September 2022 Grocery Challenge

Sayschezza

My weekly Mr S delivery came to £53.84 bringing my total to £291.97 so well over my £250 budget. It did include that £89.42 spent on meat which we haven't even made a dent into as yet. I have another delivery booked for 29th and very rarely do top ups in between so if my reckoning is correct, and if I hadn't spent that money on a bulk meat order, I would have £47 45 in the kitty to cover that. I obviously must learn to spread costs more evenly in the future.

Ginmonster

thriftwizard said:

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.

Good idea to make burgers. I was just going to chuck them in whatever stew or soup I made next but burgers might be a nice change. Since my son wouldn't eat them half a tin is plenty to make a couple of burgers for just me.

cinnamon123

Went shopping today and spent a whopping $166.91 (all grocery, no stock-up). Sadly, it could have easily been a lot more. This brings my totals to $320.59/$400 (grocery budget-food only) + $66.48/$200 (stock-up budget).

Some stuff will remain and be used at the beginning of Oct. Generally, I only visit this shop 2x/month, so there are things that I buy that carry over for two weeks or so. That partly explains the high amount. We've also decided that we will eat more fish. We like it, it's healthy so I'm fine with it. However, it means we will definitely go over this month's $400 budget. With this in mind, I've already increased my Oct budget.

By November, I should have a good idea as to the impact soups, chilis and curries are having on our cold-weather budget. Just need to be patient and see where everything shakes out

Wednesday's tomato soup was lovely so right now I have a nice broccoli soup simmering away on the stove. And, after naming my new large slow cooker (Chrysanthemum!), I've put on a large chili. Some servings will head into the freezer with the rest eaten over the next few days. I just love autumn!

Have a good weekend!

goldfinches

I did another top up shop for specialist ingredients today. I spent £4.68 on freekeh and black sesame seeds, £1.20 on 3x pita bread and £12.22 on kaffir lime leaves, pearl sugar, ground ginger, aniseed seeds, black cardamom and amchur. I bought the ground ginger because it was £1.25 for 100g and Sains sell 38g for 80p and I use quite a lot in winter slow cooker dishes as well as Christmas bakes and cakes. The pearl sugar is also coming out of my grocery challenge budget rather than the baking budget because it's for scandinavian bakes for home rather than treats for my walking group.
That makes my new total £95.19/£120 and my average daily spend £4.13.

PipneyJane

LadyWithAPlan said:

PipneyJane said:

@LadyWithAPlan please, what is the title of the Kate Berry book?  Also, a thought on being gluten-free: can you still get gluten free flour on prescription?  Might be worth investigating with your GP.  (17+years ago, the team I was in at work had a member with Coeliac disease.  For our weekly team meeting, on rotation a team member would bring in baked goods.  Most of the time, she couldn’t eat them.  When it was my turn, I asked her what she could eat and she gave me a packet of GF flour, so I made baked donuts with it.  She used to get it in bulk, on prescription.)

Regarding “lunchboxes”, most of the meals in my repertoire make a minimum of 4 portions, while there are just the two of us to feed, so I dish up the other two portions into lunchboxes, at the same time as dishing up dinner.  This is primarily portion control since it is easy to overload a plate and eat too much, if I don’t do this, with the subsequent ballooning in weight.   I know DH can easily eat double portions - I’d swear the man has hollow legs - even though I always give him about 50% more food than than I give me, and he’ll go back for seconds, if I don’t do this.  It also helps to keep our costs down, since we don’t have to buy lunch each day.

- Pip

The book is 30 days to a clean and organized home (American spelling) - Katie Berry - its on kindle and I have it on pdf - if you want to dm me your email  I can email  it over to you

I have never thought about gf flour on prescription - I pay for mine so maybe it'd be more than the cost of gf flour? Or maybe its big bulk - I will ask

Your portion control idea is very sensible.

NSD yesterday so 8/16
- I went to a friend's memorial Friday and did buy a pack of crisps whilst there and a glass of prosecco. 
I went to a comedy gig this evening - just bought a round of drinks and a pack of sweets - crisps and sweets are part of my treat budget along with the alcohol.
No new grocery spend though

That’s sweet of you, but I went and bought the book.

My colleague would get a large box, containing multiple boxes of GF flour, with each prescription.  She found it hard to use it all up!

- Pip  

Soontobeoap

Well, I have blown the budget again!!!! On holiday and I think we must have found the Lake districts equivalent of Harrods!!! Only supermarket we could find in the area. £20.01 spent. £3.30 of that was for lactose fee milk. I would only pay £2.10 at home. DH fancied an organic loaf for a holiday treat £2.60.i did find some reduced pink lady apples 4 for £1.70. Eggs were £2.50for 12 that's nearly 21p an egg!! I usually get mine for around 15p. It just goes to show that where you shop really matters any way we are all stocked up for the week now as I bought a lot with me.
Declaring at £191.02 for September.

Oh!!!! And don't get me started on it costing 50p to have a wee!! 

London_1

Hi chums, went for my last shop of the month today and got all I needed to last this month out ,mainly fresh veg and a few odds and ends of essential stuff. Very pleased as I had reckoned on around £19-20 odd and it actually came in at £20.18.

So added to my £31.68 I now have a total of £51.86 out of £60.00. so have  £8.14 to squirell away into my "big shop pot. "

Pretty pleased ,but I have been shopping from my cupboards and stretching things out a bit more, and had some leeks given to me and a bag of windfall apples and some carrots given to me which helped no end . Made lots of soup and portioned some up for the freezer.

I also had a bag of sweet potatoes that my eldest DD gave me as she had seen them reduced in Asda's. These keep very well and can be turned into curries, wedges etc or even mash.

I made extra mash last night to go with my gammon that I had cooked in my slow cooker, and have two portions in the freezer for next week.
I have enough potatoes in water peeled and ready to use for this coming  week so won't need any more until October, then maybe not until I come back from my autumn break.

Very pleased I have avoided the temptation to go to the supermarkets this month , which in turn has cut down on  my spending


JackieO xx 

                                                                                 NSDs 20/24 days

LittleGem

Hi all, 
Have been a bit quiet on here this month and it’s showing in the numbers. £ 201.47 / £200 with still another week to go. 

Pretty much fully mealplanned and bought for the next week so am hoping just a tiny top up of bread and milk and fruit needed. 

Still absolutely no luck with YS in my Lidl at all, there’s just no evidence of them! 

Had a friend over for dinner so bought a big pack of stewing steak which bumped things up, but it didn’t stretch very far so won’t be buying that again. 

Have finally got our slow cooker - thanks to all who made recommendations. Went for a 6.5ltr which feels ginormous but batch cooking is the plan so next week I’ve got bolognaise, casserole, and a curry on the list!

poppy811

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

Still make make curry with apple and sultanas, delish!

hazeldreams

One week to go here as we shop on a Friday. 

So far we've spent £614.57/£750 and I am so chuffed with this! Roughly £135 left for next week's shop and hoping to steer clear of popping to the shop for top-ups again to make sure we deliver under the £750.

I am in awe at some of you GC'ers and the amazingly low budgets that you manage to stick to! I worked out our daily spend after seeing some of you do it and was horrified that even this month when we've been exceptionally good, it was on average £25 per day!! Frightening!!