December 2023 Grocery Challenge

Frugalistamama

Can you tell me how you guys prep and store that cheap Christmas veg? I always buy lots and try to store it but haven't thought about freezing it. Most of the time I'm left with a large amount of floppy and brown veg!

joedenise

Parsnips and carrots I mainly use for roasting so I prep them ready for roasting by par boiling, cooling and then open freezing before bagging up.

I also use some along with onions, turnips and swede and chop and freeze in meal size portions as stew packs.

Carrots, parsnips and potatoes will keep quite a long time in a cool, dark place preferably in paper sacks.  Can't always manage to get everything in the freezer since I got rid of my chest freezer and now have an under counter one which is less than half the size!

thriftwizard

Hmmm - failure looms again! I've spent a massive £152.63 today, between a good stock-up of non-perishables (£97.64) and the butcher & supermarket leg of the weekly shop (£54.99). Which would leave me something just under £50 per week to feed the 3 of us for the rest of the month. To be honest, there's enough beans, tomatoes, tinned fish, flour, grains, dried fruit, spices, loo roll & frozen stuff that that would actually be do-able - we could probably survive a 3-month siege! - BUT DS3 is returning a week earlier than previously advertised & will be with us well into January, DS1 & his lovely lady wife will be here for nearly a week & that means DS2, his lovely wife & DGS will be here for a fair bit of that too. My brother & 97 y.o. mother are here on Christmas Day itself, but that (and Boxing Day & New Year supplies) come out of a separate fund.

So I think I'd better ask for a re-set, please, @e@elsiepac, and put my target up to 

£500

or I'm sunk! Sorry to be a pain. Perhaps I should be more ambitious in January; we're in no danger of running out of some things until Easter!

LotsOfTea

I'm sitting out this month as I'm finding it hard to keep track of everything but keeping a watchful eye on how everyone else is doing. I'll rejoin again in January when everything feels less hectic. 

I'm impressed with all the people with room enough in their freezers for bargains. If only!

K9sandFelines

Frugalistamama said:

Can you tell me how you guys prep and store that cheap Christmas veg? I always buy lots and try to store it but haven't thought about freezing it. Most of the time I'm left with a large amount of floppy and brown veg!

Peel if needed, (blanch) place in boiling water for five min and then in ice water once done to stop the cooking process. Then freeze.

I do this with most of the surplus Too Good to go veg. HTH ❤️

Pennypincin

Sorry I've been missing in action.
Last week I managed to save £10 from the weekly food budget, which is in the bulk fund.
I've spent around £26 so far this week somehow, part of which was on herbs and spices in Lidl plus pasta.
I may pop into Lidl again tomorrow morning to get veg stock as I'm using the last pack and have none on reserve.
I've an online delivery due in a couple of weeks, it will need tweaking, so the bulk fund will take a big hit then.

LadyWithAPlan

@thriftwizard that sounds like a full fun house !

I will buy my parents a FR turkey - either Mr ald or a YS Wait one.. so thats £40 at least ... I will leave london the week before Xmas so 

I did win a packet of Percy pig sweets on the M&S Advent

Track my Grocery spending  £23.98/£200    grocery +   £24.29/£100bulk 
£23.98 Hello fresh - coming out of grocery -  plus had some snacks when I was out but that comes out my meals out budget 
one more HF box to order before I can access my £29.38 credit  I already paid then I will halt it for good.
I do need to get some greens in etc - also on last roll of toilet paper but I have  £40 + £2- sains vouchers from the double points  use up by Dec 24th so I will shop there again first much as I like my Mr lIDL ..

Ate a v posh YS risotto from M&S which was in my freezer - not that great to be honest £4 from £8 ... I have YS turkey mince defrosting  plus half a jar of posh ys soup..I prefer my own though ..
So I do need food for the weekend although HF will come sunday but last time it was gone 7pm so ..

nsd 4/13 but i need to get back on xmas shopping...

Pennypincin

Weekly budget now spent plus an extra 32p from the bulk fund for 2 bottles of fry light and 3 packs of veg stock.

joedenise

A few bits today - potatoes, fruit and butter.  Spent £8.89.  £40.20/£200 spent so far so £159.80 left.  Happy with that.

thriftwizard

Another £30 added for the fresh fruit & veg bought at the market yesterday & the greengrocers today; I forgot sweet potatoes, which DD2 considers a staple food, so popped in to pick a couple up on my way to the post office. So now I have about £70 a week to play with... but can't think of it quite like that as there are only 3 of us here until next weekend, then the numbers start to climb! But as against that, the festive supplies usually last for most of the next week, in one guise or another - December is just complicated!