April 2020 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Suffolk_lass said:

snowbird20 said:

our misfits box came, another large turnip-I'll cook those for my lunch today and some chicken wings; dh will eat some leftover pot roast.  We got another mango, some pears and some oranges.  Another large celery that I think i will just dehydrate as we have one already.  Some potatoes that I think I will turn into a lamb stew over the weekend--maybe scotch broth. We really like that.   I pulled 1kg of beef mince from the freezer and will make stuffed peppers for dh for tonight's dinner and use the other 1/3 to make some spag bol for tomorrow.  Sunday dinner will be a silver side (i believe that's what you all call corned beef) braised in cider and brown sugar with carrots and potatoes.

Silverside is a cut of beef in the hind-quarter above the leg joint that is edged with a silver-coloured skin of fibrous tissue of tough sinewy membrane. Corned beef is salt-cured brisket (breast above the beef shank at the top of the fore-leg

@snowbird20 and @Suffolk_lass, both are corned beef in some countries, it’s just semantics.  Both “Corned Brisket” and “Corned Silverside” are sold in Australia.  (As a child, I disliked corned beef - probably because of the way mum cooked it - so was always bitterly disappointed when they’d order a hindquarter of beef for the freezer and more corned silverside would turn up!)

- Pip

supersaver1000

Spent £388 from budget of £311 and another 9 days before pay day.  I have £50 in the coffers plus £20 cash that is currently going untouched in my purse.  Normally that would be plenty for the two of us so might have to dip into other funds to see us through.  

thriftwizard

£3.80 added from a quick fly-by trip to the bakery on the way to the allotment. Everything looks so lovely & fresh after the rain & my bean trench is filling up nicely with peel, cores, coffee grounds & teabags now. Food in the making - if my runner beans ever come up!

candygirl

CR Yea the sprouted chick peas were lovely, in a big salad , that I bunged in a wrap with chilli sauce 😋

Frugalistamama

Second day of NS trying to make it to day 10 before i have to buy food again. 

PipneyJane

Well, I have some good news.  If you need anything like baking parchment bread tin liners, the Lakeland website shop has reopened.  I have been stalking them for weeks.  We were down to our last loaf pan liner, this afternoon, when I thought I’d try them again.  I’d looked on Amazon and one opportunistic seller had a pack of 40 listed for over £17!  Lakeland sells them for £4.99.

- Pip (yes, an order has been placed)

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane said:

Suffolk_lass said:

snowbird20 said:

our misfits box came, another large turnip-I'll cook those for my lunch today and some chicken wings; dh will eat some leftover pot roast.  We got another mango, some pears and some oranges.  Another large celery that I think i will just dehydrate as we have one already.  Some potatoes that I think I will turn into a lamb stew over the weekend--maybe scotch broth. We really like that.   I pulled 1kg of beef mince from the freezer and will make stuffed peppers for dh for tonight's dinner and use the other 1/3 to make some spag bol for tomorrow.  Sunday dinner will be a silver side (i believe that's what you all call corned beef) braised in cider and brown sugar with carrots and potatoes.

Silverside is a cut of beef in the hind-quarter above the leg joint that is edged with a silver-coloured skin of fibrous tissue of tough sinewy membrane. Corned beef is salt-cured brisket (breast above the beef shank at the top of the fore-leg

@snowbird20 and @Suffolk_lass, both are corned beef in some countries, it’s just semantics.  Both “Corned Brisket” and “Corned Silverside” are sold in Australia.  (As a child, I disliked corned beef - probably because of the way mum cooked it - so was always bitterly disappointed when they’d order a hindquarter of beef for the freezer and more corned silverside would turn up!)

- Pip

Yes Pip, called and treated lots of ways in antipodean countries too but in the UK corned beef is the specific treatment of brisket, not silverside, which is more commonly sold untreated as a slow roasting option. Given that 95% of us on this thread are in the UK that distinction holds good. I would not have said anything but for the bit I put in bold.

We had a piece of pork that I bought in February in my annual C&C trip that would have been far too big for two of us, but I defrosted it and sent 2/3rds off to DS's house and they (and we) are having roast pork. Despite not needing to buy meat, DH spent about double what I usually do, and went off spec at the shops. Hmm! I need him to loath shopping really - that way he sticks to the list.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, just popping in to update my spends so far £354.23/£450, got 3 more shops before the end of the month. Hubby has extra discount at the moment due to his work continuing their promotional discount for the whole month rather than a few days so I'm planning on buying extra's this month to take advantage so we'll have a cheaper May as he's being made redundant on the 2nd May. Will catch up with the chat later!

taka

Hi everyone! Another £35.54 spend here this week. Ended up hitting my local shops as I couldn't face going to a bigger supermarket and facing long queues. Embarisingly rather a lot of "treat" food ended up being bought (and consumed far too quickly). Ooops! Apparently I can't walk past ice cream & reduced easter eggs without some falling into my basket. In my defence I didn't have any choc at actual easter! 2nd (mini) shop was when my family were given the go ahead to drop off some clothes & goodies in for Dad who is stuck in hospital (non coronavirus related).

This brings me to £87.27 spent of a possible total of £162, even with buying some in small shops / more expensive brands which costs more. Just shows how much money I waste ordinarily! All this being organised about food / making do with what I have in means I seem to have lost a little weight too!

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

One small spend to declare for today:  £1.40 spent on Spring Onions at the local M&S Simply Food.  Yes, that is massively expensive, but DH didn’t want to queue for 20 minutes to get into the nearby Co-op.  Half the packet is destined for a potato and smoked mackerel salad for dinner tomorrow night; the remainder will be used in a stir fry later on.

Dinner plans made so far for this coming week:-

Tonight - Chicken Risotto - using a chicken breast and stock I made from last weekend’s duck
Tomorrow - Smoked Mackerel & Potato Salad - as mentioned above
Tuesday - Spaghetti & Meatballs - L!dl meatballs from the freezer and the last of the homegrown tomato sauce
Wednesday - Sophie Dah’s “dhal” - made with sweet potatoes, spinach and split red lentils
Thursday - carrot and cashew nut roast, served with roast potatoes & broccoli*

All the leftovers will be eaten for lunch the next day.

The above spend brings our April total to £121.25/£130.96, leaving £8.31 for the remainder of the month.

- Pip



* Hopefully my Lakeland order will be delivered by then.  We’ve got a lot of homegrown carrots to use up, so I’d like to make a double or triple quantity of the nut loaf, cook 1 and freeze the others.  DH has also put in a request for carrot cake.  I have one loaf pan liner left.