October 2019 Grocery Challenge

Vanlady

£21.85/£210 NSD 0/16
Hi everyone, ready...steady....and we're off!!
1st shop of the month for me today, £21.85 in Aldeee. Should hopefully last us till Sunday as I have a good store of frozen, tinned (mainly tomatoes, chickpeas and mixed beans) and dry goods.

Today:
B sugar free muslie with added fruit and seeds
L homemade falafel and salad with hm flatbreads and minty yoghurt dip
S bean and spinach chilli with brown rice

Xspender. ... good luck in your quest to eat less meat. Mr van was a big meat eater but now we rarely eat it, mainly due to ethical and health reasons. You'll steadily build up a good repertoire of meat free and even vegan meals. We eat a lot of pulses, beans and veges perked up with spicy or herby sauces. If Mr van can embrace it I'm convinced anyone can.
Ps ground cumin, coriander and chilli are my favourite go-to spices and can be incorporated into so many dishes eg bean chilli, falafel, humous etc.
Let us know how you get on

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, missed out September but didn't feel in control, so I'm back to monitor our spending for the rest of the year.
Could you set my budget at £400 for the month of October, we've got quite full storage cupboards and freezer, although I do need to do a full inventory.

Any suggestions for using up Pearl Barley? I've used it in soups and stews before but the rest of the family aren't keen.

Only planned meal out this month is for DS3's birthday, might plan a takeaway for a midweek treat half way through the month but I need to reign in the unplanned takeaways and meals out.

Also want to start thinking about December, as I usually buy treats in for later in the month, then eat them before the planned time so end up buying double. I've got a delivery saver with the local supermarket so think I'm going to take advantage of that and book my shop to be delivered that way I'll not buy unnecessary food. What does everyone else do?

Narola1976

1st October, ready for this challenge. I have a freezer, fridge and pantry inventory, as I use something I cross it off the list and when I do a shop I use the receipt to add to the lists. This way the inventory stays up to date and I don't have to keep pulling everything out to see what is there. Meal planning has been good so far. Only thing I need to work on is that if I see things that could be useful or on sale I buy it. Problem is I end up going over the budget. not by much but I need to only buy what I need that week no matter what as I don't have spare money.

Today has been a NSD apart from dreaded bills of course.

I have revised my amount to £85 pw

Vanlady

Oops just read back...apologies xspender, meat free advice was meant for saver upper, serves me right for rushing:D

Also, agree with others on here, Jack munroe has great vege/vegan recipes, and bish bash bosh. I don't have any of these books but loads of their recipes are online. Plus the BBC recipes are very good.

Suffolk_lass

I ended September with £124.96/£200 and my running total for the year is under 60%. I do have lots of Christmas spending coming up though so not doing anything silly like changing my targets!

I have just done a fairly mammoth October shop for £57, including some toiletries for the food bank and stocking up on my shower brand that was on offer. I also bought dog treats for the dogs I walk for my neighbours - they ensure complete obedience from my charges (or should that be chargers!? )

Doom_and_Gloom

We have spent £48.90 already.

Got a deal on 4.54kg of nishiki rice for just £5.85; it's good for sushi/onigiri etc. Works out at around £1.30/kg which is much cheaper than the sushi rice I usually buy :money:.

I'm having vegetable stew pie for dinner.
OH is having pepperoni pizza for dinner.

£48.90/£215.
£166.10 Left.

XSpender

Vanlady wrote: »

Oops just read back...apologies xspender, meat free advice was meant for saver upper, serves me right for rushing:D

Also, agree with others on here, Jack munroe has great vege/vegan recipes, and bish bash bosh. I don't have any of these books but loads of their recipes are online. Plus the BBC recipes are very good.

You did give me a nudge to look up some recipes in my Jack Munroe books which was appreciated . I was veggie for 25 years and still love Rose Elliott’s Best Ever Veggie Chilli. It’s vegan too and is the best veggie chilli I have had and uses store cupboard ingredients.

Cooked the last chipolatas for DS tea with potatoes and veg. I didn’t realise they were chicken ones until they were half cooked :eek: but he loved them. Phew. Also found some small ice cream cone cup things in the back of the cupboard when I was doing the inventory. A little vanilla ice cream and a swirl of my choc shot and he feels he has had a treat

DH and I had the last couple of rashers, cheese omelette, beans and hash browns (cos there wasn’t enough oven chips) as we ate later.

I’ve defrosted a home made cheese and veg pastie for my lunch tomorrow but am at the dentist in the morning so may not be ideal. Will depend if she does the filling then or makes me come back.

£1.10 spent on milk and £9.00 by DH on pizza for him and the boss as he didn’t fancy the cowboy stew I sent him in with :mad: Not a good start and a meal wasted .

£10.10/£220

tessie_bear

i am in need of shopping tomorrow....mushrooms to make a may flower curry does anyone use that powder ? we love it might do chips and rice as the weather is dire

also need milk and carrots and some broccoli so i dont know how much that will come to

will come back tomorrow and record damage hope everyone is rocking x

joedenise

XSpender that veggie chilli sounds really good. Care to share the recipe please?

Denise

Merlin's_Beard

Cheesy hotpot with leeks and cabbage and potatoes today... proper cold weather food!

£34.71 spent today, but I've got a freezer drawer full of farm shop sausages and bacon and chicken that will probably last me until Christmas, or serve me for the apocalypse, whichever comes first.