May 2022 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

Happy Sunday, folks. I have a few spends to declare from yesterday plus a forgotten on Friday. Friday afternoon I made an Amazon order that included two boxes of KIND bars which came £25.41. Those 24 bars should last us a month so. We usually have one when feeling peckish and want something sweet but is still healthy. I also take them with me on outings so we have a snack instead of eating a fast food or whatever. 

Yesterday before going shopping at Tesco and Aldi, I decided to stop into B & M to see what they have in terms of general products and organizing stuff. While there, I realized I’ve never actually been inside a B & M before. I think I’ve always confused it with other shops? Either which way, it looks like it’ll be a great resource going forward and I took pictures of several organizing and gardening products which I shared with Mr. Jings later. We’ll visit together hopefully next week. I left there with a box of high fiber snack bars courtesy of Mo Farah for £1. I’ll pick up dishwasher tabs and laundry detergent next time too. 

Next shopping stop was Aldi where I spent £18.19 on smoked salmon, ham trimmings, grapes, loads of toilet paper, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, discounted kiwi, smoked salmon, Brazil nuts for Mr. Jings, and a snack bag of popcorn as a treat for me. 

Lastly was Tesco and I spent £17.17 on 3 tubs of Greek yoghurt, milk, lemons, easy peelers, loose carrots, cilantro, eggs, oatcakes, loaf of nice seedy bread, YS peaches (2.00 -> .70p), YS white pudding (1.90 -> .83p), and YS steak mince (3.00 -> 1.50). The white pudding was a treat for Mr. Jings. 

£81.77 spent so far. £168.23 / £250.00 remaining. We’ll only need milk this week, possibly onions too. 

I must say I’m quite proud of myself for refraining from buying most of the good YS deals I saw yesterday. My deciding factor was lack of freezer space. The ground/minced beef will be used in an Italian meat sauce with the leftover bottled passata and basil we have in the fridge before they both go off. That will be frozen for future uses. OH pulled a couple bacon chops and a pack of sausages out of the freezer yesterday so there’s a bit more space now. I’m planning to cook and freeze a few soups today using ham stock and bones in the freezer. One in, one out.

Auntycaz

 Saw Koko coconut milk alternative in waity's yesterday on try me free offer so probably in other supermarkets too(it was in the long life milk section). I don't use it myself but thought it might be useful for someone on here.

mrs_motivated

Well the bonus of working away again this weekend is I was fed and watered well on Friday and Saturday, so didn’t need to buy much.

Popped to the supermarket for some bread, milk and a few bits….a couple of bottles of wine and a few beers slipped into the trolley and ended up spending £31.47.

Bringing me up to a total spend of £154.16/£400

Greying_Pilgrim

Minor success to report with tea tonight.  The 'down-grading' from LindaMc Quarter pounder burgers to the 'ordinary' Linda Mc burgers proved a worthy move.  LG declared them 'good' and ate up every morsel, so they can now replace the much more expensive 1/4lb'ers (unless 1/4lb'ers are requested for a very special meal/are on a super, unmissable offer.....).  I only had a few oven chips left (they were the very cheap ones from HEr0n that I foolishly bought 4 bags of, months ago, before discovering they weren't quite our cup of tea 🙁 - but ate them we did!), so split them between DH & LG, and split a small portion of pesto pasta between the two of them too.  We had HM coleslaw to accompany, using 1/4 of a very aged white cabbage that was in a MrL box eons ago 😬 1 organic carrot from the MrL box last week, and a stick of celery.  i added parsley, caraway seed and toasted sunflower seeds into the mayo.  LG had a handful of sunflower seeds to munch (coleslaw still a step too far...), as they like them.  'Pudding' was the last of the black grapes from last week's MrL box with a dollop of greek yoghurt.  

Clean plates all round 😊 I ought to be more willing to make stuff like HM coleslaw, as it delivers good 'bang for buck' and I can customise to exclude raw onion.  Sad to be having a 'bitsa' or 'finish up all the things' tea only one week into the month.... but it worked, filled tummies, and was yummy, so actually should count as a win and I should be a bit kinder to the cook/housekeeper .....😉

Greying X

DawnW

We finished up the frittata I made yesterday for dinner, Sunday or not! I had my piece with salad - radishes, spring onions and rocket from garden pots, with half a tomato and a few slices of cucumber from the fridge, and OH had fried potatoes and baked beans with his. Tomorrow will be some form of pasta bake to use up more bits and pieces from the fridge. There is a tiny pot of leftover HM tomato sauce, a single courgette and who knows what else. The tomato sauce was an idea from my 8 year old grand daughter, who asked to make it for lunch. She had seen the recipe in a book, forgot to bring the book with her, but it is so simple she just remembered the ingredients, anyway. Sweat 1 chopped clove of garlic in a little oil until fragrant, add a tin of tomatoes, a teaspoon of sugar and one of mixed herbs, 125 ml of water and seasoning. Cook until it thickens up a bit, then blitz for small people who don't like 'bits' in things, and mix with cooked pasta. This is much simpler than the usual tomato sauce that I make, dead cheap, and I had 2 clean plates from the little ones.

Blackcats

A grocery spend to declare - went to our local Co op and spent £21.55 and it didn't seem to be very much for the money but did include strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, yoghurt, cream, cheese and some beer.  

Meal plan 
Monday - sausages, mini roast new potatoes (both will be cooked in air fryer) and salad + coleslaw which is leftover from today
tuesday - spiced halloumi with roasted veg couscous 
wednesday - asparagus wrapped in ham, poached eggs and toasted sourdough 
Thursday - slow cooker Mexican Burria (a beef stew type dish - recipe from the Ocado magazine this month).  Served with rice
friday - Leftover Burria with wraps from the freezer
saturday - posh fishfinger sandwich with home made chunky chips and pea and mint crush (Saturday night is our fakeaway/gastropub at home night)
Feeling quietly confident this month 

£265.45 remaining 

ragz_2

No spends this weekend grocery wise. Did have to go to MrT Friday for snacks for DS2's weekend trip and got treats for the other DCs. Managed to bag some YS bakery stuff, which went down well. £10.50 from the grocery budget. I will need to do either MrL or MrT tomorrow as we need bananas, which inexplicably didn't make it into my online order the other day, but ridiculously expensive Finest Yorkshire puddings did. I remember putting bananas in my basket, I did not intentionally order the yorkies as I can make 4 times as many for half the cost. However, my order confirmation said I did... Very strange!

@Greying_Pilgrim regarding butter, it has been more expensive so buy unsalted butter than salted in MrL (and Aldo, I believe) for quite a while. The salted is still £1.48. I haven't seen butter under £1 for a good 5 years at least though, I'm sure, but it did jump to £1.45 from more like £1.20, quite rapidly a year or two ago.

I have had to start buying cheaper, spreadable stuff as well. The DCs prefer it as easier to spread, but most contain ingredients I'd rather avoid. I'm a huge butter fan, even more so when eating low carb.

Greying_Pilgrim

ragz_2 said:

@Greying_Pilgrim regarding butter, it has been more expensive so buy unsalted butter than salted in MrL (and Aldo, I believe) for quite a while. The salted is still £1.48. I haven't seen butter under £1 for a good 5 years at least though, I'm sure, but it did jump to £1.45 from more like £1.20, quite rapidly a year or two ago.

ragz_2 - Thanks for that.  DH is lovely in many ways, but when it comes to shopping, you more or less have to write war&peacesque, descriptive - possibly illustrated - lists to ensure the correct item is bought.  Add into that looking for the cheapest option between 2 choices and things start to get a bit wobbly.  Add in looking for a specific item, and nothing else will do and DH comes out in hives....... 🤣  The one advantage of shopping during lockdown was there only seemed to be OOS for DH to deal with.  In terms of prices and packaging, things stayed more constant, so I was able to say 'it's normally 72p, it's in a jar, with a blue lid and a yellow label and is on the third shelf in between the nut butter and the tommie ketchup'.  MrL/MrAl having limited choice helped in that instance 😊

Greying X

DawnW

My husband is like that with a shopping list too @Greying_Pilgrim

Doom_and_Gloom

Greying - I understand perfectly. The list gets written down on the freezer whiteboard and a photo taken; usually still get called but that is normally for reduced items though sometimes it is because x item is unavailable will y do. If I'm not asking for a usual item I usually screen shot a photo of the item and send it to him. I've had to do this when they change the packaging too just so he knows what to look for. He is on the autistic spectrum and shopping isn't the only thing I've had to find ways to make things work. To be honest I rather like that he is soo exact.