June 2022 Grocery Challenge

weenancyinAmerica

I was told to avoid items with soy in them as a take Thyroid pills and the soy counteracts the medication. I never thought to check what works with the medicine and doesn't. 

FrugalHedonist

£9.74 spent today, mostly in L1dl- went in for bacon - came out with LM sausages and burgers plus an aubergine for 35p 

Coffee in the shop beginning with B and ending in M which has most certainly gone up - my usual jar was just too much to justify at £5.50 for £190g so I opted for a slightly better option at £4.50 for 200g 

And 38p for some toasting muffins which will go in the freezer for a weekend brunch

I don't usually cook with aubergines so my purchase may have been folly but if anyone cares to share any recipes including them please do 😄

£45.02 remaining in budget - what I have learnt is that staying out the shops is a good idea!

MissRikkiC

weenancyinAmerica said:

I was told to avoid items with soy in them as a take Thyroid pills and the soy counteracts the medication. I never thought to check what works with the medicine and doesn't. 

Thanks for this. Thankfully we haven’t any other considerations to take account of other than ensuring she has a balanced diet for her age. 

@Suffolk_lass right about the faff 😅 if it was for myself I’d consider it though 

nannygladys

Visited the community pantry and spent £3.50 today, all useful, useable food to use in my meal plan, so really happy, I will need to buy milk, bread etc but I will do that as I go along. I have a shopping list on a kitchen cupboard and add to it as I need things and then review it before I go shopping to see if I really need it. Total updated in Sig.
Nannyg

DizzyMissIzzy

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I was lucky to have a great birthday.

 Thank you @FrugalHedonist for sharing  the link to the cookbook. I’ll have a look through that later.

Today was a NSD for me, as I was organised enough to do my packed lunch and take it with me. So no falling into my regular bad habit of buying my lunch from the local bakery.

I nearly got a TGTG this evening but talked myself out of it as I don’t really need anything. Apart from a top up of fruit maybe.

jumblejulia

£31/£120 so doing ok so far. 

However I spent £10 on vegetables at a market today and somehow managed to leave the bag somewhere, so that was a waste! I did trace my steps but couldn't find it. 

I increasingly observe that I waste a lot of money on mistakes and general ditzyness. Like missing my connecting train and having to get a taxi, or locking myself out of house and have to pay for locksmith, or not being organised enough to take a pack lunch to work. I estimate maybe 1/5 of my expenditure could be reduced if I had my head screwed on properly. 

ladyholly

jumblejulia said:

£31/£120 so doing ok so far. 

However I spent £10 on vegetables at a market today and somehow managed to leave the bag somewhere, so that was a waste! I did trace my steps but couldn't find it. 

I increasingly observe that I waste a lot of money on mistakes and general ditzyness. Like missing my connecting train and having to get a taxi, or locking myself out of house and have to pay for locksmith, or not being organised enough to take a pack lunch to work. I estimate maybe 1/5 of my expenditure could be reduced if I had my head screwed on properly. 

I dont know your age (obviously) but it could be menopause related, certain ilnesses can cause these problems and I found that drinking anything with artificial sweetners sent my brain into stupid mode. Be kind to yourself but see if you are worse after eating, drinking certain food or drinks and if the ditzyness is a real problem consult your GP (if you can get an appointment).

pamsdish

£10.11 in A$&A, friend fancied a change, I didn`t need a lot, got a few y.s. items.

elsiepac

goldfinches said:

Waves to all who are enjoying festivities and time with family and those who aren't for whatever reason. I'm taking the chance to sort through my inbox and came across this very useful article with links to £1 meals from the BBC. 
How we developed our new £1 meals - BBC Food

I've copied these two paragraphs from it to give everyone an idea of whether you want to pop over to the page itself as I thought their new approach was extremely useful to know about and would be appreciated by all those coping on a reduced budget. 

It can be difficult to calculate how much a recipe will cost to make. Prices constantly change and where you shop makes a difference. Recipe writers use various methods to cost recipes, the most common is to calculate a price using only the quantity of each ingredient used in the recipe (so a tablespoon of soy sauce, rather than a whole bottle). This works well if you already have the ingredients in your cupboard, or the recipe uses whole packs, but it can be misleading as you might have to buy jars of spices and sauces which can soon add up.

For our new recipes we've taken a different approach. We've put together a store cupboard of basic items that keep well and can be used in a huge array of different recipes. Ingredients from this store cupboard are costed on the amount used – all other ingredients are costed on the minimum pack size available. We believe this is a more realistic approach as many people have some basic items in, but are unlikely to have an extensive choice of spices and sauces. Once you have a few more spices in your store cupboard from these recipes, some of them will cost even less than the stated price.

The store cupboard they've chosen seems pretty good to me and would certainly give you a lot of possibilities, it's too long to list here as they've given notes about why they've listed things like chopped tinned tomatoes and then commented on what you might prefer to buy instead and how to prepare that and so on. There are recipes from some very good writers like Jack Monroe, Chetna Makan, The Hairy Bikers and more so do have a look at that page too. Cheap recipes - BBC Food

I'm certainly going to try some of them as the veggie ones look delicious, I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for this - I'm definitely going to have a peruse as I need to knuckle down and plan properly!! I've got into a terrible habit of starving until about 1130 then having too large an early lunch/brunch, then eating tea late... it's just a silly way to be and it's pure unorganisation!

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here