August 2020 Grocery Challenge

Doom_and_Gloom

£27.89 spent since last post. 

I've again worked out a meal plan for the week for me. 
Monday
L - vegan sausage pasta salad (LO)
D - vegan pizza (bfree base from freezer) and salad
Tuesday
L - roasted vegetable, houmous wrap (bfree wraps out of freezer)
D - Mediterranean pasta with tofu
Wednesday
L - Mediterranean pasta with tofu
D - vegetable and cashew stir fry with rice
Thursday
L - roasted vegetable, houmous wrap
D - tofu, yasai donburi
Friday
L - 'tuna' salad wrap
D - vegan burger, chips and salad
Saturday
L - spicy orange tofu and broccoli with rice
D - spicy sweet potato and black bean burrito 
Sunday
L - spicy sweet potato and black bean burrito
D - ff butternut squash lasagne (from freezer) with salad
Breakfasts are a choice between fruit, green smoothies or overnight muesli (gluten free) as usual.

OH is having okinomiyaki for dinner tonight. He had a cheese sandwich for lunch. He's not good at pre planning his meals but does well with making do with what is already in.

£66.75/£155.
£88.25 left.

Will soak the chickpeas I need for the week (houmous and 'tuna') overnight tonight and cook them in the pressure cooker tomorrow. 

Chloris

@Doom_and_Gloom you are making me hungry again! It all looks delicious.

I was supposed to pop out to buy apples and lettuce today but it was way too hot to bother, so a nsd for me. We do need fruit though so I'll try again tomorrow. X

JingsMyBucket

@thriftwizard how's your mum doing and how is she adjusting? Your year seems to be getting more complicated but there's only so much you can do other than just roll with it. Please definitely stick around and keep tracking. I enjoy reading your adventures, about all the tasty hauls you get from your local markets and what your family does with them.

@PerfectChristmas love the user name. I'm curious what was in the Asda boxes, if you don't mind. I'm not in the UK right now but I've been considering getting a box from a delivery service but they haven't been listing contents online, annoyingly so. 

As for me, I still haven't bought anything since last Sunday. I've been really good about going shopping only once a week or 9 days. That said, I'm getting dangerously low on fruit and fresh veg. I have to go out tomorrow to collect some prescriptions so I'll do a bit of shopping then. I've ordered regular take out/dinner delivery a few times but I just talked myself out of ordering it right now. Kind of proud of myself actually, seeing as I've saved $30. Going to eat some lentil soup that’s in the cupboard and toss some bacon in there then have an apple and cheddar cheese for dessert. I'll have to turn on the A/C while eating soup though. 😂

Speaking of cooking, I keep wondering when I should roast this whole chicken I have in the freezer. It's been so hot again over here in NYC that I think I'd have to get up at 6am to stick it in the oven and then eat it cold later in the day. Get up early, stick the chicken in the oven then go back to bed while it cooks. The thought of cold chicken to nibble on throughout the day sounds great honestly. Plus, I have been thinking about making chicken salad for the past couple of weeks. I may finally take a stab at it this weekend. 

9 NSDS
$145.74 / $300.00
$154.26 left

joedenise

@JingsMyBucket have you got a Slow Cooker?  If so it's a good way of cooking a whole chicken and also won't heat up your house too much, not like the oven.  The only thing is it won't have a crispy skin and it's also so meltingly moist it's hard to lift out of the SC!  Just use a couple of long pieces of foil folded in 4 lengthways and make a cross with them before putting the chicken in and you can use them to lift it out when cooked.

PipneyJane

joedenise said:

@JingsMyBucket have you got a Slow Cooker?  If so it's a good way of cooking a whole chicken and also won't heat up your house too much, not like the oven.  The only thing is it won't have a crispy skin and it's also so meltingly moist it's hard to lift out of the SC!  Just use a couple of long pieces of foil folded in 4 lengthways and make a cross with them before putting the chicken in and you can use them to lift it out when cooked.

We call it "self carving chicken".     Thanks for the tip with the foil, @joedenise.  That's clever.

Did anyone else see the note in Martin's newsletter about the "Spend £25 in L!dl, get £5 off" voucher if you download their app? Since we've already done our "big" L!dl shop this month, I'll have to do some serious shopping planning.   The only things on the shopping list at the moment are items we can't get in L!dl.  I checked the terms of the offer and excludes alcohol.

- Pip

JingsMyBucket

@joedenise thanks for the suggestion and that's something I've done before especially to create a nice chicken stock afterward too. I used to have a slow cooker but got rid of it last year while decluttering. I'm missing it now!! Same thing with my food processor and KitchenAid mixer. 🙄 I was supposed to be Scotland with the husband already but that got put on hold due to COVID and I'm currently stuck here in the States. Oy vey. 

Yeah, I think I will definitely roast the chicken this weekend. I'm beginning to have a craving for it now. I currently have some defrosted ground beef sitting in my fridge that needs using up. I wanted to make meatloaf with it (another meal that requires an oven) but maybe I should make little burgers to go into pitas with salad and feta cheese instead. 

joedenise

@PipneyJane if you don't download the app until a month's time you will be able to use it for your next month's shop as it's valid for 2 weeks after you download it.

@JingsMyBucket the little burgers sound a great idea, definitely better than having to have the oven on to cook a meatloaf!

I got back from my holiday today so once I've updated my YNAB I'll be back with how much I've spent so far this month and how much I've got left.  It's actually not too bad as we ate out a couple of times (which comes from a different budget) and I also took quite a bit of food with us.  It was mainly beer for DH (which again comes from a different budget) - I refuse to pay for it out of the grocery budget.

PipneyJane

joedenise said:

@PipneyJane if you don't download the app until a month's time you will be able to use it for your next month's shop as it's valid for 2 weeks after you download it.

True, @joedenise.  My devious thought was that I could download it and use it for the next L!dl shop and then my husband could do the same for the shop after that.  The only problem I have is that I find it really hard to spend £25 in Lidl - their prices are so good!  The last time they had the £5-off offer, I struggled.

- Pip

MazzieD

PipneyJane said:

Did anyone else see the note in Martin's newsletter about the "Spend £25 in L!dl, get £5 off" voucher if you download their app? Since we've already done our "big" L!dl shop this month, I'll have to do some serious shopping planning.   The only things on the shopping list at the moment are items we can't get in L!dl.  I checked the terms of the offer and excludes alcohol.

- Pip

Hi Pip

The Lidl Plus £5 coupon offer ends on 23 September so as long as you download the app before that date it should be fine.  It's quite unusual in that you have to name the specific store you want to use it in and as far as I can tell you can't use the card in any other store.  If I've got that wrong, please feel free to correct me!.

joedenise

PipneyJane said:

joedenise said:

@PipneyJane if you don't download the app until a month's time you will be able to use it for your next month's shop as it's valid for 2 weeks after you download it.

True, @joedenise.  My devious thought was that I could download it and use it for the next L!dl shop and then my husband could do the same for the shop after that.  The only problem I have is that I find it really hard to spend £25 in Lidl - their prices are so good!  The last time they had the £5-off offer, I struggled.

- Pip

Me too.  It's not so bad if I could include a couple of bottles of wine and a few beers but as you say alcohol's not included.  I'm shopping tomorrow so I might try and get a list together to try and use the voucher.  I usually do the bulk of my shop in The Food Warehouse and then onto Lidl to get the rest, apart from my ginger beer which I need to get from Morries as that's the only SM I can regularly find it but don't actually need any at the moment so won't need to go there tomorrow.