September 2021 Grocery Challenge

Blackcats

jozbo - keep an eye on the expiry date of the Lidl voucher as I think they are quite quick turnaround.
I was given the voucher today by a relative who doesn't shop there.  It will be fun to see how much shopping I can get for £25.  

jozbo

Dithering About whether to buy a bread maker (£43). I need a brand new one as I’m coeliac so it would need to have no gluten traces. Buying GF bread is always £2.50+ . Flour is pricier than wheat flour. So I suppose I’d have to make quite a few loaves before it paid for itself…

jozbo

Blackcats said:

jozbo - keep an eye on the expiry date of the Lidl voucher as I think
they are quite quick turnaround.
I was given the voucher today by a relative who doesn't shop there.  It will be fun to see how much shopping I can get for £25.  

Yes they are only for a week (15th sept) - other half went in to Lidl today and spent £15 and had £2 off with Lidl plus card voucher. If I’d have gone I would have been tempted by the bargain houseplants they have in (£11/£15 with pot) so probably for the best! Might not get round to using the voucher as think the next shop will need to be at Mr Ts for my elusive red lentils 

Blackcats

Jozbo I have a bread maker which I use quite often.  Homemade bread is lovely - particularly in the autumn and winter with a bowl of soup. I'm not gluten free though so. I can't comment on quality of the bread you'd be able to make.  The initial cost and cost of ingredients might not make it very money saving in the beginning but I enjoy my home made bread much more than most shop bought loaves now.  The house also smells nice while it's baking! 

goldfinches

Thanks to all who admired Scarlett, I should clarify that I was visiting this wildlife hospital with my regular Wednesday walk group Tiggywinkles | Wildlife Hospital (sttiggywinkles.org.uk) and that despite yesterday's heat we enjoyed our visit immensely.
Here is one of the other photos I took.



This is a fox who obligingly walked past the viewing window and paused long enough for me to get a quick snap that shows the stump where his brush should be.

Anyway, I went back to my local Mr T and took in the plastic wrapping from the baguette I didn't pay for yesterday and the receipt and a rather surprised assistant charged me the 60p that I owed them which makes my new total £34.73/£120 and my average daily spend £3.85 which is definitely good for this stage in the month. 

@thriftwizard - our blackberries are also having a very prolific moment and the hot weather over the last couple of weeks has really helped the flavour no end I think.
For anyone who wants to make bramble jelly I made Delia's quick recipe last September and opened a jar last week and it had kept perfectly so you needn't use it as quickly as she advises if you don't want to. Here's the link Quick Bramble (blackberry) Jelly | Recipes | Delia Online and all you need to make it is blackberries, lemon juice and sugar so it's pretty cheap and easy and I find it sets really quickly and well too.

elsiepac

@goldfinches Stumpy the fox is beautiful! Sad I don't live a bit nearer to there but it's a bit of a trek! Maybe I'll plan a day out one day.

Small spend of £3.07 to declare in Mr T yesterday - YS french stick and 2 YS Sourdough Rye loaves (usually £1.70 down to 43p!), some biscuits for a sweet treat and 1kg of carrots and a cabbage.  

The sourdough loaves have been sliced and frozen, the French stick has disappeared.. (how do they do that?! ) and I got the carrots and cabbage for salads to have something fresh with some of the cooked freezer stuff I'll be doing, and also fab in stir fries.

Also came up with some meals based off SW recipes last night to use things I already have in...

- Green risotto (1/4 bag frozen soffrito or an onion, garlic, stock, rice / blend defrosted spinach and bit of pea and bean mix with a little stock then stir into risotto / Add more green bean and pea mix to risotto)

- Smoky red beans and rice (1/2 bag frozen soffrito, 1 bag frozen med veg, garlic, spices [smoked paprika, thyme and cinnamon], risotto rice, chipotle chilli flakes, passata and stock) - made this before using fresh veg and honestly so tasty.

- Sicilian Pea Pasta (1/4 bag frozen sofritto or an onion, garlic, chilli flakes, 1 bag frozen med veg, rest of my bag of petit pois, 1 tin chopped toms and 1 tin cherry toms, fresh basil pref but happy to use dried herbs! and pasta of course

I have bread, bagel thins and oats for breakfasts so that's fine - very short on butter but I have various nut butters so they will have to do.

Lunches I'm thinking soups - tomato and red lentil, butternut and red lentil, some kind of veg/bean/grain soup... you get the idea.

In the fridge I have (that I couldn't freeze):
2x TofooCo Teriyaki tofu - use by 12 Sep (easy! - will use tonight and over weekend)
1x TofooCo Extra Large plain tofu - thinking I'll do this (marinated and seasoned of course!) with veg and noodles or rice when mum comes over for tea on Tuesday as it has to be used by 17 Sep.
Finally I have 2x Cauldron pressed tomato and herb tofu use by 24 Sep - I bought these because they were half price for introductory offer or something and honestly I bought 4 - gave one to mum, then we had one this Tuesday just gone and ugh my goodness it's horrible!! So I'm really going to need to disguise it!  It was improved with a coating of nooch and air fried but still needed a lot of salt and still had a very bitter taste from the dried herbs.  100% would NOT recommend, I'll stick with the pricier but FAR superior Tofoo in future!!

So the above 3 recipes I don't think I'll even get to until perhaps Sunday at the earliest and there's 10-12 portions right there, so I'm thinking I can very nearly get to the end of the month on what I have in! Amazing!

Ooh just thought I could also make a bean salad from canned beans, sweetcorn, and some cooked frozen pea and bean mix (it's green beans, broad beans and peas), then could throw together a little vinaigrette and that's a warmer day lunch/tea!

elsiepac

Also, just discovered the Budget Bytes website which has loads of fab store cupboard based recipes which just a couple of fresh things added! Here's a link to the vegan meal plan but all the recipes are linked so you don't actually need to buy it Going to try some of the lentil ideas for sure and then some of the others when I'm not trying to use up so much of my stuff in (read: skint)!

joedenise

Typed a post and just lost it so will try again!

@elsiepac - could you use that tomato & herb tofu in a curry?  That might disguise the taste so that you don't have to waste it.  

Needed to pop into Mr Ts for some yoghurt, potatoes & grapes and came out nearly £20 lighter!  Now down to £168.13 for the rest of the month.  Not too unhappy about it as most of what I picked up are actually on the list for my shop next week so saves buying them then.  Nothing I bought won't keep until next week so has just gone into the pantry cupboard as a top up.

thriftwizard

£55 spent at the market this morning, on fish, cheese, fruit & veg and a few other bits & bobs. The overall picture's not looking too bad, but I'll need to go down to L!dls next week & stock up on the non-perishables; that's usually where I begin to lose the plot! But we're still picking lots at the allotment & round the garden/allotment/countryside; long may that last!

Couldsavemore

Weekly shop done..
£25.02 in Ald! for the humans.. £25.99 on 4kg of cat biscuits! I eat aldi food but oh no my ever so posh cats refuse anything but premium! Well, one is 16 so I don't mind, it's a battle to keep her weight on. Plus it'll keep us going for a couple of months.

Total spend 94/200

On the wildlife front... have discovered my dogs mad barking in the garden is due to a hedgehog... So now he's sharing his food!