September 2021 Grocery Challenge

nannygladys

I agree that mask wearing is nearly non existent, I seem to be the odd one out by wearing one!

No money spent yesterday or today and I am planning on doing some shopping either on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, it all depends on how much the little bit of butter lasts.I'm still using fresh veg off the allotment and mainly eat bean, egg or cheese based meals which I still have plenty of.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Sunday
Nannyg

JingsMyBucket

Hi @elsiepac I’m starting really late but could you please put me down for £400 for September 1 — 30? I need to add up my receipts and catch up on the thread. I’ve been heads down with rush client projects being thrown at me the past few weeks and need to take stock mentally. And in my kitchen, really, when I think about it. 😬

Blackcats

A good trip to Lidl.  Split the shop to use 2 vouchers.  Nearly got caught out because my "fresh food" trolley came to £24.98 so 2p short of voucher threshold, so I grabbed a box of tea bags from the other "store cupboard" trolley.  

Spend today £45.33.  Total spend £107.84 / £380
New balance left of budget  £272.16 / £380

joedenise

Well done @Blackcats on your quick thinking!  Nothing worse than being a couple of coppers short to use a voucher.  I usually grab something from near the till which is never the cheapest things or the most healthy!

Pixiehouse55

With all the advertising ,selling, charity boxes and throwing out we were naughty today and book a pub lunch. A very large roast dinner. £14.95  each but I must say it was worth every penny. 2 large slides of Turkey. Roasted potatoes, parsnip and carrot. Large Yorkshire pudding and stuffing balls..  then out came 3 dishes with leeks potatoes and cauliflower cheese. It was so tasty.   I did have to get my milk and his milk yesterday and some orange juice and apple juice. £7.34. That's it now for a few days. 

goldfinches

Very interested to hear about others experiences with masks - hereabouts we're very strong on indoors and public transport but less conscientious at outdoors among lots of others types of activities.

I forgot to add in some money spent at the local Indian grocer's shop the other day on a huge jar of pickled cornichons, massive bunch of fresh coriander, y/s baby aubergines and y/s limes which came to £3.48. Then today I spent £4.45 at M*rks on f/f greek style yoghurt, frozen sweetcorn and 4 x s/s milk so that makes my new total £46.19/£120 and my average daily spend £3.84.

I'm planning to go foraging for blackberries, apples and rosemary tomorrow morning to make a massive batch of chutney to last me through the winter months as I've a lovely WI booklet on pickles and preserves that I found in a charity shop a while ago and today I pounced on a 10ltr stockpot which I've already scalded and scoured. I might try making some lime pickle too. Yum, I love this time of year.

Suffolk_lass

Like @nannygladys, we are living on garden produce, which I am also prepping and freezing. I have so many squashes!

Last week's Gardeners' World talked about cutting the leaves away from the butternut squashes so they ripen on the plant. I did that but have had to cut three as they were officially ENORMOUS! - bigger than marrows. Too heavy to carry with one hand. I cannot envisage any time when I will want to use a whole one, unless I am making soup for 30-50 people! - Oh wait... we might have a village bonfire night.

In the meantime, I am raiding the freezer for meat or fish to add to what we are still harvesting and my purse remains full of cobwebs. Just eggs and milk delivered being added to the tally

elsiepac

@joedenise the tofu definitely won't go to waste but yes, I'll be adding to something or otherwise "enhancing it" as it's really quite unpleasant!!

@nannygladys can you talk me through cabbage pie please? I'm having a bit of a cabbage love affair at the moment!

@goldfinches the village sounds lovely - I'll definitely put it on my list for when I'm a little more comfortable being out and about!!

Re masks, in my small country town it's a very mixed bag but overall most people are wearing them in the shops etc.  No regard for distancing with most people though mind! I'm still trying to avoid the busiest times because when I hit them accidentally I get very stressed out.

Budget wise I haven't spent since I last posted which is fab.  Came up with a rough meal plan yesterday that takes me virtually through the remaining 16 days of my month with only buying I think onions!

Think I mentioned the website I found the other day called Budget Bytes - I made a slightly modified (to use freezer veg) version of this hearty lentil soup on Saturday and got 6 portions of which I've frozen a couple and have the rest covering most of my lunches this week!

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, we're currently at £175.42/£350. I've spent a little more than I would like at this point in the month but I've planned this weeks meals around what we have in so apart from milk, fruit and veg we should be ok.  

Make that £199.42 forgot to add the takeaway we had last week to celebrate my husband passing his theory test. 

Finstickle

A couple of shops to declare here.
Lidl weekly shop at £78.88 and then yesterday had some family unexpectedly turn up so we decided to BBQ.
Trip to Tesco - £37.03 later

This did include £10 of egg whites I can't get in Lidl and £6 on ice-creams which only needed to be £3 as the box was bigger than I realised and so one would have sufficed, the extras will obviously get eaten though so all is OK.

I harvested what we managed to grow with DD in the morning and lettuce, edamame beans and peppers went in the salad, along with some of MIL's tomatoes.  the salad will do for lunch today and there is meat leftover also which will either do lunches today or tonight's tea.

I'm feeling really drained at the moment so trying to utilise cooking double and leftovers as much as possible to avoid convenience food but some days even that is a struggle.  I really do wish I could sit down to a tasty healthy dinner every night cooked by someone else!  I look at the meal delivery services and you still seem to have to cook for about 30mins anyway, so haven't worked out the benefit of those yet.

Current total £287.88/£495
58% budget / 43% time