't, it doesn't.. So for the next month or two I'm tearing up the rule book with regards the drinks budget.

Food wise I've spent £6.73 on 2 tubs of blueberries and 2 tubs of strawberries, which have been frozen for smoothies, plus some tins for the store cupboard and a couple of toiletries. I have cooked up a large batch of veggie mince and frozen three portions. Just lentils, tvp and whatever veggies were lurking. The plan is to very much run down my convenience food freezer and replace with home cooked stuff. Sorry for the long post. xx

CRANKY40

I've added £15 to my spend. The actual food bit was £11.70 on fruit, bread and ham all of which we needed but I spent the change going through the car wash, so I added the whole £15. I know rain is forecast but thanks to the seagulls the car needed more than a rain shower.....

Today's meals :-

Breakfast - cereal and a slice of buttered syrup loaf for the HT, toast with peanut butter for me.

Lunch - HT will be fed at school, I had egg on toast because the eggs need using up and I like eggs. I also had a satsuma and a slice of melon.

Dinner - skinny meatballs and pasta in tomato and basil sauce for HT. The sauce is a jar sauce because he likes it but I only ever buy it when it's on offer at half price. One jar does 3 portions and it freezes fine. I'm having skinny sausages from the butcher (nothing comes out of them when they're grilled), with a dry fried egg, the other half of a small pot of beans from the HT's dinner the day before yesterday and some mushrooms that need using up.

Supper - mini ham wrap and a packet of crisps for the HT. Mine will probably be a satsuma....not sure if I'll want anything else.

PipneyJane

Save_Dosh wrote: »

Really pleased to hear that.


OK, confession time. The drinks budget has been blown out of the water. I like cocktails, but guess i'm begrudging paying the high price for them and mostly finding i don't like them. Another thing, i keep forgetting what i dont like and order the same yucky thing again, so i've bought a few (soon to be more) bits to make some at home cocktails. The only cocktails i remember liking are Pina Colada (my favourite), Martini Expresso, and Long island Tea. The list of dislikes is long and includes Manhattan, Cosmopolitan, Blue Curaco. There are many more that i have wasted money on, but that's all i remember. Anyway here is the drinks i've ordered - thus far - Amaretto, Creme Caramel, Cinnamon Whiskey, White Rum, Malibu substitute (it's honestly the same). I'm working on a skinny version of Pina Colada (mentally), which involves frozen banana, almond milk and coconut extract. I'm only having a few cocktails on the w/e, as i don't want to totally unravel my healthy living and/or put on weight. Anyone know where I can get coconut extract. Truth be told, I've lost a very good friend of 40 years to cancer (we bury him next week). I went to see him in hospital before I went in to hospital. I was wheeled in to see him as I couldn't walk - we conversed from our relative hospital beds and were going to meet up when we were better - sadly not to be and I have another friend of 35 years, who has terminal cancer, so I need to let rip for a bit, without totally losing the plot.. Hopefully it all goes to plan and if it doesn't, it doesn't.. So for the next month or two I'm tearing up the rule book with regards the drinks budget.

Big hugs to you, SaveDosh. ((((((((((((((((SaveDosh)))))))))))))))

Losing two friends to cancer in a short period of time is painful and you need time to grieve, both for your lost friend and the one who is dying now. Grief is a cruel monster and the pain will knock you side-ways when you least expect it. I'm sorry.

- Pip

CRANKY40

Hugs Save Dosh. One of my close friends who was supposed to take the HT if anything happened to me died of cancer at the beginning of June. All food and alcohol rules were cancelled for the week before and the two weeks after she died. We're more or less back to our usual pattern now....but it's still an emotional time. Go easy on yourself.

elsiepac

Save Dosh so sorry for the loss of your friend and that your other friend is suffering too. You must be really struggling, I hope you have plenty of real life support but you know we are all here too if you need us. Big hugs x

Re coconut extract Waitr0se do one - not sure if it's high enough quality for cocktails, I'm sure it would be fine.
If not I just did a quick search and there are some on Amaz0n and looks like one in L4keland too.

Suffolk_lass

elsiepac wrote: »

my "homemade" iced latte which is a shot of espresso from the work machine poured over a glass of ice and alpr0 coconut milk "drink" - soo good and cheaper than c0st4 but not quite as exciting! (so posh name for what it is haha)

elsiepac the Italian for Almond is "mandorla" - you could name your drink "caffè mandorlatte" (said with an Italian accent, naturally) :cool::rotfl: