August 2023 Grocery Challenge

Pennypincin

I had a nsd today and an nsd Monday. I'm really pleased.
I spent £9 yesterday mainly on milk, fruit and salad.
I had a £1 of the Bob milk, which I think was a bargain at £1.50 for 2 litres instead of £2.50.
I don't normally buy it, but needed milk.
I could do with advice on how to eat well on a tight budget.
I'm doing slimming world, am vegetarian and can't afford more than £30 per week including things like household cleaning items.
Personal care/cleaning ie deodorant/shower gel ect is separately budget.
I've been to an open kitchen twice that has slightly out of date food from supermarkets and other places, but I'm paranoid about getting food poisoning and picking up/being offered food I need to watch, especially having a sweet tooth and having previously been pre diabetic.
Such as cakes, pastries and so on.
It's handy for bread and vegetables and fruit, but it's slim pickings on this bits that's healthy.
I don't want to sound ungrateful or as though I'm being disrespectful, as it's amazing that food waste is being reduced and it's feeding people and am so grateful for what I've received.
Thank you everyone, sorry for the rant and long post.

joedenise

@Pennypincin - are you going to group or doing SW on your own?  If you have access to the SW website click on the Features tab on left hand side of page and type in Eating on a Budget and several things will come up which you might be able to use.

If you're not a member then try the SW blog:  https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/blog/category/eat/ and at the very bottom of the page is a form to have a 7 day menu sent to you I think by email.  You can ask for a vegetarian menu or a budget menu - unfortunately there isn't a budget vegetarian one but I would have though most of the vegetarian one would be fairly budget friendly.

The other website I'd suggest is Jack Monroe's:  www.cookingonabootstrap.com - the recipes are mainly vegan or vegetarian although some of her earlier recipes contained small amounts of meat.

Hope that helps you find some meals you can eat on a small budget.

SausageDogSandwich

Rounded up the holidays shopping spends to 97£ 
declaring at £377.96/400 spent. Will add the leftover to September budget , see you all there .

Pennypincin

Thank you joedenise.
I'm going to a group and will definitely look into what you have suggested.

joedenise

@Pennypincin - you'd be welcome over on the SW thread on here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6439264/step-into-a-lighter-summer-23-with-slimming-world#latest. 

It's a very supportive group who all follow SW to some extent and some post their menu plans which may also give you some ideas.

Pennypincin

Thank you.

goldfinches

@Pennypincin - you might find these suggestions helpful How we developed our new £1 meals - BBC Food. I recommended it back in 2022 but think it's still useful and there are lots of new meal plans now as well. I do agree that a healthy diet is more expensive and, having tried a surplus food scheme locally that you're not always offered food you can make use of. 

I gave in to temptation on Wednesday and bought some ready made salads at M*rks on the way home from a very long (7.55 km) walk with friends so spent another £9.70. Arrgh, note to self, stop shopping when tired and/or hungry.

That makes my final figure for this month a horrendous £140.88/£124 and my average daily spend £4.54. Ouch!
The Baking Budget is better at £20.10/£25 and the Bulk Buy fund spent a measly £22.40/£100.

See you all over on the September thread where I hope to do better.

PipneyJane

Good morning All.  

Hope all is well with you.  I’m 7 pages behind, so apologies if I’ve missed anything momentous.

I’m declaring for August at £102.70/£140.70 leaving £38 to roll into September.

Although I haven’t posted much this month, I did keep track of my spending.  I won’t bore you with all the shops: 3 at L!dl, 1 at the C0-0p, 2 at Sainsbugs, 1 at MrTs, etc.  Despite this, I’m feeling very disorganised at the moment.

Spent £3.49 on a 4kg sack of large onions from the local greengrocer, on 9th August, which will last me well into September.  I like that the onions are in a mesh bag, not plastic, so that they don’t sweat, and don’t start sprouting or go mouldy 2 days after I get them home.. One thing I’ve noticed is that any veg that is wrapped in plastic, even if it has “breathing holes”, will go mouldy at the point where you can see sweat collecting when you pick it up at the supermarket.

See you in September.

- Pip

mumtoomany

A total of £76.45 spent in the last couple of weeks! Total for the year is now £1401.98/£1860. This leaves me with £458.02 for the remainder of the year. At least now the holidays are almost over there will be fewer visitors, and fewer mouths to feed. We had an extra ten people staying earlier in August, on top of the seven normally here. Trying to have a very minimal spend September.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

PipneyJane

thriftwizard said:

@Suffolk_lass, these 3 very different "fruits" are from 3 plants grown from one pack of "official" summer squash seeds that came on the front of a magazine. Only one of them seems to be what they are supposed to be - but at least they are all edible! (Think there may have been a quality control issue at the suppliers...?) You could look at the Real Seeds catalogue for heirloom squashes, both summer & winter; everything I've grown from them has been very good - especially the Asturian Tree Cabbages!



Will try giving @elsiepac a nudge. 

Patti pan!  I love them.  (The ones one the left.). @thriftwizard, if you are at a loss as to how to cook them, cut them up into segments (like slicing a pie) and stir fry the segments in butter or olive oil.  When I was a vegetable hating teenager, that was one dish that converted me.

- Pip