August 2019 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

I've not been on the group for a while, but our grocery spends are creeping up and we need to get it back to a more manageable amount so we can save for a holiday.
Could you put me down for £400 please for the month running from 1st-31st. This is to include all food and drink for 5 people, 2 adults and 3 kids. as well as household items and toiletries.
I'd love to include food and drink outside of the house too, to try and kerb the amount of takeaways, lunch stops we make.
We do have quite a bit in the freezer and store cupboard too.

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

It's payday today, so I'll be taking my GC money out of the bank tonight - that purse is empty - and doing a small shop. We harvested almost all our loganberries the other night, so I'm after some good vanilla ice-cream to serve with them. (Our two-year-old plant only has one fruiting stem; our "harvest "was about a mug full of berries.)


Menu for most of this week:

Monday's dinner was Saag Gosht, made with leftover roast lamb from Sunday and some kale gifted by our neighbour.
Tuesday's was a pasta bake, made with a jar of sauce, a 500g packet of pasta quills, a can of sweetcorn and a can of pilchards in tomato sauce, with cheddar on top. (More to say about this in a moment.)
Tonight (Wednesday) Toad in the Hole, made with GigglyPig Wow-Wow Sausages, broccoli and, possibly, some of the green beans gifted by our neighbour. (I rarely eat green beans. Not my favourite.)
Thursday I think I'll make a White Fish Curry, using frozen fish from the freezer, with an elderly tub of plain yoghurt forming the base for the sauce.
Friday Some sort of Chinese stir-fry, using either a chicken breast or a pork chop from the freezer. I have to use up the glut of spring onion somehow.
Breakfasts Cereal
Lunches leftovers from the night before.


Now, about that jar of sauce. We always have a couple in stock for nights when we're too knackered to cook or when we're uninspired. Normally, they're own brand. At some point, Homepride Pasta Bake sauces were on sale, so we picked up a jar of their Creamy Tuna Pasta Bake. I used it last night because I thought it'd go well with the pilchards. Imagine my surprise when read the label and discovered that IT DOESN'T CONTAIN ANY tuna. Instead, the instructions say to add the drained contents of a 185g can of tuna to the sauce. Misleading to say the least!

(This was after I'd dumped the contents into my baking dish with the other ingredients. I'd wondered why I couldn't see any obvious bits of tuna.)

I am not impressed. It'll have to be considerably cheaper than MrT's own-brand for me to buy ever again.

- Pip


PS: If anyone has suggestions for making green beans into a dish, rather than just a boring side vegetable, please share them. I don't like the taste of frozen green beans, but fresh are fine. They're definitely a vegetable that tastes different when frozen.

sweetpea26

Hi all

My month started on Sunday past
totals up to date are
£81.29 for food.

Shopped in Asda, Lidl, Local shops.

The actual cost before reductions would have been £103.11

So a saving of £21.82 .. this includes reduced meat Lidl, bread and dry / canned goods from asda too.

So I am on target. I have a few pounds left for Friday shop.

I also have a seperate budget of £50 for OTHER items which includes, clothing, toiletries, coffee out, takeaway, items for home, fuel for car I share with our son.

Most of my items are sourced from charity shops and I was very fortunate yesterday to find a brand new in box LG breadmaker for £5. Delighted to have found this.
Also needed steak knives and was able to pick up 6 solid stainless steel ones for £2 on Monday and 3 good strong solid drinking glasses for 50p each.

Bra in ASDA cost me £6 and some personal product cost £2.

Coffee and cake out in nice cafe £4.75

This £50 will cover all of us for the bit pieces we need. It is as I said seperate from my grocery challenge but it helps me rein in the spending.

I have not bought a new drinking glass, bowl or plate for years. Mugs as well can be sourced very cheap from charity shops.

What is not spent is carried over following week. I have my eye on a small kitchen appliance and may buy it at the end of week if money is available.

Last week my husband needed toiletries so that was taken care off in this budget.

This is really helping me not overspend...I know I have £100 for Food and I will not go over it

All the best to everyone in the challenge

lilly81

Can I join?

I plan to stick to £200 food budget.

I'm a vegetarian, my husband is lactose free and my 5 year old son is dairy free :eek:

Fairie

Mrs Cheshire, you could definitely make it without the seeds, or indeed the barley flakes. Just add in extra oats. I added the seeds to add extra protein as it keeps you full for longer, ground or chopped nuts would also work. 😊
Fairie x

thriftwizard

I'm off into the August budget with a spend of £65.43 at Lidls, on as many of the non-perishables we'll need this month as I could remember. Worryingly, this was about average for the monthly "non-p" run a year or so ago, but this time we didn't need about half of the things I buy regularly, so I was a bit dismayed to realise that stuff really has gone up quite a bit.

I shall aim to spend about £60 at the market each weekend this month (there are 5) and £20-odd on the various things that need to be topped up - bananas & salad, usually! Cat food is stocked up, but I may need to buy some more flour (we go through 8Kg sacks quite quickly) and chicken corn, which will bring down what's available for everything else.

I'm deliberately running down the freezer, which needs defrosting, and the tin supply; both will be re-stocked next month with an eye to possible Brexit mayhem. That will ensure that everything is well within date. In the meantime my darling daughters have filled the freezer back up with (shop-bought!) ice for their gin & tonic... ah well, it'd be more efficient like that if it weren't so frosted-up!

sweetpea26

thriftwizard I feel your pain about the ice.

The kids of today... no time to make ice cubes ... our house is the same. I end up dumping some of the ice into the sink so I can get my reduced items into freezer

sweetpea26

Meal Plan this week should have added this earlier

Monday : Ham Salad and wheaten bread
Tuesday : Mince carrots onions gravy, mashed potato and peas
Wednesday : Steak, onions, mushrooms, mushy peas
Thursday : Bacon, Fried Cabbage with onion, and potatoes.
Friday : Fish (baked in oven) Chips, Salad and frozen veg
Saturday : Homemade pizza ...make dough morning, onion,
mushroom chicken, ham and peppers..all take diff
toppings. Using home grown oregano for seasoning

Sunday :Chicken Balti from scratch, rice, Naan, home made pickle
and salad.

Suffolk_lass

I have not shopped yet in August but my meal plan is (starting yesterday as we are away from Wednesday)

• Wednesday (skipped breakfast) soup then melanzane parmigiana with added chicken
• Thursday - yogurt with nuts and seeds, soup then chicken wings with homegrown veg - carrots, runner and dwarf beans
• Friday same breakfast and lunch then egg and cucumber salad (home-grown cucumbers, local eggs) with warm new potatoes (home-grown)
• Saturday fast all day then baked fish (in freezer) with homegrown veg (as above)
• Sunday hard-boiled eggs with potato salad and homegrown leaves, cucumbers and tomatoes, with pickled beets (yes, home-grown)
• Monday yogurt with nuts and seeds, soup and then any leftovers, probably curried or with cheese sauce
• Tuesday clear down fridge and freeze any homegrown stuff (might have to make gazpacho and freeze) - might need to go to the pub
• Wednesday off on holibobs - take pots of yogurt, fruit and nuts for breakfast on the ferry

I may need milk and will definitely need bowl fruit and might look at YS meat for Monday and Tuesday, but hopefully very frugal - it needs to be with hols and big credit card bills on their way -

I should add I am trying to lose a lump of fat before hols!

dan958

My July budget is official over, with £50.48 spent out of a budget of £120.

Moving onto August, I am dropping the budget £40 and making it £80.