February 2021 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 said:

Help.
I'm self isolating so do not go out to the supermarkets but have online deliveries. I've come across Morrisons 'food boxes' which sound as if they would suit. 
I've logged in selected a veg box but I cannot see anywhere to select a delivery or pay for it. I've emailed them but had no reply. 
Has anyone tried their boxes and any idea where I'm going wrong? thanks

@zafiro1984 I think you have to secure either a delivery slot or a click and collect slot before you start selecting and building your basket. I also have not found a way to defer a basket to a later day with Morrisons but i have only tried once

Blackberrycurved

PipneyJane. I am using your Grocery Tin box idea which I love I've got Quarantined written on it to remind me not to touch it. I've drew £60 out last week and on Sunday night I drew another £60 out so far I have lots of pennies left - anything left at the end of Feb I'm putting into my 1p challenge pot that might be more motivating then thinking I've saved fifty quid then spend it on something else that is desperately needed. There is a big desperately needed list. So far 6 NSD days there's something about seeing the money. 

Florenceem

No spending here as too slippery to venture out - snow is lingering in freezing temperatures. Getting very low on fresh fruit but okay for everything else.

PipneyJane

Suffolk_lass said:

PipneyJane said:

Good afternoon All

How’re is your February going?  Are you coping with the bad weather, the never-ending Lockdown and the inevitable tightening of belts?  I’ve always found February to be a tougher month, financially, than January.  In January, you run out of cash early because you were paid before Christmas and end up in debt/overdue on payments; February is when those debts have to be paid back.   (Things are much better for us now, but it’s one of my motivations for doing the Grocery Challenge.)

I have a couple of spends to declare from this past week.  The C0-0p had an offer:  spend £15 and get £1.50 off.  Another one of their offers was 50p off their fresh pastries/quiches/pies.. Our local C0-0P is too small to do a proper shop, so taking advantage of the first offer required a bit of planning.  After checking out what they had available meat wise - no YS items - in the end, we decided to buy two large Steak Pies - really good quality - at £3.70 each, a couple of pizzas and a bottle of wine, with the “Date Night Fund” coughing up to pay for the latter items.  The pies got allocated all the discounts, so £5.40 was spent from the Grocery Challenge money.  One pie will be dinner tomorrow night, while the other is now in the freezer.  (Date Night on Saturday was pizza, red wine and three episodes of The Mallorca Files.)

Yesterday, we drove to MrT’s and stocked up on the items we can’t buy in L!dl.  £40.70 spent.  Their 4 tins-chopped-tomatoes-for-£1 offer is back.  They also had a half-price Clubcard offer of 3 packet of Kleenex tissues for £2.50, which is cheaper than we’d normally pay in C0stc0, so I picked up 2 lots.

Throw in the £2 spent on crisps today - so that DH has something to nibble on while he’s watching the Super Bowl tonight and chatting to his mates doing the same, via SKYPE - and the above brings our Grocery Challenge spend for February to £81.86/£142.30, leaving £60.44 for the rest of the month.

We also went to the Butchers’ yesterday, spending £55.70 from the Meat Fund.  Since our meat shopping is all about getting the biggest bang for our buck, I thought I’d share what we bought, what the plans are for it and how many portions we’ll get.  The butcher doesn’t do an itemised bill, so I’m only recording prices where I saw them and can remember them.  Remember, there’s only two of us in this household.

1 large roasting chicken - £7.99 - dinner tonight (we’ll eat the legs), chicken fajitas on Tuesday and chicken risotto on Wednesday.  That’s at least 10 portions, plus stock.  

1kg minced beef - at least 16 portions when padded out with veg, lentils/beans, etc

1 rolled, stuffed, boned breast of lamb 1.2kg - £13.60 - minimum of 4 portions of roast lamb.  The butcher cut it in half for us, so we have two roasts.

8 chicken breasts, average weight 200g each - between 16 to 32 portions, depending on whether I double up in a recipe.   I usually only use one in a stir fry or chicken pasta dish that serves 4.

8 large chicken thighs - 8 portions of chicken tray bake.  

4 pork chops - two will definitely be served as chops, while the other two may get chopped up to make pork-and-beans and a stir-fry.  Either 4 or 10 portions, depending on the outcome.

That’s between 54 and 80 portions of meat-based meals.  As I said, it’s all about getting the biggest bang for our meat-buck.

With the exception of tonight’s roasting chicken, I have just finished shoehorning it all into the freezer.  Everything has been “bagged and tagged”.  I had to do it in stages to maximise space/freeze things in shapes that will stack and fit together, especially since the freezer was pretty full already with lunchboxes, tubs of soup/cooked pulses/homemade ready meals and sauces, not to mention the haggis that threatens to leap out at you... The mince was divided into 4 and carefully stuffed into freezer box to form 4 rectangles.  The chicken breasts and chops were bagged separately and frozen to be as flat as possible.  The chicken thighs were bagged in fours, while the lamb was stood on its end, to freeze upright.  

As you can see, once again, I win at freezer Tetris.

• Pip

Some top tips in here Pip - lots that others could learn from

Thanks @Suffolk_lass.  I'm still amazed at how much I can shoehorn into the freezer.  Annoyingly, it only hold about 75% of our previous fridge/freezer, which was 15 years old when it died, and that does catch me out. (I probably still shop to fill the old one.)

- Pip

[Deleted User]

Its been a while since ive been on here, but reading through Feb, i'm feeling inspired to jump back on board.  I hope everyone is keeping well and not struggling with the way things are at the mo.

I've probably spent about £20 in Feb, but not sure, so am going to start as of now.  Can I be put down for £80 for the rest of the month, to cover food, cleaning stuff and toiletries.  I do splurge on more expensive skincare stuff, but that will have its own budget.  I have a ton of stuff in, so hoping to not spend much, but if any left I will start a bulk buy fund.  I quit drinking for a year, and since then have had the odd few, but mostly don't drink (wow, did those words come out of my mouth !!!), so any alcohol will come out of budget.

PipneyJane very impressed with that freezer.

HELP wasn't very successful updating my sig - seems to be mostly code showing, is it possible to turn off, so not confusing.  Could be 'cause its from the old forum, might have to redo.  Also can't remember how to multi quote or how to do larger lettering.  Can anyone help with this ???

moneyonmymindsam

Hope everyone is warm and well,
Been out for bread rolls and a packet of fudge sticks so £1.98 spent. Leaves me £18 and small change when I do my shop later this week. Valentines Sunday so need to think of something "special" to cook. 
Sam x

Its_time

Small spend today of £34.56, Totals for Feb so far £36.66/£300.00

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:
@zafiro1984 I think you have to secure either a delivery slot or a click and collect slot before you start selecting and building your basket. I also have not found a way to defer a basket to a later day with Morrisons but i have only tried once

Thanks Suffolk lass. It seems that the food boxes are a separate to their normal online grocery items/shop. 
I have solved the problem, I saved nothing, shut everything down, rebooted and tried again, and it worked, but I still have no idea where I went wrong the first time.
To alter a delivery date, check out and pay. Go back onto the website, choose 'my orders' and then edit/amend and you can also change the delivery date or delete the whole order if you want.
If you just want to build your order over a number of days the website will store your order without you needing to check out.

First shop of the year £31 for a Morrisons vegetable Food box and a fruit Food Box. It will be interesting to see what arrives as well as the quality.

VickyV

Had to nip to Ald1 today for milk, butter, sugar and eggs. Ended up buying extra butter and their own brand weet@bix (my kids practically live on them) because we’re almost out. Spent £10.87 but I think we should be ok for the rest of the week if I make cake for treats.
February’s total stands at £61.61/£180.

Vicky x

Suffolk_lass

Save_Dosh said:

HELP wasn't very successful updating my sig - seems to be mostly code showing, is it possible to turn off, so not confusing.  Could be 'cause its from the old forum, might have to redo.  Also can't remember how to multi quote or how to do larger lettering.  Can anyone help with this ???

@Save_Dosh - it looks as though you have sorted your signature (from profile in top right, choose edit profile then edit signature to edit or remove then save). To multi-quote just click quote again for the second post you want to include and it works like the old symbol. Bigger text is the back to front P with the l next to it in the bar where bold is - choose from the drop down but it applies to the whole paragraph
- and no colours in your posts except emojis, only in your sig - you can choose other emoji's and past them in though - I use this lot emojipedia.org