May 2022 Grocery Challenge

EssexHebridean

Noted milk had gone to £1.29 per 4 pints in T's on saturday. 

wishus

NSD today, so now on 7/16.

Let's plan meals for the week:

Mon:

B - OH - sausage sandwich, me pancakes with banana.
L- mac and cheese wedge and salad
D - shepherds pie, roast parsnips, green beans, cabbage

Tue
B - OH overnight oats with berries, me pancakes and banana
L - half a mac and cheese wedge each, carrot pakora, salad
D - butternut squash and bacon risotto

Wed
B - Overnight oats
L - carrot and houmous sandwiches, pear
D - sausage pasta
(OH snacks: soup/toast/nuts)

Thur
B- overnight oats
L - carrot and houmous sandwiches, pear
D - aubergine and lentil curry and rice
(OH snacks: soup/toast/nuts)

Fri

B - overnight oats
L - sardines on toast
D - bang bang chicken and rice (shop required)

Sat
B - boiled eggs, toast, marmite
L - veggie cous cous
D - chicken thai red curry

Sun
B - bacon sandwich
L - mushroom pancakes
D - roast pork, tatties, veg

ladyholly

Milk was £1.30 in sains**** this morning except semi skimmed which was still £1.25. 

Wraithlady

JingsMyBucket said:

Naturelover22 said:

Will be making up breakfast and lunch for next 2 days at work tonight. Friends are visiting next weekend and I think I'll bake something, needs to be lactose free so will do some research and trial baking this weekend.

@na@Naturelover22 try a cake using almond flour. Usually olive oil cakes are good for this and you can add various fruits to them as well.  

Jings, that's gluten allergy not lactose - for some reason, it's always assumed that if you have one, you will have the other (no idea why).

I assume your friends have been, Naturelover, but I find substituting own-brand 'baking' margarine  is fine - basically, make sure there are no milk-derived ingredients in it, and use your normal (milk-free) recipe. Stork in tubs has whey /milk ingredients, whereas the stuff in foil doesn't.

(Go figure)

K9sandFelines

£11.01 just spent in S@insburys. Got mostly essentials, Nectar price items or reductions or store offers. So I'm happy with that spend

mumtoomany

Called in for fruit while driving through town on Saturday. Got 5 x 500gms grapes, 30 huge eating apples, 2 cucumbers, 1 kg tomatoes, 10 bananas and, because he came in with me, sweets for OH, all for £7.39. Also called into Farmfoods for milk and a few bits, then DD3 brought milk in too. Won't need milk for a few days. Total for all these, £18.22. Now running at £1013.62/£2640. Over the £1000 mark! Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx

otb666

@EssexHebridean I also enjoy the Oddbox for the variety and feel good factor 
415.15/600 pending 122 iceland shop will update tomorrow as there has been a lot out of stock recently.  That leaves 8 days with approx 60 left.  Last month we had 160 left guess prices are beginning to show increase now.  Hope we dont go over in June. Husband might have to eat less meat otherwise.

Suffolk_lass

elsiepac said:

Medium Very Veggie Veg Box 50% off - £17.70 (so £8.80)
All Med Veg Box 50% off - £15.95 (so £8)

Like I said, I may very well cancel one or both boxes after this delivery, I mainly did it for the discount and to try something different.  It was a saving of £15ish in total for the 2 boxes.

The All Med box has:
69p Aubergine
£1.75 (Vittorio TTD) Cherry Vine Tomatoes
£1.50 (Org) Chestnut Mushrooms
£1 (org)Garlic
£1.80 (org, not round) Round Courgettes
£1 Shallots
48p Yellow Pepper
________________
£8.22 you paid £8

The Medium Veg box has:

69p Aubergine

45p (kilo, or 35p loose) Carrots

£1.75 Cherry Tomatoes

95p (or £2 org) Leeks

not in Sains (org spinach £1.55) Pak Choi

£1.20 (spinach, w/cress & rocket) Peppery Mix Salad

£1.75 (Jersey Royal 500g) Potatoes

48p Red Pepper

40p Spring Onions
__________
£9.22 you paid £8.80

I think with the 50% off that's a pretty decent deal for all the above for about £16 considering it's all organic.  Hmm.  Writing it all out I'm now doubting I will move forward with it in future as it will be really pricey.  OK, I will wait for the boxes tomorrow and then see what the quantities/quality are like!

@elsiepac I hope it is helpful for your decision-making, I have added in (above) the Sainsbugs prices where I can (some are not organic, like S/onions. aubergines). You have on the face of it saved 64p but if this was 50% off I would seriously not go for it, going forward. Your call!

If you are trying chickpea (garbanzo) flour, is it the coarse flour made from white chickpeas or are they selling you cheaper besan or gram flour? Doves Farm sell organic chickpea flour for £2.30 for 260g in Sainsbugs. I buy the 2kilo for £2 KTC stuff myself (also Sainsbugs)

SausageDogSandwich

Sunday had another spend of £5.25 and yesterday didn’t manage a NSD again as ended up in her0n foods spending £6.69, all things that were needed other than 2x 1.75l of Vanilla Coke for £2 but it was a great bargain! Today is definitely going to be a NSD as even if I wanted to spend (which I don’t) I can’t find my bank card  My total is now £89.34/£150 

Hoping to wait until Thursday to do my “main” shop, using morrizons through amaz0n, mse has a code for £20 off £60 spend, I had all the shopping in my basket ready and tested the code, then the next day half the items had gone out of stock, so I’m not sure how that will go yet, may just wait and go to ald1 instead. 

Doom_and_Gloom

This is the large fruit and vegetable box from O~box with added asparagus and necterines which came to £25.87 including delivery (sorry if picture is large. No idea how to make it smaller) . While it can be argued that buying this from the supermarket could be cheaper (it most likely is) I find that the produce in these boxes last far longer on average than the supermarket produce does which makes it, in my opinion, value for money. It also gets delivered to my door.

When it comes to getting A&C produce I have to be honest and say I prefer to buy organic where possible but we can't always afford it.
It does taste better, even my OH can't disagree with that. He prefers their gurnsey whole milk and their large eggs so they are bought most weeks (the eggs also don't offend my nose as much when cooked, proved by my OH when I wasn't aware of him testing such lol). 
I do buy the 3kg juicing oranges every 2-3 weeks though. Got 23 good sized oranges in my latest lot for £5.50 (not sure if over 3kg but I wouldn't be surprised) . Mr S sells oranges at 30p each which for the same amount would come to £6.90. Saving me £1.40 and with the added knowledge that they aren't waxed like they can be in supermarkets.
Again I find their produce lasts longer on average vs the supermarket so it can save me money and waste buying the seemingly more expensive produce in the long run. It is a game of balance.