May 2022 Grocery Challenge

MissRikkiC

My best suggestion for healthy snacks for children @Soontobeoap are sugar free flapjacks. I think they tend to cater to most diets and I often get apples in TGTG bags which helps.  

They’re technically 3 ingredients but I add desiccated coconut too. Oats, stewed apples (stick blended into apple sauce) and coconut oil (or similar). Melt the coconut oil and then mix the rest in as you see fit/until they’re a nice slab that looks sturdy and bake. I might add a touch of lemon juice to the apples but never sugar. They’re very sweet for little ones but that comes from the apples rather than any refined sugar

MissRikkiC

@K9sandFelines your post about all the coupons made me think of an episode of 2 broke girls I watched recently where there ends up being a tussle between shoppers over getting exactly 45 boxes of cake mix to make the coupon valid 🤣 they start calling the coupons Qpons after the Queen of coupons 🤣

I only recommend that show to anyone who has a filthy mind and isn’t offended easily. It’s perfect 😂🤣

Bluegreen143

We don’t buy much prepacked stuff for our kids’ snacks as I agree it costs a fortune. For snacks we do things like:

- fruit
- raw crunchy veggies (carrots, peppers, cherry tomatoes etc)
- homemade hummus
- cheese cubes
- peanut butter toast/sandwiches
- oatcakes
- a bowl of cereal or porridge 
- a cup of HM soup
- a HM milkshake or smoothie
- homemade muffins, cake or flapjacks
- cheap ice lollies
- proper hot chocolate made with cocoa & milk
- cheap ice cream in a cone
- we don’t do crisps much, but sometimes give them the ready salted packs from the multipacks DH buys as he’s not keen 😂 or value brand tortilla chips only cost about 40p for a sharing bag
- littlest likes Greek yoghurt with some maple syrup, or just a cup of milk but eldest isn’t keen on either 

K9sandFelines

MissRikkiC said:

@K9sandFelines your post about all the coupons made me think of an episode of 2 broke girls I watched recently where there ends up being a tussle between shoppers over getting exactly 45 boxes of cake mix to make the coupon valid 🤣 they start calling the coupons Qpons after the Queen of coupons 🤣

I only recommend that show to anyone who has a filthy mind and isn’t offended easily. It’s perfect 😂🤣

I've never watched that show. I will have a look! Don't know how they juggle all the coupons in the USA. I had to be methodic yesterday, and it was only about eight things, or I'd have forgotten what I was doing. For once, the lady did not have to come and rescue me at the self serve. I normally scan the coupons wrong every time 😁

Ginmonster

Popping in to report a £1 spend on some apples. I didn't do a "while I'm here" shop so I'm feeling very pleased with myself. 

Provisional meal plan is

Thurs : I'm out for tea with friends so OH will sort himself & DS is already fed.
Fri : pasta with aubergine fried in lemon oil and pine nuts

Sat : Burgers from the freezer with corn on the cob and hm potato & sweet potato "oven chips". 
Sun : veg and cashew nut fried rice with sweet chilli sauce. 

We're still ploughing through the Thai red curry soup fort other meals as well as I seem to have made enough for 20!

New total is £111.30/£200.

nannygladys

Not posted much this month but signature is kept updated.
Went to the community pantry today and managed to get useful stuff to store, rice, pasta, lentils and plenty of tins and they had a few good bargains on the meat front, but I don't eat it so made good use of the tinned pulses!!! Most put away for future use. Going to the food hub tomorrow to get veggies (and hopefully fruit) for the weekend, well to last me until next Wednesday anyway.
Nannyg

otb666

i have learnt a lot from this thread Noticed budget going in wrong direction this month even after cutting down on takeaways.but should come in under currently 531/600.  I must remember to prep my food for the day in the morning so i dont snack grab.  I know this is off topic but definitely noticing I cant get my teeth sorted or my annual blood checked (under active thyroid)as dentists and doctors are stretched too thinly and may have to go private if I cant get sorted for both.  Which will mean some trimming off food budget.  Makes me fear what else we take for granted will go

Greying_Pilgrim

FrugalHedonist - that is a good suggestion.  I have never made pastry with oil before, so it would be a challenge.  One recipe to definitely try in future months.  Thank you for posting.

Ginmonster - respect for leaving a SM with just what you went in for - Bravo!

Thanks to everyone for your supportive posts.  Talk of flapjacks has minded me of a recipe that Seaotter posted on one of my diaries over in DFW, (many moons ago) - for savoury flapjacks.  Apropos of nothing, I noticed today in MrAl that the cheese and onion rolls (think veggie sausage rolls), have gone up yet again by 10p to £1.39.  That's the third rise this year, and now puts them out of contention as 'picnic' foods.  Enter stage left 'hm savoury flapjacks'........Food for thought!  Thanks for the stimulating discussion 😊

**EDIT** - just in case it helps anyone, i found the bit of my old DFW diary that discussed making Seaotter's Savoury flapjack recipe.  Photo of my efforts is in the first post and if you would like the recipe, scroll down a post or three and it's listed out.  Don't read on if you don't want to know how mundane my life was in 2015......  **END OF EDIT**

Tea didn't quite go to plan.  We received a last minute appointment (nothing alarming and most definitely nothing medically orientated), so i ended up microwaving some potatoes (from the MrL box last week), and the Turlu was portioned over my BP and DH was left to his own devices with the remaining cooked potatoes and Turlu - with instructions to 'reheat'.  As all washing up was done by the time LG and I returned to the homestead, I assume DH has remembered how to work the microwave from his bachelor days........ 🤣

I have prepped a sort of menu plan for the remaining 9 days of May (Friday to Sunday is already covered in this week's plan).  But at present, I won't post it up - more because it's likely to change if I have wobbles over stocks or whatever.  But if I knowingly have a bash at any new recipes or interesting recipes that I can find an online link for, well then you know that I'll post them up, just in case they are of any use to anyone else.

Greying X

CoffeeSonata

Just checking in as got a bit lost keeping up with the thread .  Sorry all.  

We had some
bulk dried food in already which has been helping. And a giant bag of dried cat food so I won’t have to buy dry food for the two kittens this month.  

Quite surprised that without keeping entirely close tabs on it , bur being mindful and meal planning more properly and checking what we have - I’m on £141.77/£300 and that includes a local veg box from local farm for next week. 

That’s for two adults .  

Does not include any cleaning supplies which we haven’t needed so far.  

Definitely quite surprised - think I got used to cooking for three for the last ten  months and the extra adult was a student who basically ate like the very hungry caterpillar at times - as in I’d think we’d have two portions left of something or some left for lunch and there would be nothing left at all. Huge portions and seconds. 

Actually slightly
shocked what a difference it’s making ! 

Though having quite a lot of things here already in bulk has absolutely helped
as I’ve not had to buy rice or pasta this month and probably won’t have to until
June.  Same for bread flour. 

atrixa

After a £9.07 spend in Mr M, my total is now £160.91/£140. I'm determined not to let it get above £165, then at least it'll be less than last month.

Was quite shocked to see that Mr M's white medium loaf has just gone up to 65p from 59p.

Anyway, I'll be making three bean soup tonight for next week's lunches (and maybe tea too, we'll see).