Week 2 then - and we’re still going well. I usually work my grocery weeks from Friday to Thursday as generally speaking it works best for me to do the main shop on a Friday - it’s quieter than weekend shopping for a start. This week fitted that pattern, so I started by checking my Lidl app for anything too good to miss - nothing this week though, the things I was given offers for were all things we already had plenty of. I’d made a few mental notes of things that appealed from the freezer, and so put my meal plan together along with a list of things I planned to batch cook this week, then built my shopping list from that to include the usual bits and bobs like fruit. Milk and bananas go on the list as standard but tend to get bought later in the weekend.
The photo above shows the starting point with this week’s “main shop” done at Aldi - and yes, includes some off-list bargains which were definitely worthwhile purchases. The tomatoes are a staple item - I have a small box of them daily with my lunch and I know they usually last well, so buying them reduced doesn’t bother me as long as - like these - they still look really fresh. Citrus fruit and apples are regular buys too - I had a single pack of apples on the list this week as we still had a few left, but the packs of small ones were on offer and are better value - we will just take two each of those to work with our lunches. The family pack of mushrooms I have started buying recently - I prep and cook the lot then pop them in the fridge so we have them ready for throwing in meals during the week. I was keeping my eyes peeled for good reductions - the pate came up first, 75% off but an unknown original price - however I knew these had already had a price reduction, so I was reasonably sure they would be 25p each at most with the reduction, and each pack does two days lunchtime rolls for both of us, so good value, and one of each flavour grabbed - even better value when they ended up costing just 7p a pack! Further round the store were a few other Christmas reductions - the final two packs of Lebkuchen on the shelf for 29p are weekend evening sweet treats for a couple of weeks - and I couldn’t bake something myself for that price. The salt flakes I had been debating about since they appeared on the shelves before Christmas - I had already bought the garlic and smoked ones, but was unsure how strong the chilli might be in these. For 49p though I think they are definitely worth a try, and will keep us going until we can stock up on the Cornish brand we usually buy. Finally the little pack of Christmas themed sprinkles were just too cute to leave behind for 29p - they will look great decorating mince pies or cupcakes next Christmas! A £7.46 total spend then, and that felt like good value.
We had to make a trip to Farmfoods over the weekend as I had spotted they had a really good deal on the washing liquid we use - although this comes from the same budget as the groceries I’m not including cleaning stuff in this challenge, but while in there MrEH found a reduced to clear section we hadn’t previously noticed and nabbed a couple of 6-packs of big-brand crisps at 67p each and a couple of sachets of flavoured microwave rice at 34p each so we nabbed those - £2.02 food spend there. He takes a bag of crisps daily to eat with his lunch and those work out nearly 5p cheaper per pack than the supermarket variety pack we usually buy, so well worth having. The rice sachets are Indian spice flavoured, so I’ll almost certainly use those to make some sort of quick biryani inspired meal.
We popped back to Aldi for bananas and yogurts and handily MrEH spotted jars of mincemeat for 29p each - the “Specially Selected” range too, so we nabbed two of those to stick in the cupboard for next Christmas. £2.39 spent . Final spend of the week was also in Aldi - some more bananas and the milk - plus a box of mince pies for 9p - well, as MrEH said, it would have been rude not to at that price!
That gives us a total of £13.93 for this week, and a few extra odds and ends stashed away with that too. Now- time to get my head around next week’s meal plan I think!
Robyn
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