August 2020 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

  
OMG, I'm in danger of losing it again...

Currently in possession of 1 x 94 y.o. mother again, bless her. It's apparent that letting her continue to wander round her bungalow 43 miles away unsupervised would be a bad idea, as the wobbliness of her legs is exceeded only by the vagaries of her sense of balance, plus she simply doesn't want to live alone any longer, but she doesn't want to come & live with us & "be a nuisance" - which she wouldn't be, but never mind. My brother who lives local to her has got himself stupidly busy working, volunteering & looking after grandchildren & can't be with her for much of the time. I only have her until next Tuesday, as we've found a live-in care service which will have to suffice until we can find & get her into a place where she'll be happy, which is easier said than done in the middle of a pandemic! But in the meantime, her dietary requirements (milk & gluten-free, after a bout of C. Diff wrecked her digestion) are playing havoc with my budget & menu plans. I think I may actually have to just keep track as best I can for now & sort it all out after she's gone home. I will be repaid for what I've spent on her, and the fuel used carting her to & fro - had to spend last night down there, between a District Nurse visit yesterday & a GP visit today, arranged by the hospital, which is in a different area to us, then bring her back here for the weekend because there's no-one to be with her down there - but keeping track is a nightmare, plus I've missed my usual market "slots" as some traders are only there on one day out of the three. Ah well...

pamsdish

£15.84 in Aldi, was going to Lidl approx 5 miles away, but car making worrying noises so turned back and called in Aldi, less than a mile from me, wanted salad stuff for next few days, found a minced beef 75% off, strawberries and mackerel both 30% off, few other bits, car booked in for M.O.T. Tuesday thankfully, and had mentioned noise to my mechanic

jam2019

£22.97 spent today in Asda - does include £7.50 on loo roll so I'm pretty pleased with that.This week's meal plan includes salads for lunch with some homemade tortilla chips and houmous as a snack (second attempt - the first time I completely incinerated them, set the smoke alarm off, and managed to wrench my balcony door off its hinges in the attempt to clear out the room. this was less than ideal)
Got a few easy dinners this week, I'm doing a pasta bake on Weds and then roasted vegetables the next day. Also bought the ingredients to make Jack Monroe's white chocolate + peach tray bake so I'm excited for the results of that! Filled pasta on the next night and then a sweet potato chilli to follow.

Doom_and_Gloom

£13.90 spent since last post.

£38.86/£155.
£116.14 left.

riotlady

Got a big Morrison's delivery for £94.15 which brings my total up to £158.59/£300
Bit over where I should be but hopefully shouldn't have to spend much for a while now! 
£141.41 remaining 

Suffolk_lass

YORKSHIRELASS said:

Hi all

I need help.  We are a family of 3 adults and a dog and despite cooking from scratch, me being mostly vegetarian and growing some of our own food, my spend is creeping up, over £100 a week recently.  I used to be a pro at mealplanning and only buying what I needed but since lockdown this seems to have gone out of the window.  I am trying for £350 this month for the 1st to 31st.  I am going off to do an inventory of my dried food cupboard.  Thanks for the recipes at the beginning of the thread, fab idea.

Not sure if this helps you but some of the things I do are reducing the amount of meat we eat - so a chicken does roast on day 1, soup from the bones and pickings, and a pie or curry from the rest of the meat - sometimes we even have chicken salad with just a drumstick each. I pad out mince based dishes with chopped up carrots, celery and and red lentils and nobody minds, and I pre-portion packs of meat so I freeze the rest so there is only very limited opportunity for snacking on leftovers. Plenty of YS opportunity shopping rather than rigid meal planning too. All wonky veg and lots now grown at home.

You could join us on Reverse Meal Planning if you like (cooking from what you have in, rather than meal planning and then shopping). Lots of little omissions and substitutions to keep the cost down.

My shop this week was £45.17 for two adults and a cat and that will be it for ten days (except eggs and milk that are delivered).

PerfectChristmas

First couple of spendings for August!

Monday: £18 for a fruit/veg box from Asda who delayed sending it by mistake so sent us a second one for free. Lovely but now trying to cook up a storm to try and use it all haha as it's all fresh.

Thursday: First fortnightly shop - £146.34

So so far - £164.34 spent from the £350 target  leaving £185.66 left to spend.

BrassicWoman

£41.62 this week between M&S and Tesco; quite high although that includes drink for a (chairs 2m apart very small) garden party, a few YS meals for the freezer, and some fancy bits like sundried tomatoes to add to bread. Also I have a stacked fruit bowl, and a pineapple which I am going to try grilling. I think it's cinnamon it goes well with? Could be wrong. I don't have any rum, just vodka, so this may go odd.

This week I'll be making a huge batch of baked potatoes in the slow cooker for freezing (and some for garlic mash); onion butter (also freezer); a lentil dhal because I have peppers and onions to use up; and probably a carrot and ginger soup. I have a few dodgy mushrooms, a baby cabbage, and half a cucumber to do something with too. Might try making saurkraut. Or coleslaw, I have a jar of vegan mayo somewhere.

My wholefood shop delivery person is on holiday for 2 weeks, and I am trying to keep £30 in the budget so I can get a delivery the last weekend of the month. So I will need to try for a whole week of no spend days, and let myself get £10 more of fruit and veg if I use this lot up by next weekend. No shops = no sugary stuff, I hope.

PipneyJane

£6.20 spent today in the Co-Op, £3.70 of which was for smoked salmon so that we could have cream cheese and smoked salmon bagels for lunch.  (I had absolutely no inspiration,  DH chose.).  The remainder was spent on green salad and coleslaw to accompany tonight’s dinner of quiche (from our freezer).   Am I the only person whose meal-planning brain goes into free-fall when it’s hot?  

My total for August now stands at £47.47/£140, leaving £92.53 available for the rest of the month.  

I have to figure out what we’re going to be eating over the next week.   I am completely uninspired.  Lunch tomorrow will be leftovers from the freezer, while for dinner we are actually venturing out to a local pub for a meal!  After 5 months of Lockdown, it feels very decadent and adventurous.  (Actually, I feel really sorry for the publican.  The pub was closed for months over the winter while it was being renovated.  They only reopened at the end of February, just in time to be plunged into Lockdown.  They reopened three weeks ago.)

- Pip

Puddleglum

I'm not doing so well this month.  I did my first shop with a mask on the 1st and was ok for the first 15 minutes but then started to struggle, possibly because I like talking to people so much!  So I've decided that this is an opportunity to support small, local shops.  You know - mask on, dive in, 5-10 mins in grocer/butcher/baker, dive out again, mask off.  Win win for small businesses who probably need our money slightly more that the big supermarkets do at the moment.  However spending is a bit out of control so I'm upping the budget to £160 to allow for the slightly higher prices and my overspend on the first shop.
Currently at £96.44/£160.