October 2022 Grocery Challenge

mumtoomany

Hi all. @JingsMyBucket I believe that Morrisons have a deal this week, ends Sunday?, if you spend £40 in store you get 7p litre off fuel. Might be worth using the voucher this week and get a double whammy. Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

JingsMyBucket

@mumtoomany thanks for that. We don't own a car but I'm sure lots of other posters do and that will definitely help them. 

@Doom_and_Gloom that is a genius tip with the penny. Thank you for sharing that!

@goldfinches what's the name and link of the Ottolenghi hamper service please? Besides this and the link to the online Asian grocery store you shared earlier in the thread, you're going to bankrupt me with food goodies! 

@FrugalThymes would you mind sharing your oat bar recipe please? I'm looking to do something different than the usual apple oat crumble. I think I may be looking for a combination of something cakey, oaty, bar-y but not sure.  


I also thought I'd share a recent recipe discovery that is absolutely delicious. It's a French Puy Lentil Soup that is rustic as f*** https://www.daringgourmet.com/french-lentil-soup/. This turned out so well and is easily adaptable to what you have in stock; it's also easily convertible to vegetarian or vegan. Just sub out the bacon and chicken stock with your favourite alternatives.

I didn't have celeriac so subbed it out with a celery stalk and added in our last half a potato that was languishing in the fridge. Instead of bacon, I used up the last of our roast beef. Left out the leeks because we didn't have any and used dried thyme instead of fresh. In place of chicken stock I used Swiss Marigold powder and added hot water to the pot. Lastly, she calls for adding the parsley at the end after the soup is done but I added mine in with the rest of the ingredients because I prefer the flavour parsley imparts throughout the whole cooking process, depending on the recipe. 

Both Mr. Jings and I were lapping up bowls of this stuff. I honestly felt transported to France on a cold rainy evening last week. Just add crusty bread and salty butter. I highly recommend it and we'll be adding this to the rotation this winter and beyond. 

RandomOne

Good morning. I've spent £150 so far, so I have £150 left for the month. 

Does anyone have any veggie recipes they'd recommend? I have a lot of root veg to use up, and there is only so much soup & stew my family will eat   

Offhand, I know I don't need to buy much for dinners, it's mainly food for breakfasts and lunches I need to buy. I'm trying to work out if it's cheaper to buy a joint of pork and slice it up, and freeze it for sandwiches. Or just to buy packaged ham slices. 

JingsMyBucket

@RandomOne it's almost entirely always cheaper to buy a roast and then slice it up. What to work out is how quickly your family will nibble on the roast and wear it down vs. a packet of cold cuts. That'll definitely need some accounting to see if it's a good value. Mostly likely it still will be though. 

joedenise

I always buy a gammon joint and boil it.  Once cold it gets sliced as ham for sandwiches.

If you've got the oven on for other stuff then you can paste some honey and mustard on the outside and roast for a while before leaving to cool and slice.

I find it's definitely cheaper, and much nicer than any of the packet hams.  I also freeze in packs with enough slices for a couple of sandwiches.

FrugalThymes

@JingsMyBucket I tend to eyeball it and make it with whatever I have in but here are a couple of ways I've tried that went down well 

About 250g oats mixed with two over ripe, blended bananas and one egg. Then a few handfuls of raisins in there, mixy mixy. I make it to about the consistency of a pastry dough so adding a few more oats if too wet, or yogurt/milk/water if too dry. Pop it in a greased pan, squashed down to about 2cm thick, and approximately 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Another batch was oats, few handfuls of cashew nuts, couple of dollops of peanut butter with equal amount of golden syrup OR over ripe banana, plain yoghurt to get it to the right consistency, and then after it was baked but still hot I grated some cheap chocolate over the top. 

Over the years I've added blueberries, other dried fruits like apricot, chocolate chips, jam, all sorts I find that as long as there's enough moistness to soften the oats and something sweet, it passes as a treat. They're great in lunch boxes, and we've even microwaved slices and added a little jam and cream over the top to enjoy as a dessert.

atrixa

After an eye-watering £20 for one bag of shopping at Mr M, my total now stands at £71.76/£145.

I took advantage of a decent offer on own-brand coffee beans and a few yellow sticker items. I've had little in the way of offers from their app recently. I wish Mr S was closer as it's now working out cheaper to shop there instead.

I'm making fajitas tonight

@RandomOne If you've got a lot of root veg and want to avoid stews, maybe roast or air fry them if you fancy a change. You can then eat as is, or put them in a pasta sauce or something.

Doom_and_Gloom

Doom_and_Gloom said:

£70.16/£294.50.

£224.34 left.

£65.91 spent since last update between A&C and Mr S.
Included in the above was a bulk buy of toilet roll and many toothpastes for OH as his were on offer. So with it mostly being top up items now we should come in budget this month still, even if nearly half has been spent by day 4.

£136.07/£294.50.
£158.43 left.

Hild0

03/10 - NSD, although boyfriend did buy me lunch out.
04/10 - £3.96 on milk and biscuits.

Caroby

Small shop in Sainsbury's today, first shop of the month. £7.04 for some sweet peppers, a courgette, a small seedy baguette, Flora plant butter on offer so thought we'd try it (was yum on the baguette), some Camp coffee (I use it in cakes) and a three-pack of Fry's orange chocolate creme bars which I'll put by for Christmas in case I can't find any later. Tomorrow I have to defrost the under-counter freezer before we do our first main shop on Thursday.