August 2022 Grocery Challenge

Doom_and_Gloom

£141.84 spent between A&C, Mr S and L!do. 

OH went to L!do and finally managed to get a £1.50 box for me

Very happy with the above. 

£141.84/£250.
£108.16 left. 

London_1

JoeDenise thanks for the heads up .The halloumi and peppers were delicious I had with a huge salad and I'm still full up at the moment, so no cooking for me tonight, I have half a pack of Tesco's garlic and herbs soft roule cheese, so I thinkI will have that later with some crackers and a few grapes.

On my shopping list at the moment all I have to buy is an onion, some small baby salad spuds and if I see them some brioch rolls, so not a great deal to worth bothering about at the moment I know Tesco do round brioch rolls, and I thought I may see if I can get some to make an halloumi burger type meal.I had three thick slices left from the packet so I have wrapped them in single slices tightly in clin film and frozen them and when I get the brioch rolls I'll get some out.I'm not a burger person as a rule but I think an halloumi burger would be quite nice. Next trip to my local supermarket won't be until Monday or Tuesday as I am steering clear of shops at the moment and using up what stuff I have still fresh in the fridge. I shall see if I can get some cous cous to give it a try, I seem to have a lot of sausages in the freezer, so maybe one meal next week with be couscous and bangers.

JackieO xx

rileyg26

I am pleased with my first trip to Mr Al since the beginning of the month.  I know we are only a few days in, but still!

£25.83/£120

If I can keep it that amount or even lower, I will be pleased.  I am growing a few courgettes at the moment and I am going to make some fritters for lunches which has meant I have not needed as much.  

atrixa

Made the Orzo BBC budget recipe last night. 

One-pan mushroom and leek orzo recipe - BBC Food

I admit, I doubled the stock cube as one over 2 pints of water just isn't enough and added some onion and garlic powder. I also added some meat-free sausages in an attempt to increase the protein. It's tasty enough, but not particularly filling. I'd make it again but adapt it to add some herbs and a better source of protein than mushrooms. I'd probably saute some onions and garlic too, as a base.

Today was an NSD

goldfinches

I needed more frozen fruit today after eating the last of my previous bag for breakfast this morning so went to Mr T's in a vain attempt to buy their Perfectly Imperfect bag which I've been buying regularly for at least the last year. Well the shelf was bare again so I had to buy their much more expensive mix instead and if you ask me, having looked at the bag, it's just the same as the Perfectly Imperfect so I'm rather cross and intend to go online and say so politely, of course. Does anyone else think some of the more 'value' items have been vanishing from shelves or is it just me?

I spent £4.30 at Mr T's on 1kg frozen fruit which makes my new monthly spend £14.25/£124 and my average daily spend £3.56. 

I have decided to pick extra blackberries during the next few weeks and make some compotes and coulis for the freezer or to keep in jars in the larder to cut down on the amount of frozen fruit I need to buy over the next few months. I'll also collect more windfall apples than I did last year and make apple sauce for the same reason. 

London_1

when I get windfalls of apples from my neighbour I peel,slice and poach in a little water and honey, and once soft I drain and cool and use soup bags to freeze portions as they lie flat in the freezer. great for a nice apple pie in the winter or diced up and mixed with plain greek yogurt to give me a nice pudding ,add a few bran or cornflakes for crunch ,very tasty

JackieO xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs

A spend of £15.40 to own up to.  I had to go into Greying Town to move some money around to pay some bills and picked up a few bits whilst I was there.  A mix of food and non-food, and stocking up of a couple of items for the storecupboard (only have room for "1 in use/1 in stock"). I am hopeful that DH will refund me £5 for some 'personal grooming' products I picked up, but I won't hold my breath, and have lumped it in with spends.

I happened to notice that in h3r0n F00ds they had an entire shelf of lurp*k "softest" 500g tubs, YS'd to £1.50....... it was dated 7/8, and I assume it's a type of spreadable butter, as it had butter (55%) and oil content.  Clearly the supermercados gamble to raise prices and putting security tags on anything and everything hasn't worked.  I didn't buy any, not so much on principle, but because even at £1.50 it is more than the olive oil spread I get from MrL.  Just thought it was interesting (should have taken a pic, it was quite an arresting sight of so many orange stickers!), and I know that the price of this brand has been under discussion elsewhere on the forum.  What I didn't look at was whether this particular product was suitable for freezing, don't see why not.

£57.59/200

Greying X

thriftwizard

£98.50 added; that was just under £60 at the butchers & £8 at the bakery yesterday and the rest at the market this morning on fresh fruit & veg. More than most weeks, but we have family staying this weekend & I'm hoping the leftovers will keep feeding us for most of the week. But I've also been over to the allotment, dug a couple of spuds up yielding enough for all of us for the week, and harvested loads of beans (1st runners & Borlottis, and lots of dwarf French beans) and a courgette - most of the courgette plants are in buckets at home! Well pleased with that, bearing in mind that the weather's been so very fry. The raspberries are just about to hit their stride, too.

joedenise

@Greying_Pilgrim - Lurpak spreadable is definitely freezable.  I don't even like the taste of Lurpak butter never mind the spreadable stuff but I know lots of people do like it, particularly for baking.  So for anyone who does use it then £1.50 is a very good price for stocking up and freezing.

Another £6.25 spent in the Farm Shop today.  Haven't updated my spreadsheet yet but it's still less than £20 of the GC budget spent so far so going well!

ancientmum

 I've been spending on meat and honey from the butchers and stuff for the store cupboard in Aldi and Sains this week.  This has totalled £43.42 but I have full cupboards and freezer.  Then today I spent £4,50 in the market on apples, onions, lettuce and sweet peppers.  
I'm hoping that having a big shop this week will mean that I only have to get milk, bread and fruit for the rest of the month.  The general plan is to have a storecupboard in the kitchen of stuff like flour, pasta, tea, coffee in use, and another in the living room dresser for spares.  I'll do the same with toiletries and tins next month.
Blackberrying is also on the agenda for me at the weekend, and I'll check on the crab apple and community orchard trees when I walk to the allotment.  Getting potatoes, courgettes and beans from there is helping with costs, and some will be cooked and frozen for winter meals.