September 2021 Grocery Challenge

nannygladys

Elsiepac - cabbage pie. Take 1 chopped onion and 1/2 a chopped cabbage(or kale) and soften in some oil for about 10 mins, add in 1 tin of tomatoes, 6 chopped mushrooms, herbs of your choice and a stock cube (I use veggie ones). Cook 15 mins, you can add more stock, water or Tom juice if it gets too dry. Make or buy pastry and line a dish (I've used short crust or puff pastry), put in hot filling cover with a pastry lid, put a few holes in lid, brush with milk or egg and cook 200°C for about 20-30 mins.
The filling can be made the day before, but heat it up before you use it, you can also use different combinations of veg according to what you have in and sometimes instead of pastry I've used mashed potato or par boiled sliced potatoes, dotting with butter/oil and bake until crisp, because I add different veggies I don't usually have anything with it. It's plain, simple and frugal.

Today I spent £1.40 on some butter so total already amended, and I will probably go to the community kitchen on Thursday. Went to the allotment today and came away with 2 more courgettes, aubergines, beetroot, and tomatoes the beetroot are for dds, the aubergines I'm sharing with dd3 the tomatoes need ripening so are in the window, the courgettes is anyone's guess, I think we've had them every way possible! Planted out some winter cabbage and kale and still have a few other bits to plant.

Finstickle - I live on my own and quite often get fed up with either eating the same things or just cooking! I don't know what the answer is but I force myself to make something or just grab a bowl of cereal!! As long as it doesn't happen very often I think it's OK!  But I don't have to cook for a family anymore so it's easier for me.

Nannyg

Pixiehouse55

Wherever we go we wear our masks and I sometimes wear my latex gloves. I get strange looks for wearing my mask, I'm not taking any chances. A lot of people are carrying on as though there is or was coving. Keep safe everyone  X 

Money_Choices

Hi 

On 10 Sept I spent at H0me B@rgin$ £12.92 which makes my total spend £24.19/£85.00.

Money Choices

goldfinches

@Finstickle - like @nannygladys I live on my own and sometimes get just fed to the back teeth with having to decide what to make, procure the ingredients, lug them home, store them, prepare them and then eat them . I don't think there is an answer to this conundrum other than deciding to live on cheese and biscuits with the occasional tomato, apple or banana. It might be quite fun to come to some kind of reciprocal arrangement with a near neighbour or pretend you are on holiday and eat out for every meal for a week or a fortnight. That's really all I can think of right now.

Anyway, I spent £1.08 on radishes at Sains today making my current total £47.27/£120 and my average daily spend £3.63 and I've spent 39% of my budget for this month.

Suffolk_lass

nannygladys said:

Elsiepac - cabbage pie. Take 1 chopped onion and 1/2 a chopped cabbage(or kale) and soften in some oil for about 10 mins, add in 1 tin of tomatoes, 6 chopped mushrooms, herbs of your choice and a stock cube (I use veggie ones). Cook 15 mins, you can add more stock, water or Tom juice if it gets too dry. Make or buy pastry and line a dish (I've used short crust or puff pastry), put in hot filling cover with a pastry lid, put a few holes in lid, brush with milk or egg and cook 200°C for about 20-30 mins.
The filling can be made the day before, but heat it up before you use it, you can also use different combinations of veg according to what you have in and sometimes instead of pastry I've used mashed potato or par boiled sliced potatoes, dotting with butter/oil and bake until crisp, because I add different veggies I don't usually have anything with it. It's plain, simple and frugal.

Today I spent £1.40 on some butter so total already amended, and I will probably go to the community kitchen on Thursday. Went to the allotment today and came away with 2 more courgettes, aubergines, beetroot, and tomatoes the beetroot are for dds, the aubergines I'm sharing with dd3 the tomatoes need ripening so are in the window, the courgettes is anyone's guess, I think we've had them every way possible! Planted out some winter cabbage and kale and still have a few other bits to plant.

Finstickle - I live on my own and quite often get fed up with either eating the same things or just cooking! I don't know what the answer is but I force myself to make something or just grab a bowl of cereal!! As long as it doesn't happen very often I think it's OK!  But I don't have to cook for a family anymore so it's easier for me.

Nannyg

Ooh I like the sound of that @nannygladys
Have you tried courgette and cheese (or cheese substitute for the vegans) fritters? I adapt the Jamie Oliver version to whatever I have in.

I've just gifted our son the small slow cooker that I used to keep (and never use, because we are rarely on electric when away) in our campervan - last night was a lump of meat, a tin of soup, a carrot and a potato chopped up and bunged in for an hour and a half - ingredients gifted from me - he is as poor as a church mouse this month. I suggested he might add some peas if he had some for a one pot wonder.

Meanwhile we had cauliflower, tromboncino and macaroni cheese. It works, but it probably shouldn't

Finstickle

So, in an attempt to get myself organsied I've just placed an 'All Plants' order as I got a discount code.
These are Vegan ready meals, designed by a nutritionist and cooked by a chef so both healthy and tasty with luck.
It's quite expensive but with the code it came down to £3.75pp and that is definitely cheaper than a takeaway.  I also like to have some veggie/vegan food every week but that does take more motivation for me as easier to just think meat/fish plus something.

So we'll give this a whirl - £45 for 12 portions (there's only 2 to feed as DD doesn't eat with us yet and i won't use on stepkids night)
New Total £332.88/£495

Only £162.12, not very much at this stage of the month, I delayed the above order from Friday to Tuesday to make space in the freezer, will focus on whatever leftovers I have for the rest of the week I think.

joedenise

Run out of peppers and mushrooms both of which are must haves for us as we use them loads.  Now have £134.62 left of the month's £250 so a bit more than half of the budget spent so hopefully doable as have plenty of meat.  Planning on doing a freezer inventory and defrost tomorrow while DH is out at golf as I find it easier to do on my own than having his "help"!

scotmumof3

DH and I both tested positive for Covid last week so I haven't been able to go shopping this week and decided the best thing to do was to try and use up everything that we had. DH is on day 8 and I am on day 7 and so far have barely made a dent in the food we had at home. I was shocked at how much I had stashed away but at least it's come in handy. No more spends so far this month 

jozbo

Couple of shops to declare -
about £6 in home bargains on some dental stuff and snacks for school
£6.50ish today at Asda on gluten free flour, pasta etc. Impressed with how cheap their own brand GF is - about half the price of my usual brands, the flour is about a quarter ! Will see what the quality is like.
total remaining for the month : £68.69. It’s going to be very tight…

jozbo

@scotmumof3 sorry to hear about your positive tests. How are you feeling? Sounds like a good opportunity to use up stocks!