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July 2018 Grocery Challenge

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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    edited 9 July 2018 at 8:41PM
    Moguline wrote: »
    I'm vegan too, SaveDosh - always excited to meet fellow vegans! And wholeheartedly agree with everything you said!
    :wave: Hi & thank you. That's fantastic about your husband. We're all free to do what we want, I do normally keep it to myself, but if someone doesn't live with you, it's easier to put your foot down, if you so wish. Hope that came across and wasn't preachy. #HeavenForbidAPreachyVeganWhateverNext
  • stoopy
    stoopy Posts: 55
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    Yesterday I opened the chicken breasts I bought, 9 for £8.99. I used 3 for lunch for the 5 of us, cooked a spare one for lunches for the week. Then I diced the remainder and portioned out into the freezer - that will do curry this week and 2 more meals for other weeks.

    I forgot about having to bake for the school fair on Friday so will either need to find some recipes using what I have in stock, or go to the shops before Friday, which I really don't want to do!
    Grocery Challenge Jul £380.75 Aug £637 Sep £539.82 Oct £53.43 / £475
    EF 3-6 challenge #104 £739.25/£10000
    MFW2018 #183 0/£2000
  • CRANKY40
    CRANKY40 Posts: 5,706
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    I have vegetarian friends and if they come here I cook vegetarian. My son prefers quorn to meat anyway so it's not a hardship. I make a lot of dairy free stuff too due to a very good friend's dairy allergy. Actually Save Dosh, your post is making me think very seriously about going vegetarian once the meat in the freezer is finished.
  • Hopeless_Case
    Hopeless_Case Posts: 949
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    edited 10 July 2018 at 6:40AM
    K80_Black wrote: »
    Hey, I'd like to join if I may.

    My budget for the month is £200 for myself, plus my other half 3 evenings and one day a week (so 4 meals + 1 breakfast a week.) I've already spent £84.60 on a big home delivery - but that's got me a very well stocked cupboard, plus enough alcohol to last the entire month. (Yay, 25% off 6 bottles of wine at Tesco again!). I tend to do my weekly shop online, at just over £40 a week, plus one 'double' week, when I buy all the booze for the month and top up basics. I find it difficult to get to the shops and the minimum order for most deliveries is £40, so going beneath that isn't an option. I'd ideally like to get it to £160 for the month, without cutting out too much alcohol!

    I only have a small chest freezer, so batch cooking or stocking up on fresh meat bargains etc is difficult. To top it all off, I'm a vegetarian and my partner is a meat eater, so I tend to find myself cooking properly for him and bunging in a quorn fillet or similar for myself about once a week, which works out quite expensive!

    I'd love to hear any easy meals that can be made meaty or vegetarian. I tend to do stir fry (I cook his meat separate) and fajitas (meat for him, beans for me) a lot, as they're easy to do both ways. He also quite likes veggie tortellini/raviolis, though I sometimes fry off some pancetta to top his off.


    This week, my goal is to make a whole bunch of fajita/taco seasoning, instead of buying packets. I've been putting it off as spending £4-5 on spices seems more expensive than 50p for a packet - but I know I can make a large batch so it'll be cheaper overall, and we do eat them a lot. Hopefully I can work that into my budget!
    My OH is a meat eater and I'm (mainly) veggie (I'll occasionally finish off meat if it was going to be wasted, and I'm ok with meat being cooked in a dish and me eating the rest of the dish but not having the meat, but I don't actually cook it for myself or cause it to be cooked for me, if that makes sense!).
    I do cook meat for him but I try and only cook 'meat meat' 3 times a week for health reason anyway (that's 3 main meals, if I make his lunch, it's veggie/vegan), and fish once a week. I do egg as a main meal most weeks too, often omelette.

    He'll eat cauliflower cheese, also Mediterranean roast veg with a chicken breast or fish cooked separately is good, and things like casseroles, which can go in the oven at the same time, one with meat one just veg. You could so this with most rice or pasta one pot dishes too, cook the meat separately and and add it to his portion at the last minute.

    Chicken supreme is his favourite, and I make one lot of white sauce (I often use soy or rice milk oddly enough :rotfl: - I haven't managed to make the full step to vegan but I try and limit the dairy and eggs we eat) and have one pan of chicken and veg and one pan of just veg and add half the sauce to each, takes up more room (and pans) but doesn't really take much more time :)
  • Chloris
    Chloris Posts: 712
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    Just checking in with a run of nsd. Haven't spent anything from the grocery budget since Thursday so need to start getting creative for the last 3 days before we shop. Tonight will be tomato and lentil soup, homemade bread, Welsh cakes and for adults green lentil and hazelnut salad with a ginger dressing. I've got to eat through that store cupboard and use those cookery books!

    Hold on to your money. Xx
  • K80_Black
    K80_Black Posts: 466
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    edited 10 July 2018 at 9:20AM
    Thanks for the suggestions for veggie/meaty meals guys!

    I don't mind cooking meat for him - when we went to a dinner party that his friend held, they had an entirely vegetarian menu that everyone ate just because I was visiting. It'd actually go against my morals more to 'trick' him by cooking soya and telling him it's chicken or something. Live and let live, and all that. He doesn't mind veggie mince mixed in with his meat, so I do that to stretch it a bit. He does however have a strong disliking of eggs and beans (and peas, custard, potatoes... real fussy eater!) - so I think any hopes of him going veggie are out the window, as they're my main sources of protein.


    Up to £156/200 on the grocery challenge after topping up bread and milk from the local shop and getting distracted by ice creams again!


    Oh, my fajita spices are here! Made up a batch, absolutely delicious and so much cheaper in the long run. Brilliant.
  • K80_Black wrote: »
    Thanks for the suggestions for veggie/meaty meals guys!

    I don't mind cooking meat for him - when we went to a dinner party that his friend held, they had an entirely vegetarian menu that everyone ate just because I was visiting. It'd actually go against my morals more to 'trick' him by cooking soya and telling him it's chicken or something. Live and let live, and all that. He doesn't mind veggie mince mixed in with his meat, so I do that to stretch it a bit. He does however have a strong disliking of eggs and beans (and peas, custard, potatoes... real fussy eater!) - so I think any hopes of him going veggie are out the window, as they're my main sources of protein.


    Up to £156/200 on the grocery challenge after topping up bread and milk from the local shop and getting distracted by ice creams again!


    Oh, my fajita spices are here! Made up a batch, absolutely delicious and so much cheaper in the long run. Brilliant.
    I totally agree with that, would be wrong to me too. He's also the main bread winner and works much longer hours than I do, so it's really not just up to me what we eat, but everyone works things out the way which works for them :)

    I bought some quorn mince and hated it, and OH actually liked it and said he'd have it again instead of beef mince, so I could end up making quorn chilli for him and veg and bean chilli for me :rotfl::rotfl:
  • mrssd
    mrssd Posts: 67
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    I totally agree with that, would be wrong to me too. He's also the main bread winner and works much longer hours than I do, so it's really not just up to me what we eat, but everyone works things out the way which works for them :)

    I bought some quorn mince and hated it, and OH actually liked it and said he'd have it again instead of beef mince, so I could end up making quorn chilli for him and veg and bean chilli for me :rotfl::rotfl:

    Hopeless Case: It's me out of the Living Out of your Freezer thread :wave: Just found this thread. Thanks for pointing me towards it. I'm not a veggie, but like to have 3 meat-free days a week, if possible, OH, on the other hand...
    I replace up to half the mince in things with brown lentils. He's never noticed the difference:D Also, add sofritto to just about everything involving mince: make your own (finely diced onion, carrot and celery). Make up big batches (easy with a food processor) and freeze in suitable sizes.
  • CRANKY40
    CRANKY40 Posts: 5,706
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    edited 10 July 2018 at 2:46PM
    Today's shopping trip done. I try to keep to Tuesdays as I go to slimming world first thing on a Tuesday morning and I'm more motivated to buy healthy food after I've spent half an hour talking about healthy cooking. £9.99 spent in Home Bargains and £21.64 spent in Asda, total £31.63. Signature updated :)

    My son likes quorn mince or veggie mince way better than meat mince. If we fed him meat mince when he was small he would suck the gravy off it then spit the mince out. There's never been a problem feeding him quorn.
  • K9sandFelines
    K9sandFelines Posts: 2,562
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    £4.50 to add spent at work yesterday on YS apples x 2, ys fruited teacakes x 5, YS mushrooms, crisps and a samosa for dinner.

    I'm really low on fruit, but trying to plod along with what we have.

    Very tight month this month, as one of the cats has been at the vets most of last week and has cost a small fortune.
    Hope everyone else is having a better month.
    GC £150 a month for food, toiletries and cleaning Jan £134.58 Feb
    Forever learning the art of frugality
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