October 2021 Grocery Challenge

Hettyhound

@LadyWithAPlan I decided a while ago that bad tea and coffee just wasn’t worth it so I now buy via independent online retailers to support small businesses.  My coffee comes from Rave and I buy loose leaf tea from buywholefoodsonline when I stock up on hard to locate dry goods.  I’ve also bought tea from monteas as well which is also good.  Prices are very fair and I would rather direct my money that way than to massive corporations ☕️

Smoosh

An accidental spend of £4.29 today between Asda and Aldi all on YS items. A pack of English muffins, 2 loaves of bread, a hog roast joint, 3x chicken and mushroom gnocchi ready meals, 1x prawn ramen ready meal, 2 fresh doughnuts, pack of flatbreads, crumpets and brioche hot dog rolls.

Did I need 2 loaves of bread? Absolutely not. Am I a sucker for YS items? Definitely!

Pretty happy with what I got but definitely know that YS are my weakness!

£164.03/£200.

MandM90

Can someone remind me, does NSD mean no spend completely or just groceries on this thread?

Today was, I think, my first NSD of the week as Monday I booked a holiday and Tuesday I booked travel for DD to go to GB to visit her granny. But I only shop once a week for food!

joedenise

MandM90 said:

Can someone remind me, does NSD mean no spend completely or just groceries on this thread?

Today was, I think, my first NSD of the week as Monday I booked a holiday and Tuesday I booked travel for DD to go to GB to visit her granny. But I only shop once a week for food!

In the posts at the beginning of the thread it doesn't actually specify but I wouldn't count things like DDs & SOs but anything else would count so I would say that today is your 1st NSD this week.  Others may have different views of course!

nannygladys

New week started for me but no money spent, but will be going to the community pantry tomorrow, so that will change.
Nannyg

joedenise

Went to Lid* and Asda yesterday and spent just over £20 so now have £190.60 left of this month's £250.  Quite pleased with that half way through the month.  Trying to use up stuff from the freezer and also cooking double and freezing half which I've always done but trying to do more than I have been.

LadyWithAPlan

@Hettyhound that makes a lot of sense and great you support local businesses, I will check out RAVE. I normally see what good ground coffee or beans is on offer and I do treat myself occasionally to Monmouth Coffee beans when I go past the store. Maybe Monteas is the tea version of that??
Creme E Gusta by  Lavazza is amazing  and illy of course. That buywholefoodsonline  looks great, I will try an order.

@Finstickle glad to see MSErs who are fellow coffee connoisseurs. Have you tried an aeropress for work?

@nannygladys I so get that, I have been known to travel with those coffee bags or indeed my Aeropress and already ground coffee as it is light enough to travel with. I cant do instant at all any more. I like stuffing cabbage leaves with rice and meat mixtures then simmered in tomato juice - see traditional Polish Golabki  recipes eg https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/234975/golabki-stuffed-cabbage-rolls/

@joedenise for me personally a NSD is on everything not just groceries. However I don't include where I have spent to travel to work, as that for me is not spending but part of the cost of working - so I had to get 2 tubes to/from work yesterday but I still counted it as a NSD .  I tried freezing coconut milk as per your idea into muffin trays then bagging up and it worked perfectly so thanks for that!

Thanks to all on here I made my sweet potato coconut soup (from stock from a reduced lidl chicken crown) and as soon as it cooled I batch froze three portions. This is a first for me as I normally eat what I cook over 2 days and the rest I get bored with or it goes off. So hopefully I will be bringing down my grocery spend even more. I also need to start recipe cooking YS meat or fish  as soon as it comes in the house and then freezing it as portions of cooked up meals etc  rather than just bunging  the meat straight in which means I cant then refreeze extra portions later. It is quite fun seeing my labelled 'home cooked ready meals' in the freezer.

Oct GC 55.06/£160  and 0.65p /£10 bulk items
I accidentally counted  some household goods (I have a separate pot for that, toiletries and restaurants etc)


NSD 6/13 up to Oct 13th and planned another today.
I did some extra work last night all to get my savings up.

MissRikkiC

LadyWithAPlan said:

@Hettyhound that makes a lot of sense and great you support local businesses, I will check out RAVE. I normally see what good ground coffee or beans is on offer and I do treat myself occasionally to Monmouth Coffee beans when I go past the store. Maybe Monteas is the tea version of that??
Creme E Gusta by  Lavazza is amazing  and illy of course. That buywholefoodsonline  looks great, I will try an order.

@Finstickle glad to see MSErs who are fellow coffee connoisseurs. Have you tried an aeropress for work?

@nannygladys I so get that, I have been known to travel with those coffee bags or indeed my Aeropress and already ground coffee as it is light enough to travel with. I cant do instant at all any more. I like stuffing cabbage leaves with rice and meat mixtures then simmered in tomato juice - see traditional Polish Golabki  recipes eg https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/234975/golabki-stuffed-cabbage-rolls/

@joedenise for me personally a NSD is on everything not just groceries. However I don't include where I have spent to travel to work, as that for me is not spending but part of the cost of working - so I had to get 2 tubes to/from work yesterday but I still counted it as a NSD .  I tried freezing coconut milk as per your idea into muffin trays then bagging up and it worked perfectly so thanks for that!

Thanks to all on here I made my sweet potato coconut soup (from stock from a reduced lidl chicken crown) and as soon as it cooled I batch froze three portions. This is a first for me as I normally eat what I cook over 2 days and the rest I get bored with or it goes off. So hopefully I will be bringing down my grocery spend even more. I also need to start recipe cooking YS meat or fish  as soon as it comes in the house and then freezing it as portions of cooked up meals etc  rather than just bunging  the meat straight in which means I cant then refreeze extra portions later. It is quite fun seeing my labelled 'home cooked ready meals' in the freezer.

Oct GC 55.06/£160  and 0.65p /£10 bulk items
I accidentally counted  some household goods (I have a separate pot for that, toiletries and restaurants etc)


NSD 6/13 up to Oct 13th and planned another today.
I did some extra work last night all to get my savings up.

I use my Aeropress for work and grind the beans before I head out of the house for work! I cannot drink instant, but I know I am a bit of a coffee snob. 

Also, I would freeze meat and then defrost, cook for a meal and refreeze- I have always done this as otherwise I wouldn’t ever buy anything!

joedenise

MissRikkiC said:

LadyWithAPlan said:

@Hettyhound that makes a lot of sense and great you support local businesses, I will check out RAVE. I normally see what good ground coffee or beans is on offer and I do treat myself occasionally to Monmouth Coffee beans when I go past the store. Maybe Monteas is the tea version of that??
Creme E Gusta by  Lavazza is amazing  and illy of course. That buywholefoodsonline  looks great, I will try an order.

@Finstickle glad to see MSErs who are fellow coffee connoisseurs. Have you tried an aeropress for work?

@nannygladys I so get that, I have been known to travel with those coffee bags or indeed my Aeropress and already ground coffee as it is light enough to travel with. I cant do instant at all any more. I like stuffing cabbage leaves with rice and meat mixtures then simmered in tomato juice - see traditional Polish Golabki  recipes eg https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/234975/golabki-stuffed-cabbage-rolls/

@joedenise for me personally a NSD is on everything not just groceries. However I don't include where I have spent to travel to work, as that for me is not spending but part of the cost of working - so I had to get 2 tubes to/from work yesterday but I still counted it as a NSD .  I tried freezing coconut milk as per your idea into muffin trays then bagging up and it worked perfectly so thanks for that!

Thanks to all on here I made my sweet potato coconut soup (from stock from a reduced lidl chicken crown) and as soon as it cooled I batch froze three portions. This is a first for me as I normally eat what I cook over 2 days and the rest I get bored with or it goes off. So hopefully I will be bringing down my grocery spend even more. I also need to start recipe cooking YS meat or fish  as soon as it comes in the house and then freezing it as portions of cooked up meals etc  rather than just bunging  the meat straight in which means I cant then refreeze extra portions later. It is quite fun seeing my labelled 'home cooked ready meals' in the freezer.

Oct GC 55.06/£160  and 0.65p /£10 bulk items
I accidentally counted  some household goods (I have a separate pot for that, toiletries and restaurants etc)


NSD 6/13 up to Oct 13th and planned another today.
I did some extra work last night all to get my savings up.

I use my Aeropress for work and grind the beans before I head out of the house for work! I cannot drink instant, but I know I am a bit of a coffee snob. 

Also, I would freeze meat and then defrost, cook for a meal and refreeze- I have always done this as otherwise I wouldn’t ever buy anything!

I agree.  There isn't a problem with freezing raw meat and then defrosting and freezing a meal cooked with it.  The only NoNo is to freeze, defrost and then refreeze RAW meat.

MandM90

My husband is also a coffee snob. He buys freshly roasted beans from a local 'roasterie' and then grinds them before each cup - either aeropress, cafetiere or espresso machine dependent on...something (I struggle to muster enthusiasm to care). I will buy him Lavazza beans from Tesco when on offer but the £££ stuff comes from him pocket money.

Just ordered to the tune of 77.91 - will come on Saturday and be the 3rd out of 5 deliveries this month. I now have £151.63/£400 remaining so each shop will need to be >£75

I'm quite pleased as within this shop I managed to get some nice food, low alcohol sparkling wine and a cake as it's my birthday on Thursday. I also got all the ingredients to feed lunch to in laws on Sunday.

I also ordered what I need for my birthing bag (maternity pads, breast pads, snacks, newborn nappies, cotton wool, some drinks) which came to £14 but I'm excluding that and taking it out of my 'keeping the kids alive' budget line!