February 2024 Grocery Challenge

London_1

AnotherNewDay said:

Ainsty said:

£15 per week for me again for me, please.

@Ainsty this is an inspirational amount for weekly shop! I could just about manage this 18 months ago, but price increases have made it very difficult  since then! What's covered in your £15 and how do you do it?

I aim for a £60,00 a month budget if I can and using up as much as I have in store at the moment as I'm hoping to move by the summer so my freezer is being run down along with my tinned stuff

There is only me to feed and I have no animals to cater for.
I'm a very canny shopper and use my freezer for any left overs. I have one main cooked meal a day and a light lunch or tea depending whats available.

Breakfast I can do with either a plate of porridge which I've always made with water and a little milk when served up or a small bowl of cereal. But I often have just a couple of cups of coffee or tea first thing as I'm not a great breakfast eater
This morning I had two cuppas plus three ginger nut biscuits.

 I'm about to have some lunch of  HM soup and grated cheese and crackers with a piece of fruit afterwards.

 Dinner tonight will be a couple of sausages, and some mash from the freezer plus maybe half a tin of baked beans plus the rest of the semolina pudding I made the other day.

 Mid-morning I had a coffee and mid- afternoon I will have a hot chocolate and a slice of HM cake.

 I make my own cakes and soups and cook from scratch as much as possible. Its doable as I'm not a big eater anyway.

 I have a Sunday dinner every week at my DDs and I usually take the pudding as my contribution to the meal. I do eat a fair bit of veg and will make my own batch baked lasagne, chilli or curries and portion up and freeze for the days when I don't feel like cooking .

Tomorrows lunch will be a jacket potato with some grated cheese, and tea will be two slices of brown bread with the other half of the tn of beans from today. as tomorrows meals will be slightly smaller I will probably have maybe a couple of boiled eggs with some bread and butter for breakfast. I try to shop for essentials only and go to the shops around every 8-9 days so about three times a month roughly.

Its a case of thinking about what is in the cupboard or freezer and how you can streetch it out to suit what you want to eat I'm never hungry and I use the yellow stickers veg to make HM soup as I really enjoy my own soup and certainly wouldn't think to buy a tin of it. I always say when it comes to cooking I cN Make twice as much for at least a fraction of the price.I never eat ready meals unless it part of what I've batch made myself I don't eat burgers as I think its a waste of decent mince I spend a little more on sausages as I just prefer ones with a higher pork content as two Gloucester old spot bangers are very filling and when they are on 'special' at the local butchers I stock up on them. I prefer chicken thighs, and will slow cook a batch when on offer or reduced so I can make a big pot of curry. I like to use lots of herbs and spices as it can brighten up the 'beigest ' of food. even a sprinkle of cinnamon on a bowl of ordinary porridge will brighten it up. 

I use white vinegar instead of conditioner in my wash and half the amount recommended of liquid detergent and a heaped dessert spoon of washing soda bought from Boots for about 80 a kilo and my washing is spotless I don't need fancy washing powder I just want clean clothes.

I have been looking after my budget for a good many years now and treat the budget for food and essentials the same way as I used to budget when I was self employed and working to a strict budget .

I like aldi's butter and aldi's liquid detergent and usually buy my veg from Tescos as the shops are almost opposite each other so you soon get to know the prices but I check my shopping list online with the supermarkets before I go shopping so I know the best shop for various things

Hope this helps a bit . By the way my January budget was pretty good as I had lots of left overs from my two DDs after Christmas so it only came in at just one £40.00 odd so had a surplus

  JackieO xxx 

LotsOfTea

There was no need for a proper shop today as I have loads of food and plenty of leftovers to get through but I did treat myself to a lovely loaf of seeded sourdough for £4.60.  

I used up the last of a packet of felafels in a wrap with hummus and shredded cabbage for lunch today and we'll have some homemade soup with the sourdough for tea tonight (hopefully from the freezer because I can't be bothered to make some tonight).

£4.60/£250

flamingo747

£8.37/£495 spent for lunch from Mr L for our wedding anniversary today 

Keedie

Did my first little Lidl shop of the month and spent £27.66/£250 (£222.34 remaining). 

I'm going to try and do a larger shop every other week and so I put £150 in my Chase account for the big shop and have £25 a week cash for the weekly top up. Fingers crossed 🤞🏾, I think this should hopefully work. So will try and meal plan for 2 weeks based on what we already have and do the first larger shop on the weekend once I know what we need. 

thriftwizard

And I'm hurtling into February's budget with a spend of £71.71 between the butcher and the supermarket, quite a lot of which was just for lunch today! Our wanderers (DD1 & BF) have returned from 3 months working, travelling & surfing in South & Central America, and DDiL1 (DS2's wife) & our 2 y.o. grandson came over at short notice for the morning & lunch; I felt it had to be a little bit special so invested in some of w8rose's readymade salad things! They're reappearing for Sunday lunch too, with DS2. I gather DD1 & BF are planning to spend some time now hunting for a place of their own, which is a bittersweet moment; it's high time she had a kitchen (& a budget) of her own but it's kind of the end of large-family life after 30+ years! Change is very much in the wind...

The last 3 months have been interesting on the budgetary front; I haven't managed to make the savings I'd hoped to, partly because I did need to keep them in mind when re-stocking, but I can see now how I'll be able to improve when I don't need to consider them. DD2 is much cheaper to run!

lianne1984

I'm back in for February with a target of £250 again 

Ainsty

AnotherNewDay said:

Ainsty said:

£15 per week for me again for me, please.

@Ainsty this is an inspirational amount for weekly shop! I could just about manage this 18 months ago, but price increases have made it very difficult  since then! What's covered in your £15 and how do you do it?

Hi,

I find it really very difficult and to be honest I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it at this level. It helps that I grow veg and fruit so I include those in my diet. The main problem I find is the monotony. A bit like how I imagine food was in the 1950s. I only have a small freezer which is mostly filled with frozen HG produce, so I can't batch cook large amounts. I don't find YS very helpful. The last time I was in the Coop there was a chiller full of YS ready meals, fish in breadcrumbs and cream cakes. There never seems to be any reduced price mince, chicken drumsticks or oats. Perhaps I'm just not lucky. Occasionally, I will see reduce price bread, but it is often still more expensive than the ALDI bread I usually buy.

I understand @London_1 spends £60 per month without the addition of homegrown veg. That is impressive and must be very hard, especially if you like baking. I'm not as canny as she is and certainly couldn't afford speciality sausages or butter.

About 18 months ago I managed on £10 per week but I couldn't do that now. I used to post my menus for the week plus a shopping list with prices. If anyone would find it interesting I could do that again for February. I haven't been shopping yet this month but will go on Saturday or Sunday so it should represent one month.

London_1

@Ainsty Hi I usually find perhaps because I live close to a large Tesco's & Aldi's that I can get  often some well reduced bits
 Re the veg, well my grandson last year planted some potatoes and red onions at the bottom of the garden and we did quite well on those.
I buy veg and fruit when in season or on offer carrots, cabbage, spring greens etc, but when veg prices are high usually after Christmas when I've stocked myself up with the cheap Christmas veg that its cheaper to buy a bag of garden peas, or mixed veg for the freezer.
I have friends who have allotments and I swap sometimes HM cakes or biscuits for their surplus. Things like leeks and cauliflower I buy and freeze when reduced, or on special offer.

My sausages are the one thing I pay a bit more for, but well worth it and as its only me to feed its my treat. As for the butter I like Aldis Nordland lightest  butter which is £2.09 a tub, and lasts me a good while, as at most and not every day I will only eat two slices of brown bread.. I actually started a tub yesterday so will see how long it lasts me as I stick a not on the calendar to remind me I've opened the last  tub from the fridge.

A brown wholemeal loaf from Tesco's is 45p and give around 18-20 slices I portion into 4 slice packs and freeze. Most of the stuff in the freezer is either batch cooked or reduced when bought.

 I dug around the freezer after Christmas and found I had quite a lot of chicken both thighs and drumsticks so I did two lots of batched cooking in my slow cooker and produced around 16 portions of chicken provencal and curries for the freezer. Used up some of the frozen peppers in the freezer plus odds and ends When I buy mushrooms I always trim off the stalks and freeze them to go into things like this, also if I have had a broccoli head with a large stalk this too gets trimmed and frozen its all veg in the end.

I'm not mad keen on pasta apart from perhaps lasagne, when I make a bit one I portion it up into 6 portions which again are frozen for another day.My freezer has to work for its living and I use it as much as I can. 

I do bake quite a bit, (I use Stork for baking and only use block butter if making shortbread ) and any leftover meat etc can easily be turned into a pasty or two for the freezer.

 I have zero waste in my kitchen, but then I was brought up with rationing and post WW2 austerity when food was quite often in pretty short supply, not financially, but actuality, as the shops struggled to find stuff to sell to their customers.

 I had a very canny little Scots Mum who could conjure all sorts of food almost out of nothing.She was a lover of herbs and spices and always said they can make your food taste so much nicer when you add a bit of a zing to it. I have been adding 'zing' to my cooking for well over 60 plus years and I don't think about it, its become second nature. I don't fall for the advertising in the supermarkets and know exactly what I will be buying and how much the best price is before I go to the shops. Thankfully the advent of the internet has helped no end so I know the best price before I go out of my front door and if I see something I know is a good price that I can turn into a decent meal thenI will get it.

I  cost out my weekly meals every Sunday morning when I am prepping the veg for the week and I know what I shall be eating and how much my days meals cost before they are eaten. No different really than someone who perhaps has a budget for a canteen or commercial kitchen Very little waste goes on in there, as they would soon be out of business  if they started throwing edible food away. I know, I've worked in one .

The days of large commercial  kitchens having 'pig bins' are long gone (their illegal now anyway. ) But I grew up with my late Mums mantra in my ears " Feed the bin lassie, and your feeding the devil " a bit extreme, but I knew what she meant.

Basic food stuff always in my cupboards are lentils, pearl barley, flour, rice, onions, garlic and I have one shelf in one of my cupboards that is completely herbs and spices.

 Tomatoes tinned or cartons and chick peas and beans are also in there. In fact just after Christmas my little Tesco Metro were discontinuing cartons of their chopped tomatoes and had reduced them to 15p a carton there were several shelves of them I bought 20 as they are dated to September this year (although I don't worry about dates as I have a perfectly good sense of smell )
These are stacked on one shelf and will be very useful as the original price was 55p per carton so they will be used up and can even make tomato soup at a push if wanted for very little cost. 

I'd like to see your menu's and shopping list and prices @Ainstyit will be interesting ,I know a lot depends on your local shops to where you live.

 I agree the Coop in the next village to me is usually pretty rubbish for reduced stuff and I agree its usually not stuff you really need thats reduced .

 I go to my local Dobbies once a week for a coffee with friends and they have a W'rose outlet there and I always have a look around before I queue  up for my coffee and look at the 'reduced 'prices there  and wonder if it ever gets sold as even reduced they are far too expensive I certainly wouldn't pay £1.69 for a small bag of yellowing Brussel sprouts and that was reduce fro £2.60 they still have Christmas decorated tubs of lurpak on sale with snowflakes over them at £4.69. but its good for a laugh, and I chat to the ladies who are pricing, and they all say that the prices are absurd, and few folk will pay them even reduced
I can see the concession not last ing very long there It seems to change every couple of years the one before W'rose was Sainsburys, and they at least were slightly better although their prices were higher than their main store less than a mile away.

I definitely treat my kitchen as I would any business and watch to find the best price available if possible.

   JackieO xx

otb666

453/550 on track although have not done big SM shop this month yet. Done musle food monthly shop.  I am really into tinned fish at the moment.  Had 3 takeaways this week fish and chips/macdonalds and dominoes so this will have to stop for rest of the month. They were nice though x

diminua

Morning. So far I've spent exactly £10 - that's £1.20 on a breakfast pastry and £8.8 on lunch for yesterday and Monday. More extravagant than usual as I bought salmon pate and fancy tomatoes to keep in the fridge at work in honour of it being February. Must use the pate up Monday at the latest so I'll bring it home and have it on toast if I don't finish it lunchtime. I've got half a large packet of crisps there too.

Loose meal plan for the next three days is pasta with LG sauce (jar open in fridge and again must be used) quorn and onions, last of the veggie burgers with fries from the freezer, last of the potatoes as mash and toad in the hole with veg and gravy. Lots of using up.   
I'm at Brent Reservoir tomorrow (there's an open day) so will probably have a coffee and cake, otherwise breakfasts and lunches will be all toast and sandwiches. 

Could you put me down for £200 again please Elsiepac? I forgot to ask before. Thank you.