January 2025 Grocery Challenge

diminua

More spends - £28.14 between the veg stall and tesco - largely staples again like eggs, marmite, carrots, tinned tuna, coffee. Bought some beetroot for a change - I love them, but they make such a mess when you cut them up that I don't often get them. 

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all, 

This is a very busy thread 

@Cartmay l hope your mom is ok, l wouldn't worry about the few treats you brought, we've all been there !!
Have you been to Morocco before? My boss went last year and had a lovely time. Its nice to have something to look forward to.

@Thistimenxtyear spending money on some flowers for your mom is money well spent 

I've had a very "spendy" weekend between Tesco & Lidl I've spent £109.23. It was more than id hoped but £59.27 was on non food items such as, vitamins, washing tabs, fabric softener shampoo, bleach etc. I know its a lot but while our actual food spend should be low l thought id stock up on things to cover the next few months.

New totals £178.49 / £500   

EcoIntent

I've done lots of baking today, which has been lovely. Pancakes this am, two lots of banana bread, and a loaf, and set of rolls using Shipton Mill's malt and sunflower brown flour. We are unexpectedly on an eclectic mix of leftovers now for tea, which is a change as we have often been guilty of throwing away leftovers and just keep cooking something new.

Today on £113.89/£130 - £3 on dreamies for our cat, and £30.80 on a Shipton Mill flour order, as part of my efforts to make more of our bread products. I have been reading a lot about how poor shop bought bread now is. I got into sourdough in lockdown and am after reviving that habit.  I'm kind of amazed how far the money has gone this week, as have bought a couple of expensive bits, like needing to get a new 100ml bottle of the vanilla extract I use which was £6.50 for one bottle. 

Cartmay

!!!!!!, kinda blown my budget a bit this weekend. £22 in tescos but I worked out I’d get 18 individual meals from that, so not a bad return on investment. But spent £48 in Aldi’s today and didn’t seem to have that much. Mind you - what’s happened to the price of cling film lately?!! It was £2.50. For cling film??? 

Anyway that leaves me with £150 for the rest of the month. I should only really need top ups now anyway, plus I’m going to start eating more beans on toast to keep costs down 😊
so that’s £70/£220 so far 

zafiro1984

A careful online shop at Sains and a visit to the store with a list resulted in a total of £54.04 spent. However, I managed a saving of £41.76 as many items, especially those in Christmas packaging were half price or less. I stocked up on puff pastry, butter, cheese, biscuits and a couple of frozen desserts, most of which are carefully stored away in the freezers. I'm tempted to return tomorrow but common sense says ..no..

£54.04/£150 so far - leaving £95.96  

Frivolousbutfrugal

Good Evening everyone! Completely forgot that I had agreed to take some extra treats to a baby shower today so a alittle shop of £11.94 taking my Jan total up to £74.94/ £500. Getting on pretty well with clearing the freezer and cupboards, used up some mince from the freezer and a jar of pasta sauce last night for spagetti and meatballs and have deforested a salm steak to make fishcakes tomorrow night, using the last of the 15p potatos as well.

Soontobeoap

Total down to £321.22 as some of my veg were short dated or bad. Tescos amazing at refunding £6.00 so I was very pleased.
Lemon meringue went down well.

nannygladys

My no spend January is going well as I haven't spent anything yet!!

wishus

Popped back to A**i for more lunch items, and hubby's oat milk - he drinks cow as well but it got recommended to him by the doc for his cereal. 

Spent £9.30 on food. Plus I got a pan from the non-grocery savings money for £12.99. We need a new one and I was holding out for one that size and ceramic at a good price, so I'm happy. 
Hubby did not want to cook his planned meal, so I did. It was very nice. A lot of the recipes online seem to have pine nuts or spices, but this one was much simpler and the dish translates as "Stuffed Belly".

To serve 6:
3 aubergines
500g lamb
2 large onions, chopped
20g fresh flat leave parsley
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
4 large tomatoes, diced
6 padron peppers or 2 large green peppers, sliced (I used red pepper)

Split aubergines in two, leave stalks on.
Shallow fry in oil, cut side down - 8-10 mins. Then turn over. Do not blacken.

Chop onions, slice garlic.

Set aubergines aside. Cook onions, then garlic.
Add lamb to pan. Preheat oven 180 degreed C.

When lamb is brown, add chopped parsley and 3 tomatoes, chopped. Season.

Allow to  cook a while. Cut into the aubergines and using a spoon, flatten the flesh a little so you form cavities. Put aubergines in a glass dish. Add lamb/tomato mixture to the cavities and pile high. Top with the remaining tomatoes and peppers.
Bake in the oven 25 minutes.

I scaled down for 2 people using 1 aubergine and 200g lamb., and served with rocket and a small amount of cous cous.

t14cy_t

was gifted some toiletries yesterday, yipee! £5/£100 spends still.