A new royal start

QueenJess

Absolutely shattered already this week and it’s only Wednesday! Went shopping this morning, but very carefully wrote out a shopping list, added it up roughly, took some stuff off again and basically got the minimum I thought I needed and also decided to swap eggs to the shop organic ones which are much cheaper than Riverford. In all I spent £60 in the supermarket £9 in the zero waste shop and my Riverford order is sat just under £50. As I got a £50 voucher for £47 cash and the remainder of the supermarket shop I did with my free gift card, actual expenditure was £106. All way below my £150 target even when factoring in some bulk buying of the kids bath/shower soap that is being discontinued that I spent another £20 on online. Very happy with that, although I did have an unusually low shopping list this week, so I’m sure it will go up next week as I run out of more expensive things like olive oil.
I did also spend £35 on a hoodie for DS. I had looked everywhere for one he wanted second hand and had to admit defeat, so I did say I would buy him a brand new one. He’ll only have one as he’s growing out of the others, so it’ll be well used.
Been out all day at the Harry Potter studio tour with DS (planned and paid for ages ago) and Ds is back to school tomorrow. We took our own lunch and snacks and were not tempted by anything in the shop, so no extra spending. When we got back I had 40 mins before we had to leave for swimming and so in that time I made apple pancakes for breakfast tomorrow (cheap, healthy and keeps them off the expensive cereals) and pre made the pizzas so we can just reheat them when we get back after swimming. Then will be clearing up the mess I left in the kitchen, making a pack lunch for DS and making sure we have everything prepped for his first day of school tomorrow. Almost need to go back to work tomorrow for the rest although I also need to shoe horn in making bread and also a new cake (want to try courgette, thyme and lemon cake recipe from Riverford as I have a lot of the first two ingredients), as well as the usual washing and getting myself to gym in the evening.

Edit: I also collected free tops and jumpers for nursery last night, so money saved there.

themadvix

Great reduction in food spends Jess, and good news about the nursery jumpers too.

I too buy organic eggs from the supermarket, not Riverford. I’d love to buy from Riverford, but the cost is just too high on that for me, when I can get them elsewhere plastic free. I know it would be better, but it’s just not feasible with the amount of eggs we eat (probably an argument for buying them from there really…).

 Might have to try the cake - I have plenty of all of those. Is it a loaf cake? I am much better at those…

QueenJess

themadvix said:

Great reduction in food spends Jess, and good news about the nursery jumpers too.

I too buy organic eggs from the supermarket, not Riverford. I’d love to buy from Riverford, but the cost is just too high on that for me, when I can get them elsewhere plastic free. I know it would be better, but it’s just not feasible with the amount of eggs we eat (probably an argument for buying them from there really…).

 Might have to try the cake - I have plenty of all of those. Is it a loaf cake? I am much better at those…

Yes, I think I'll be doing the same with Riverford.  It was ok when I only ordered 6, but we seem to get through an inordinate amount of them at the moment and it's just too expensive.  As it's also the last week of strawberries this week, I am hoping for lower food bills going forwards.

The cake is a loaf cake and the recipe is here: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/courgette-lemon-drizzle-cake  I'll let you know how it turns out.

themadvix

Thanks Jess! Looks lovely and I have all the ingredients in.

QueenJess

Well I survived the week so far and yesterday I made:

• 15 carrot bread rolls
• 1 wholemeal loaf of bread
• mint choc chip ice cream
• flapjacks
• a courgette lemon and thyme cake (I think I put too little lemon juice in, so will soak it in a bit more)

Today I then make 2 batches of banana drop scones to use up some old bananas and a massive batch of pear ginger muffins for the kids (will freeze them and then DS can have them in his lunch box over a few weeks).  We are very much stocked up so hopefully we can continue to eat well whilst work is expected to start getting very busy.

Lunch today was beans on toast for the kids (followed by yogurt).  The adults had poached eggs on hm toast with kale, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms.  Dinner was spicy chicken with hm chips, corn on the cob, green beans and courgette.  Dessert was muffins for the kids (testing they liked them!) and I had the courgette, lemon and thyme cake as the kids don't like it.

The fridge is definitely looking a bit emptier now and the freezer very much more full.

Bluegreen143

Your food always sounds amazing Jess. I really don’t know how you manage so much baking! I did a lot more as a SAHM, but can’t manage it when working - but even when working you do a lot. 

LadyWithAPlan

Yes your food always sounds amazing. 
Have you tried 'kashmir chilli' - its on the edge of paprika and chilli  (mild) and gorgeous, its my go too for everything and my v fussy niece who rarely tries anything new  loves it  when I cook it sprinkled on mushrooms as they slow cook in the morning.  It is a key ingredient in the Disho*m house black dal.

Chermoula is also fab for meat and curries  - more arabic

QueenJess

@Bluegreen143 to be fair, I felt a bit ill Friday evening as I did do way too much, but it was because I knew work was about to get a bit crazy.  Will be slightly less ambitious next time!

@LadyWithAPlan thanks for those ideas... I am having a look at those ingredients online.  Not heard of either of those spices, but as I say, I'm a bit of a spice virgin.  I am loving the cardamom I bought though and so are the kids   The ginger I bought has taken a big hit lately and the kids seem to love it in everything.  I think kids are more adventurous than the advertisers would lead us to believe.  DS even tried the spice mix on his chicken and declared it really nice!

Back to Weds and now trying to work full time (temporary for a few weeks whilst it is busiest) as well as get everything done.  Went for a very early shop this morning with the aim of using my £15 off voucher if I spend £130.  It was actually very hard to spend that much.  I had my normal list and then I had an optional list of the usual expensive things I buy (meat, fish, nuts, olive oil etc).  Irritatingly they had run out of a lot of stuff I wanted as well as things on the optional list because they were on offer.  It's so annoying as I buy the same things all the time, but as soon as they put them on offer there is nothing left.  I would prefer good pricing and no offers, but I guess the fact that the offers are there work as the supermarkets keep doing it and they seem to run out of stock so people are buying.

Anyway, I stumbled across some yellow sticker organic chicken and now have about 5 weeks worth in my freezer (probably more really as we don't have it every week).  That really helped!

Spend this week is £48 Riverford, £9 zero waste shop and £139 supermarket = £196 before any vouchers are applied.  After coupons, the rest of my free gift card and my reduced rate gift card later and actual spend was £76 supermarket to give a total of £133; below budget of £150   I did plan that out quite carefully beforehand though to make sure I could still be in budget.  My aim is to always be below budget every week because I need to save some back for xmas (we feed DH's family then as well) and also because I include medical stuff, cosmetics, bath/shower, cleaning and everything in the budget so sometimes I need to get something elsewhere.  Plus we often need to top up with a bit of extra milk, so a little leeway helps.  £125 I think will be my rough aim, although I'm hoping that my bigger stock up this week makes the next few weeks slightly cheaper.

Right, better get back to work!  I am on my own for lunch, so will open the fridge for inspiration later.  Might make a lentil soup if I can be bothered.  Dinner is hm pizzas with carrot and cucumber sticks. Dessert is any of the cakes I've made recently as I froze them all and we still have quite a bit left.  Hoping not to need to make much food this week, although I will be making bread tomorrow and am thinking about making some biscuits on Friday as a treat.  Must also be nearly time for a crumble now there's going to be some cold weather   I have loads of fruit already stewed in the freezer and a few pears that are point blank refusing to ripen (will put them in a bag with some bananas, but if it doesn't work, I'll stew them up).

themadvix

The Kashmiri chili mix is available in WR as Deggi Mirch (another Dishoom recipe book fan here). It’s lovely 😊 Have yet to make the house daal, but have found an IP recipe online to speed things up. Am quite surprised the book doesn’t include pressure cooker times as my Indian friend swears by his (stove top) PC for cooking.

 Great find on the YS organic chicken!

QueenJess

themadvix said:

The Kashmiri chili mix is available in WR as Deggi Mirch (another Dishoom recipe book fan here). It’s lovely 😊 Have yet to make the house daal, but have found an IP recipe online to speed things up. Am quite surprised the book doesn’t include pressure cooker times as my Indian friend swears by his (stove top) PC for cooking.

 Great find on the YS organic chicken!

Ooh thanks.  I will stick that on the shopping list for next week!  Also sounds like I have some more recipes to look up