February 2022 Grocery Challenge

dinglefoot

Hi! Could you put me down for £500 for February please? 

LegitTrying35

£500 please 

PipneyJane

Hi @elsiepac.  Thank you for the new thread.  As mentioned on the January GC thread, we should have a sizeable amount to roll forward to February, so I won’t state a budget yet, but do count me “in”.  My month will run from 1st to 28th February.

- Pip

QueenJess

First spend for the month - absolutely massive stock up of non branded items. Cupboards are now bulging at the seams! Sadly looks like I will need to do a branded order stock up and more things for DD who is eating anything not nailed down..

Total spend £108.85 / £400

LegitTrying35

£66.20 spent today. Should last me awhile as most meals are to make double. Hopefully only need another £10 this week 🤞

MissRikkiC

First spend of February on Thursday was £96.79 and mostly all fresh food was cooked Thursday night in batch proportions. Chicken curry, pasta bake, cottage pie, chili, soup and jacket potatoes to see us through for a week or so whilst the kitchen is upside down.

The oven is already back working, however we’ve not used it. Will continue with the fridge, coffee machine and microwave in the lounge for now! 🤪 

Seemed a big shop but I bought extra milk yogurt and cheese rather than have to keep going to the shops, purchased packets of micro rice, breakfast biscuits, beans, chopped tomatoes, bread, tuna and bread, wraps and bagels. Basically anything which doesn’t require cooking, or can be made/warmed in a microwave or toaster! 

PipneyJane

@MissRikkiC - You have my sympathies.  We lived without a kitchen for nearly 3 months, while ours was being rebuilt during a particularly cold and damp winter.  (We swapped from a flat roof to a pitched roof, stripped everything back to brick, replastered and it took two months for the plaster to dry.). We had a combi-microwave-convection oven and a slow cooker but, if I was to do it again, I’d beg, buy or borrow an electric frying pan and use that for cooking most meals.

May I suggest using bulgar wheat instead of microwave rice?  Use 1/4 cup per person for a generous portion.  In a microwaveable bowl, put 2 parts boiling water to 1 part bulgar wheat, add a pinch of salt, cover with a lid or cling film and zap on high for 1-2 minutes to bring it up to a boil.  Carefully remove the bowl, keep it covered and leave in a safe spot for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and the bulgar wheat is cooked.   At £1.15 for 500g in MrT’s, it’s cheaper than the sachets of microwaveable rice and higher in both protein and fibre.  3 packets (1.5kg) last us over a month.  It’ll also occupy less microwave time, which means you can use that to cook other things in the meantime.

HTH

- Pip

joedenise

Great info @PipneyJane.  I've cooked bulgar wheat before but not in the microwave, that's far easier and on the hob, almost as easy as doing couscous.  Going to add some bulgar wheat into February menu plan somewhere!

Cocobeans

First few shops completed and £127.28 spent.  Hopefully all the cleaning products, dog food, snacks etc bought for the month and the fridge and freezer are full so hopefully only small top up shops needed for the rest of the month. We get milk delivered by the milkman but this comes out of our bills account so won't include in this challenge. Hopefully nothing will be spent for a few days now! 

Spent £127.28 / £300

CurrentMood

Hello, can I join in please? My month will run from 31-Jan - 28-Feb

I'm setting myself a budget of 290 for all food/drink/toiletries/household items and will hopefully whittle it down in future months. Food spending is the one area of budgeting that I haven't been able to conquer yet.

£0/£290