May 2018 Grocery Challenge

CRANKY40 wrote: »

I'm hopeless at keeping receipts and adding them up so I'm going to work in reverse and calculate what I've spent by what I transfer to savings. This week I added £10 to the savings purse so that means I have spent £60 (there were some coins also left in my purse but I just leave them there for the following week).

CRANKY40 and others who have a difficult time keeping track: would photographing the receipts as soon as you get them in your hand be useful for you? As in, as soon a second you check out with the cashier, move your trolley/goods off to the side and take a photo of the receipt. That way you’ll also have a digital copy to upload to different voucher apps to get money back, points, etc.

£63.30 spent today. Cat food is stocked up and I bought some ice cream for the freezer so that will last a while. Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste all done. There is definitely no room for anything else in the freezer so no more shopping this week. There's bananas and satsumas in the fruit bowl and apples and raspberries in the fridge so plenty of fruit and there's enough salad stuff in the fridge for all week. I'd now like to go through the rest of the month spending as little as possible. I will still need cat litter and some fresh stuff.

I need to update my freezer inventory but that can wait until there's room to move things around. I'm following (or trying to) the slimming world plan but I've also started the couch to 5k app and on the running days I seem to be more hungry although that could be all in my mind. I'm doing each week twice as I'm overweight and asthmatic but the couch to 5k is still doable. If anyone has any tips on nutrition for an apprentice runner I'd love to hear them.

We followed this recipe today, from the recipe index in post #4: Bean curry (slowcooker).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=24741253&postcount=192

The recipe suggested about 2 pints of water. So far only 1 pint has gone in with the other ingredients but it is still very watery. More of a soup than a curry. Will see what it is like once it's cooked. Does taste nice though and the bonus is, all the ingredients were in stock so I didn't have to buy anything.

First spend of the month at Lidl £38.56/150, got everything I needed for the week including BBQ Briquettes.

Came home and made a raised layered pie using meat from the freezer (turkey, ham, sausagemeat) plus bits and pieces from the cupboard (apricots, dried cranberries, herbs) It's quite expensive to make so I only do it about twice a year but it's so much cheaper and nicer than the slices you can buy in the supermarket. I had to wait until now until it was reasonably cold to add the reduced stock which will set to jelly. That's tomorrows's tea sorted with a salad, the rest I'll slice and freeze

CRANKY40 wrote: »

If I make curry using tinned tomatoes as the base then usually just adding another half tin of water is enough. I suppose it depends on how much other stuff you're adding.........

Yes, the suggested two pints would have been far too much water. Even with a pint, I would say it is a soup instead of a curry but it tastes lovely, so next time will add a fraction of the water to it