January 2022 Grocery Challenge

Smoosh

Officially declaring at £198.65 as today is payday. Very close but we made it! 

Suffolk_lass

Soontobeoap said:

I have already spent £175.88 /£160 this month with one shop to go. I am not too concerned as I have just done a freezer stock check and it is absolutely full of meat. I think I have been a bit over zealous buying bargains and now need to work through what I have. I have however learnt a lot in my first month on here. We have had 5 meals that I wouldn’t normally have made just by using less meat in pasta dishes . DH hasn’t even noticed. I am loving finding and trying new recipes. If anyone has any fantastic recipes that they could recommend using leftover ham or chicken I would love to hear them.😊

I make a cheats chicken pie - the content mix is the leftover meat mixed with a couple of handfuls of frozen peas and frozen corn and a tin of condensed soup (usually chicken but celery works too), without any water added. Mixed together and in a top and bottom pastry painted with egg or milk-wash. It works best in a metal pie dish like the white and blue enamelled ones as the metal gets hot better and stops a soggy-bottom

joedenise

I used to make chicken pies like that @Suffolk_lass - don't eat pastry now so not any more.  I used to like the chicken & white wine condensed soup which they stopped making unfortunately but used to give it a lovely flavour.  I often used to put chopped mushrooms in too.

Another couple of small shops to add and now have £88.98 left so I'm really pleased with that.  Still have money left in the bulk fund too but not too sure how much off hand but at least £30.

Suffolk_lass

Great minds @joedenise, great minds...

We do have it infrequently but homemade pastry (just shortcrust, but very short) is something DH and DS insist on from time to time. We often have chicken in soups, or padded into curries too but they do like that quick and easy pie (my Mum used to make it too!) I agree about that chicken and white wine soup - it was lovely (2p more if I recall!) but never mushrooms with me as they are a food intolerance

Doom_and_Gloom

Spent £75.63 since last post between A&C, Mr S and an O~box (came over night; a medium fruit and veg box with additional chillies).

OH dinner : Enchiladas. 
My dinner : Buddah bowl. 

£260.61/£250.
£10.61 over 😔.

Need to remind myself of the following - I do not need to buy anything, I can get by on what is in for the rest of the month.
OH may need a few items. We shall see. 

nannygladys

Again no money spent but I haven't been near any shops! Tomorrow is another matter though ....
Nannyg

QueenJess

Haven't been keeping up with posting.  I have had a fruit/veg box delivery (technically tomorrow, but all I have left for today is half a cabbage, half a swede, 1 apple and 1 banana!), baby food, toothpaste etc and milk all bought.  Brings me up to a total spend of £519.85/£575.

More than I hoped, but less than the official budget.  Definitely more that can be done next month to hopefully get me below £100 a week!

GreenCat80

I just updated my spreadsheet, and thought I'd gone £44 over budget with 5 days left 😱 Fortunately I went back through it and had inputted way to much on a basket full at Lidl yesterday, so we can eat for the rest of the month as there is £70 left 😅 My daughter is really enjoying helping with the meal plans, this has been good for us, thank you  

thriftwizard

Just added £15, spent yesterday & today, on a gammon joint, some cheese and a couple of vegggies, one of those YS. I wouldn't normally have needed to buy anything, but DS3 is back from the States tomorrow evening & gammon's his absolute favourite, plus it usually does another couple of main meals as a garnish (omelette, pasta) so the extra expenditure is worthwhile, even though that will probably take me a little over-budget. But we'll see; if I split tomorrow's supermarket raid & Friday's market spend into food bought for the weekend, i.e. in January's budget, then food for Monday-Thursday, in February, I might just have made it inside my target. Or is that special pleading?!

goldfinches

thriftwizard said:

Just added £15, spent yesterday & today, on a gammon joint, some cheese and a couple of vegggies, one of those YS. I wouldn't normally have needed to buy anything, but DS3 is back from the States tomorrow evening & gammon's his absolute favourite, plus it usually does another couple of main meals as a garnish (omelette, pasta) so the extra expenditure is worthwhile, even though that will probably take me a little over-budget. But we'll see; if I split tomorrow's supermarket raid & Friday's market spend into food bought for the weekend, i.e. in January's budget, then food for Monday-Thursday, in February, I might just have made it inside my target. Or is that special pleading?!

Just popping my head round the door to say that this article How to make pea and ham soup - recipe | Food | The Guardian in today's newspaper has a lot of comments added to it about how others make the best use of their ham joints/bones so you might find it useful.

PS I think splitting your expenditure by when items are consumed is entirely within the spirit of GC especially as it allows for economies of scale that come when buying larger quantities.