July 2019 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass · 18 July 2019 at 12:21PM

Save_Dosh wrote: »

Really pleased to hear that.

OK, confession time. The drinks budget has been blown out of the water. I like cocktails, but guess i'm begrudging paying the high price for them and mostly finding i don't like them. Another thing, i keep forgetting what i dont like and order the same yucky thing again, so i've bought a few (soon to be more) bits to make some at home cocktails. The only cocktails i remember liking are Pina Colada (my favourite), Martini Expresso, and Long island Tea. The list of dislikes is long and includes Manhattan, Cosmopolitan, Blue Curaco. There are many more that i have wasted money on, but that's all i remember. Anyway here is the drinks i've ordered - thus far - Amaretto, Creme Caramel, Cinnamon Whiskey, White Rum, Malibu substitute (it's honestly the same). I'm working on a skinny version of Pina Colada (mentally), which involves frozen banana, almond milk and coconut extract. I'm only having a few cocktails on the w/e, as i don't want to totally unravel my healthy living and/or put on weight. Anyone know where I can get coconut extract. Truth be told, I've lost a very good friend of 40 years to cancer (we bury him next week). I went to see him in hospital before I went in to hospital. I was wheeled in to see him as I couldn't walk - we conversed from our relative hospital beds and were going to meet up when we were better - sadly not to be and I have another friend of 35 years, who has terminal cancer, so I need to let rip for a bit, without totally losing the plot.. Hopefully it all goes to plan and if it doesn't, it doesn't.. So for the next month or two I'm tearing up the rule book with regards the drinks budget.

Food wise I've spent £6.73 on 2 tubs of blueberries and 2 tubs of strawberries, which have been frozen for smoothies, plus some tins for the store cupboard and a couple of toiletries. I have cooked up a large batch of veggie mince and frozen three portions. Just lentils, tvp and whatever veggies were lurking. The plan is to very much run down my convenience food freezer and replace with home cooked stuff. Sorry for the long post. xx

I am loving the cocktails chat - my personal favourites are a Brandy Alexander (you may already have the creme de cacao, unless you really mean creme caramel - thought that was a dessert

), a marguerita (with salt and lime around the rim of the glass) and an Aperol Spritz. Let me know if you want the recipes I use (I am guessing Brandy Alexanders would be nice with low-fat coconut milk instead of full-fat cream (or mixed 50%-50%) to be ahem

, a bit more healthy.

Really sorry to hear about the loss of your friends. Drink to the happy memories and a pain-free farewell :grouphug:

elsiepac · 18 July 2019 at 2:15PM

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

elsiepac the Italian for Almond is "mandorla" - you could name your drink "caffè mandorlatte" (said with an Italian accent, naturally) :cool::rotfl:

:rotfl: Love that!!

Today for breakfast I had my usual porridge

For lunch I had a portion of my "Italian style" bean veg and lentil and barley etc soup from the freezer (my last portion of that one) with some bread from the freezer

For tea I will have the same as I had last night which was a THING I made to go on top of jacket potatoes:
Sauteed onion, garlic, red pepper and mushrooms (half price pack of wonky mushrooms from Ald1!)
Added Cajun seasoning, two tins of drained kidney beans and a tin of chopped tomatoes
Let simmer for a few more minutes then added half a bag of spinach that needed using, and dished up over a huge baked potato - I baked two last night and plated up the second with the bean thing on top and so my tea tonight just needs to be nuked after Sl1mm1ng W0rld. I had a little bit of vegan cheese left so topped with that to make it extra spesh!

I think I will have mostly emptied my freezer by next week - I move a week today... :eek: and my fridge will be just a few sauces etc. I have a fair bit of unopened stuff in the cupboards but that's fine to go straight into the new place. My big job this weekend is getting the kitchen mostly packed up. I've done the worst parts of the rest of the house, but can't put off the kitchen anymore really!

[Deleted User] · 18 July 2019 at 3:32PM

CRANKY40 Sorry to hear about your friend too. Thank you very much everyone - I'm really ok, just very tearful at the mo and it will pass. Loving the cocktail talk too. Suffolk Lass they are all the cocktails I don't like - soz - lol - but it was nice of you to mention them. Have worked out where I've been going wrong - they are bitters, Aperol, Campari etc and that's the stuff I don't like, but when ordering them out, get confused with Vermouth Rosso. I'm going to concoct the most amazing cocktail and call it after my friend - his surname was 'Bailes' - so the Bailes it is lol.

Elsiepac I think the coconut flavour would be fine as a first try, it gets a good review from people adding it to Pina Colada's. Tried 2 Waitrose's this morning, one will be getting it back in stock Saturday, so will go back then, if not sorted.

A few spends of £3 on bananas, a huge bowl of blueberries and 2 tubs of raspberries, which have been frozen. Will update sig

thriftwizard · 18 July 2019 at 10:08PM

{{{Hugs}}} Save Dosh, what a horrible time for you. And for you too, Cranky40; cancer's a total bu88er, one way & another.

£13-odd added to my total; a spice we'd run out of, gallons of green tea to keep the girls on an even keel, some cream for ice-cream making (to use up leftover fruit) and some YS beansprouts to add to tonight's eat-it-up-Thursday supper of baked potatoes & anything leftover in the fridge that didn't have a green coat or needed picking at the allotment.

I'm fairly sure I will be going over-budget this month, which is partly because I've stopped accounting for the animal food & bulk-buys separately & added them back in without increasing my target. It's going to take a few months to get myself sorted out in that respect, and the target may need to inch upwards eventually, but for the next couple of months, with allotment produce & foraged goodies available, I'll try hard to stick to it.

ETA: but on the bright side, 3 NSDs this week...

pamsdish · 19 July 2019 at 7:43AM

£5.63 in morries needed some potatoes for tea.

CRANKY40 · 19 July 2019 at 11:16AM

Good morning all,

grocery shopping for this week was £50.61. It would be good if there were no top ups required but the HT finishes school today for the summer break. We'll see what happens. He seems to need feeding roughly every 2-3 hours :rotfl:

He was home for lunch yesterday due to a doctors appointment so yesterdays meals were :-

Breakfast - cereal and a slice of syrup loaf for HT, small wholemeal toast with peanut butter for me.

Lunch - ham and cheese roll, piece of homemade brownie and a packet of crisps for HT, bacon and egg toastie for me.

Dinner - burger inna bun for both of us. His was beefburger, mine was quorn. I had salad with mine, he had fries.

Supper - we raided the freezer and dug out a cornetto each.

Save Dosh a Brandy Alexander doesn't have any bitters in, it's yummy and very creamy. My friend was amazed to discover that her elderly mother's unusual pairing of Baileys and tequila actually had a name - it's an Irish Cactus :rotfl:

thriftwizard · 19 July 2019 at 3:34PM

Oh dear, I'm £20 over already. £60 spent at the market this morning, and another £20 at the supermarket. It's got us most of what we'll need for the week, but a top-up will be needed on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Bit of an eye-opener, really. If I took the cat-food out of the reckoning again, I'd still have £30 which would be tight-but-do-able. But the whole point is to establish what I'm spending on groceries etc. all together, as I originally used to. There's a bit of a spike in fresh food prices at the moment, as the new-season British-grown crops hit the markets, but that doesn't explain all of my over-spending!

ETA: main meal-plan for the week, feeding 2-4 omnivores, 1 pescatarian, 1 vegetarian:

Tonight: trout with new potatoes (the Jerseys again) and HG runner beans
Saturday: Sausages/chick-pea burgers with rosti & broccoli
Sunday: roast chicken/roasted veg OR nut roast, roast potatoes & vegetable medley (two small free-range chickens from local supplier)
Monday: cauliflower cheese & beans - baked + runners
Tuesday: chicken/potato curry (from leftovers) rice, possibly naans, + frozen veg
Wednesday: HM pizza
Thursday: Baked potatoes with whatever's left over! If nothing, there are a few takeaway containers of previous leftovers in the freezer to use up. Plus stir-fried veg, mostly from the allotment.

Breakfasts will be toast from HM sourdough, or pancakes, poached eggs or buns of one sort or another. Lunches will be soup (chicken, from carcasses) or salad. I always cook enough of the omnivore option for OH to take a portion in to work for the next day's lunch. Snacks: there's always fruit, the girls have usually baked something, and if not, I'll do hob-nobs, cheesy flapjack, or more yeasted buns!

Doom_and_Gloom · 20 July 2019 at 5:43PM

We have spent £33.98 since our last post.

I'm having vegetable chilli with a jacket potato for dinner.
OH is having stuffed pasta for dinner.

We're a little over budget at the moment but tomorrow will be a no spend day for definite and Monday is likely to be a no spend day as well so by that it will even out.

£145.48/£200.
£54.52 left.

just_trying · 20 July 2019 at 11:49PM

CRANKY40 wrote: »

Good morning all,

grocery shopping for this week was £50.61. It would be good if there were no top ups required but the HT finishes school today for the summer break. We'll see what happens. He seems to need feeding roughly every 2-3 hours :rotfl:

He was home for lunch yesterday due to a doctors appointment so yesterdays meals were :-

Breakfast - cereal and a slice of syrup loaf for HT, small wholemeal toast with peanut butter for me.

Lunch - ham and cheese roll, piece of homemade brownie and a packet of crisps for HT, bacon and egg toastie for me.

Dinner - burger inna bun for both of us. His was beefburger, mine was quorn. I had salad with mine, he had fries.

Supper - we raided the freezer and dug out a cornetto each.

Save Dosh a Brandy Alexander doesn't have any bitters in, it's yummy and very creamy. My friend was amazed to discover that her elderly mother's unusual pairing of Baileys and tequila actually had a name - it's an Irish Cactus :rotfl:

Cranky loving the meals every day. You should post on what are you having for dinner thread to, it gives people ideas.

I'll be joining the thread again in august. I hate to say it but if you trying to lose weight have you thought about cutting bread down, you have it a lot. I was big.. maybe try egg and soldiers for breakfast, salad for lunch then whatever for dinner but nearly a full plate of veg or salad I think you'll see results quick.

dan958 · 21 July 2019 at 1:15PM

dan958 wrote: »

Week 2 down. I spent much more than the first week, but I had to buy some items that will last a long time. I spent £17.82 in week 2, which is still way under the £30 a week I budget for myself.

£25.02 in total out of £120, and halfway through the month. I think I over-estimated my initial budget. Everything I don't spend is something extra that goes into savings.

Week 3 down. Spent £14.04, bringing the total up to £39.06 for July out of £120. Somehow I don't think I'll be spending £80.94 on the final week, so I reached my goal vastly under budget. I didn't have to buy any cleaning supplies this month, so my next month bill may be slightly larger, but will still be under my £30 a week budget I set myself.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

July 2019 Grocery Challenge

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free