August 2022 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

I was delighted to read about residents of Orkney being able to benefit from an impromptu food waste diversion opportunity 😊 Great that there were 'ordinary' foodstuffs as well as a few treats for everyone too.  

Greying X

Well, that's a lovely story! Quite made my day.

PipneyJane

LittleGem said:

Hi all,

no spends for me today 🙌🏼and got back late from seeing friends so an easy tea of beans, scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for us. Means I’ve eeked out an extra day on the meal plan so I’m happy with that. 

I love how many of you talk about a well stocked pantry, always sounds so comforting. I’m trying to build up more of a stash, motivated by this thread and price rises of course. Although I haven’t got a huge kitchen I’m going to aim to add a couple of useful tins (beans/tinned toms) to each shop, and maybe some pasta and rice. 

Would love some more ideas for useful things to add to the list. 

One of the reasons I have a pantry is because, for years, I only shopped once a month.  We didn’t have a car and our closest supermarket was two stops away on the train ride home from work, which meant forking out for a taxi to get home with my shopping.   We had milk delivered and I’d buy fresh veg from the green-grocer next to the station.  (Ever lugged 2lb of onions and 5lb of potatoes over a mile, uphill?  I did, the day I discovered the greengrocer on my way home from work.)

Back then, I was buying ingredients that could be made into meals: bags of frozen mince, 8 tins of tomatoes, 4 tins of kidney beans, 5 packs of pasta. I wasn’t planning specific meals, I just had an idea of what we got through in a month and restocked it.  Three moves and 30 years later and I still rarely shop for specific meals, I shop to re-stock the pantry, fridge and freezer.  The shopping list lives on the counter and, every time I open a packet or get down to the last 2-3 cans, that item gets added to the shopping list,   

Do you own your home?  The reason I’m asking is, when I bought my flat - the home before this one - it had a small kitchen. I made a pantry in the one tall cupboard it had.  I got conti-board cut to size for shelves and fixed them in with brackets and chipboard screws.  It held a lot, because each shelf was spaced to hold certain items without lots of empty space above it.   One was the perfect size for tins - with an inch clearance - while the next took the rice and flour boxes.  (A landlord may not appreciate you doing this.)

When we moved into this house, the kitchen was much larger but the original cupboards were useless.   I resorted to using an iKEA book-case (IVO model, where you buy extra shelves), with fruit boxes for drawers and spaced out the shelves on the same principles as above.  I still use one of these as my backup store cupboard/cookbook library.

HTH

- Pip

Soontobeoap

@PipneyJane my store cupboard always has pasta, rice, stock cubes, cornflour, suet, oats, baked beans and a couple of tins of fruit for a last minute pudding. I usually have a couple of tins of new potatoes. I dont use them often but they come in handy occasionally if I have run out or fancy a frittata.

joedenise

@Soontobeoap - have you tried roasting tinned new potatoes?  They're lovely for a change.

SausageDogSandwich

Just stopping by to report a spend of £4.34 yesterday. Wasn’t supposed to be spending but had to get some shopping for a family member. Couldn’t leave the kids home, a chilled drink each for the kids, energy drink for me, cucumber and reduced 6 eggs is all that I bought. Nothing purchased today so will be NSD, have to get the “big shop” tomorrow though  I’ve had no luck with olio this week so the list is rather long and can’t put it off any longer as kids have no fruit left now. 

£33.80/200 spent so far. My goal for tomorrow is to stay below £40 and keep to the list and not let mum guilt stop that from happening   

Nicki_Sue

GROCERY BUDGET - £650, please.

Hello all!

I haven't taken part in the challenges on here for years but I need to pull things back a bit.

My month runs from the 17th Aug - 16th Sept and in our house we have:
One vegan (me) - Also diabetic so easy on the carbs.
One veggie (the husband)
A teen and a tween (16 & 12 - meat-eaters/eating anything not nailed down)
And a much-loved silver tabby.

I have some pantry stocks built up (pasta, rice, noodles, passata, chopped toms etc) well stocked up, with some canned pulses but we've run the big freezer and the small one right down to almost empty.

I do get courgettes, spinach and cabbage leaves from a cabbage tree in the garden.
And I do meal planning (most of the time).

The aim is to stock things back up sensibly, get people back to school/college and then reduce the budget a little (depending on COL pricing).

This includes toiletries, cleaning and groceries plus all things cat-related.

franby64

Evening! 
Managed an NSD yesterday and went to A*da today for some cheaper stuff - marg, sausages and flour and buttermilk so I can always make a soda bread if we run low. 
Also a pizza and some LMc pies, one of my weaknesses. 
I bought a big bag of carrots so just had to make a carrot cake. I must find some more carrot recipes as I only have Cranks carrot potage that I make. Need some inspiration.
ETA - found a roasted carrot curry recipe which looks interesting.

CJRyder

Couple of spends to own up to. I have been doing a few runs to the local shop for a neighbour with the plague so ended up with a few more purchases than intended. £1.50 for milk, £3 for various pizza toppings, 40p on bread and £3 on reduced pasties. I also spent £3.60 today on 3x YS puff pastry (ready rolled - I know!), a YS red cabbage and a YS (29p!) bag of stir-fry veg. Pastry in freezer. Stir-fry veg to be half fried, half coleslawed. Hoping to source a cheap chicken tomorrow along with some basic supplies for neighbour.

£11.50 spent. Will be strong and abstain from the reduced pasties!

£23.15/£155 --> £34.65/£155.

Saver-upper

Did a bit of a shop in Tesco. It was sort of a top- up shop, and sort of a junk food shop. It was 9.30pm,after being out for errands. Bought pizzas and ready meals for tea, and it all slipped downhill from there, really!! Spent £56.13 on nothing much at all- a couple of meat pies for tea on Monday, nothing else that a meal could be made from!

£232.26/£300.00 

katkin

Reporting in on my big shop spend from Friday.

Visited Al*i first and then onto Tes* for what I couldn't pick up. 

I spent a total of £153.92 on Friday leaving a balance of £72.52. From this balance I need to remove c£40 that OH spent on top-up shops that unfortunately also included "it looks nice so I just got it". He was trying to be helpful as I was up to my eyeballs with work and we had guests due. His spend was higher but he took the hit off his own personal spend for things I'd not have bought as part of the grocery budget. He also stocked up on things like LED bulbs because they were on a deal and fire lighters, so all good and those can come from another household budget line.

So I am going to declare a balance of £32.52 until the end of Aug. This will be tight but it's for top up basics ie milk, bread, fruit and veg etc.

This did give me a chance to explain the GG, which he thought wasn't a real thing. He was quite surprised when I showed him the thread and how many people were taking part in the challenge. So now he knows! We take on traditional roles at home, where I do all the cooking and everything that entails and a good majority of cleaning, laundry etc and he does all the dirty / heavy jobs, bins, repairs etc. We are happy with those roles and of course help each other out / cross over when required and  where abilities allow. But generally he's not one for watching prices or spending to a budget. Not yet but as inflation etc bites he's going to have to. 

I did not enjoy grocery shopping on a Fri evening after work one bit. It took over 2 hours and the car was used. Stores were far too busy and I was overly tired. 

Also noticed Al*i fruit and veg wasn't great and had bought new potatoes etc on the super 6 last week that went off quickly and the new potatoes needed part peeled as what looked like dirt was actually black spots. Not such a bargain after all. 

Apologies for the long post - but it is good to get it off my chest! Does anyone else with a OH like mine who spends without thinking first?