September 2019 Grocery Challenge

Chloris

Hello All.

I'd like to join in again for September please. We are a household of 2 adults, 2 teenagers and 1 nearly teenager. To include all food, toiletries and household items for the calendar month. We have some diet restrictions which can complicate matters. I am also doing my best to limit any plastic coming into the house so we have a milkman to pay (reusable glass bottles) and use a zero waste shop for as much as possible which sometimes works out cheaper and sometimes not. I need to start baking more to ease the costs.

A horrifying £500 is the ambitious aim. Thank you Elsiepac for running the thread. I'm looking forward to playing along.

jam2019

Put me down for £40 please. Still quite a lot in the freezer and I have a ridiculous stockpile of cleaning things so fingers crossed!

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

PipneyJane Potato link added, thank you
thriftwizard laughed at the thought of your chickpea rocking chair! Budget updated

peony40

Morning all,

First shop of the month and spent £45. Need to freeze some bread and crumpets to use later on in the week, and have written a meal plan, as trying to use up freezer stuff as need to defrost.

Bluegreen143

Looking to join properly this month gave up tracking last month cos we went away for a week self catering and it got confusing working out what was groceries and what was holiday spends...

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to set it at. I think I’ll go for £280 to start with.

That’s all food, toiletries and cleaning stuff etc for two adults, a 3.5yo and an 8mo baby. Also including a case of beer each week for DH, but any additional alcohol will have to come from our personal spending money.

Budget starting from tomorrow when DH gets paid

ditty1234

Hi after my epic fail in August please put me on for £300 in September.

Suffolk_lass

Our plan for this month is to live on mostly garden produce and meat/fish from the freezer so our only spends are likely to be dairy and some top up fruit.

I plan to go foraging this weekend - to glean some blackberries and apples from the hedgerows. I shall make jams, jellies and compote. It's nearly time to make jumbleberry jam with the bits and bobs that are not enough to make a full batch on their own (might call it Jingleberry, ready to give away at Christmas!). Still considering whether to make a different gin too... :think::whistle:

With being away for most of August we spent less than £20 on groceries but I expect to spend more in September - things like oats and prunes from the local Health Food store are on the list and I might freeze a few bits in case.

thriftwizard

Payday today & I'm galloping off into September with a £73 spend at the market this morning, which has bought us nearly everything we'll need this week. Eldest daughter has gone back to being pescatarian from fully-veg, which has eased things up a bit as I don't need to think of 3 "mains" per day, just 2. Meal plans so far are:

Tonight: Pan-fried mackerel, HM chips & HG runner beans

Sat: Sausages/chickpea burgers with either HG new potatoes or Oklahoma spuds (a mix of spuds, sweet potato & onion fried up with cumin, herbs & soy sauce) & mixed veg

Sun: Roast chicken, nut roast & all the trimmings

Mon: Stir-fried pork/cashews & mushrooms with seasonal veg (mostly HG chard & beet leaves) & noodles

Tues: L/O chicken Jalfrezi with rice, beans & HM naan

Weds: Sausage casserole (if not previously eaten up) with bulgur wheat OR HM pizza

Thurs: Baked potatoes with anything that's still left over/tuna & sweetcorn/cheese & beans.

All subject to change depending on a) number of inhabitants! b) what gets eaten when I'm not looking, c) what's ripe at the allotment and d) the weather, specifically the temperature. Puddings will be HM ice cream, fresh fruit, blackberry & apple crumble, & cream/yogurt, lunches will be soup/salads/sarnies and breakfasts the usual toast (from HM sourdough) with or without poached (home-produced) bantam eggs, pancakes with fresh fruit, or HM buns.

A little more will be spent when the market's closing down on Sunday, on any fabulous bargains (got my eyes on the strawberries, they had literally tons) and on a quick trip to Lidls when passing by, to pick up coffee, halloumi & butter.

PipneyJane

elsiepac wrote: »

PipneyJane Potato link added, thank you

Thanks Elsiepac.

I'll be wandering down to the cashpoint shortly to take the Grocery Challenge money out for the month. We've got a farm shop scheduled for tomorrow (for most of our veg) and will visit MrT's on Sunday for yogurts, milk, peppers and mushrooms.

Dinner tonight will be a Philipino dish, Pipi-An, which consists of chicken and salt pork - I use bacon - in a peanut sauce. Since the only fresh veg we have in the house are onions and a handful of mushrooms, I'll be adding a quarter of a bag of frozen mixed veg to the sauce as well as an onion and all the mushrooms. It'll be served on Bulgar wheat.

- Pip (off to make banana bread first, before heading out.)

Merlin's_Beard

Starting out this month with a £65.17 spend which takes me over half way through my £100 month's budget before the month has even begun.....!!

A lot of that is a bunch of (relatively) expensive toiletries needing replacing at the same time, and a couple of my other normal toiletries being on special offer - so it's thrifty in the long run, I swear.

This week will be split between a pepper and mushroom hash, and a vegetable lasagne (So no, I didn't even buy any meat in that giant shop!)