October 2021 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Oooh, goat curry... that's a big favourite with me! Must invest in some goat...

Just added £50 for my market spend yesterday, on fish, cheese, fruit & veg, plus some skirt of beef I couldn't resist, so I'll tweak the menu plan to make a stew (with dumplings) on Monday. All otherwise going to plan - so far!

Main meals for the week:

Friday: smoked haddock in cheese sauce (using up the last of last week's cheese) "refried" leftover potatoes & peas
Saturday: sausages (or veggie sausages) savoury rice (using up allotment veg scraps) asparagus and carrots
Sunday: roast pork (or roasted vegetable medley) roast potatoes, broccoli, runner beans & carrots
Monday: beef stew & dumplings, (or spicy bean stew & veggie dumplings) with allotment potatoes & broad beans
Tuesday: sausage casserole, using up leftover sausages, plus chorizo, tomatoes, leeks & peppers (or veggie sausage casserole) with bulgur wheat, runner beans & carrots
Wednesday: HM pizzas using up whatever's in the fridge, which generally includes ham, chorizo, olives, spinach leaves & kale, mushrooms, spring onions etc. Also basil & other herbs from the windowsills/conservatory/garden.
Thursday: anything left over with baked potatoes! Omelette using same resources as pizza toppings if no leftovers. Leftover pork from Sunday will be frozen; depending on the amount, that could make a stir-fry, a pie or even a casserole another week.

Lunches will be soup made with stock from the freezer & bendy veg, or salads which will include cold boiled bantam eggs (little Amelie seems to be sitting on a clutch of about 12 again & needs to be deprived of them) or poached eggs on HM sourdough toast. Breakfasts will be HM cinnamon buns, or pancakes with allotment raspberries or foraged blackberries, toast or porridge. Puddings, blackberry & apple crumble on Sunday, otherwise HM ice-cream or Greek yogurt, honey & berries. Or fresh fruit. No-one here will starve, except maybe the family fusspot.

It does help that we are still getting lots of eggs from The Girls (the ones with feathers) but I suspect they'll go into the moult shortly and the supply will dwindle right down. Hopefully we won't end up having to buy eggs, as we did for a while last winter before the New Girls came into lay in spring, but it's possible. Off now to make mincemeat from windfallen apples, and sloe gin!

Rainydaydreamer

I decided to do some stock up shops this weekend. £175 spent (of £400 for the month) which includes this week’s full shop, along with most store cupboard ingredients, all toiletries and household items for the month. I spent more than I anticipated but have done some batch cooking today and have 15 meals in the freezer for the two of us. 

It’s made me wonder how people manage the lower budgets, I guess I have a lot to learn so am in the right place

JingsMyBucket

@carolinerunner I actually took pictures of our fruit and veg box this week. Here’s what we got for £20 and I found it great value this week especially:

6 Eggs

Plums

Eggplant

Cauliflower 

Zucchini 

Cucumber

Lettuce

Red chilis 

Tomatoes

Scallions

Broccoli

Green bell pepper

Orange bell pepper

Potatoes

Carrots

Pears

Apples

Bananas

Tangerines

Onions

Garlic

Ginger

LadyWithAPlan

Grocery spending  £20.02/ £160 

+ 65p of £10 bulk - I am trying a bulk food extra pot this month like the 'other purse' but not quite sure how it will work.

I spent £15.77 in Ldl, 2.65 MS (coffee beans) and 1.60 Tesc on travel food.

I have a £10 uber eats voucher to use by Oct 15th as well .

I don't count household goods nor my coffees or meals out in this £160. So far £6.05 -  £3 on a coffee today and £3.05 yesterday .. they in treats/ent budget.

NSD new target of 13 days in Oct, I did my first ever deliberate ones last month 9/10 

Currently 0/13  and got a lunch with a friend who does not live in London so will be spending tomorrow

I spent £147.86/£170 in Sep so this G challenge had me really focused, though I was away  a bit.

candygirl

Can I join in this month,  with a target of £120 please? Need to get back on track,  as I'm very frivolous at the moment 😊

Suffolk_lass

@Rainydaydreamer - I do my bulk buy of toiletries only when they are on offer, and the same with store-cupboard items like the jar of coffee, tins, spare marmite (it's a thing!) and laundry detergent. I bought a catering sized laundry detergent last year and it is runnier, so I use less (I wanted a stash of the discontinued one with Febreze in). If they are on offer I buy more than one. If we are running out, we either do (run out, and make do without), or I buy an unbranded thing to try or if I've done this and don't like the swap, I buy just one. It takes a few months to get set up, hence I have a separate stores budget.

LLM2018

I'd like to join for October please. £75 as my budget running from 1st to 31st October. 

I was doing so well for the first half of last month then dropped the ball. I live opposite a supermarket so it was just too easy to buy convenience food. I have decided to bulk cook again today so went to Ldl and Ada and spent £47.78 which should seem me through most of the next 2 to 3 weeks. I still have lots of freezer food and cupboard food to eat. 

Fingers crossed I can keep on track for the whole month lol. 

Herbyme

@JingsMyBucket wow that’s a lot! If I got one that big, I’d have to menu plan after it arrived or I wouldn’t use it all. 

@thriftwizard ty for the breakdown of your week’s planning, that gives me lots of really helpful ideas. 

Somehow managed to order 2 bags of 3 unwaxed lemons in my JS delivery instead of one, and I only needed one lemon for the recipe. 🙈 I bought the bag(s) because the recipe said unwaxed and they only had unwaxed in a bag of 3. Could I just have scrubbed a waxed one or would it still be waxy? Now need to find a recipe for 5 lemons that I can make in a self catering flat ie don’t want to have to buy lots of ingredients I’ve got at home
ETA: will take them home and make lemon curd mmm mmm

MandM90

£93.17 for my first weeks shop plus £7.99 for the monthly delivery pass, makes £101.16 so for the next 4 weekly shops I have £74.71 to spend each week. That's quite tight for me these days but the cupboards and freezer are full so it should be doable with some thought and planning.

diminua

Another £4.70 spent. Crusty bread and grapefruit, which I didn't order as part of the earlier delivery as I like to pick those things out myself, and aqueous cream, because my skin is throwing it's annual strop. I will probably need another pint of milk in the week, but nothing else until Friday. I'm making fish pie with carrots and corn on the cob for tonight's dinner and will have the other half for either lunch or dinner tomorrow.