July 2022 Grocery Challenge

weenancyinAmerica

For picky eaters, maybe telling them that when they are "older", they can have some of what you are eating might help. "These are foods older people eat, when you are ready, you can have some too. Just let me know when you are ready"

Finstickle

weenancyinAmerica said:

For picky eaters, maybe telling them that when they are "older", they can have some of what you are eating might help. "These are foods older people eat, when you are ready, you can have some too. Just let me know when you are ready"

yes and I've heard of 'punishing' them by not letting them have salad etc

Finstickle

So apparently I did need something before Monday - wine :-)

I also raided the YS shelf:
£1.31 - 3 x cheesecakes 
£1.32 - 2 x veggie breaded fillets
£2.94 - Steak pie which will serve 3.

Good value I think and the the fillets \ steak in the freezer for next week.

Updated total: £275/£465

PipneyJane

Good evening All

Does anyone have a good recipe for using up boring sausages?  You know the ones that are cheap, have as much texture as foam rubber, and are pretty much tasteless too.  Before going to the butcher on Tuesday morning, I went through th e freezer and found several packets lurking in the bottom of the meat drawer, all YS. I normally cook a Spicy Sausage & Lentil Casserole with them but I’d like an alternative or two, please. 

We spent £29.09 in the butcher’s, on 8 chicken legs and a kilo of minced beef.  When I look back at my notes, it turns out we hadn’t been to them since the end of March.  Pity, because the shop changed hands last week and I never got to say goodbye.  The old owner retired and sold up.  I didn’t even know it was on the cards.

We’ve also been to L!dl twice in search of cheap ice-creams (£1.99 spent) and mushrooms (£4.69 spent which bought strawberry sorbet £1.69, mushrooms £1.30, YS salad 20p and something I can’t identify or remember that cost £1.50*).

The meat spend comes from a different budget, but the L!dl spend takes our July GC to £62.93/£140 leaving £77.07 for the rest of the month.

- Pip


*ETA:  DH reminded me that the £1.50 “promo” was a packet of four of the tiniest lamb chops I have seen in years.  In Oz, we’d call them cutlets.  None of them were as large as the palm of my hand.  Definitely need to serve 2 per adult.

joedenise

Pip - do you like scotch eggs?  You could deskin the sausages and add some herbs to the sausage meat and use to wrap hard boiled eggs to make scotch eggs.  You can either bake them like that (which is what I do) or egg and breadcrumb before baking.

Another thing I used to do years ago when the kids were little was to use sausage meat and make meatballs and then fry them off and add to a sweet and sour sauce and serve with rice.  It was one of the more "grown up" foods that they liked when they were pre teen!

Something like La Potee would be another option.  I use the Delia Smith recipe usually.

I'm sure if you googled sausage recipes there would be loads of options!

Let us know what you decide on.

London_1

Pip another nice thing to liven up scotch eggs is instead of flour egg and breadcrumbs, roll them, instead of breadcrumbs in dried stuffing mix.
My children when little didn't like breadcrumbs much, so I would use dried stuffing mix, usually bought just after Christmas when the shops were getting rid of their fancy different flavour stuffing for pennies  not just sage and onion but the really 'posh stuff'I still buy the stuffing after Christmas to this day I also like to coat slices of pork fillet in the flour,egg and stuffing mix as it make pork, which can be a bit bland at times a bit tastier I sometimes add paprika to the mix as well or curry powder. You can tell I like spicy food  

Well my holidays are finally over and I shall be on the ferry from the IoW by lunchtime, sad to be leaving and hopefully by next year will be here permanantly. Lots of catching up to do, and the shock of buying food to restock the fridge later.

I have £30.00 in the budget to do two weeks, and about a third of that will go on fruit and veg, I have quite a bit of stuff to bring home with me left over from the holiday house so not a great deal to actually buy. I have stuff in the freezer from my Dds that I had left there when I defrosted before the holidays so enough meat for the time being then but will need perhaps some butter and maybe mostly salad stuff.Plenty of tinned stuff to use if needs be. I will do a big freezer restock next week when its quieter in the shops as its far too hot to be traipsing around over the weekend, I'm at DDs on Sunday for dinner so I know I have enough for a couple of days at least once I've got the salad bits.

Then its back to manu planning and using up what I can before buying more I went to the farm shop locally and bought some eggs this morning just after 7.00 and they look rather nice so I may have an omelette for dinner tonight as its a bit too warm to be cooking.

I shall be carefully looking at the prices though as I've not really done a great deal of food shopping for a fortnight as DDs being getting it for the holiday house. She did buy some veggie fingers from Aldi's that I'd not had before and they were really nice, so I may get some of those for a change

JackieO xx  

Suffolk_lass

For the third time recently, I have been charged for something I did not have at Morries. A carton of strawberries at the till, 2 cartons of custard on an online order, and yesterday a mega multi-bag of crisps for the holiday (£4 yesterday!!) at the till.

None have warranted going back because of the cost of fuel but it is seriously starting to p me off.

pamsdish

£13.20 in A1D1 this a.m.salad stuffs, 2 tins of new potatoes, 2 hot dogs and some herbal t bags, all for stocks.

Smoosh

As usual, I have lots of spends to update on.

Main shop was done on Monday. In the first shop we spent £12.75 on 4 litres of fizzy drink, lemon cake slices (YS - 30p from £3.45), Quorn chicken dinosaurs, 2 packs of 8 sausages (YS - 28p each from £2.70 each), beef joint (YS - £5 from £16.61), 4 cookies (YS - 10p from £1.65), 4 muffins (YS - 10p from £1.40), 2 strawberry and cream tarts (YS - 20p from £2.60), 2 doughnuts (YS - 10p from £1.65), loaf cake (YS - 10p from £1.25), katsu sauce, spaghetti, curry ready meal (YS - 86p from £4) and a muesli bread stick (YS - 10p from 75p).

Bakery goodies were shared with OH's colleagues.

Next shop was £16.32 on 12 litres of fizzy drink, 6 pints of milk, hairspray, deodorant, honey, butter, 1 litre of juice, 500g yoghurt, a can of beans, 1 kitchen roll, 8 bags of crisps and a box of cereal.

£2.45 on window cleaner and toilet cleaner.

£3.50 on laundry detergent.

£15.10 on ~4kg dog food. 

We were supposed to be going away this weekend, but it's been cancelled, so we will have to get a bit creative with the meal plan.

Meal plan (started on Monday):

1. Burgers (YS steak for OH, Quorn dinosaurs for me) in YS buns with beans and YS chips

2. Olive & lemon spaghetti with YS garlic bread

3. Fish and chips with family (was supposed to happen last week but was rescheduled due to illness)

4. Sweet potato katsu curry with rice and YS green beans

For the next few I'm thinking:

5. YS sausages for OH, Quorn dinosaurs for me with YS chips

6. Spaghetti carbonara with YS bacon for OH and Quorn bacon for me

7. YS sausages for OH, cauliflower cheese grill for me, with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and broccoli

Breakfasts: cereal, yoghurt, pastries

Lunches: YS ready meals, sandwiches/wraps, soup, cheese and onion rolls

Snacks: fruit (nectarines and strawberries), cake, crisps

Puddings: YS bakery things

We have spent exactly £180/£230 so only £50 left. I need to order cat food which I usually spend £40 on to get free delivery which only leaves us £10 for our last shop, so it's going to be very tight! We have a lot in and have just picked lots of garlic and onions from our raised beds. Hopefully there will be some tomatoes ready next week too. So I will just have to meal plan very thoroughly. 

joedenise

Another couple of spends since I last posted in Food Warehouse, Sainsbugs and Mr Ts of £23.15 which included quite a few lollies for this hot weather!  Total spend to date now stands at £110.04/£250, so £139.96 left until end of month.