August 2023 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

JingsMyBucket said:

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@goldfinches the orange almond flour cake turned out really well. I only made a couple adjustments: instead of 1/2 cup honey, I did 1/4 honey and 1/4 maple syrup. Instead of canola oil I used olive oil because I had standard vegetable oil. Would that have worked you think? 

Just a heads up, there's was a discrepancy between the ingredients and the instructions. In the ingredients list it called for 1/2 cup of yoghurt but in the directions it said 3/4 cup. I used the former and it seems to have turned out fine. I was going to split the difference and do 2/3 cup but when I emptied the yoghurt container it came to about 1/2. I think next time I'll use 2/3 cup yoghurt and vegetable oil just to see if it's moister. 

Next time I think I'll use more orange peel shavings or even zest instead to boost the orange flavour. But still, our friends loved it. We served it at their house with M & S' pistachio and Madagascan vanilla ice creams.  

@JingsMyBucket if you look at the content label on your vegetable oil, it will probably be 100% rapeseed oil.  Rapeseed oil is Canola oil, it just goes by a different name on this side of the Pond.  (Any Australians reading this, rapeseed oil is called "safflower oil" downunder.)  There's quite a bit of inverse snobbery surrounding rapeseed oil over here, which is why it's usually sold as "vegetable oil".

HTH

Pip

goldfinches

@JingsMyBucket - thankyou for the verdict on the cake, very useful to hear others opinions. I agree with PipneyJane and others that any oil would do. I'll be interested to hear your results when you vary the yoghurt amount next time.
@lilly81 - glad to hear your UC has arrived promptly and that your puppy is helping with your budget.

I made this gingernuts recipe for my walking group yesterday and everyone thought them delicious although I thought they could do with a bit more gingeriness so I might use some syrup from a jar of preserved ginger as a sub for a bit of the golden syrup next time. 



They look slightly patchy in colour because I rubbed the butter into the flour by hand and really should have used the food processor, I just didn't want to have to do all that washing up!

I didn't manage another NSD yesterday but have been firmer with myself about not cruising round the supermarket looking at everything and impulse buying anything that catches my eye so am feeling quite virtuous today. I also went blackberrying earlier this evening which was lovely in the warm sun and I now have four containers full of free fruit to be made into liqueur and jelly as well as eaten as they are. 

I have spent 90p at Mr T's on sparkling water because it was too hot to walk all the way to Sainsbys to buy another gas cylinder and I was gasping on the way home from walking group yesterday. Then £13 at Sainsbys for said gas cylinder this lunchtime and 4x milk, cucumber and radishes at M*rks for £3.60 and a free petit pain from my Sp*rks card. 
That makes my new total £84.90/£124 and my average daily spend £4.99. 

weenancyinAmerica

@goldfinches - It looks a lot like my molasses (treacle?) cookies. At one time it was all I knew how to cook. But I got a blue ribbon from the county fair for them.

Suffolk_lass

Great use of community shop there @Florenceem.

I had to buy fuel for the car yesterday and the cheapest fuel station involves a loop round the village with the coop so popped in and bought some savoury snacks for a weekend away in our motorhome, and some coleslaw so £1 added (treats are in the entertainment budget). I should have picked up 2 pints of milk but I forgot that so a quick trip this morning before we set off to sit in a field with friends for the weekend. I am waiting on the refund of our milk that I cancelled from the milkman so it may just offset. I will wait and see.

Those ginger biscuits look good @goldfinches. I have a good recipe I tweaked when they were unavailable in the shops last year. Mine was the Tosco recipe. Nice and spicy!

Our friends are bringing cheese scones for an afternoon treat today (at the campsite) - I am waiting for a sourdough loaf to prove so will take some rolls (not that I expect she will eat them, as she is diabetic and very low on starchy carbs). I have corn chips and hummus to share though.

SausageDogSandwich

Have spent £15.90 on fruit,veg,milk,bread did this through Uber and used Sainsbury’s, they do 50% off fruit and veg on Mondays, then husband had £15 off voucher and free trial of free delivery else it would of been a lot more, for that we got 3 punnets strawberries, 3 packs apples, 2 packs posh easy peelers, 4 cucumber, carrots, red cabbage, watermelon chunks, blueberries, raspberries, lettuce, red onions, 2 packs of grapes all half price then bread, milk and 2 Pringles tubes at full price. So it was worth it with all the offer combined but a one off price. Going to use the second £15 off this weekend for more bread, milk and anything else we need while still have free delivery. 

I know I have been to the co op but neeed to go through my bank and then will add that on later, so for now spends at 
£139.35/400

Soontobeoap

Spends today £3.87 at Aldi and a bigshop coming from Tescos for £88.87. If I am cadeful from now on I am hoping that Ican beat last years total despite the cost of living crisis and many extra people to feed tgis year. 

Thevalueofless

My August update

I think this is my first entry for August - on holiday then catching up with everything at the allotment because of the holiday! Anyways, first proper trip to supermarket today and this receipt added to all the others sits us at £237.74 with budget of £270 for monthly shop and £25 for storage items. I had been trying to keep the shopping for stores separate but my haphazard approach at the checkout made this a bit too complicated for now so am just trying to build up stores and happy if monthly shopping comes under the total sum of £295. The aim of building up the stores is for a no (or very low) spend on groceries in November.

Plenty coming in off the allotment right now with courgette and green beans making an appearance in almost every lunch and dinner. We haven't grown much in the way of brassicas for autumn/winter as they were a bit of a disaster last year which I am regretting now but the freezer already full of the aforementioned beans and courgette so we will just have to be eating them during November's no buy. 

So, pleased with where we are at for August and now going to get a cuppa and settle down to read everyone's thoughts for August so far. I have already spied pictures of cookies and cake recipes so looking forward to catching up with you all.

TVOL

gill5blue

Hi All, updating as I have been away and not been able to update this month-although I am very pleased with myself as I have not overspent.

so far this month I have spent £202.08/£240

1 week to and I should stay within my target.
good luck all
gill5blue

lilly81

Spent another £11.17 today, have decided taking my son in the shops with me is expensive! 
£98.24/£264

Blackcats

We did another big shop at lidls this week but some items were for days when family were visiting which comes from a separate pot. 

However just like @Thevalueofless my haphazard accounting procedure means I'm not sure how to divvy up the spend accurately so I made an "educated" guess. 

I keep thinking we are nearer the end of the month than we actually are so I will focus on spending as little as possible next week.
I'd really like to have some surplus at the end of the month to move into our holiday pot which has taken a severe battering this summer.

£170.50 remaining