January 2021 Grocery Challenge

elsiepac

I had a non GC spend today - Tesc0 have the Pressure King Pro reduced to £49! I've been eyeing up pressure cookers for a while and this was too good a price to pass up and will reduce cupboard space currently used by my rice cooker and slow cooker as it also replaces both of them! Looking forward to using it (also slightly scared...)

charlies_tribe

Good afternoon. DH has been shopping today for bread, milk, squash, juice, pizzas, pasta (I'm sure there was something else) he spent £26.26 on the food and then £4.50 on kitchen roll. I'm trying to keep them separate at the moment so I can see what actually goes on food.

£40.99/£500 (+£4.50)

joedenise

Don't know if you use a spreadsheet @charlies_tribe but if you do it might be easier to have 2 separate lines to keep the household stuff separate to the general food shopping.  I don't actually do this but I do have a separate "pot" for bulk buying stuff like, eg today I ordered 6 Kg of coffee beans because it works out quite a lot cheaper and we get through about a Kg a month so it's worth buying in bulk.

charlies_tribe

joedenise said:

Don't know if you use a spreadsheet @charlies_tribe but if you do it might be easier to have 2 separate lines to keep the household stuff separate to the general food shopping.  I don't actually do this but I do have a separate "pot" for bulk buying stuff like, eg today I ordered 6 Kg of coffee beans because it works out quite a lot cheaper and we get through about a Kg a month so it's worth buying in bulk.

Thank you. I can't use a spreadsheet,  I really am useless on the laptop. I've got an app on my phone, not as good as YNAB but it works. I've made a 'household' budget on there. 
Normally it all comes out of grocery and will be added together at the end of the month, I'm just curious what we spend on non food too. Ice separated out DH's beer and the pet foods too. The girls go through so much conditioner  and I'm sure they snack on loo roll 😂 I was curious to see what actually goes on food.

Smiley87

NSD here  Meals planned for next week and a shopping list ready for the farm shop later this week. Still got plenty in the freezer/cupboards so hoping for another week or two before I have to venture into a superstore.

PipneyJane

Good evening everyone.

I am miles behind in my reading, so if something momentous has happened in your life, I’m sorry I’ve missed it.  Hope to catch up soon.

I have two spends to report:  £3.55 in the C0-0P on Saturday (mainly on milk - £1.25 for 2L - £1.90 for their Kalamata olive bread, the rest on broccoli), and £42.90 in L!dl yesterday.  We had a £10/off voucher that need to be spent, so bought some treats as well as essentials.  DH went a little mad on their sweets (also on 15% off).  Headline purchases were 2 Salmon Wellingtons for £3.99 each, 2 YS packs of Cumberland sausages for 90p each, and a YS package of two rump steak for £4.44.  The steak had 4 days left before their use-by date, so I am at a loss to work out why they were marked down.  We’re having them for dinner tonight.

The above brings our total spend for January to £45.64/£140, leaving £94.36 for the rest of the month.

- Pip


ETA:  @cw18, I’m also lactose intolerant, so take a Lactase tablet whenever I have a significant quantity of milk (i.e. more than a splash in my tea).   I buy them from H&B when they have the penny sale.  They’ve made a huge difference to my life.

cw18

PipneyJane said:

ETA:  @cw18, I’m also lactose intolerant, so take a Lactase tablet whenever I have a significant quantity of milk (i.e. more than a splash in my tea).   I buy them from H&B when they have the penny sale.  They’ve made a huge difference to my life.

I bought some H&B lactase tablets when I first worked out what the problem was, but other than testing them at home the only time I've ever used them was a Christmas do organised by the firm my OH worked for at the time.   He'd actually worked with the organisers to get my dessert swapped out (they didn't have any dairy free options on our menu, but there was one on another menu they were operating the same evening) and slight alterations to my main dish, but I still felt safer taking as it was the first meal I hadn't made myself and we were in a posh hotel many miles from home.    Since then I've figured out my main triggers, and can actually control it most of the time without needing.

Incidentally - if you have a Heron Freezer Centre near you (or a B&M with a freezer section) you may want to take a look,   Mine had the Swedish Glace ice-cream alternative in today, at an amazing 79p for a 750ml tub (yes, I've spent again!).   The poster - which is what dragged me into the shop - shows 6 flavours (5 in the shaped tubs, and one which may be smaller in a cardboard pot), but mine only had 3.   The pot has chocolate flavour (which I don't like) as did one of the tubs, but I got the coconut with passion fruit which is nice.   Going to try the store again - and the store in the next town up - as I'd love to try the Raspberry one, and also the Almond (which looks to have small traces of chocolate that I should be able to cope with).   I've only ever seen the vanilla one before, and much as I love it I can't justify the cost given I can tolerate normal ice-cream as long as I don't do intensive exercise for 48 hours afterwards!!!   I can't even get hold of that one easily since our local Mr M closed at the end of 2012

Doom_and_Gloom

£20.46 spent since last post. 
Most of the above was a huge beef joint the OH got himself. He is about to cut it up so he can have a steak with it today and put the rest cut up in differnt ways portioned up for the freezer. 

Currently have soya beans soaking in a pot which will be ready to use tomorrow. Should be enough to make a block of tofu, some soya yogurt and some soya milk. The okara, soya bean pulp, will be made into home made soya mince which I'll likely have to freeze some as I don't think I'll need all of it for the shepherdless pie. 
I'll be cooking potato and leek soup overnight in my pressure cooker on the slow cooker setting. 

OHs dinner - steak, potato fondant (the potato offcuts he doesn't use are going in my soup ), steamed carrots, peas and sweetcorn. 

£96.72/£150
£53.28 left. 

taka

2nd shop of the year earlier with a £7.65 spend on fruit, veg and some bread. (Takes me to £10.92 spend so far this year.) Forgot to get puff pastry though.   Will hopefully do me until Sunday or more ideally early next week as I really need to spend a bit of time this weekend going through my food stocks & freezer (& do a loose meal plan for the next couple of weeks) before I next shop!

VickyV

Feeling quite ropey today so went out for pizza and a few other essentials (well, the kids think so) for my littlest’s birthday tea! I did make a cake (not my best work) but the hm pizza was a bridge too far today! 

£11.17 spent in Mr Fulton’s on pizza, wedges, cheese, some lunchbox snacks for DS1 and 3 pots of posh crème fraîche for £1 (need to figure out how to use that up!). Need to start using the frozen curry mountain now!

Total spent £33.35/£200. Hopefully last of the week! 🙏 

Vicky x