September 2022 Grocery Challenge

MissRikkiC

I thought about not posting as I have massively gone over this month/not kept track/been on holiday and used some of the funds for food there but I need to tell myself that it’s fine, by posting. We had a lovely (budgeted) holiday week away, we’ve not had lots of take aways, we’ve been having great food at home and so I am going to let up a little on myself. 

I’m not sure on the numbers but it was closer to £400 than £300 but also included a party we’re hosting with food for 11 people this coming weekend which id not accounted for. Onwards and upwards so they say. 

Tomorrow I should have some time so feel I need to sit down and have another think about our budget. My LG is firmly dairy free now which in itself is an additional expense. My husband and I also like some beer at the weekends and I think it’s unfair to not budget for that when we allocate so little to ourselves otherwise so feel it’s got to come from here instead. It can be afforded but only if I get the budget right in the first place. Whilst now on maternity some serious number crunching needs to happen. 

See you all in October. 

leftatthetrafficlights

elsiepac said:

October GC Now Live!

Hi everyone!

Firstly, has anyone noticed the price of a head of broccoli going up drastically? I'm assuming it's because of the weather earlier in the year - I'm sure I read somewhere that broccoli crops were affected but maybe I have that wrong - 85p for a broccoli in Mr L on 17 Sep vs 56p in Mr T on 2 Sep!! I bought it because broccoli is a staple for me and I was shopping in Mr L that day but WOW that's nearly double what I'd usually expect to pay!

I grow my own @elsiepac and would normally be harvesting about now but due to the weather it was all ready in July/August and was enormous!! 😳 same thing with the romanesca cauliflower too..

I know it's probably not quite as bad for commercial growers but I'm sure it must have had an impact on their supplies too - thankfully I harvested, blanched and froze most of mine before it went over - seems odd seeing the brassica bed so empty in September...

pinkypig

Hello
Final (I hope) shop of the month done yesterday on my way home from work to save making an extra trip.  Just fridge bits, oven cleaner  and a top up of seeds, coffee and some ingredients so I can use up my glut of TGTG lemons! £15.21 spent so £141.85/£150.
If I can stick at this I’ll be delighted as it includes about £17 of things needed for special  birthday meal and making three birthday cakes which I’d forgotten to include when I set my budget. 

Hugely helped this month by finding two large packs of marinaded chicken breasts for the meat eating guests at 75% off and two  TGTG fruit and  veg boxes.  These are such good value even if sorting and prepping them is a bit of a faff.  I must try and get one of those a week if I can .
Wishing everyone a thrifty  and successful end of the month .
PP x

LunaCatty

We're close to the end of our month and we may just be under. Two large shops with bulk purchases totaled £192.47 plus the £62.76 from earlier in the month and £30 cash taken for top-up shops.

£285.23/£300

Ginmonster

Our Aldi reopened yesterday after a refit and my it looks swanky now! Thankfully the aisles are much wider so it doesn't feel as cramped. I popped in to get some breaded cod for my son as an improvement on fish fingers i.e. more fish and less breadcrumb and while I was there stocked up on a load of useful stuff including seeds and dried fruit for my daily porridge, cheese, sardines (which have been on and off a pain to get hold of recently and which the boy loves on toast) and a pack of fresh figs which were in the super 6 for 69p. There were some other bits and bobs as well and the total came to £20.22 so I'm still scraping in under target with only a week to go.

This week I've been eating a lot of sweet potato and chickpea curry as I made a batch on Monday using a recipe from the BBC site and hoping my son would enjoy it as he's currently adamant the only curry he wants is Jack Monroe's peach and chickpea curry and I'm getting bored of that! He did try it but decided he didn't like it so as my OH is away I've been eating it all week as it makes quite a lot! It's actually very nice but it suffers from the curse of getting chefs who don't really get what real life is like to design budget recipes as it uses one and a half tins of chickpeas and gives no suggestions as to how to use up the other half a tin. 🙄

Here's a link to recipe if anyone fancies trying it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sweet_potato_and_68565

The sun is shining today so I'm off to make the most of it and peg some washing out - simple joys!

£186.16/£200

London_1

The recipe looks good but as you say a tin and a half leaves half a tin, a bit of a waste.

 I will make some hopefully but will adjust the weights as I would need to portion it up into single portions to freeze I have the chick peas apleanty in tins , but would only want to use a tin at a time

I have garlic pepper and granules or lazy garlic and no cumin seeds, but have ground cumin and ground ginger spices so will use them instead .

I doubt I could find fresh ginger where I live so I just adapt with what I already have in the cupboard.

I did have this curry while on holiday a year or so ago with my veggie pal and it was delicious. I will probably wait until I come home from my autumn break before I give it a go ,hopefully by then I will have some space in my freezer. I have been quite sucessful in making a veggie curry ,especially if the cauliflowers are on offer and it was really nice.

Curry is such a forgiving meal and you can throw almost anything into it to use it up. My late sister used to put diced cubed apple and sultanas in her chicken curry and it was gorgeous. To me a curry ,especially in winter time is so nice and warming on a cold day

JackieO xx

katkin

Ginmonster said:

The sun is shining today so I'm off to make the most of it and peg some washing out - simple joys!

Pegging laundry out is one of my favourite things too! 

Spent £24.58 in Ald* this morning and got most things in the super 6 and the usual fresh items plus some dark chocolate. Mushrooms seem to have gone up in price quite a bit. Earlier in the week I spent £15.01 on mostly tins and dry ingredients to add to my slowly growing stocks. 

Anyhoo there is £8.16 left to the end of the month which will be enough to cover milk and the odd fresh roll from the local bakery. 

It's tight again but I am managing to maintain this level of budget and we are eating well (too well...) must reduce the baking and treats. It's not even winter and I'm already all over recipe books researching hot puddings!   

£241.84 / £250

joedenise

London_1 said:

The recipe looks good but as you say a tin and a half leaves half a tin, a bit of a waste.

 I will make some hopefully but will adjust the weights as I would need to portion it up into single portions to freeze I have the chick peas apleanty in tins , but would only want to use a tin at a time

I have garlic pepper and granules or lazy garlic and no cumin seeds, but have ground cumin and ground ginger spices so will use them instead .

I doubt I could find fresh ginger where I live so I just adapt with what I already have in the cupboard.

I did have this curry while on holiday a year or so ago with my veggie pal and it was delicious. I will probably wait until I come home from my autumn break before I give it a go ,hopefully by then I will have some space in my freezer. I have been quite sucessful in making a veggie curry ,especially if the cauliflowers are on offer and it was really nice.

Curry is such a forgiving meal and you can throw almost anything into it to use it up. My late sister used to put diced cubed apple and sultanas in her chicken curry and it was gorgeous. To me a curry ,especially in winter time is so nice and warming on a cold day

JackieO xx

Jackie - you can definitely buy fresh ginger in Tesco - it’s where I usually buy mine.  I freeze it as it is and then grate it from frozen (using the fine grate on a box grater), then back into the freezer until next time.  Much nicer than using the ginger powder.

You can also freeze LO chickpeas until you want them again, this is something I do quite regularly.

thriftwizard

Half a tin of chickpeas could go towards a batch of chick-pea burgers - add in a second tin  (drained), a finely-chopped onion, an egg to bind & a teaspoon of coriander leaves, plus any seasoning you like, mash it all up, shape into burgers & fry lightly or bake. Would make 8 good-sized burgers or 12 small.

In other news, I'm hanging my head in shame - £64.74 over budget. To be fair, DD1 went off with about £50-worth, but I haven't even replaced half of that yet! Some serious re-trenching required for October...

London_1

joedenise, I'll have to look next time i go to the large tesco's at Bowaters roundabout I know the little Metro one doesn't stock it in Rainham. I use my ground ginger to make biscuits with as a rule.

Freezing left over chickpeas sounds a plan as I'm not a burger eater at all, much to my grandsons disgust I don't even like the meat ones either Only thing I ever have from MaccyD's is their milkshakes, very partial to the strawberry ones

My Aldi gammon in the slow cooker is smelling really delicious at the moment I cook it in cola and a smaering of honey so it really has a lovely flavour.

JackieO xx