November 2022 Grocery Challenge

EssexHebridean

Hello all - first spends of our month to declare here - and remarkably “to plan” so far!

Popped into F@rmf00ds - thanks to whoever mentioned the chopped toms as I zeroed in on those - it’s actually a mix and match “any 4 for £1” on the tins so we got 6 x chopped with herbs, and 2 x cherry toms. Debated about the bottles of augmented passata too - 3 for £1 but with basil garlic and olive oil almost a pasta sauce on their own. Left them in the end though partly due to storage issues - as said by others recently buying in huge bulk is great if you have the amount of space to store - we do have a fair sized storecupboard but it has to take all our stores as well as some other bits and bobs too so we have to be mindful of space. 

£2.00 spent.
Then across the way to T’s - regular weekly shop but with a few extra bits for the start of the month. 5 x butter - again being mindful of the fact that if one supermarket have raised prices, allowing we have that shop in the town I can see all the others spotting an opportunity there! So 3 x salted & 2 x unsalted. Needed Italian hard cheese but the “value” grabs padano works well for us there. Also grabbed a tub of soft cheese as that’s handy to have in - that’s now at 85p though - allowing that it was 49p a pack not so long ago that’s a massive increase.  Loo rolls accounted for £9 of the spend, and other “restocking” bits included a pack of chicken “stockpots”. Had planned to buy oven chips but balked at the prices so grabbed a £1.49 bag of Maris Pipers instead and will make wedges tonight. Bargain of the day was a pack of thr “value” branded frozen yorkshire puds - I think there were 15 in the bag for 50p - I couldn’t make them at that price I don’t reckon so we thought we’d give them a try. 
£43.78 spent - but nearly £20 of that was the butter and the loo rolls. 

Total spend week 1 = £45.78/£200 

JingsMyBucket

Hey folks, happy Saturday. @gill5blue after seeing your post I also messaged @elsiepac earlier this week to check in with her but haven’t heard back. Hopefully she’s healthy and doing well. 

In the past week we’ve had a few spends but not too much. On Thursday I spent £14.55 at M & S for berries, figs, easy peelers, a 25p bag of ready bananas, wheat crackers, a white boule and a pack of samosas. 

Another £2.26 was spent at the local cheese shop for a piece of Black Bomber cheese. Everyone raves about it for Christmas cheese boards so I decided to finally try some before the holiday. You know, for verification purposes. I’m kind of meh on it but turns out Mr. Jings liked it. While there I noticed they have different cheese packages for the holidays, a £15 board and a £37 board. They’ll also customize a basket or board for you. I think I may take them up on that in December. 

Today we returned to the cheese shop while in town and bought another cheese to try, this time a local Scottish one. Mr. Jings and I both loved this one. We also bought a chili jam that will last us quite a few months. £8.94 spent at the cheese shop. 

£3.70 was spent in Iceland on two boxes of chicken Kievs. We’ll have one box tonight for dinner and save the other for another convenient dinner a different night. 

Lastly was another M & S stop. £22.28 spent on strawberries, YS blackberries, bananas, YS salad, frozen potato hash browns, butter, milk, crackers for cheese, a small variety cheese plate, a packet of shortbread Mr. Jings sneaked into the basket. The salad will be used with dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. The cheese plate will be lunch tomorrow as well. 

Along the way we visited Super Savers to find Plenty paper towels but they didn’t have any. I’ll head to Tesco or B & M next weekend to look for those. 

£197.25 spent so far. £152.75 / £350.00 remaining

This post is long enough so I'll put our most recent cooking/eating in another post. 

JingsMyBucket

Right, so here's what we’ve eaten so far and what’s coming up on our cooking plan: 

Eaten

• Miso, ginger, garlic, and lime roasted chicken. It’s an Ottolenghi recipe that uses chicken thighs but I just applied the same spices to a whole chicken. It came out excellent. We still have some of that in the fridge. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view the recipe https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/25/autumn-main-course-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi-squash-chicken-fish-prawns-duck-beef-pasta 

• Chinese vegetable soup made by OH. After we roasted the chicken, we added some to the soup to the extend it. 

• Spinach, mushrooms, truffle sauce, cheddar and mozzarella tart last night. It used frozen spinach, frozen mushrooms, and a short pastry out of the freezer. Also the remainder of a jar of truffle pasta sauce that’s been in the fridge a while. 

Cooking Soon

• Small lamb shanks - just pulled these out of the freezer for tomorrow’s dinner. Instead of stewing them in the cast iron pot, I think I might shallow braise them. Anybody have any favourite recipes or ideas? Would they be good with peppers braised along with them? 
• Chicken & couscous salad - Using the leftover roasted chicken and adding some vegetables into the mix. OH would be able to take this for his work lunch since there’s no microwave there. 

• Maybe a frittata - lots of kale, peppers and cheese all up in there. 

I'm a bit stumped for other ideas right now though. I may go simple and roast a bunch of chicken drumsticks with vegetables for an easy dinner this upcoming week. Next week will be intense with the wrapping up of an all consuming client project so I want to future proof myself against ordering food for lunch or dinner.  

thriftwizard

@JingsMyBucket, that all sounds delicious...

I've done my top-up shop today, thanks to an unanticipated outbreak of mould in the breadbin; thought I might as well get the other things I know we're going to need whilst I was up there, and hopefully not have to darken their door again until Thursday/Friday. So £23.70 added, and 3 packs of sausages popped into the freezer for another day.

Gettingmyshiztogether

Hello! TGTG update! I went and collected a magic bag last night from the sp@r. Only four items this time. We got a carton of orange juice, a packet of roast chicken, a rustaaa burger, and a 1 person steak pie. As its only the dog and eldest that eats meat it was a tad disappointing but! It's all OK. Dog got chicken so was happy DD had orange juice for breakfast so we're happy and I ve learnt not to have a sp@r magic bag again 🤣 m and Sons it is from now on once a week. 

Today I am going to pop into f@arm foods for some tins, thank you for the tip! And then go shopping whilst my car goes into the garage for new tyres. It worked out well time wise. 

I'll update you with my spends later 😊

So far £109.77/ £460

joedenise

I ordered 2 TGTG bags from Morrisons to collect yesterday and about an hour before we were due to leave to go and get them we got a message to say they were cancelled!  Very disappointing but it's not the first time they've done this. I particularly felt bad about it as one of the bags was for my neighbour as she's unable to get to the shop so felt I'd let her down.  Never mind will try again this afternoon for one to collect tomorrow but they don't often have any to collect on a Monday.

Paspatur

I really like Morrisons TGTG bags but have stopped buying them
Last time I went to collect I was told there were none available, no text message at all and it takes me 2 buses to get there and same back
Been tempted to hit reserve on Spar a few times as it is round the corner but don't bother in the end as I won't eat most of what they sell
Best for me is the Sainsburys in Dobbies garden centre but that is not possible now as it is too dangerous to walk there and back in the dark
Local baker I only use if I know grandkids will be here as it is mostly cakes/pastries which I don't eat

sweetpea26

Called into Mr tees spent £4.35

 naan bread bought two packs as they were reduced 94p.
Crumpets reduced to 28p
And milk £2.19

That brings total to
Food £89.29
Household £12.49

£101.78  / £300

Gettingmyshiztogether

Just sat waiting for my car, so am updating you on the food shop just done in L!dlz,

£86.79 spent.

Taking my total to 

£196.56/ £460 for this month. 

I ve lots of batch cooking to do today and have stocked up on some bits as I am noticing that items are still going up 10p each every week still. 

FrugalThymes

Hi all
It's gotten a bit difficult to work out what is groceries for NOW and what is pantry, so I've combined the two budgets £200 plus £300 for the month instead.

Had a MAJOR shopping weekend and have stocked up the pantry and bought enough for all meals until December. We do have two parties coming up but I'm going to try and cater those from what we have in.

Batch cooking today and have made triple batch of bolognese, triple batch of burrito bowl (just need to add rice), two cottage pies, double batch campfire stew, double batch mayfair curry plus three lots of cooked carrot and celery left over, ready to freeze and add to meals next week. I need another freezer!

£297/£300 (groceries and pantry)