April 2022 Grocery Challenge

Need2bthrifty

Morning Folks - its a winter wonderland here, hasnt stopped snowing since I got up at 7.00am - I'm not going anywhere so thought I'll update my budgets and meal plans instead.

I'm sticking to my budget of £80.00 for a single, early retired, person household but I'm going to try moving to a month by month budget rather than a pay day month (20th-19th) I might end up going over with this being a 6 week period to the end of April but I'll give it a go.

Week ending 25th March = £29.24 at @sda and £6.06 at the fish shop, total £35.30.

Week ending 01 April = £8.32 at Sainsbobs

Total so far = £43.62/£80.00 

Menu for next few days

Tues - Slow cooker pork steak in pizzaiola sauce

Wed - Glamorgan sausages

Thurs - Haddock with pesto crust

Fri - Chicken curry

Sat - h/m Pizza

joedenise

goldfinches said:

I managed a NSD yesterday by dint of making a loaf of bread instead of going to the shops to buy some so I'm quite pleased about that. I also made myself a nice side dish which used up some leeks, a lentil pouch, 2 lemons, some sour cream and some rather elderly dijon mustard and the fridge is starting to look quite bare.

Has anyone bought any of the Aldee cast iron casseroles, I've been dithering over whether to get one for ages now. My main worry is the oven temperature guide they give which says a maximum of 250 Centigrade which wouldn't be high enough for quite a lot of the recipes I've made recently but I find having the white/cream background really helpful when cooking so I'm very tempted. Comments from any who've tried them already would be very welcome to help me stop faffing around, thankyou.

What on earth are you cooking that needs more than 250 Centigrade?  That's the max my oven goes to!  The only thing I can think of that benefits from a higher temperature but can be done at 250 is pizza.

I'd certainly buy the casserole dish.  I use mine loads.  DH even has one that's too big for the oven but goes on the BBQ which is big enough to cook about 12-14 portions of casserole.

Greying_Pilgrim

Coming on to report a £7.98 spend. Feeling very twitchy that I won't be able to get to the end of the month with my budget intact.  Prices just seem to be inflating beyond reason.  I actually noticed it more with 'non-food' items today - I've got to try to cover that type of spend with pennies and tuppences 'down the back of the sofa' style banking for this month, hence I'm trying to only buy what I know I'm running out of.  But, gosh, it's hard.

Still, 'onwards & upwards'  - I can do this....... I think..... 🤣 [very much sending self up here!!]

Soup for tea tonight and if I get my act together, I could make the (veggie) bobotie mix for tomorrow - it'll taste nicer for having been made a day ahead.

Greying X

GreenCat80

@Greying_Pilgrim I just had to Google bobotie, it sounds nice

I'm aiming for a NSD, tonight we're having vegan sausages that I found while defrosting the freezer, mash made with some potatoes that really need eating up, and tinned spaghetti from the store cupboard. I think I'm going to make a quiche tomorrow so I'll need to get some salad bits to go with it (it doesn't really feel like salad weather anymore though does it? 🥶)

bargainbetty

Quick update on the Morries Chicken pasta salad in the TGTG box. It was possibly the blandest thing I have ever eaten. Mayo with textured lumps. 

I've batch-cooked rice and frozen in portions (so much easier to do stir-fries) and have a full inventory of the freezer pinned up for reference. 2x NSD here - I am working through stocks and stores and at some point I will feel like I've at least made a dent in the cupboard rather than my wallet. 

Greying_Pilgrim

GreenCat80 said:

@Greying_Pilgrim I just had to Google bobotie, it sounds nice

Hey hun - I like the spicings for Bobotie, very fragrant, although my veggie version (I use green/brown lentils), is far from authentic!  But as soon as I wrote about Bobotie, it struck me that I really ought to re-visit my menu plan this week, as it is no good me moaning about rising prices etc, if I'm not actually listening to what my over-riding principle has to be for these 'ultra-tight' budget months.  Namely, 'eat all the things'. 

I have turnip a-plenty, and I'm studiously ignoring it, everytime I look into the fridge.  So I did a bit of research and have found a recipe that looks like it may be something that we would like to eat, plus it uses turnip (I've the 'swedish' turnip, ie the orange one), and it also uses Kashmiri Garam Masala - which, co-incidently, i made up a batch of the other day.  So, dear reader, the PC is in action as I type, cooking a batch of Turnip and Red Kidney Bean curry Kashmiri style 😊I shall report back tomorrow as to what it tastes like, as I've never made it before.  I didn't have any mustard oil, so just heated up some mustard seeds in oil until they popped and flavoured the oil.  Also, I didn't have any fennel powder, so just ground up some fennel seeds (wonderful aroma).  

All the items for the (veggie) Bobotie are storecupboard, so will keep for another day.

Greying X

_Moving_On_Up_

Afternoon all!

Quick update from me before I make a cuppa and read the 8 pages I've missed!

Spent £80.34 already...  eeek! Had a takeaway for the first time in 2 months but at nearly £20 I really regretted it, it was OK but nothing special and a reminder that often they just aren't worth it.

Ended up with quite a bit of food leftover and unrequested from my olio collections at the weekend so had 2 packs of roast chicken for sandwiches, a glut of bread buns, a pizza, pack of frankfurters, some scones, a pack of raspberries, a couple of desert pots, a pack of veggie kievs and from KFC about 30 bits of chicken. Most has gone into the freezer, some I shared among family (there was even more food left, don't know why there wasn't many requesters this week and it was an excellent collection so thought it would be popular) and it's always a massive help to me.

Haven't really meal planned as such for the week and need to as we're resorting to eating easy convenience food which I don't mind now and again but it's creeping in too much (though it's all stuff in the freezer from olio collections so at least I'm not forking out money for it I suppose).

Right, going to start catching up with how everyone's getting on now

dizzydonkey2

goldfinches said:

I managed a NSD yesterday by dint of making a loaf of bread instead of going to the shops to buy some so I'm quite pleased about that. I also made myself a nice side dish which used up some leeks, a lentil pouch, 2 lemons, some sour cream and some rather elderly dijon mustard and the fridge is starting to look quite bare.

Has anyone bought any of the Aldee cast iron casseroles, I've been dithering over whether to get one for ages now. My main worry is the oven temperature guide they give which says a maximum of 250 Centigrade which wouldn't be high enough for quite a lot of the recipes I've made recently but I find having the white/cream background really helpful when cooking so I'm very tempted. Comments from any who've tried them already would be very welcome to help me stop faffing around, thankyou.

Hi Goldfinches,

I have quite a few of these and they are perfectly okay in our oven which goes up to 220 Centigrade, 250 is quite high.

Hope this helps

goldfinches

@joedenise - I bought Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad's Shelf Love cookbook last week and am finding that the oven temp given for quite a lot of the recipes is 240°C fan or 250 - 260°C in a conventional oven and the recipe for pita bread just says to get your oven as hot as you can. I am planning to replace my oven fairly soon but don't want to buy a piece of kit that will struggle with being used at 260°C especially as I'm buying it new rather than from a charity shop. 
Anyway, after all that, thanks for the feedback, I've gone ahead and ordered it; so now I'm off to decide which Nordicware Bundt tin to plunge for, decisions, decisions, I may be some time.   

@Greying_Pilgrim - that recipe looks very tasty. So easy to keep ignoring things isn't it, the siren call of the supermarket being what it is. Keep up the good fight. 

QueenJess

DH decided he wanted only wanted to eat porridge for a snack at the weekend and so went out to buy more milk for £2.17.  I also had to pop out for milk yesterday (milkman never came) and cheese, but didn't take a receipt and can't remember the amount, so will update once it appears on my credit card bill.

The veg/fruit/egg box delivery this week will be £21.25.

Total spend £24.37/£300.