November 2024 Grocery Challenge

diminua

£33.79 spent so far on tomatoes, milk, bread (sliced and a baguette), pasta, red pepper, salad leaves, tinned fish including red salmon, deodorant, vegetable sausages, burger buns (one eaten, rest in freezer) and yeast extract, and a large bag of crisps and some mini tomatoes purchased and left at work for lunches. I should probably get some eggs and fruit as well. 

Doom_and_Gloom

@WeenancyinAmerica - I'm sorry you may have to rearrange your home to make it wheelchair accessible. Hopefully if you have to it isn't too hard or costly to do so as changes to a home to make it accessible can be rather costly. The ramp into the home already there is good though.

@Suffolk_lass - I have to admit it did feel like going through the wringer yes. Thankfully it looks like it neighbours are friendly. We lived in our last home for over a decade so putting down roots again is going to take a while. Thankfully we know this area quite well already which helps.

All the people in Spain right now due to the floods that have become homeless have my thoughts with them. My condolences are also the for those that have suffered losses. They basically got no warning it would happen and from what I can gather some of the areas shouldn't have flooded as bad as they did but did so due to bad infrastructure. Hopefully the people effected get all the help they can.


OH popped into Waitr*se on the way home from work and somehow managed to get them when they had good reductions.
£15.17 was spent on the following; 2 loaves of bread (35p each), 3kg of potatoes (49p for each 1.5kg bag), 1.4kg of organic sweet potatoes (95p for each 700g bag), 4 large avocados (85p per 2 pack), a swede (70p), 400g of parsnips (65p), 500g red grapes (£1.89 and they are my favourite), a 2 pack of black bean and sweet potato burgers (£1.39), 6 pack of burford brown large eggs (OHs preferred eggs and they were on offer at £2.96) and a 250g pack of double Gloucester cheese (had a 50p voucher for it which made it £2.30). 

OH was after the eggs and cheese, while I was only after the parsnip and swede for doing a batch cook of vegetable stew tomorrow. However it would have been rude to leave the reductions behind. 
Both loaves are in the freezer as OH bought a loaf the other day, the bean and sweet potato burgers also went into the freezer.

£15.17/£240
£224.83 left.

Mrs_Cheshire

I had a good sort out of the freezers yesterday as we've ordered a new fridge freezer. Our current one was given to us a few years ago and it's been dodgy ever since (loads of ice so the drawers get jammed shut - pulling them open has resulted in broken drawer fronts). It's arriving next Saturday. 
Meal plan was partially done but has been adapted to use up some of the contents of the freezer so we have less to store whilst the new one is settling. 

Sunday - gammon, new potatoes  & veg
Monday - Pasta bolognaise
Tuesday - pork & apple casserole, mash & veg
Wednesday- smoked paprika chicken & rice
Thursday - meat slices/fish fingers & mash (only have 4 slices so one of the kids will have fish fingers)
Friday - pulled pork, potato gratin, cauliflower cheese and veg
Saturday - homemade pizza (using small pack of precooked meatballs, frozen pizza bases), satay chicken wings
Sunday - Roast Chicken & trimmings

We've got 2 cake type desserts and some frozen apple/rhubarb so will use those up from the freezer for desserts this week.  

This menu uses up quite a bit of freezer contents plus some store cupboard sachets I've had for a while. We usually have chips/sweet potato fries with the pulled pork but I want to use up the gratin and cauli cheese from the freezer. 
We have some bread rolls frozen and some packs of meat for lunches so will encourage hubby to use them up this coming week. I've got 3 tubs of frozen leftovers to have for lunch as well as a pasta dish so will eat those to make more room. 

Going forward I'm hoping to reduce down the freezer contents so we just run one fridge/freezer. I've already filled one drawer with supplies for Christmas so may have to wait until after unless we manage to squeeze it all into the new freezer drawers. 

Mrs_Cheshire

Does anyone have any good meal ideas for chicken drumsticks - either uncooked or already cooked ones. I've got loads of packs

Suffolk_lass

Mrs_Cheshire said:

Does anyone have any good meal ideas for chicken drumsticks - either uncooked or already cooked ones. I've got loads of packs

I'm guilty of cooking them, boning them (I'm not keen on boning out raw meat, hence cooking them) and using the meat in curry and pies (pie with sweetcorn and peas, and a tin of condensed chicken or celery soup) - Occasionally I add the sking, bones and remnants to a stock pot bag and refreeze, but then I am useless at remembering to add them to the full chicken carcass, so I often just chuck them. Very occasionally I will just roast and serve them for supper with steamed veg, mashed potatoes and gravy!

Doom_and_Gloom

£1.15 on a bottle of whole organic milk for OH (would have been £1.65 but had a 50p voucher for it) and OH spent £3 on a TGTG bag from a local coffee place. Likely a lot of pastries, sandwiches and maybe some bread items.

£19.32/£240.
£220.68 left.

JingsMyBucket

Evening all. @elsiepac thank you for running this thread. Could you please put me down for 

£375 for November 1st — 30th.

It’s a bit higher this month because American Thanksgiving is the last week of the month. We usually do at least some big meal with another family so our spends will be a bit higher. 

We’ve already spent some money but I’ll be back with that tally after dinner. 

@Doom_and_Gloom I’m so happy to see you back here! My silly self was actually getting worried about you, your OH, and your furry friends. I’m so sorry you’ve been through a terrible rough patch but I’m glad you’ve moved to better accommodation now. Glad to have your voice back 💐

carboot_karaoke

Evening all, 

Just three days into the new month and I've spent over a third of my budget ...yikes  😬 . However, its not quite as bad as that, thanks to using a gift card I've spent £100 less actual money. Without a doubt, using the voucher made me more frivolous. l brought things l wouldn't normally like, alcohol and treats for the kids I'd say about £40 worth.

I did also get the fundamental ingredients for the next two weeks food plan.  So I'm hoping just small shops for bread, milk, fruit and veg will do.

Plus l filled the car with fuel, hoping it will last till 29th, especially if l actually walk a few places 😆

For the purposes of the GC I'm going to include all my spending regardless of how l paid. 

New totals £234.31 /£600

Food £183.31 /£420
Petrol £51 /£180

carboot_karaoke

I also picked up a £1.50 box at Lidl, it's been ages since I saw one. 

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, that veg box makes me want to shop there @carboot_karaoke! Shame the nearest is about ten miles from here. Good haul! How will you incorporate them in your meal plans?