October 2019 Grocery Challenge

Vanlady

£181.80/£210 nsd 9/16

"who was it suggested taking a photo of the inside of fridge before shopping."

I'm of the same mind as you Pamsdish....I popped into Aldddi this morning for milk, potatoes and various cheeses (to make cheese, onion and garlic tear/share bread for my gathering tomorrow). I was actually queuing up at the till when I suddenly realised I'd forgot cheddar so I did a marathon run, pushing everyone out of the way to the cheese aisle to grab some whilst the lady behind me saved my place.....only to get home and notice in the fridge that we have 1 and a half packs already:mad:

However, I'm trying to be organised so much so that (trumpet blow ) I have started to make a shopping list for November. That's not something I've ever done before except maybe for my Xmas lists.
I'm really trying hard to keep focused, and thats why I love this challenge.
Meals planned for the week include veg tortilla with steamed veg or beans, hm fishcakes with steamed veg and mixed bean chilli with brown rice.
Right, back into the kitchen for me, working on various types of dough, including a sourdough, to be baked in the morning.
And thank you Elsiepac, you've been very busy updating us.
Good luck everyone

elsiepac

My last portion of squash and chickpea curry didn't get eaten last night as I didn't have much of an appetite, instead I had 4 leeks, sliced and steamed, and topped with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Sounds odd, but I REALLY love steamed leeks and had been dreaming about those for a couple of days!

I thought I would have porridge for breakfast today and the curry for lunch, but I'm still very much not myself and in the grip of this illness, and ended up sleeping later than I had wanted (which has happened every day this week!!) and didn't have time to eat before my sister came over for help with her computer. She ended up taking me (looking very pale and with no make up on :eek: ) up to a new local cafe place that has opened for lunch to say thank you, so that was very nice and unexpected, but I'm glad to be home again in my cosy clothes and not having to go out again! I feel so knocked out, it's very strange!

I need to try and have the curry for tea as it's right at the boundaries of still being okay to eat and I don't like wasting food.

Thinking I will make a basic pasta salad for my lunches next week, porridge for breakfasts, and something to go with rice or jackets for teas. Simple wholesome food.

I have almond milk and oats for my porridge, so no spends needed there. I have pasta, and enough veg to prep the salads for at least two days, and I STILL have some jerk stew portions in the freezer - there are 4 frozen things in there, 3 of which are definitely this stew thing and 1 which might be or could be a mystery!

So actually, I can live without going to shops until Tuesday evening I think, as the stew has tons of veg in so I'm not worried about doing a side, so all I'll need will be more stuff for lunches for Wed-Fri.

tighteningthebelt

Hello people. I did the challenge til May, then fell off the wagon as I had family business that has taken lots of time and energy to resolve. Lots of things have been on the back burner. However I did keep every single receipt and today I have sat down and done all my sums, then updated my signature. Well it certainly could have been better, but it also could have been very much worse! I've been to and fro and have eaten at cafes more than I usually would. I've also had Asda deliveries rather than aldi/lidl as I haven't had the energy to do a shop. I doubt I will be anywhere near target. Still we are where we are, and I cant (re)start anywhere else.
I'll try and read at least this October thread and catch up with everyone.

thriftwizard

Plot slightly lost here - it's been a hectic day, more on the preserving front than at the Repair Cafe - but I went off to the market with £60 and came back with £40, some cheese & a trolley full of fruit & veg, so I've added £20 to my total! Now it won't matter whether I manage to fly down there at lunchtime tomorrow or not (which depends how many Offspring & partners are planning to put in an appearance) as we've plenty in.

And we now have another batch of HM passata, and 8 jars of quince & apple marmalade, too...

elsiepac

£3.35 spent in Sainsbobs on cherry tomatoes, a cucumber (both for pasta salad), a small bag of SR flour and a bar of plain cooking chocolate.

I wanted the flour and chocolate to make mug cakes!! It's a recipe I adapted to keep it super simple and I call it a 4321 recipe...

4 tbsps SR flour
3 tbsps plant milk (I'm sure dairy milk would be fine for those of you who don't use plant milk)
2 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp oil (don't use olive)

Mix the above well in a microwavable mug along with a few drops of vanilla if you have some.
Add in either choc chips or chunks, or a few frozen berries, etc and mix again. This is totally optional but recommended.
Microwave for 1 1/2 minutes and eat! But don't burn your tongue

This is kind of a pudding consistency and would also be great with ice cream or cream!

ancientmum

Happy Sunday, thank you elsiepac for the mug cake recipe and for updating the thread. A quick update before I slope off to the allotment to make the most of the sunshine we have here today.
Shopping at Adli and Sinsbury totalled £30.80. I had to get some cat litter and a couple of small bottles of wine. I will use the bottles for the rhubarb gin which is steeping in my cupboard, to give as presents. The wine was not bad either:):)

pamsdish

Simple mug cakes.
Thanks Elsie will give these a go today with the berry option.

jam2019

Spent £4.56 in asda yesterday, just getting a few bits and some more baking pans so I could do some cooking for a friend with coeliac. Total monthly spend so far of £35.50/£40, so well on target for the month

Narola1976

Confession time, 30p over the weekly £70 budget. I couldn't resist a 49p chocolate bar at Aldi! But really pleased none the less. I really find the meal plan to be working wonders in sticking to the budget

PipneyJane

Thanks for the Mug Cake recipe, Elsiepac.

It’s been an expensive weekend for us. Firstly, the Meat Fund paid out £67.19 at Costco for pork shoulder steaks, lamb steaks, a side of salmon and chicken breasts. We weren’t planning on spending so much in Costco but discovered that our local butcher has closed. This is the fourth butcher shop to close on me in 20 years. Two were due to retirement - the butcher couldn’t find anyone to take over the shop. The third was sold to another butcher on retirement and he subsequently closed the premises; while this one appears to have been taken over by a halal butcher and is currently undergoing a refit.

I’ll see what it’s like when it reopens. It was nice to be able to walk to the butcher’s at lunchtime, when I was working at home The next nearest one is about 2 miles away and (as yet) untested. All I can tell you is that they’re never open when I drive past too/from work, so we’re limited to shopping there on a Saturday. At least the freezer is full.

(NB: The Meat Fund doesn’t get tracked in my GC spend. It grows by £40/month and currently sits at about £70.)

On the GC spend, we went to W8rose last night, spending £10.70 mainly on 6 packs of black turtle beans - at £1.20/500g pack they’re considerably cheaper than MrT’s - something for pudding and an expensive 500ml tub of low fat creme fraiche (£2.40 compared to MrT’s £1.95) to accompany the sweet stuff. There’s a lot of creme fraiche remaining; some will go into tomorrow’s porc-au-cidre , while the remainder will be used for my version of the BBC’s Cheesy Ham & Broccoli Pasta. (I use creme fraiche instead of double cream and have been known to substitute chorizo for the ham.)

Today saw a visit to the farm shop to buy the broccoli and to stock up on onions and eggs. We spent £5.10. That was followed by a visit to MrT’s, where the proposed “big shop” only turned out to cost £25.70. Finally, we popped into Lidl to get the things that I know are definitely cheaper there: hair conditioner (69p), freeze dried instant coffee (£1.89), lazy garlic (99p), mozzarella (2x46p), a bottle of cider for tomorrow’s dinner (85p), butter (£1.45) and then blew the budget on a tray of of Baklava (£2.49). In total, we spent £9.25 in Lidl.

Meal planning for the next few days:-

Tonight - PipiAn using 2 chicken breasts and some cooking bacon (the recipe is in the index)
Monday - Porc-au-cidre in the slow cooker (I’ll prep this tonight)
Tuesday - the steak we scored a couple of weekends ago plus potato wedges and peas
Wednesday - Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Pasta

The above spends bring our total spend for October to £121.32/£125.10, leaving £3.78 remaining for the rest of the month. It’s do-able. There’s plenty of food in the freezer and pantry. We have enough yoghurts, milk and fresh veg to last to the end of the month, so shouldn’t need to go shopping again.

- Pip