July 2018 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane · 8 July 2018 at 6:29PM

I am so far behind. I worked 11 days straight over last weekend, and I'm only just catching up. I haven't read one MSE email in that time, so apologies if I've missed something momentous. I'll post my wrap up of June on the June thread shortly.

Please put me down for the usual £120 for July, please, starting 1st of the month and running until the 31st.

We're planning our big shop for tomorrow, so I'll write up any spends we've had then.

Beyond working like a mad woman for the last two weeks, the only thing to note in my life is that I've discovered our regular butcher shop has closed - they were taken over a few years ago by someone who had 3 or 4 shops. It's a pity. When I first started shopping there, the owner was the father of a girl who'd been my office junior back when I lived on the wrong side of London. Helen always talked about her dad's shops and helping out in them, so when I moved to within a 10 mile radius I was happy to give them my custom. (Also, their meat was excellent.)

Has anyone noticed that a new series of "Eat Well for Less" is starting on Thursday? Although I call it "Schadenfreude television", I always come away with one or two ideas for meals after watching an episode.

- Pip

Doom_and_Gloom · 8 July 2018 at 6:41PM

So £16.35 then £31.77 since last post for July.

£70.54/£155.
£84.45 left.

Snorky6 · 8 July 2018 at 10:22PM

2nd weekly shop done. Did menu plan again trying to base around what I had left. Total spend £49.38 if i could keep it this low every week I would be happy. :j

119.77/300
180.23 left

Merlin's_Beard · 8 July 2018 at 11:17PM

£33.18/£100, most of which seems to have been spent on bog roll and washing up liquid and the like!

[Deleted User] · 9 July 2018 at 8:47AM

After a weekly shop with lots of stocking up on staples and household items, I'm now at 140/200 - £60 left.
Should be ok though as won't need anymore household items this month, and the plants in the yard are starting to yield some veg now.

pamsdish · 9 July 2018 at 12:30PM

Decided to hire Rug Doctor and give my carpets a going over, went to local Filco, don`t use it much always seems a shambles, they had plants reduced buy one get 2 free, bought 3 geraniums £1.99, inside a lot of garden stuff reduced so bought 3 fertilizer items £3, enquired re carpet cleaner, need id and deposit, fair enough expected something like that, paid for plants while they sorting machine out, after returning from putting goods in car, still looking for the key to unlock the security chain, 15 mins later no key anywhere, recommended go to Morries or local hardware shop, drove to hardware, arrive 9.22 am, not open, browsed local co-op which yielded 5 bars of fair trade choc £1 each, still no hardware open, returned home, tried ringing a few times no answer, all my good intentions gone to waste and £10 spent.

Hopeless_Case · 9 July 2018 at 4:35PM

Quite a big spend today and over half of my budget gone already, which doesn't feel great, although I am well stocked in basics. I bought a huge pack of dog food which will last well into next month.

And I'm just going to have to be super careful!

Doom_and_Gloom · 9 July 2018 at 5:53PM

So £6.46 since yesterday

for July.

1kg grapes, 1kg carrots and OH got himself a joint of beef.

£77.00/£155.
£78.00 left.

[Deleted User] · 9 July 2018 at 6:59PM

K80_Black wrote: »

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.

I'm vegan and if people come here to eat, that's what I cook. It's against my values to buy meat for any reason and people honestly wouldn't expect it. If I went to a meat eaters house, I would not expect them to eat veggies, just because of me. For hardcore meat eaters, you can get some unbelievable meat replacements, especially for putting in tacos/fajitas and if you didn't say, people honestly would not know the difference. Check out the range Vivera sell in supermarkets, you can make some amazing stir frys/curries with that, or Iceland No Bull Burgers, I can't eat them as they taste too meaty, you can make some beautiful curries, sweet potato, spinach & chickpea is a favourite of mine, or green thai, pizza - you can even get meat free pepperoni. I buy veggie mince, cook it up like you would do regular meat n make spag bol, lasagne (with vegan cheese), mexican wraps, jacket potatoes - with mince/coleslaw or beans with cheese. You can buy veggie meatballs and do that with tagliatelle or mash, however you like really. I sometimes do bangers n mash - vegan style. You could of course add meat to the above, but as a 'vegetarian', and not wanting to cook different meals, why would you and you have the perfect opportunity to introduce someone to the wonders of 'meat free' and save a few more animals, which is what it is all about.

Oh yes, £11.40 on spends. I will update sig.

[Deleted User] · 9 July 2018 at 9:03PM

I'm vegan too, SaveDosh - always excited to meet fellow vegans! And wholeheartedly agree with everything you said!
Mushrooms were the thing I added to every single meal to appease my omnivore husband ha. He loves them and doesn't miss meat when there's some garlicky mushrooms.

He's basically veggie now and eats fully vegan at home - would have been unthinkable a couple of years back!

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July 2018 Grocery Challenge

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