November 2023 Grocery Challenge

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

I made one of my favourite soups yesterday in my lunch break, which made 5 portions in total, so I'm feeling very pleased! It's the "On the Mend Spiced Lentil and Kale Soup" from Oh She glows (still one of my most useful/used cookbooks for soups, stews, curry etc) - it's a really delicious soup that I adapted to what I had in (well, the spices, as it turned out I hadn't restocked my backup stock!), and I added carrots as I have a bag and why not bulk it out, but essentially it's onion, garlic, celery (and carrots!) sauteed in olive oil, add spices - cumin, coriander, paprika, chilli powder and cayenne, a couple of bay leaves, a couple of tins of tomatoes, red lentils, a lot of stock - I used about 2 litres I think as I made a big batch) and then sliced kale at the end. Simple, wholesome, filling and delicious.

CRANKY40

Yesterday was grocery NSD number 3. One of our friends came for lunch and they had a doughnut from the doughnut box - the rest of our lunch items were already in the fridge.The pizza was paid for from the birthday pot and the entire order was less than £20. There is enough takeaway pizza left over for the HT to have it for dinner tonight (alongside some of the free garlic bread which he is also very happy about). 

Grocery spend so far £13.90. 

elsiepac

Just got a big baked oats dish going in the oven so that'll be breakfasts for the week - I always seem to default to cherry and almond flavour as I just love it so much!! Used the last 2 bananas in it though and I'll be having the last crust of bread later today so I will need a small shop today.

So far on the list is just bananas, bread from Mr T, and vegan butter, chilli powder and cajun seasoning from Mr S. However I've yet to work out what else I'll be eating so I expect my list will grow!

Fireworks in my town were cancelled last night due to the Rec being completely sodden, but I could hear lots of others going off. Hopefully the wildlife wasn't too affected and people's pets were safe inside, and if you guys saw fireworks I hope they were spectactular!

nannygladys

Ran out of milk again so nipped up to the co op. 85p spent on a small one as it was the only one
not with todays date on and I can’t drink the bigger bottles in a couple of days. I’ve been eating down the fridge/freezer as I will be buying a new one soon (it’s on the way out and very old) so I’ll be having some strange combinations soon 😂 signature update done

PurpleJay

Had a Tesco delivery yesterday which came to £80.63, milk and more this week was £9.45 and I called at the shop for strawberries and reduced bread rolls £2.63 so a total of £92.71 spent so far this month. I have meal planned for the week so should be ok until next weekend. 

£92.71/£400

Pennypincin

I've managed a nsd today and was given a bag of carrots too.
My poor slow cooker will go on strike soon as I've been trying to use it more and have made 2 lots of carrot and coriander soup.
I've also managed to come just over £10 under for this week, I will add it to the bulk fund.

Soontobeoap

Beef stew today with left over brisket from freezer. Lovely warming meal now that it is getting colder. We had meatballs with rice yesterday and I used the left over sauce as a base for the stew. I am also short of cooking oil so used the fat left from frying the meatballs to fry the onions and mushrooms. Anyway it reminded me of those friendship cakes we used to make in the 70's when you passed on the yeast mixture to a friend so that they could start a cake and kept using it to feed your  next cake. Cant quite remember how it worked now. Do any of you remember them? I wonder if they are still going.

Anyway left over stew as beef soup for lunch tomorrow and a hm frozen lasagna for dinner. 

Tidied out baking cupboard and discovered that I didnt have any suet so made the dumplings with marg instead. Not as good but ok. Found some raisins so if I get time tomorrow I will make a fruit cake as a sweet treat. 
We have at least 15 meals in freezer so should be ok for a while. 

goldfinches

I fell for duck eggs in M*rks this afternoon as I've never had the chance to try baking with them before now so I spent £10.60 in M*rks on 4x organic milk, a melon, a pineapple, 6x duck eggs, 2x passion fruit and the baking fund spent £4 on vegan percy sprinkles which may have to go back as they are not suitable for coeliacs which was in such small print on the bottle I didn't see it until I got home and put my other glasses on, grrrr. 
Yesterday I popped into the Mr T's on the corner because I noticed them marking down some fruit through the window and spent £1.24 on clementines and plums as well as £4.50 on two large Philadelphias which had a CC price and both have use by dates in next February so can sit in the fridge until I fancy a cheesecake over the festive season.

That makes my total £16.34/£170 and my average daily spend is £3.26.

MissRikkiC

3 spends totalling £143 here, £17 on hello fresh (of which £16 I should get back through TCB at some stage) and then 2 Mr T shops. However I’m back after a weekend away for a course and the fridge is so empty! I actually struggled to put a lunch pack together for my daughter for preschool today so it’s pretty necessary one of us gets to the shops today. 

CRANKY40

Food shop done today - £49.15. Fruit, veg, milk, cat fud, cheese, baked beans and some vegan chocolate. I'm not vegan but best friend has a dairy allergy. The shopping included some bits to make sweeties for best friend and I was going to put the money back in from my personal spends pot but I reckon the grocery budget can take it. I'm going to have a go at chocolate dipped peppermint creams. What could possibly go wrong? 🙄😁

The HT had leftover pizza for dinner yesterday (reheated in the microwave, yuk!) and I had spiced butternut soup and toast. The soup was made by the company named after a popular tourist spot in London rather than being home made but I will get cracking this week and make celery soup from celery picked from friend's garden. 

I was supposed to take my cousin out tomorrow but she rang to say that she wasn't well so I will be kitchening instead so soup for me, mocha squares for the HT (possibly brownies as well if the tin is nearly empty) and I'll probably make bread in the breadmaker too. If I have any energyleft I may try some peppermint creams to see what happens. 

Total spend £63.05/£320.00