October 2021 Grocery Challenge

MandM90

Goldfinches I LOVE AAM and their readership. I once had a temp job that really didn’t take 8 hours a day and wasted soooo many hours reading it. 

Nearly half way through the grocery week and going well here. I prepped loads of food on Sunday and that’s made it easier to stay on track. Kidney beans seem to be my ingredient of choice at the moment - chillis, veggie meatballs, homemade veggie burgers. They’re very versatile, nutritious and very cheap.

nannygladys

Goldfinches - I'm doing a fridge clear out tomorrow as well, Wednesday is the start of my week, so I always go through the fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what needs to go first. I know I have a portion of soup in there so that's tomorrow's lunch, but will put a lose menu plan together for the next few days and then shop Thursday I think.
No spends today, been busy sitting dgs.

goldfinches

MandM90 said:

Goldfinches I LOVE AAM and their readership. I once had a temp job that really didn’t take 8 hours a day and wasted soooo many hours reading it. 

Nearly half way through the grocery week and going well here. I prepped loads of food on Sunday and that’s made it easier to stay on track. Kidney beans seem to be my ingredient of choice at the moment - chillis, veggie meatballs, homemade veggie burgers. They’re very versatile, nutritious and very cheap.

@MandM90 - glad to hear someone else here reads AAM too, I've spent an awful lot of time over the years reading worst boss of the year and other posts.

If you felt like branching out from kidney beans I noticed this Nigel Slater recipe for tinned black eye and butterbean burgers this morning in the Guardian. Its the second recipe on this page Nigel Slater’s recipes for goat’s cheese and figs, and black-eyed bean burgers | Food | The Guardian. I'm not persuaded that the fresh herbs would hold their own against the garlic and the hot sauce so think I might use dried instead if I make them. 

goldfinches

nannygladys said:

Goldfinches - I'm doing a fridge clear out tomorrow as well, Wednesday is the start of my week, so I always go through the fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what needs to go first. I know I have a portion of soup in there so that's tomorrow's lunch, but will put a lose menu plan together for the next few days and then shop Thursday I think.
No spends today, been busy sitting dgs.

@nannygladys - thanks for the motivation, I'll come back tomorrow to let you know what I found lurking at the back of my vegetable drawer. I'm planning to fling whatever I find there into the slow cooker because it's my regular Wednesday walking group tomorrow afternoon and we're going to walk along the river path so I hope to get home to a lovely hot meal.

Suffolk_lass

Doom_and_Gloom said:

weenancyinAmerica said:

Thank you for your responses to my comment about the cost of phones. We can get free phones in this state if we are on welfare - but only one per household. One of the people I live with has that - and I wouldn't want him to lose it by applying for one myself. My roommates have a plan that is supposed to be very reasonable but it cost $50 each a month (£37 each). Sounds better there.

We pay for our mobile handset upfront. If I had to buy a new one I wouldn't want to pay more than £200 for it (I've had my current one for over 3 years and it still works and charges fine. I intend on using it until it gives up), but my OH usually buys a more up to date phone than me so around the £300 zone and I think his plan is £24 ish per month (his overall mobile costs is around £32 a month by my estimation.)
My monthly SIM only plan is £14.20 a month (was £14 but slight price increase) and has a year left on the 2 year plan I got - 12GB internet (go binge is on my plan so it doesn't eat into my internet usage for certain things such as Netflix), unlimited talk minutes and unlimited texts.
So my overall mobile costs around the £20 mark a month when averaged out. Not bad but could be better. As they've removed go binge from new/upgrade plans when I look into a new SIM plan next year I will likely get a lower internet plan and save money as not working now so mostly use home internet.

Contract phones (handset with SIM) usually have a upfront cost of at least £19 and depend on the phone for monthly costs but seem to start around £21 (for 4GB internet at least) on a 2 year plan!

Mobile/cellphone plans in America do seem to be rather pricey compared to ours though.

That sounds like quite a lot to me @Doom_and_Gloom - we pay £28 per month for two (sim only) phones linked on one account. We also buy our handsets up front. Our current deal is DS has 100gb and I have 10gb of data and when I am away and using mine as a hot spot, he tops me up with another 10gb from his (which streams music all the time, and whatever else young men do). DH's is £8 a month sim only, with Plusnet. I recently bought a new handset for about £100 less than it was listed the month before as I don't need the latest thing and there was stock of the previous model; I could have limped on a bit longer but my battery was going.

No grocery shopping here and likely there will be none before we go away on hold next week

joedenise

@goldfinches - if you don't want to continue getting those SimplyCook boxes don't forget to go onto your account and cancel. You have to leave it about a week before you can do it.  I did exactly what you've done and ordered the £1 trial when it was on Faceache a couple of weeks ago.  Full price I think they are very expensive for just a few spices!  Much cheaper to buy your own and then mix and match as you want - there are plenty of idea on the internet for various spices.

JingsMyBucket

Morning all. I just called in an order for our fruit, veg, and egg box to the small provider. I’ll pay for it on Friday when they deliver it so that’ll be in “next week’s budget”. Yesterday was NSD #3 so I’m glad we’re doing well. I’ll head to Tesco tonight I think to get the last few bits for cousin dinner tomorrow. I may just make the soup tonight so it’ll be an easy reheating tomorrow. 

Breakfast-lunch today will be a fried egg, bacon and cheese sandwich with that YS bread from earlier and some strawberries. That’ll last me until roast chicken dinner tonight. 

Have a good day all!

boultdj

First shop done, Mr T's and Land of ice, so freezer full, £89 between them.

enkeltliv

Out for a grocery trip today so spent £12.59  so that's £12.59/£350

diminua

Only one more spend this week so far - 55p on milk. I'm going into the office tomorrow, but will make a sandwich tonight to take for lunch, and then pick up a pastry in a little supermarket on the way in to have for breakfast. I made root veg soup for dinner tonight (golden beetroot, carrot, red onion and a bit of paprika) and have enough leftover for lunch on Friday. Dinner tomorrow will probably be pasta as there's an open jar of sauce in the fridge.