August 2022 Grocery Challenge

franby64

Went to Asda yesterday to stock up on a few things that are cheaper than our corner shops, oats, kitchen roll, sausages. I'm realising though, that I'm halfway through the budget and it's only 7th August so I'm going to have to try harder and give all it a bit more thought! 

I still need to make a list of what's in the freezer and sort through the cupboards so that's my starting point. I know roughly but might turn up some surprises.

I'm glad that I'm well past the trying to get my kids to eat stuff stage. A problem I found was cooking stuff they didn't eat wasted food so I tended to stick to the tried and tested - guilty. Now two of them are very adventurous eaters while the other exists on pizza, sausages, chips, toast and marmite and fruit! Could be worse...

weenancyinAmerica

I make a kind of egg mixture in the microwave in a mug - just stir the egg with chopped green onions and bacon bits and then microwave 30 seconds. Stir again and microwave for another 20 to 30 seconds. Seems to come out well without heating the kitchen - or taking much time.

gill5blue

Hi
I have spent £61.42 so far this month (£200 budget) I bought some bulk items so should be on track.
I reorganised my freezer as in made a list of what was in there and added to my list the syn value(slimming world people will understand) to aid a more informative meal choice.
good luck all
gill5blue

joedenise

gill5blue said:

Hi
I have spent £61.42 so far this month (£200 budget) I bought some bulk items so should be on track.
I reorganised my freezer as in made a list of what was in there and added to my list the syn value(slimming world people will understand) to aid a more informative meal choice.
good luck all
gill5blue

I try to make most of my food Syn Free to free up the syns for nicer things (wine, chocolate etc) but that's a good idea.  I already do this if I pick up any packets of things from SM such as flavoured couscous.

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning GC'rs

Well, yesterday's cooking exploits definitely didn't provide much support for bothering with the oven anymore 🙁I made the crustless quiche, using up the last of the 'preferably use these eggs by the 7th August', the last punnet of mushrooms and some onion, celery, garlic, a handful of frozen peas, a dollop of yoghurt and seasoning.  Towards the end of cooking, I sprinkled some cheddar cheese on top. 

I made a crumble using the 4 remaining pears from a punnet I got YS'd from HB before we went away on hols and the remains of a box of blackberries that have been in the freezer for more time than i feel comfortable owning up to...... they may even have moved home with us 😮The pears were an utter disappointment. When I bought them (i think for about 45p), they were rock hard, and I mean rock.hard.  Just before we went away, one pear developed a grot spot which spread quickly, but the rest of the pear remained rock.hard.  So that got composted.  By the time we returned from hols, the pears were still.rock.hard.  By yesterday, they had started to shrivel at the stalk end, but were still mostly firm.  Chopping them up, I found various grotty bits inside, and with trimming etc, it was just as well I had the blackberries to bulk up the crumble filling.  The pears didn't really taste of much either.  OK, so pears are a lottery at this time of year anyway, but it just shows, that even YS'd they were a waste of money.  I'd had some pears in a MrL box the other week, and they had been completely different, ripened nicely and actually tasted of pear.......

I also baked 2 potatoes.  And I made a cake, using some eggs that were in date, but which I had got from the waste food diversion scheme.  The eggs were seemingly fine, but one yolk was really pale yellow - something I've not seen before, but which is apparently feasible.  I made an orange sponge, using my usual 4:4:4:2 sponge recipe.  The cake cooked fine, was beautifully browned on top and when I used the cake tester, it came out of the cake (multiple spots) clean.  I put the cake on the side and left it to cool.  Later when I came to cut the cake up to put in the tin, I cut into it and it was virtually raw in the middle, and had sunk 🙁 I had covered it with a teatowel as we had the window open and fruit flies were milling in, so I hadn't noticed.  As I'd been a little perturbed by the egg, and given that the cake had cooled, and I didn't want to put the oven back on for one thing, I'm afraid I ditched it 🙁No, I'm not proud of wasting food, and I wish I could determine whether it was just a fluke, or whether the oven is on it's way out.  But as my primary motivation to make the cake was to fill the oven, I just think in future that using the oven will be a last resort. The oven is the landlord's responsibility, and they are not very good at maintenance.......

LG did eat a small portion of the crustless quiche.  They did make a bit of a production about 'but I've not eaten this before' (I'm pretty sure they have), and seemed to take rather a long time to actually settle down to eating what was on their plate.  However, when they eventually got to eating the quiche, it got eaten up relatively quickly, and I think that we are slowly chipping away at LG's "dislike" of mushrooms - which I query anyway, as they used to merrily eat many a dish with mushroom in it.  If mushrooms follow the normal path, we will have outright refusal, followed by accepting something with a 'little' bit of mushroom, followed by eating something with quite a bit of mushroom in it (like this quiche), and hopefully we will get to the point of a dish being eaten because it's tasty, not refused because of perception.   

I think I would get niggled by wasted food, time and energy anyway, but it just seems so much more annoying now.  At least I know there is a possible issue with the oven, so I can be on that in future.  

There are 2 portions of the crumble left - DH and LG will hoover that up today, and I put half the quiche (3 portions) in the freezer for another day.  We ate the baked potatoes with our quiche, along with green beans and a small tin of sweetcorn.  

Onwards and upwards.  These things happen.  We're all over the thrift/frugality/budgeting for most of the time, there is bound to be a hiccup now and again.

Greying X

Finstickle

Two weekly shops to declare:

£70.53 on the 28th July - really pleased with that as a value

£122.09 on Friday.
We had visitors for the weekend and this included £25 on alcohol and £21 on BBQ supplies for yesterday, so fairly content with that.  There's still a crate of beer, and some lab kebabs not started as well as BBQ meat for lunches/dinners for a couple of days.

I'm also at a conference from this afternoon for a couple of days so will be fed, but DSS arrives on Wednesday until Sunday plus in-laws possibly down at the weekend so some extras there.

Current value is £201/£522

SausageDogSandwich

Hi all, we had a few days away last week and got home Friday morning. Used the holiday fund for grocery shopping while away, we did bring some food back with us and half a small bottle of milk so I wouldn’t have to go shopping on the Friday. Decided to go to Aldi yesterday as we fancied a curry ready meal (was not feeling well enough to cook) and needed some fruit, veg and milk etc. Total spend of £23.95,which could of been a lot less if we hadn’t had the curries and accompaniments but we haven’t had it for a long time so it made a nice change and meant I could be lazy as the kids had pizza, garlic bread and cucmber and carrots sticks. Need to get some more shopping on Tuesday, only have a very small list, could wait a bit longer but this is husbands day off and I have no interest in walking the 3.5  mile round trip in the heat   

I have decided to use some seperate money - which I’m not entirely sure where it’s going to come from  to make a small store of food ready for when the g&e goes up again in October. If anything I’m hoping it will help me to be able to sleep at night. So I also purchased 2x4 pack of tuna that was “on offer” for £2.39 each and 5 x tins of sardines yesterday. I am hoping that when I use these items, to take them out of that months budget, but will have to see how things are at the time. 

£23.95/200 spent so far

Saver-upper

I have just come back to MSE after a break away (12-18 months?).

I spent this weekend looking at my last few months of spending, and oh my goodness, my gracious me!!

We are a family of 2 adults, 3 teens at home. 20yo daughter studies away, visits during holidays and weekends.

Since April, every month I have spent £320-380 on groceries 😱😱. This can't continue!

At this stage I haven't set a monthly budget, but I would like to slash at least £100 off August's grocery spend.

Having just checked my receipts, this means I am going to have to be very careful, because I have already spent £161.70 this month, including washing powder and dishwasher tablets.

But it should be OK. On Friday I did a big shop (about £62)  and that will last us a fair while.

Taking the advice at the beginning of the thread , to start decreasing spending gradually,  I am aiming to keep this month's grocery spend under
£300.

I look forward to joining in here again, thank you.

£161.70/£300.00

PearlRose

Just got back from holiday and spent the first time on groceries this month: £41.95 for delivery from Tesco.

We haven't been shopping with Tesco since we moved to our current place, but were lured back recently, as its reward scheme seems to offer better value than Sainsbury's. 

CJRyder

Picked up a few small bits at the weekend, £2.15 in Tesco, £3 for two milk in the local shop as well as a 50p pasty (£5.65 total spent on groceries) and first of two veg boxes arrived (£17.50). 

£23.15/£155.00 spent!