January 2021 Grocery Challenge

Florenceem

Pixiehouse55 - this is my first 28 day plan for years.
I work on 4 weeks as I buy shopping out of my pension which is paid every 28 days.

joedenise

I get my pension weekly so shop weekly but I like to do the monthly plan as it makes it far easier to do the shopping list for the things I need for the meals between shops, also means I only have to think menu planning once a month and not every week!  Obviously if I see things on special that we'll use I'll pick those up too but that would normally come from my 'bulk' fund.

PipneyJane

joedenise said:

I managed to get a couple of aubergines on Thursday @Hild0 from Mr Ts but they were 75p each and not very big - I would normally have only need one of the usual sized ones!  I'm making a butternut squash and auberine tagine for dinner tonight - a new to me recipe so hoping it's OK.

@joedenise - recipe, please!

cw18 said:

Florenceem said:

Really trying hard to be low spend this week. Just 50p on shopping today - demi baguette for lunch filled with gammon from an al.. joint - cheaper than buying packaged cold meat.

You seem to buy a fair number of those demi-baguettes.   Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy part baked baguettes and cook them at home?    I buy twin packs from A!di (42p), and if I don't intend to use the second in the following fews days it does fine in the freezer until I need it.    I cook them in my combi oven, which is a lot cheaper than using my full oven.   Can't remember the costing my OH mentioned after doing some 'tests'. but it wasn't a lot.    I actually have a fancy socket that would let me do the calculation here, so I may have to do so at some point

I realised they're not exactly the same beast (yours is probably thicker and shorter), but the price difference would swing it for me.

We have a combi-oven as well as a “proper” oven, too, @cw18. I mainly use ours  as an electric oven or, sometimes, as a microwave, but rarely in combination. It was our sole oven for 7 years, after we moved into this house.  (The kitchen wiring couldn’t support the electric oven on our stove, at that point.). The largest thing I ever roasted in it was a duck.

Years ago, pre-smart meter, the electricity company gave us  a widget that measured the energy used at that moment in time.  When we used the combi-oven as a straight oven, it read 3.2, while using the main oven it read 4.6.  (What the units were is beyond my memory.)

@HIld0 asked about how people cope doing the grocery challenge without a car.  When I didn’t have a car, I’d shop for the month, not the week, and get a taxi home.  There was a supermarket next to the a station, two stops from home, so I’d do all my shopping there.  We had a fridge-freezer, so I’d buy most of my meat and veg frozen.  Milk would be UHT Skimmed Milk (it doesn’t have an aftertaste).  

- Pip

VickyV

Had to nip in to the local 5par on the way home from school for a stamp (85p!! I nearly fainted 😂!) and DD2 decided he wanted a magazine and a paw patrol egg. I let him spend his Christmas money and refrained from a snaffling the reduced baguette I was eyeing up. Not spent any of the grocery money but had a Shopmium refund of £1.15 so total spends stand at £66.58/£200 and nearly half way through the month! 

Vicky x

BelleBaluu

VickyV said:

Had to nip in to the local 5par on the way home from school for a stamp (85p!! I nearly fainted 😂!) and DD2 decided he wanted a magazine and a paw patrol egg. I let him spend his Christmas money and refrained from a snaffling the reduced baguette I was eyeing up. Not spent any of the grocery money but had a Shopmium refund of £1.15 so total spends stand at £66.58/£200 and nearly half way through the month! 

Vicky x

Hi VickyV, what’s Shopmium and how does it work, if you don’t mind me asking?

Suffolk_lass

We are staying home now, with eggs delivered this morning, until DH goes to collect the click and collect on Monday. The basket has lots of "ooh, we like those!" things in at the moment but I am going to cull it this morning and compile the second list of things showing as out of stock or just not on the website. He will enter the store for a short period to see if any of that second list are there. If not he knows what are acceptable substitutes

try_harder

After having a very good start to the year week two has not been so good and i am now left with £70 to last two weeks and three days .I have also spent money from Febs budget to buy some frozen sausages etc that were on offer in Asxa veganuary month but this will benefit me next month

VickyV

BelleBaluu said:

Hi VickyV, what’s Shopmium and how does it work, if you don’t mind me asking?

I think someone else on here mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. It’s an app where there are offers on certain products in the main sm’s. Some are for free things, some for money off. You connect it to PayPal, buy the items at full price then submit a picture of the receipt and barcode to get the money refunded. They then ask you to review, although I think that’s optional. It’ll never feed the family but it’s nice to get a few freebies or try something different without it being a costly mistake! 

To be honest, I’ve struggled to find most items even in the big shops so not worth a trip but definitely check before you shop!

Vicky x

Suffolk_lass

Just edited my click and collect order and it is horrendous. Definitely a few things out of stock and fewer offers than normal.

I wonder if we will start to see Scottish Langoustines on UK fish stalls? If they can't export them to France quickly enough it would be nice to see them here, especially in East Anglia... Seems a shame to waste them!

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:

Just edited my click and collect order and it is horrendous. Definitely a few things out of stock and fewer offers than normal.

I wonder if we will start to see Scottish Langoustines on UK fish stalls? If they can't export them to France quickly enough it would be nice to see them here, especially in East Anglia... Seems a shame to waste them!

I saw that wholesale prices had gone down by 40%.
I feel sorry for the fishermen losing so much but to be honest I would eat a lot more fish if it was cheaper as the cost is the only thing stopping me using it more often.