February 2024 Grocery Challenge

debtfreewannabe321

LadyWithAPlan said:

@debtfreewannabe321 do you have a recipe for your famous Dal please - my last one was good - largely the dishoom recipe one without cream etc but always good to try a new version 

It's actually a Delia recipe that I adapted so you can search up her one...but this is it here basically copied from her website...

"In a saucepan containing 1½ pints (850 ml) of water add one teaspoon each of ginger, cumin, turmeric and salt, then bring it all to the boil.

Stir in the lentils, let it come back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. After that add the diced potato and continue cooking until the lentils have turned mushy (making sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan by giving it a stir now and again).

While that's cooking, heat up the butter in another pan and fry the onion and pepper in it (over a fairly high heat) until the onion has browned – then lower the heat and stir in the Madras curry powder (if you like your curries hotter, you can add more), the garlic, the remaining ground ginger and the chopped tomatoes.

Cook for a minute before adding the lentil mixture, then taste, season with more salt and cook gently for a further 5-10 minutes (stirring from time to time).

INGREDIENTS

INGREDIENTS

8 oz (225 g) red lentils

1 clove garlic, crushed

4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped    I USE TWO TINS OF CHOPPED TOMATOES INSTEAD

Salt

2 level teaspoons ground ginger

1 level teaspoon ground cumin

1 level teaspoon turmeric

2 potatoes, peeled and diced WE DOUBLE UP THE POTATOES

2 tablespoons butter I USE VEGAN ALTERNATIVE

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1 small green pepper, de-seeded and chopped I USE AT LEAST TWO PEPPERS, ANY COLOUR

1 level teaspoon Madras curry powder

SPICES- I USE CUMIN, GARAM MASALA, WHATEVER CURRY POWDER I HAVE IN, TUMERIC, GINGER, CORIANDER. I USE TINNED TOMATOES INSTEAD OF FRESH AND ALSO TOMATO PASTE AS WE LIKE IT TOMATO-EY AND I ALWAYS RINSE THE LENTILS REALLY WELL BEFORE COOKING SO THE DINNER DOESN'T TASTE STARCHY. 
I SERVE WITH RICE AND SALAD (SOMETIMES ONION SALAD) AND POPPADOMS, it's the staple fake away in my home because it's so cheap to cook and Indian is my favourite. The trick is definitely to have two pans on the go and cook the lentils and potatoes separately to the rest and mix only at the end. Hope that helps  

debtfreewannabe321

Hi, just popping in with new totals, getting a little too close to the £500 budget already I AM AT £398.07/500 for the month *eek* 

I *should* only have one week worth of shopping left to buy in my month though, so I may be able to reign it in under budget still. 

Meal plan is done for this week and next and I have been saving extra portions of dinners all month. I have in the freezer one lentil cottage pie (just need to make mash and stick some veg into the 'mince' mix. I have a dahl left, one pie filling & the pastry too. I will do jacket potatoes, pasta one night and then plant balls & spaghetti. SOOOoooo the last week's dinners are effectively all sorted and in the house already. I will just need fresh stuff, cupboard top up and bakery items as well as milk. I also bulk bought boxes of walkers crisps at the beginning of the month, hid them in the garage and bring one box out every time they empty, so cheap snacks for the kids (and grown ups to be fair) and the fruit is going down well. I have moved it so the kids have to walk past it, they are grabbing that more often than searching for rubbish in the cupboards. 

Amateurretiree

So trying a new tactic this month, instead of getting a weekly online delivery from Tesco am getting one big one ( delivered tomorrow ) for £200 then will do two smaller ones for £50 ten days apart. 

I sometimes think I spend more on my weekly shops to make it up to the £50 to qualify for the delivery saver so end up adding extra stuff to make it up, so hoping these ten day gaps mean I’m only buying what we need.

The big shop tomorrow includes all the toilet roll, cleaning supplies and cupboard top ups which will last us the month, plus some extra frozen jacket potatoes, vegetables and fish as they are on 4 for 3 so they will stock the freezer. Also as we have our grandaughter all of half term, some extra stuff for her.

The savings with all of the special offers is fourty pounds, and it’s double points so that’s 900 points , an extra tenner in the Christmas savings kitty.

Might need to do a little shop here and there for fruit and veg but hopefully won’t be too much.

so £200/£300 so far.

PipneyJane

debtfreewannabe321 said:

LadyWithAPlan said:

@debtfreewannabe321 do you have a recipe for your famous Dal please - my last one was good - largely the dishoom recipe one without cream etc but always good to try a new version 

It's actually a Delia recipe that I adapted so you can search up her one...but this is it here basically copied from her website...

"In a saucepan containing 1½ pints (850 ml) of water add one teaspoon each of ginger, cumin, turmeric and salt, then bring it all to the boil.

Stir in the lentils, let it come back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. After that add the diced potato and continue cooking until the lentils have turned mushy (making sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan by giving it a stir now and again).

While that's cooking, heat up the butter in another pan and fry the onion and pepper in it (over a fairly high heat) until the onion has browned – then lower the heat and stir in the Madras curry powder (if you like your curries hotter, you can add more), the garlic, the remaining ground ginger and the chopped tomatoes.

Cook for a minute before adding the lentil mixture, then taste, season with more salt and cook gently for a further 5-10 minutes (stirring from time to time).

INGREDIENTS

INGREDIENTS

8 oz (225 g) red lentils

1 clove garlic, crushed

4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped    I USE TWO TINS OF CHOPPED TOMATOES INSTEAD

Salt

2 level teaspoons ground ginger

1 level teaspoon ground cumin

1 level teaspoon turmeric

2 potatoes, peeled and diced WE DOUBLE UP THE POTATOES

2 tablespoons butter I USE VEGAN ALTERNATIVE

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1 small green pepper, de-seeded and chopped I USE AT LEAST TWO PEPPERS, ANY COLOUR

1 level teaspoon Madras curry powder

SPICES- I USE CUMIN, GARAM MASALA, WHATEVER CURRY POWDER I HAVE IN, TUMERIC, GINGER, CORIANDER. I USE TINNED TOMATOES INSTEAD OF FRESH AND ALSO TOMATO PASTE AS WE LIKE IT TOMATO-EY AND I ALWAYS RINSE THE LENTILS REALLY WELL BEFORE COOKING SO THE DINNER DOESN'T TASTE STARCHY. 
I SERVE WITH RICE AND SALAD (SOMETIMES ONION SALAD) AND POPPADOMS, it's the staple fake away in my home because it's so cheap to cook and Indian is my favourite. The trick is definitely to have two pans on the go and cook the lentils and potatoes separately to the rest and mix only at the end. Hope that helps  

@elsiepac please add the above dhal recipe to the index. Many thanks.

@debtfreewannabe321  - thank you for the dhal recipe.

- Pip

lovemula21

Total to date £253.50/£500
  
This includes an online bulk shop of grass fed beef that cost £138.80. 

This leaves us with £82.16/ week for 3 supermarket shops.

This should be possible if I shop from my stores, meal plan and stop sending OH to the shop for goodies. 

keggie

Big shop today nearly £90 so now £193/£240. Will have to tighten our belts til the end of the month. No more shopping with my wife - the bills are much bigger when we go together…

wishus

Ugh, I am almost at my limit for the month after my shopping today. This is after a meal plan and shopping list, so I've made a good effort. £72.33 in Sainsbob's. 

As we can, we find ourselves buying 'up' to counteract the fact that they are selling sour oranges (so you need The Best), bruised potatoes and soft cucumbers. It's so annoying when the food is not only more expensive, but you don't get the same range of choice or quality as a few years ago.

mrs_motivated

A quick check in with my totals for week 1 and 2,  confident I can stay within budget as I’ve stocked up on things like washing powder, coffee pods and loo rolls this week.

£236/ £400.  

otb666

460/550  Will have to slow down on the spending to make it to 23rd.  i am cutting down my coffee to a couple a day and drinking hot ribena and hot lemon and honey.  Still enjoying soups, put marmite in one and hubby said it was the best one so far and he hates marmite Have not told him i put marmite in hahah

Suffolk_lass

Got to shop today as I have run out of lots of things - I have one potato and some cabbage left in fresh veg.

I must go to the customer service desk too as the own brand corn chips I had on click and collect (for a nachos starter when we had visitors) were two bags of crushed crumbs and one of the oranges (a singular one) was so mouldy three days later that it took out a second orange and an apple. I buy them as singles so I can make sure they are OK and these most certainly were not selected with the same care as I take myself so I will ask for a refund.

My list looks huge so I might trim a few things off it too. Even with my averaged-out annual budget, it is not Christmas so I need to remember this!