November 2023 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

Huge congratulations from me for those above who have come in under or slightly over budget, not at all easy to do nowadays and definitely harder in the darker, colder weather I think. 

I have three recent spends to add to bring me up to date beginning with my spending £12.20 at the Mr T's on the corner on Friday when I wasn't feeling particularly well which explains the high total as I got a little carried away and bought various treats that I wouldn't normally buy. Then today I spent £9.98 at M*rks on YS salad, yoghurts, onion, swede, carrots, spinach and a cucumber but had to go on to Sains as there were no walnuts in M*rks, grrr. I succumbed to all sorts of things that I managed to persuade myself were sensible in Sains and spent £17.10 on tinned toms, pasta, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and satsumas so am now very cross with myself as well as M*rks!

My new monthly total is £129.81/£170 and my average daily spend is £4.80.

wishus

goldfinches said:

@wishus - I'd also be interested in the recipe for red onion roti if you have a link as they sound mouthwateringly tasty, thankyou.

Hi @goldfinches - the recipe is part of a guest recipe on Jamie's £1 wonders. My vegan friends were very impressed with these roti and the roast cauliflower I served alongside. I also added rice. They were delicious! You need to sign up/log in to get all the recipes, but the roti one is very simple indeed! To make 4, from memory:

250g plain flour
100ml coconut milk (the rest goes in the curry sauce for the main bit of the recipe)
one small or half a medium red onion, sliced (I chopped)
10-12 curry leaves chopped (I crushed them in)
about 30ml water if needed.

Basically, mix ingredients together to form a dough. Divide into 4 balls and flatten out into a roti.

Get a really hot pan, no oil.

Put the roti in the pan, cook until the one side is done, flip, do the other side.

wishus

Meals planned for the week:

Tonight: shepherds pie
Tue: pork steaks and mash
Wed: veggie enchiladas
Thur: 50/50 bolognese and pasta
Fri: fish, wedges, peas. And that's after payday, so I'll plan weekend meals later.

I'm afraid the last grocery trip bust the budget. £38.47, takes me to £213.51

Hot tip for tasty lunches... I made a slow cooked beef stew in the instant pot, but when it was ready the sauce was not very thick, so I put some of it back in the pot straight away with rice, mushrooms, spring onion and peas. when that was done, spread it out on a tray to cool quickly. OH had tasty beefy rice to eat for 2 of his lunches this week!

goldfinches

@wishus thankyou for the red onion roti recipe which I have copied into my MSE recipes file. I might give it a try later on this week, goldfinches.

CRANKY40

Final shop done for November (£82.49) so my total is £305.27/£320.00

I did make a bit of space in the freezer but have now added pigs in blankets portioned up for the HT's December/Christmas roast dinners.

SausageDogSandwich

I’m upto £342.54 / 350. Will need milk before Friday but other than that everything is stocked up for the rest of the week. 

mumtoomany

Last shop of the month. Just two bottles of milk from local petrol station. Needed nothing else, so not worth the petrol to drive to town, nearly ten miles away. Cost £3.40. Total spend for the year now, £1731.06/£1860. I will have £128.94 left for December. We are away from the 22nd till 27th, so should be achievable. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

LadyWithAPlan

Well done all especially those who kept under budget .. I did not
To be fair I only set £150 as I was abroad the first 2 weeks and work covered some costs. I may pop to use my Sains vouchers on way home tonight for frozen veg as running out veg and fruit was what drove me to the shops. I had enough proteins in as I always pick up YS when I can

£186.92/£150  grocery    + £19.13/£100 bulk 

Grocery Shopping  £26.75 + w/up liq £1.99 (from hme but will take from bulk)
Got a FR chicken £9.37 but will be making stock after from, and soup as got beetroot as well plus no doubt get 4/5 meals out the chicken itself.

Plus YS turkey mince as going to try that HF lamb chermoula dish with turkey. (with harissa paste, tomato puree, rice, ) and mint yog on side (yet to buy fresh mint and the DF yogurt was all out 

Plus loads of veg, greens,
organic spinach, cuc, carrots.
Satsumas, onions, kale, guac - the Mr L one is good and lasts * houmous. Plus one unsweetened soya milk - no more as I suspect its a UPF so trying to limit that,
 My fridge was v bare as i had not done a proper shop after my return from the States. 

I used my own bags and when I input my Lid card my total jumped up by £1.80 - self service had just added for no reason 6 x 30p bags! Even though I stated no bags .. luckily I saw it and got the guy to remove the charge - but looks like AI is now charging us when they feel like it .. robots starting to take over...
(though I LOVE my robot vacuum /mop he is 3 now and still brilliant - so much so I have bought my parents one for Xmas along with a heated throw from B**ts a Dreamla*d one as BF sale.

RESULT - no crisps or sweets or nuts bought  - miracle as I just eat the whole packet.

Popped to Mr L after gym - I do have Sain vouchers £80 to use up to 24 Dec and £11.75 in Mr Ice bonus but both a bit far

Tx for roti recipe @wishus I will try it with GF flour...

Cooked today for brunch  YS Mr T peri peri chicken breasts I defrosted - tasty at £2 YS , £4 though I wouldnt pay for it. Served with fried cavolo nero and organic spinach plus a sweet roast potato
I also did a side salad of an old favourite - spinach, tomato, raw mushroom salad with balsamic and olive oil

Pennypincin

My total spend for this week so far is around £20.
I spent around £8 in Lidl and also on cheese spread and some cereal bars and low calorie treats I like as I'd run out. They should last me a little while.
The only thing I may need is some fruit later in the week.
I'm really trying to resist unnecessary spending a with the yellow stickers.
I'd buy so much, especially vegetarian stuff if I wasn't careful.

LadyWithAPlan

Happy nearly December everyone  

Anyone got a great savoury recipe for puff pastry?
As I am GF it’s rare I cook pies or with GF pastry as it’s difficult  but my £2.50 jusrol GF puff pastry deserves to be treated royally with a fab filing! Never bought premade puff pastry before esp GF but it was a treat  (yes living life on the wild side)

Update to my yesterday Grocery shopping ... 
Grocery spend (inc free money I spent)  hard to split as we on 29th so much is for next month so 
£198.70/£150  grocery    + £29.13/£100bulk 

I am not tracking annual spend - some of your numbers are v insprining  but I am  about to try YNAB from Dec 1st for a year as want to track all spends and have detailed reports in 2024. I have a London home to buy

I passed the huge mr Sains on way home  from an event and went in to use one of my double points vouchers 
I had swapped £10 of nectar points for £20 - twice and £20 into £40 but they need using up by Xmas.
It was fun spending money for  free and I bought a couple things I wanted to try but won’t normally spend money on: 
Some GF puff pastry  £2.50! Maybe a chicken pie from chicken left after I roast my FR corn fed one or something else fabulous  
GF Schar bread it’s gorgeous but £3 for small one 
Plus some bulk stuff l can’t get in Mr L so GF plain flour, edamame frozen, frozen blueberries, GF pasta,
fresh mint and 2 x DF yogurt for the Chermoula dish 
rollmop herrings
red peppers on nectar savings

I did buy one pack of Fruitali***ous  by Hari**sweets and ate them and my bill was £23.23 so I only had to pay £3.23 after the £20 voucher - I had done shop and scan so didn’t know how to put things back ...

so fridge and freezer are now fuller and feel better as I had defrosted it recently so less HM food in there and want to build it up.  I have unpacked the veg in plastic and put in bowls in the fridge for carrots, satsumas opened the mushrooms,  for longer life and it looks quite cute too - I have read about people putting damp kitchen towel  in there to keep things fresh for longer ? Ideas? 
I have mint in the plastic packing - should that be put in damp roll?