August 2021 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

LunaCatty said:

Well this started badly! I completely forgot I'd booked a T*sco slot a few weeks back for today. Only remembered this morning when I saw £49.52 leave our account  I'd just thrown in a "usual" shop to hold the basket/slot (intending to go on nearer the time to add what we needed or cancel the slot) so have ended up with lots of things we already have and more frustratingly lots of things we are swamped with growing wise at the moment. Plus freezer stuff which isn't going to fit into our overfull freezer! It could be worse though, in the past I've been to know to slot book using just bottles of wine to book it fast lol  Going to check if my neighbour can make use of some of it and the rest I will preserve/store and try to rearrange freezer to fit in. I also just logged T*sco to make sure no other slots booked ahead.

We've now had to re-jig our budget for the month to take this into account. Instead of £15p/w (so £75 for the month) we've set it at £150 for the whole month as my husband also realised despite lots of stuff in the store cupboard that we are nearly out of most of our g/f flours so I'm going to need to do a Shipton Mill shop this month too.

Can we be swapped to £150 for the month please? Thanks 

Hello @LunaCatty -  could I ask you about these please as I'm currently rather underwhelmed by the Doves Farm Freee plain and s/r flours as regards both flavour and texture so would be glad to know more about possible alternatives.

Chloris

nannygladys said:

No spends for me today and no cleaning either, I have hurt my back unplugging the tv last night. It still hurts today but I'm taking pain killers and taking it easy so I hope it's OK tomorrow when I have to take dgd to the orthodontist. I will probably need a couple of bits tomorrow, I will have to see.
Nannyg

I hope you aren’t in too much pain today 🤞 Do you unplug your tv every night? My dad used to do that.

My wisdom teeth are moving again, which is causing quite a bit of pain. The knock on effect is my salad is not getting eaten - I don’t think I can chew radishes! I’m hoping the pain and swelling eases over the next couple of days. 

I popped to Sainsbury’s today on my bike as we needed potatoes, porridge, vegan chocolate and avocados. A spend of £5.40/£550. I need to make the children a coffee cake tonight when the oven is on, no excuses today (I am a baking procrastinator!)

CCW007

Hi everyone, mind if I join?  Rather embarrassingly, I don't know what we spend in a "typical" month as we have well-stocked store cupboards and do ad hoc shops rather than regular ones, pretty much just buying whatever we fancy rather than meal planning.  As a result, I've never kept track of our spending.

It's just the two of us, I'm mostly plant based and OH is omni (he will eat some veggie meals but not all the ones I like) so we often have different meals.  I'm trying to put a meal plan together which will give us the flexibility to have different options.

I'm going to guess at £250 for this month (3rd August to 2nd September) which will cover food, toiletries and cleaning products.  

Dinner tomorrow is going to be fakeaway - I've got a chicken tikka and naan breads out of the freezer already, I'll probably make daal for myself and do a saag aloo as a side to share.

LunaCatty

goldfinches said:

Hello @LunaCatty -  could I ask you about these please as I'm currently rather underwhelmed by the Doves Farm Freee plain and s/r flours as regards both flavour and texture so would be glad to know more about possible alternatives.

Of course. I use the doves plain and s/r on occasion, quick yorkshires with some cornflour, cupcakes etc, but on the whole agree the pre-mixed gf flour blends are very underwhelming.

We had the problem that my son was diagnosed coeliac, but I can't eat xanthan or other gums without reacting badly too - so that really left us with home made being the only way! Plus supermarket loaves etc are so overpriced and poor for g/f imo.

My first suggestion would be to get River Cottage Gluten Free by Naomi Devlin and Cannelle et Vanille by Aran Goyoaga from the library if you can. They were the first gf cookbooks I got that branched more into using different g/f individual flours. Both give ideas on blends to make yourself as well. I find buckwheat is fantastic for pancakes and then flours such as teff can offer a wonderful rich flavour to breads etc. Both authors have websites too with lots of recipes on so worth googling them and checking them out as well.

When baking I now tend to go with my own ratios and now know how much starch (tapioca, white rice flour etc) compared to whole grain flours (buckwheat, teff sorghum etc) to use, but this guide online is absolutely fantastic for explaining all the different g/f flour options out there and how they work together: at glutenfreealchemist dotcom the page "gluten free flours and flour blends" (I can't share links yet)

For binders since we can't use gums we use eggs, milled flaxseed, psyllium husk, and chia seeds depending on the recipe. If you can use gums though it does make it all a lot easier on pliability with doughs.

All g/f flour is expensive when compared to wheat flour unfortunately. However, I find the quality of the Shipton Mill flours to be really good and they have a wide range too. The bread I bake now is pretty much on par with some of my old gluten containing loaves - especially the sourdoughs (which is actually often better with g/f than yeasted recipes for improving flavour and texture).

Mrs_Cheshire

goldfinches said:

@Mrs_Cheshire - I prefer to make hummus with freshly squeezed lemon juice and a preserved lemon rather than oil and find the coriander goes well with those flavours.
@PipneyJane - I can vouch for this delightfully simple and tasty way to use red lentils Red lentil & sweet potato pâté recipe | BBC Good Food

I bought enough yoghurt for 10 breakfasts at M*rks for £3.20 today and also bought a titchy bottle of wine for salad dressings, frozen veggie sausages and an indulgent punnet of cherries which were price matched with Aldi in Sainsby's for £5.64 which brings my new total to £25.58/£124 and my average daily spend to £6.39. 

I love the sound of the hummus as I'm avoiding oil at the moment, the pate sounds delicious too. Thanks for sharing those ideas

Mrs_Cheshire

So far spent £22.06, will need to get some more fruit and veg to see us through the week. 

goldfinches

@Mrs_Cheshire - this was the recipe that set me off down the road of no oil hummus ‘A love letter home’ – recipes and stories of the Palestinian table | Middle Eastern food and drink | The Guardian. It really does taste much better to me and much  more like the hummus served in Lebanese/Turkish/Palestinian restaurants made this way and provided you have a food processor it is easy to do.

I've had a no spend day today so am feeling very virtuous, long may it last!

nannygladys

Hi there
Chloris: yes I do unplug everything before I go to bed, unless it's necessary, it must be an oldie thing, my daughter's don't seem to bother!! And thank you my back is feeling much better as long as I don't sit/lie down too much and keep taking pain killers, it seems easier when I'm upright - just my luck no lying on the settee all day lol!!

I did manage to do a bit of shopping today and it came to £14.76, my dgd is here for the night so helped. That should be it for a few days as I have enough in.

Used half of my large courgette by stuffing it and it was ok, the other half will be going in a risotto tomorrow and two out of the four I have left are going to a good home tomorrow!! And then I'm calling in the lottie tomorrow evening to collect beans and more courgettes!!! All good fun.
Nannyg

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone. 
Food budget started yesterday for us 

Spent £1.20 today on milk and we didn't spend anything yesterday 

So that's all so far 

Hope everyone else is doing well

ms_iiwii

two top ups in lil Tees £10.20 and £6.40 on milk, butter, cheese, pasta, ice cream, biscuits and chocolate. leaving £171.93 left in the budget. new fridge freezer came yesterday so off to home Bs and Icy land to fill that up today!