March 2022 Grocery Challenge

Greying_Pilgrim

_Moving_On_Up_ - I love learning about the origin of dishes.  And it's a dish that tastes better if left for a day after making, something that holds for the veggie version too, which isn't always the case.

I made deconstructed cabbage rolls for tea. 



I have included a picture to show how much my presentation differs to Leanne's original recipe😬but it works for us, and I certainly used Leanne's recipe as my initial inspiration.    As I had the oven on to cook the sausages, I made a crumble, using 2 out of the last 3 apples from the MrL box, 2 'wonky' pears from a pack from MrM, and a handful of blackberries that were gathered last autumn and put in the freezer.  The crumble was served with greek yoghurt. The big win for us,  was that LG had exactly the same components on their plate as mum & dad, and they ate up every morsel! This means that we have another dish that we will all eat, therefore simplifying shopping and cooking.  I am also secretly delighted that I have a child who eats cabbage........ 😊

Greying X

wannalot

Well, I blew up my budget today. I went out with the best of intentions, with a list of the stuff I needed for the week, but fell into my usual pattern of food shopping as if it’s a hobby, and buying a few “bargains” which I didn’t really need. 

I didn’t buy anything I won’t use, but I bought salmon, chicken and sausages, just because they were bargains. They are now in the freezer for later in the month.

To look on the bright side, I’m only a few pounds over and I won’t need to spend much more. And I am happy that I haven’t spent on takeaways or eating out this month, and I have enough food for meals for the rest of the month. I’ll be doing some batch cooking this week, which will provide meals for the freezer too.

i hope to do better next month though. I’m quite lucky that money isn’t too tight right now, but the rise in heating costs and general inflation is a bit of a worry. I’m not working on a really tight budget but I don’t have much cash to spare either. I need to be more disciplined in my spending, both on food and in a few other areas too. 

Suffolk_lass

wannalot said:

Well, I blew up my budget today. I went out with the best of intentions, with a list of the stuff I needed for the week, but fell into my usual pattern of food shopping as if it’s a hobby, and buying a few “bargains” which I didn’t really need. 

I didn’t buy anything I won’t use, but I bought salmon, chicken and sausages, just because they were bargains. They are now in the freezer for later in the month.

To look on the bright side, I’m only a few pounds over and I won’t need to spend much more. And I am happy that I haven’t spent on takeaways or eating out this month, and I have enough food for meals for the rest of the month. I’ll be doing some batch cooking this week, which will provide meals for the freezer too.

i hope to do better next month though. I’m quite lucky that money isn’t too tight right now, but the rise in heating costs and general inflation is a bit of a worry. I’m not working on a really tight budget but I don’t have much cash to spare either. I need to be more disciplined in my spending, both on food and in a few other areas too. 

I do this so I empathise @wannalot
So I avoid going shopping for as long as possible. Milk and eggs are delivered and I try to buy a month's worth of stores and staples when I go. I also try to plan meals from what I have in and if I need one thing, I ask DH to get it as he is better than me at following a list. I build a list in my SM of choice too so I can see it as I shop. This month it has been when collecting TGTG bags from Mr Morries. I just need to ration these as I have lots of baked products we don't normally buy and 4 bags of potatoes which we have given up for lent

joedenise

@Suffolk_lass - the potatoes will be fine as long as you don't keep them in the plastic bags!  Just dry them out properly and keep in a paper sack in a cool, dry place.  I use the garage floor as it's concrete!

goldfinches

Hello all and special waves and sympathy to those like me who find they simply cannot resist something that is a good buy; so easily done while in the aisle, so much regretted when studying the receipts and your online bank statement.

Over the weekend I spent £1.82 in M*rks, £3.00 in Mr T's and £9.60 in Sainsby's of which £4 went on two packets of  medjool dates which were on promotion and are now jabbing my conscience every time I look into the fridge. 
Anyhoo, that makes my new total £44.99/£124 and my average daily spend £3.46.

I have been somewhat inspired by today's Nigella recipe to buy and use some mung beans as I've never really made the effort before so I'm going to try to be very, very good while in the shop and not buy anything that isn't on my list. The recipe is here in case anyone wants a look Softly Spiced Mung Beans with Mint and Coriander Yogurt | Nigella's Recipes | Nigella Lawson

Greying_Pilgrim

goldfinches said:

I have been somewhat inspired by today's Nigella recipe to buy and use some mung beans as I've never really made the effort before so I'm going to try to be very, very good while in the shop and not buy anything that isn't on my list. The recipe is here in case anyone wants a look Softly Spiced Mung Beans with Mint and Coriander Yogurt | Nigella's Recipes | Nigella Lawson

Thanks for posting the link goldfinches - I will definitely add that recipe to my 'to try' list, as I have some mung beans in store, and always like to gather several recipes for ingredients, so that I have choices 😊👍

I too own up to being very bad at being unable to resist 'bargain' purchases, and then suffer buyer's remorse........  🙁  I do try to use things, but as I cleared my cupboards at the start of this month, and did have to throw some items out, I know it's an area that I need to tighten up on.

Greying X

Smoosh

Speaking of bargain purchases...

Popped out to get gravy yesterday as realised we didn't have enough for the roast. Ended up with lots of YS goodies for £3.93 - a rump steak (£1.16), a pack of Mr Kipling slices (34p), rice noodles (22p), 2 gu puddings (85p), 2 vegan cornish pasties (36p each), a yoghurt (12p), a bag of parsnips (11p) and a shepherds pie (71p). Unfortunately the gravy was also £3.49

Pretty happy with the YS spends, although we didn't need them, they will all be used.

Doing our main shop this evening, although we really don't need too much, so hoping it's an inexpensive one!

£102.09/£200 spent

MissRikkiC

Here to report spends at the butchers and Supermarkets although not huge spends.

£20 at the butchers for their deal on chicken breasts. 10 of them at about 2 palm widths each. This is the equivalent of the tuna last month. Let’s see how the budget fares. 

£3.09 on a TGTG bag at MrMs. Very pleased (as usual) with the contents and the last 2 bags we had lasted us more than a fortnight. 

Just shy of £10 at MrTs yesterday on various yogurt (most expensive being my toddlers at £3.75 each but it’s cheaper than the Greek stuff beginning with F, and has better nutritional content than the natural stuff from other brands which is cheaper so as good as it’ll get I think), a pepper, some cheap biscuits for tea (I couldn’t make 300g of ginger nuts for 31p so it’s fine), squash, blueberries and bananas. 

£8 on washing powder from MrLs 

£4ish on YS items at Mr Ms on Friday when I collected the TGTG bag. Seems 5pm is the right time to go! I hauled, 2 packs of meat free mince and 2 packs of meat free sausages, 2 packs of actual sausages, 4 lamb leg steaks (for 53p?!?), a huge pasta bake, bread, bagels and brioche rolls (yes I’m a lover of them too!) and some good  sandwich chicken out of the shop with a very proud smile. 

Our budget stands at £58.17 left and I was very crossly told last night by my husband; I quote “if you buy one more thing for this freezer without having emptied a entire shelf first, I’ll put the contents under your bonnet like they do with smelly cheese in top gear’ - whoops 😬 

Soontobeoap

I too am guilty of stocking up when I see a bargain but it is always stuff that I will use and I am scared in the current climate not to have a few reserves! Also it is something I have always done and it’s very hard to change the habit of a lifetime! Sounds like there are a lot of us who do exactly the same thing.

trip to Aldi today. It reopened on Thursday after its refurb and was very busy! Managed to get some wonky mushrooms as well as some cheap brand mayonnaise, gravy granules and cornflour. 15 eggs were 21p cheaper than MrT’s too. DH is going to pick up bread and milk from co-op on his way home from bowls.
spend today £14.58. I would have bought more but walked up, so it was all I could carry and I am determined not to shop again for another week. this is another strategy to save pennies.

I love reading all the posts and there is often a tip to help with the budgeting. Thank you to everyone for keeping me on the straight and narrow 😅

bargainbetty

@Suffolk_lass and @Greying_Pilgrim, Thanks for the support over the fridge freezer, I feel a bit of a fraud now....

Saturday morning, I thought I should start properly cleaning out the fridge freezer for collection/replacement on Monday. 
Mopped up the last puddle of brown fluid that it had dribbled overnight, and then opened the freezer door to empty the unsalvaged bits to the bin. All frozen solid. The freezer was frozen again and the fridge was chilled.

Bl**dy thing somehow managed to dribble all over the kitchen floor, had an unplanned 48 hour holiday and has now gone back to work. I called AO, they cancelled my order without any hassle and told me they'll be there if it goes on strike permanently. 

So, I lost some of the frozen inventory, but have at least temporarily swerved the unwanted new appliance cost!