October 2021 Grocery Challenge

pelirocco

goldfinches said:

I haven't spent any GC money today but would like to pick everyone's brains please?

I treated myself to a Dishpatch delivery from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen which arrived earlier today and I've eaten some of it for dinner tonight and it was delicious.
I've come to the conclusion that a big part of the reason the food tastes so good is the quality and freshness of the ingredients they use which particularly applies to the fruit and veg. I've also, quite co-incidentally, been sent some vouchers to use at W*rose before the middle of November.
So, I'm wondering about either shopping at W*rose which does sell the freshest and best quality veg locally or getting a veg box delivery from someone like Abel and Cole or another company.

What does everyone else suggest?

My waitrose vouchers are £22 off a £120 online spend, if yours are the same thats s hell of a lot of fresh veg !
Ironically the freshest  veg are  probably frozen

ancientmum

Goldfinches  I think it depends on what amount of vouchers you get and how much you would spend.  I haven't had any from W8trose for ages but the last few were £6 off £30, which I thought was a good trade off for quality against  higher prices.
I've spent a total of £13.27 this week over several small shops, a bit more than I wanted but I did get shampoo and conditioner, and bacon from the market trader who is a local butcher.  I can freeze what I don't eat straight away.
This leaves £28.03 for the next two weeks.

jozbo

@goldfinches I got those vouchers too but the minimum spend is so high im not sure I’ll use them. Perhaps useful for a stock up of Christmas booze/mince pies etc though?

We get veg from a variety of supermarkets and a local organic community box scheme. We do notice the difference in quality from the organic produce - especially things like apples, squashes, carrots. We tend fo supplement the box with basics like onions and whatever is on offer in the supermarkets. It’s quite pricey (about £25 for a large veg and medium fruit box) but we think it’s worth it.

I’ve lost my resolve to avoid another delivery as not feeling very well so have placed another Mr Ts grocery order for this week. As I do most of the cooking I can’t really face stress of cobbling together scraps from
freezer while I’m feeling unwell. Lost taste and smell now though so might as well eat plain food !

goldfinches

@jozbo - think you're wise to get another delivery while you feel so poorly. I'm sure it's right to make daily life as easy and stress free as possible when you are already unwell so that you avoid exacerbating your illness and then are able to make a good recovery. 

Thanks to all who raised points for me to ponder in response to my query. The vouchers I've been sent are the £6 off a £30 spend and I was thinking that as my current budget for a week is £28 that it would be a bit fiddly to use them. 
However, I think I will do a stock up on various ingredients and dry stuff and booze for Christmas and beyond at least once and maybe try a local veg box scheme too and see what I think then.

diganddog

Delivery arrived today so some bits to add to the shop. Total cost today; £60.38

This is for:
Salted caramel latte coffee (6 pack, however OH is saying not to buy these again as we have a lot of coffee pods in the drawer). Apple Juice, 4x baking potatoes, 2x 4 pints of semi skimmed milk, broccoli, ham, crumpets, 2x double cream, asparagus, lettuce, cheddar, 6x eggs, tortilla wraps, pork shoulder joint, tampons, chorizo, sweet potatoes, bacon, meatless sausages, crisps, 2x weetabix melts, 3x milk chocolate packs and brioche buns.

Also a bit of a pantry restock: tea bags, 2x tomato purée, chilli powder, cinnamon, cumin and pano breadcrumbs.

also, dog food but I have a separate budget for that!

on the menu this week:
mash-up (see previous post for what this is)
chicken and broccoli pasta in lemon cream sauce
pulled pork sandwiches with sweet potato fries
pulled pork chilli
pasta bake 

grocery shop now totals: £228.30 / £400

I bought some shampoo and conditioner from a local eco shop, some Beechams and a deodorant which I’ve also added on but these were all separate spends.

LadyWithAPlan

@joedenise I am currently drinking the Lavazza crema e gusto, its my go to when others are not reduced. I long ago realised I am happy to spend more on decent coffee - I don't know why I even  tried lidl earl grey - way too much of a brand drop. now I feel obliged to drink it before I replace...
I am happy to brand drop soya, almond, oat milk etc just not the actual beverage...

@goldfinches I had a first offer of online waitrose shop but £60 spend so will have to wait to xmas. 

Oct  Groceries Challenge  15th  £95.56 of £160 + 65p of £10 bulk

Some of this weekend spend was bulk/stores buying - I just started doing this month an extra  £10 pm bulk food store ... but I have not as yet decided how to decide which goes into bulk and which groceries for counting - any ideas? I was trying this 'other purse' but it seems overly complicated. However bulk stores make sense. Maybe Nov I will have a £20 bulk and a £140 main ...

Lidl had some YS meat - gone into the freezer ahead of meal prep and I bought various tinned beans, passata, non dairy milks, coconut milk, rice, nuts, mayo and a load of veg plus dips (aiol, houmous, guac, salsa).

Oh and some sweets inc some halloween gift ones I have already eaten. I can keep alcohol in the house w/o drinking it but I cant keep sweets, chocolate, biscuits or chocolate. I am deliberately eaten more carb rich food to see if that helps. I have a £20 pm treats/spare cash fund and that is all going on junk food... hmm at least the first step in making a change is to notice the behaviour.

No doubt I should try making all those dips if I can do cheaper than lidl - but they are pretty cheap at lidl compared to the main supermarkets at under £1 a pot   - any recipes??

Now I have learned I can refreeze meat (once it has been then cooked and cooled) I  did defrost some YS Waitrose organic tenderloin, marinated and made char sui pork out of it from the ingredients in my cupboards (though had run out of oyster sauce) and now have 2 extra frozen meals of brown rice, char sui pork and the special sauce so slowly my freezer is becoming my own ready meals section ! I have also sorted out my tupperware and bought some new 1 meal size ones (@2.49/10 pieces)

Everyone was right on the grocery challenge - you think you are doing well but then you start seeing new ways of saving time and money - This choosing to deliberately make extra and batch it up into freezable portions immediately is really working for me rather than eating extra then throwing some away as I get bored..
Current 'my own ready meals ' list in my small freezer includes sweet potato coconut soup, apple, red cabbage and apple, char sui and rice plus coconut milk portions plus normal meat/veg.

I cant believe I normally have a £200 pm budget just for food (I have sep restaurant/entertainment   and also a household goods fund).  Sept  as my 1st full month on this Challenge I took it to £170 and smashed it and this month's lower £160 is looking good as well as I have loads in and we nearing 2/3rds of the month.

SPENDING
NSD 8/13  (spent both Sat and Sunday but NSD T/F)

joedenise

@LadyWithAPlan - with the bulk fund I include anything which buy in quantity - things like buying a dozen tins of baked beans or tomatoes, tray of UHT milk so basically anything which is going to be spread over a month or more.

Glad you are embracing the batch cooking and freezing now and getting your own ready meals into the freezer.  The pork char Sui sounds good and great that you've now got some extra ready meals into the freezer.

I make my own dips - things like hummus (I use a recipe given to me by a vegan - I'll post the recipe if anyone would like it).  I also make flavoured yoghurt dips particularly raita type dip with grated or finely chopped cucumber (without the seeds) and mint and also flavoured quark - quark is a good base to make a thick spread type consistency.  My favourite is to crumble some blue cheese into it and stir through and leave in the fridge overnight for it to take on the taste.

I'm another who got money off vouchers from Waitrose - I got 6 vouchers for £4 off £20 spend so a good saving but unfortunately they need using by mid November and my nearest shop is nearly 20 miles away!  It's a shop we tend to use only when we are away in our motorhome as quite often there are stores in those areas.  Might get to use one of the vouchers as unlikely to get near a store more than that in the time available!

Finstickle

A few spends to declare here.

My first Asda delivery came on Thursday with only 1 substitution (smaller bottles of milk), but I think we should last anyway as have nearly 4 pints left until next delivery.  This was my first delivery from Asda as not really used before but generally happy.  i could get almost everything I wanted including items I normally pay extra for in Tesco as I can't get in Lidl.  There's some getting used to the delivery aspect to do - I would always pick up spinach and potatoes regardless of whether they are on the list but forgot these    That is a teething issue though no doubt, i also managed to stock up on some lentils and various other bits and bobs. - £93.90 spent.

Fancied a pizza for tea on Friday so ended up in Sainsburys and got one of their fresh ones, as well as spinach, cake and some other little bits and bobs - £17.23 spent

Still didn't have potatoes for last night's dinner so walked the dog to the Spar and picked up a small bag - £0.75 spent

Current total £380/£480

Really pleased with that.  I was working on £100 pw and as I won't need anything until next delivery that's exactly what I have left.  Half term next week could have an impact if either of the StepKids are here (teenagers who eat like they've never eaten before) however i do have a fair bit in and my plan is to keep the delivery as close to £50 as possible to leave some room for a top up earliesh next week.

And my mum got a turkey off the butcher the other day as her contribution to Christmas (which we are hosting) so that's one less thing
Feeling good about where I am right now.

LadyWithAPlan

@joedenise I would love your hummus recipe.  I will have a go at making raita inspired by you, garam masala is on my next shopping list. I feel some early Waitrose alcohol purchases coming on.
I obviously need to buy more with my bulk buy, the odd 2 tins of tomatoes is clearly just normally grocery then, thanks for the clarity.

@JingsMyBucket thats an amazing reduction £315 from 500+ well done.

@nannygladys the golabki is basically stuffed cabbage leaves (with rice, veg  - and meat if you want) but baked in tomato sauce. So let me know if you like them if you try it ... its Polish farmer cooking basically  so tasty, filling and on budget.


After some early morning work I stopped to cook up a huge batch of moong dal using green mung beans, it is so tasty - I am in heaven!  I have also got at least 3 if not 4 portions to freeze, depending on my 'I want it all now' levels. Mung Dal is  very comforting and good for digestion and health so I do make this on occasion, but in this case  thanks to you all I deliberately tripled the quantities and the cooking/soaking time is the same no matter the quantity.. I did not have all the ingredients but I made do and this might be my best version yet. As you can tell I make food from many different cuisines - I did cookery lessons for a while so I think once you understand the major ingredients and spices/herbs in a cuisine it helps the authenticity levels and willingness to have a  go.

I will also have a go at making some GF wraps and stuffing the dal into those...need to google recipes as GF bread and wraps are so expensive and full of goodness knows what - so again plan is to make a fair lot and freeze some if they come out ok. 

You guys have got me on fire now with the batch and freeze cooking so thanks.

A very different far richer dal, the  Dishoom house black dal is beyond tasty for those who have not tried it in their restaurants but I have not tried making it at home,  but there is a recipe here if anyone wants to try. I will have a go myself but need the 'deggi mirch chilli powder' whatever that is and the urad dal. So many different kinds of Indian pulses and I am not clear on them all.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/sep/07/four-classic-indian-recipes-dishoom-chaat-dal-salad-jackfruit-biyani-chicken-makhani-curry

NSD DAY planned 

joedenise

HUMMUS RECIPE

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
Garlic clove
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbs olive oil
Tin chickpeas or other beans (we like butterbeans - makes a softer hummus)
Water

Blend tahini with lemon juice.  Add salt, cumin, cayenne, garlic and olive oil.  Blend again.
Add 1/2 tin of chickpeas/beans; blend again.  Add rest of beans and blend again.
Add water to required consistency.
Taste and adjust flavourings - we usually add extra cayenne & cumin and sometimes lemon juice.
Sprinkle with paprika to serve if you like.

I've tried this recipe with smooth peanut butter instead of tahini but flavour is nowhere near as nice and also makes a much softer hummus.