June 2022 Grocery Challenge

Smoosh

We are officially over budget!

£1.99 the other day on 6 pints of milk.

£8.81 today on 4 litres of fizzy drink, a baguette (YS - 20p from 70p), a loaf of bread (YS - 19p from £1.20), 2 doughnuts (YS - 34p from £1.50), 2 Belgian buns (YS - 24p from £1.40), 2 muesli bread sticks (YS - 11p each from 75p each), 2 raspberry croissants (YS - 13p each from 75p each), 2 caramel buns (YS - 26p from £1), Quorn nuggets, 4 hot cross buns (YS 10p each from £1) and a 4 pack of cauliflower cheese grills.

Second shop today was our main shop - exactly £25 on 8 litres of fizzy drink, 1.5kg chips, 20 bin bags, 1 litre of juice, 2 tins of beans, 1 tin of tomatoes, salad dressing, butter, 2 packs of cereal bars, deodorant, peppercorns, garlic granules, 1kg rice, 400g Cheddar, 2 baking potatoes, beef slices, chicken slices, crackers, 1 kitchen roll and 5 bananas.

Last shop was £4.12 on a melon (YS - 28p from £1.89), 4 yoghurts (YS - 37p from £2.49), local strawberries (YS - 88p from £2.75), an egg sandwich (YS - 38p from £2.55), a bacon and egg sandwich (YS - 44p from £2.95), 6 eggs (YS - 37p from £2.49), 2 pizza pastries (YS - 28p each from 99p each), 2 pain au chocolat (YS - 28p each from 99p each) and a cheese croissant (YS - 28p from £1).

As usual, lots has been frozen.

Meal plan:

1. Sweet and sour Quorn nuggets with egg fried rice (using YS eggs) and peas

2. Spaghetti and veggie meatballs (YS meatballs)

3. Jacket potatoes, cheese, beans and coleslaw (free from olio)

4. Quorn chicken Caesar burgers (YS buns from freezer) with chips and remainder of coleslaw

5. I'm out for dinner with friends, OH is going to his parents

6. OH is working, I'm going to my parents

7. Roast (lamb shank for OH, cauliflower grill for me) with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, broccoli and runner beans (vegetables, apart from potatoes, all freebies from olio)

Breakfasts will be yoghurt with fruit and/or muesli, pastries, toast or cereal. Lunches will be sandwiches or cheese and crackers. Plenty of YS goodies and fruit for pudding and snacking.

£255.37/230.

We still have 1 more shop and I think we'll need more dog food too. 

Vanlady

Good evening challengers, a spend today of £4.70, brings my total to £111.04/£210.

We ventured into our nearest city for a day out, they have a fantastic market there, so for £4 I bought 10 apricots, 10 red crunchy apples, 5 large red peppers and 3 small melons, all delicious! I'm having trouble resisting eating all the apricots in 1 go! 
All have been washed and 3 of the peppers have been cut in half and frozen, as mr Van has an aversion to any peppers, and I'll struggle to get through 5 on my own in the next week.
Also popped into an Asian supermarket and bought a bag of ground cinnamon, I love it on porridge, yoghurt,  fried bananas etc and we were running low. So much cheaper than buying those small jars in the supermarkets.  

Soontobeoap,  I usually sub sultanas for raisins in any recipies as for some reason they're always cheaper.  Cant tell any noticable  difference.

Sorry MissRilkiC but I've never heard of lupin beans. 

EDITED to amend total is actually £119.61/£210 as Mr Van bought a 2 litre bottle of soy sauce plus some noodles and other sauces in the Asian supermarket too which I forgot about. 

Greying_Pilgrim

MissRikkiC - those are a new one on me, but DrG00gle did say that they are growing in popularity, from being a staple in the Med.  The prices I saw did seem a little high.  Please excuse my ignorance if I ask this question (as I really don't know the answer), but if Lupini beans have 4g of protein per 100g, how does that compare to the protein value of black beans, which I seem to recall Jam1e 0liv3r saying was the highest protein bean (perhaps he meant 'easily available bean' - in the UK???).  I'm just wondering if they are worth the price premium?  OK so if they are 4 times as protein packed for only twice the price, then i guess they are worth it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful - but thank you for making me aware of something new 😊

**EDIT  Found a video of  JO talking about the protein content of black beans - I have seen a figure somewhere (not from JO) that black beans are 8.8g protein per 100g cooked.  End of Edit **

Greying X

wishus

Trundled my trolley to A*di and A*da tonight to pick up some essentials, spent £36.48. Forgot to use my A*da Perkbox voucher, doh! Forgot oats and tea bags (though I have some nice herbal teas I will drink instead in the day). Double doh! Still, I am nicely under budget for the week. I can have my yoghurt without oats, just add in the fruit and seeds.
Picked up a bottle of espresso martini mocktail pop in A*di - I had a dodgy liver test come back, so I'm steering clear of booze until I know I'm okay (which I probably am). Anyway, it's just the ticket! I mean espresso martini isn't fizzy, but it soon goes flat, and the flavour is spot on.
£107.38 remaining.
Only need to cover a few days as off on my travels again soon for 2 nights camping. Will probably pick up some camping fare on the way down, like beans and tins of chilli. 

So, meal plan for us is:


Breakfasts- him, overnight oats, me yoghurt/toast
Lunches - him, ham sandwiches plus the 10p pineapple sticks I just picked up and YS rainbow cookies. Me, I just made some lush hummus. That on toast/salad.
Dinners:
Tue - pork steak, mash, greens. Wed - chorizo naanizza and rocket salad Thur - pasta with either bacon or sardines and veg.

pamsdish

katkin said:

I spent £40 in Iceland to stock up on their 3 for £10 fish. This is going to last us a good 2-3 months. Fresh fish is super expensive where I am, so it's a good compromise for us to be able to add more variety to our diet. Great selection too, I bought cod, haddock, sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon, trout and smoked basa. 

I don't have a separate "stocking up" budget so I'm going to try and absorb this into this month's budget and see if I can make cuts elsewhere. It has got me thinking I should have a separate budget line just for stocks / bulk buys especially with prices rising so much just now.  

I like the 3 for £10 too, fish is so expensive, I don`t have a bulk buy fund either, if I buy goods on a bulk buy basis I won`t be buying for however long it lasts, so it just gets absorbed.

pamsdish

Been adjusting some of my Amaz0n S&S items, my favoured coffee is again out of stock, also price increasing every delivery, looking for alternative and the Nesca£e Dark roast is acceptable, 4 jars £15.30, and 200g, think that`s a first delivery price, just checked and £4.28 "normal" price, see how that goes.

Suffolk_lass

@MissRikkiC and @Greying_Pilgrim I think Lupini are a Christmas snack in Italy where they are pickled and served with alcohol (why wouldn't you?!). They are called tremoços in Portugal and if you have a Turkish/Mediterranean store near you, you might find them as a dried bean called termiye more economically. 

Ginmonster

Yesterday I did a big cook-up use all the sad veg lurking around since before our week away to clear the decks before the big shop arrived today. I made a veg and bean chilli which used up half a butternut squash, some bendy carrots and a sweet potato to start. Next up was a curry using half a sad cauliflower, all the cauli leaves, a broccoli stalk and a packet of smoked tofu. Finally came a big batch of soup using the rest of the squash, the last sweet potato and a wilting lettuce with a hefty dose of red curry paste for flavour. It all tasted pretty good so I've got a few nice meals covered now. We had half the chilli yesterday and will probably have some soup for lunch and curry for tea tonight. Yum!

Today's big shop was a restock on fruit, veg, staples like flour and cereal and a big pack of toilet rolls so was a big chunk of the month's budget at £116.70 but with luck I should only need fruit and veg top ups for the next few weeks and am still on track.

I'm now at £129.30/£200

MissRikkiC

Greying_Pilgrim said:

MissRikkiC - those are a new one on me, but DrG00gle did say that they are growing in popularity, from being a staple in the Med.  The prices I saw did seem a little high.  Please excuse my ignorance if I ask this question (as I really don't know the answer), but if Lupini beans have 4g of protein per 100g, how does that compare to the protein value of black beans, which I seem to recall Jam1e 0liv3r saying was the highest protein bean (perhaps he meant 'easily available bean' - in the UK???).  I'm just wondering if they are worth the price premium?  OK so if they are 4 times as protein packed for only twice the price, then i guess they are worth it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful - but thank you for making me aware of something new 😊

**EDIT  Found a video of  JO talking about the protein content of black beans - I have seen a figure somewhere (not from JO) that black beans are 8.8g protein per 100g cooked.  End of Edit **

Greying X

I think Lupin beans are 12g per 100g so slightly higher that’s all. It’s probably not worth it given that 4g protein is just the equivalent of 16 calories so per 100g it’s hardly worth it given their price. 

You’re right @suffolklass they’re eaten cold too! 

I really must look for some Asian supermarkets locally to here. I’d like to see what they have on offer

Ginmonster

2 more small spends to declare today -

£2.80 on 2 packs of asparagus, a pack of flat mushrooms and a pack of rhubarb as they were all in the super 6 and only 70p each so I really couldn't resist because I love them all! I may have asparagus risotto, garlic mushrooms and rhubarb and strawberry compote in my future. Yum!

£3 on 2 packs of low sugar granola from Sainsbos. I used to buy the Aldi version but they seem to have replaced it with a 'high protein' one which is not low sugar. I'm hoping my son will deem the new version acceptable as it's difficult to find decent not-too-sugary breakfast cereals. 

Now up to £135.10/£200