February 2024 Grocery Challenge

lovemula21

Hi @JingsMyBucket I use Rosewood farm. They can be found on Google. An old friend recommended them a few years ago and I’ve used them on and off since. 

Sadly, today the delivery company they use sent me a message to say my delivery has been cancelled. I’ve not had any word from Rosewood yet but I looked on their website and I think they are having some supply issues so I’m not hopeful. 

This will mean I can add £138.08 back on to my budget once I get a refund. I’ll need to go to the supermarket tomorrow to get some steaks for our Valentines dinner.  

Edited to add: The order is coming today. Yay! 

We made do with beef from the freezer last night. So no extra spending needed for Valentines dinner 😁

Angelica123

I have spent £91.24 on shopping so far although £50 was on a Jam Doughnut voucher for Tesco that isn't all used up. 

I was watching a "What you Eat in a Day" style video on YouTube and saw a recipe that Meghan Markle makes for a courgette pasta sauce using just courgette and a stock cube. I might try that - add onion and garlic to give extra flavour. 

Suffolk_lass

Angelica123 said:

I have spent £91.24 on shopping so far although £50 was on a Jam Doughnut voucher for Tesco that isn't all used up. 

I was watching a "What you Eat in a Day" style video on YouTube and saw a recipe that Meghan Markle makes for a courgette pasta sauce using just courgette and a stock cube. I might try that - add onion and garlic to give extra flavour. 

I was thinking that was a lot to spend on jam doughnuts (and if I had, I don't think I would be that upfront about it), so I searched and now realise it is a cashback app. It made my husband use an expletive when I read that out to him, lol 

LadyWithAPlan

Thanks @debtfreewannabe321 for the dal recipe.


Grocery spend £12.64
I popped  into Sains on way home last night and loads of green veg on offer - big reductions  on broccoli, runner beans, strir fry veg  greens including a 'mediterranean veg pie box' = £3 normally but was 20p!  I also bought some of that GF puff pastry £2.50 as a treat so will make a veg pie today - the box has an aubergine, carrots, garlic, courgette, red pepper  and some tomato sauce puree thing - for 20p  - there were loads so I grabbed 2 so I will double make  as oven is on and freeze  second half ....
Also bought some kalettes to try .. and some frozen spinach - my running out of greens often gets me to the shops where I overspend... so I am trying to stock in more frozen greens.

£12.64 spend but one was a food/comp entry (chips which I rareky use but useful in) .and included £1.20 for some tortilla chips that even with lemon and  coriander houmous were not great ... 

I need some more protein stuff - but I have final hELLFRESH Beef dish to cook - my local Lid has closed annoyingly and I loved their FR corn fed chickens  4.89p/kg so i am having to rethink my shopping a bit..  there is an aldi but more more of a walk and nowhere near my gym/normal places I go.

The Jam Doughnut app looks interesting - I use Zipzero and the Airtime rewards ones (plus TCB and quidco) so not sure if I can use in conjunction ...will have a look 

Recipe suggestions
I had this rogan josh  in my credited HF last box  ...
very tasty -  and usual as has crispy potati on top instead of rice which made a nice change - even if you want to swap the lamb out  https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes/golden-potato-topped-lamb-rogan-josh-64f7401f71b62ce128339e02

Also I still have the extra HF  ingredients for the lentil and mushroom cottage pie to make another one - definitely would recommend this - cheap and  so tasty and freezes well in one of those freezer to oven dishes so a great thing to batch cook.
https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes/lentil-and-mushroom-cottage-pie-63fe37a810ddad6ab9e1497a

NSD - literally 2! need to be better here 

The HM GF seeded and fruit (raisins/mixed peel) loaf I made (with a mix of 1/3 brown and 2/3rd white GF flour) is amazing! I froze most of it in slices so a great treat...

PipneyJane

Good morning All and welcome to the newbies.

I have a few spends to declare from this week/last weekend:  

1. DH popped to Sainsbugs in search of a missing ingredient for dinner last Saturday, checked the Nectar app and spent £7.25 on two lots of recycled toilet paper, creme fraiche and a jar of caramelised onion chutney, which turned out to be too vinegary for the dish it went into. (We still ate it.)
2. Sunday, he returned to Sainsbugs to buy the Sunday paper (we have subscriber vouchers for that) and spent 69p on a hand of organic bananas.
3. This morning, with no fresh veg in the house, DH did the “big shop”, going first to L!dl and then to Sainsbugs (they’re almost opposite each other).  In L!dl, in order to cross the threshold for the free bakery item, he had to get creative, buying a YS 60% off pizza and 2 whole nut chocolate bars (15% off offer), as well as the items on the shopping list (stockpots, nuts, seeds, etc).  After spending £15.95 on the above, he crossed the £50 threshold by 20p!  The free bakery item - a £1.99 crusty rye bloomer - was rung up as a separate sale, after the voucher landed on his phone.
4. From L!dl, DH went to Sainsbugs, spending £3.59 on loose vegetables (carrots, broccoli, mushrooms).  It’s the only supermarket around here where you can consistently purchase veg that hasn’t been sitting there, sweating in a plastic wrapper, and the loose veg lasts longer.  (Seriously, next time you buy fresh broccoli, make a note of where the sweaty spots are before you unwrap it from its plastic cover.  That’ll be the first places it goes mouldy.)  

The above brings our Grocery Challenge spend to £59.75/£165, leaving £105.25 for the rest of the month.

On a related subject, the Meat Fund* has been hit a couple of times this month with visits to the Butcher:  £16.47 last Thursday, on a tray of 5 chicken fillets weighing about 1.2kg (£11.96) plus half a kilo of lean cubed pork (£4.51); and £15.20 yesterday on two sirloin steaks (0.35kg at £42.95/kg), which we’ll have for our Valentine’s Day Dinner tonight together with home made potato wedges and sweet potato wedges.

There will be one other Meat Fund purchase today: DH had been hoping to have pan fried calves’ liver for dinner one night and the butcher just rang to say he’s finally received a delivery, so DH will pop out shortly to get some.

- Pip

ETA £5.20 spent on the calves’ liver



* Regarding the Meat Fund:  every month, as well as our £140 GC Challenge money, we put £40 into a pot for the Meat Fund.  It gets spent when we visit the butcher or a fishmonger.  Any meat purchased at a supermarket gets paid for from the GC Challenge purse and not the Meat Fund.  The latter is almost always YS or on some sort of promotion at L!dl.   

elsiepac

I made a vegan Jambalaya recipe for my Slimming World group for the Free Food Festival - if anyone wants it, here's the recipe card I made to go with it - if you print, then Scale to Fit Full Page.

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Recipe Index updated with:

Lamb Rogan Josh
Lentil & Mushroom Cottage Pie
Lentil Dal
Jambalaya

kayannie

London_1 said:

12/13 NSDs First shop of February as I've been really busy decluttering and also using up stuff in the cupboards I spent a total of £27.90 this morning in a quick shop to get all the essentials I had run out of plus fresh fruit and veg I'm hoping I have more than enough for well over a week to 10 days before I need anything else.

 I'm really making a good dent in the frozen stuff, as my freezer was pretty full, and the tinned stocks are reducing fairly well also.

In  a way its been really useful shopping from my cupboards as it means I have more time to declutter as I'm hoping to move by the summer as my house is on sale. I'm running the freezer down as I want to defrost it before I move

Onwards and upwards . 
JackieO xx

@London_1 Did you find a house you all liked on your recent visit to the IOW? Exciting times ahead for you, 3 years ago we left our home town of over 70 years for a new start on the Welsh coast. No regrets at all. KA

PipneyJane

@elsiepac, thank you so much for the Jambalaya recipe.  Your recipe card is beautiful.

- Pip

Crazycatlady2

Went for a few bits so now at about £292