January 2020 Grocery Challenge

Esthermate

That’s why I joined, Caroline.

janiebaby29

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

There is an "eating out of your freezer and cupboards" challenge you could join in with, if you want to make yourself "accountable" before Feb - it is here

Thank you for that , off to look now

Greenglockenspiel

Quick weekly shop in L!dl before they closed - I always seem to get caught out on Sundays but not this week!
£41.15 spent but only £15.19 of it on groceries (the rest on assorted stuff from the middle aisles), which brings the running total for this month to £86.88/£250 with a week to go!
Looks like I can reduce our target in future months to £100 or £150, and also means I need to be looking at what we’re spending aside from groceries as clearly this isn’t a problematic area of our spending.

H2020

Shop done today, £62.97, food, dog food and toiletries - Most amount I've spent in a shop this month! Only got one more to do though before payday and the end of our month, that's only going to need to be a little one.

Meals planned:
(both lunch & dinner for days off, just dinner for other days as I take the same PB&J sandwiches every day to work)

Sun: Roast dinner
Mon: Burgers with chips and salad + Lentil curry
Tues: Slow cooker bolognese with homemade garlic bread
Wed: Veggie/Pasta/Tofu dish + Quorn chicken, leek and cheese bake
Thurs: Slow cooker sausage casserole, with mash veg and dumplings.

£337.43 / £390

Saver.The.Taste

Checking in with a small top up of £3.44 on another loaf and some small YS bargains for my soup frenzy!

Takes me to £54.85, think the budget might be sliced for next month looking at this!

supersaver1000

Veggie Meal Plan this week:

Sun: LO veggie curry and rice
Mon: Chinese veg curry with spring rolls
Tues: Leek and Mushroom Risotto and Aldi sour dough bread
Weds: Aldi Plant-based Pizza with Chips and coleslaw
Thursday: Pasta and tomato sauce and garlic bread

So some shopping to do at Aldi tomorrow to add to the spends.

zafiro1984

Stripysocks another good cheap soup recipe is parsnip and butternut squash, two thirds squash to one third parsnip, stock, salt and pepper to taste, pinch of curry powder (very important as it lifts the soup and just gives it a bit of heat). Be careful not to add too much stock as the squash can be quite watery, blend until smooth, taste and adjust seasoning, plus a bit of cream if you have it.

Shopping at Lidl 43.58 spent, total so far 143.23/200. I should be able to get to the end of the month without having another major shop

fairy3

Just popping in to report an update - spent £29.87 on couple of top up shops including £4.50 on adding to stores for a birthday tea - normally would have spent far more but made chilli with HM garlic bread/jackets using a YS 32p bag of potatoes, rice, nachos, olives, open sandwiches and a quiche. Bought a cake for £2.20 (coop carrot) and added candle - made tiffin with xmas chocs/fruit and biscuits. Beers and Prosecco from xmas. Went down a storm and not much leftover!
Freezers still fairly full ditto cupboards - not sure whether to be pleased or shocked have so much stuff - definitely want to reduce over coming weeks.
Menu plan for the coming week

Monday - roast chicken dinner
Tuesday - chickpea and potato curry, dhal and pitta/rice
Wednesday - Gammon egg, chips with pineapple and peas
Thursday - Baked veggie rice with LO
Friday - Lasagne

With all this talk of soup, plan on making a big pan - Chicken noodle with sweetcorn and part baked rolls to go with. Will take some for DF who donated 4 rump steaks and various tins and packets he has no use for to the coffers.

Right off to bed - insomnia is a bu**er - have a great week all

[Deleted User]

Morning folks, final food shop of my month done which left us with £25 and some loose change which I am really happy about. I might be brave and reduce my target for next month to £130.

This weeks meals are fairly simple:
Monday - Spaghetti Bolognese from the freezer
Tuesday - Pasta Arabiatta with garlic bread
Wednesday - My mum has invited me and OH up for dinner
Thursday - Slow cooker chicken curry
Friday - HM Cottage Pie

Lantanna, I am feeling the same having returned to this challenge. My grocery bill was so out of control that it was spent by the middle of the month:eek:. I am loving feeling that it's back under control.

Elsipac, thanks for running the thread again this month:T

Mrs_Cheshire

Morning all, all the talk of soup is making me want to make some. Might have to start a soup drawer in the freezer when it's more empty.
I've got green lentils and pearl barley which needs using, any suggestions for good combinations of ingredients to go with them.

Feeling good as I've been careful about the grocery deliveries/C&C and it's looking likely we'll come in around our budget. £289.84/£380 at the moment so just over £90 to last 11 days, got 2 £25 C&C orders and a £40 delivery coming, so as long as we don't buy any other bits from the supermarkets we should be fine.

I've done a rough meal plan for the next 2 weeks based on things we already have in the freezer and stores and we will only need to buy a couple of things for the main meals.
I've got a couple of bags in the freezer which I can't identify the contents so will have to work out what to put with them once they've defrosted. Think I'm going to try a bulk meat purchase at the start of feb and see how long I can make it last.