October 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

Apologies, I haven't been at home much this week, so haven't had the chance to post. JoeDenise, thank you for your onion gravy recipe and the faggots recipe.

VanLady, here is theParsnip & Cashew Nut Roast recipe. It's an adaptation of one in an old Weight Watchers' cookbook. (They fry their onion; I don't bother.) I usually serve it with roast potatoes.

Parsnip & Cashew Nut Roast - serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium sized onion, cut into chunks
2 large parsnips
100g cashew nuts
100g fresh bread crumbs (or use 2-3 slices)
1 medium egg
1 tablespoon freshly chopped thyme
Grated zest of 1 lemon (approx 1 heaped tablespoon if you zest your lemons and save in the freezer)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

1. PUt the kettle on to boil. Meanwhile, peel your parsnips and cut into 0.5cm slices.
2. In a saucepan, parboil the parsnips for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain once cooked.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a loaf pan with a non-stick liner. (I use loaf shaped paper ones from Lakeland).
4. In a food processor, combine the cashew nuts and the onion. If using slices of bread add them at this stage. Process until finely chopped.
5. If using breadcrumbs add them now, together with the drained parsnips, lemon (juice + zest), thyme and egg. Process until the mixture is combined and fairly smooth.
6. Carefully transfer the mixture to your lined loaf pan and pack it down.
7. Bake for an hour at 180C, then remove from the oven and allow to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before serving.

In Grocery Challenge news, I've got 2 more spends to declare: £10.79 last Sunday in MrT's, which included 2x650g YS mushrooms at 95p each and a £4 bacon joint; and £23.65 last night in L!dl, where we stocked up on cheddar (3 x 800g at £2.39 per pack), bought another Salmon en Croute (£3.99), some more cooking bacon (£1.39/kg, a 20p increase in price) and then took the lazy option for tea (£3.09 for a kilo of southern fried chicken, plus 85p for a potato salad).

These two spends bring our grocery challenge spend to £49.71/£125.10, leaving £75.39 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

Vanlady

£121.75/£210 NSD5/16
Afternoon everyone.
Many thanks for your recipie Pipney J, i like the look of that so will give it a go at some point. I think parsnips are in season too at the moment, there seems to be a lot around?
Oh dear, I'm another who seems to be spending more before we've reached half way. I'm going to try to rein things in a bit. Spent £16 in our local market this morning on some fabulous f and v and fresh hake. Also popped in to a continental supermarket to stock up on Mr vans favourite pomegranate juice, but of course too many othere temptations there so £22 lighter!
Meal plan sorted for the week so hopefully no more spending except for milk.
Today:
B overnight oats, I'm loving them!
L out today; fish n chips, not had in ages and SO delicious!
D just fruit for me. Frozen curry, rice and hm nans for Mr van (greedy oink!)
Tomorrow
B fruit smoothie to use up some sad fruit
L egg and tomato on toast
D hake, new potatoes and mixed veg
Monday's D will be using up the frozen leek mixture for Jamies leek carbonara, can't wait!:o

thriftwizard

£45 spent today, down at the market for meat, cheese, fruit & veg, and up at the bakers for a loaf of sourdough. My month of trotting around has finished so I should be able to get back into the rhythm of baking my own again now, but will probably adopt a buy one, bake one pattern per week as doing it the way I have been is proving to be a bit of a tie! That said, I'm going to work on doing it as an overnight rise in the fridge.

I'm happy with the way things are going so far this month, though I shall have to hit L!dls & the wholesalers early next week for a top-up which will push my total up a fair bit. I have a LOT of preserving to get stuck into in the next few weeks; I made a batch of passata today from HG tomatoes left to ripen on the stalks in the conservatory, but there are tons of apples yet to process and now the quinces have started to fall too. And I'm out of freezer space... I need to buy a new chest freezer as this one is on its last legs; it might be sensible to invest now & preserve as much of the glut as I can, before de-commissioning the old one, now very rusty & icing up within a couple of weeks of being defrosted. So that's an upcoming expense, but will help us to save something (essentially free) that we do use a lot of.

Suffolk_lass

I'm currently looking for a fridge-freezer for my neighbour (who does not use the internet) and FB marketplace is looking good - you might find a decent S/h freezer for about £40 if you are lucky thriftwizard

Saver-upper

I did a top-up shop on Thursday night:£44.09and a big shop on Friday night:£86.01.This included dishwasher tablets on special (reduced to clear,£14.64 for two large bags).

Total spend £130.10,a total of £170.57/250.00for the month

Narola1976

Checking in for this week's spend...£70.77. Over by 77p but happy with that. It would have been more had I not used £2.50 Mr S points to pay. And this week, I had to buy dishwasher tablets and kitchen roll so at least £3 of the budget towards that. I find the meal planning really works, and buying only what you need

My DD, aged 17, says she wants to shop for her own food, and prepare it herself too...wanting to learn to be more independent. I have agreed to give her £25 of the food budget, which means I will have to make do with £45 for me and OH. Wonder if its doable, for either of us. I am not sure if £25 is OK for a weeks worth of food for one person. I think she is in for a shock though as she plans to shop at W**raise, even with staff discount I don't think £25 will go far. But she has to learn. I am curious to see how she does. It does mean I am cooking for 2 not three so I will also see how I get on. Will keep you posted.

jam2019

This week's spend comes to £3.13. Just getting some milk and fruit to supplement the freezer stocks + some heavy duty scourers so I can clean all the glue off some old jars I have lying around. £30.94/ £40, so far so good!

shopaholicnumber1

£112.45/£225 spent so far ... I might just do this!!

ancientmum

I haven't posted for a while, life got busy, but I have been monitoring my receipts and have updated my balance. I'm currently trying to eat out of the freezer as it seems to have built up a stock of left overs since the summer. I tend not to have a regular shopping day but top up as needed as I live within walking distance of several supermarkets, and if I need to use the car for heavy objects like cat food or litter or toilet rolls I go as part of another journey.
The plan for this week is:
Breakfast - Porridge, weetabix or toast. I've got some bread and teacakes bought for half price at the local baker's daily sale.

Lunch - I've some home made soup in the freezer, take sandwiches for days out or stuffed pittas. I have them with fruit and a couple of choccy biscuits

Dinner - This week I have a choice of using up some left over chicken which I will probably make into a pasta sauce, ready made chicken curry, sausages, a piece of salmon, and making a pasta bake with tuna and broccoli. I've made some scones I can have for pud and of course fruit.

I work on a 7th-6th month, although my budget is posted for the year, so I can keep a close eye on spending. It makes it easier that it is only me and the cat when DS is at uni so I can live very frugally if I need to.

Merlin's_Beard

Narola £25 for one person is doable.... if you're careful. But I don't shop at Waitrose! (I guess staff might get a very good deal on stuff at the end of the day, though)

Speaking of not being very careful.... £96.79/£100 and still half the month to go.

Now, there are some good reasons for this and some very sensible purchases (stocking up for the potential Armageddon and not using up stores) and there is a rather large element of me having what I would term as an 'emotional shop' (ie cake was on sale and I went straight from a ****** day at work).

I am definitely going to go over

The only redeeming grace is that I'm away for half of next month, and my holiday budget is totally separate, so I should be able to crawl back the overspend.