For the Price of a Coffee - Day Seven - The Shopping

So here it is the final days shopping.

You might be thinking why on earth is she buying more food when it is the final day and she could just use up the food she has in stock ... and maybe even take her £2.75 and go out and have a nice cup of coffee.  

Well, my week without coffee in coffee shops is going to go out properly and I really did want to show just what you can buy food-wise For the Price of a Coffee a day if you stop having a Large Filter Coffee in my local garden centre.

Why have I chosen these particular foods for my final day and not some tasty treat or splurge, well mostly because I have decided to merge this Challenge on into my next one and all the foods leftover ... my five-item storecupboard and the foods I have in store now, both in the fridge and loitering on the worktop, including todays shopping ... are going to be the backbone of this new Challenge.

I'll let you in on the rules as soon as I have thought of them  😃

Brought forward         32p

  Todays money     £2.75

   Total to Spend    £3.07  

Actually Spent    £3.06

The remaining 1p saved from this Challenge was popped into the charity box on the counter in Tesco.  I'll be a day late posting my meals and the End of Challenge round up as I am travelling today, and computerless and won't be able to do it - sorry!!

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For the Price of a Coffee - Day Six - The Shopping

I guess I could have gotten away with not shopping at all.  I have lots of food in my now nicely stocked little larder so much so that I was really tempted to have another day of not shopping.

But this Challenge is about showing what you can buy instead if you for-go a daily coffee, so I will continue to shop every day and give myself as wider a selection of foods as I can.  Really I have so much food in at the moment that I am almost thinking I have too much to choose from and too many meal options.

Time to use up a few of the bits and bobs I think.

All these items were bought to help make more complete meals out of the things I have left in my larder, and the orange juice just because I really fancied some ... quite a rare thing for me but when I fancy it I listen to my body and buy it.

My shopping total was £2.45 and I shopped in Tesco as it was just a small detour on my way home to Wales to house-sit while the builders are in and keep Ginger company while Alan is working away.

 Brought forward         2p

  Todays money   £2.75

   Total to Spend   £2.77  

Actually Spent    £2.45

Carried forward to Day 7 - 32p

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For the Price of a Coffee - Day Five - The Shopping - Challenge Within a Challenge

Wow ... it felt like I had so much money to spend on my shopping after the previous four days of shopping with just £2.75.  

I went to Sainsbury's clutching my £5.47 and a list of items I had decided on from the mysupermarket.co.uk website, photographed off the computer screen onto my phone.  This website really is the best way to do price comparisons and work out your shopping plan for general shopping and for Challenges 😃

As you can see the plan was going to be to get yogurt and banana for breakfast (a welcome change from porridge), a baking potato and a tin of beans for my lunch and a pasty and some Bisto gravy to pour over it.  Plans don't always work out when you're shopping in a small branch of a supermarket and they don't have the full range of stock that the larger stores carry.  In this instance I'm really glad they didn't, what was I thinking ... I already had pastry in the fridge and had just eaten a pasty over two days!!

Anyway I picked up all the foods in the top photo and I've photographed them laid out in the 'meal plan' idea.  Breakfast, dinner and tea.

It only came to £3.05.

I was so pleased, and after sending Alan out to the car with the just paid for shopping and the things he had chosen for his last meal at the Van this week, I went back into the aisles clutching my remaining £2.42 in my sweaty little mitts.  

My first thought was ooh a treat ... chocolate, a big bag of  crisps, a packet of biscuits.  But as I walked those aisles I realised that I didn't really want any of those things.  Sometimes you just have to listen to what your body is telling you.  My body, well my legs took me back to the fruit and veg aisle.

Obviously my body wanted GREEN!!

After only a few moments of deliberation and a bit of quick mental arithmetic I spent £2.40 on an Iceberg lettuce, a bunch of vibrant and fresh looking Spring Onions and a bag of six Golden Delicious Apples.  An absolute fresh looking bargain.

And it was back to the self service tills to pay for my second batch of shopping, and still I had two pence over!!

So this is my shopping for my Challenge Within a Challenge Day.

Yes there are a few items, yogurt, apples, spring onions and lettuce, that will obviously in part be carried forward to join my little larder of foods but the majority of the food will be eaten today.  As per my decision to buy a whole days food with my two days money.

So in fact thanks to my little tub of bargain fruit … reduced to just 24p and according to the label and the weight, forming two of my five a day ... I would have had a very well balanced days food for just £3.05.

I came home and put all my shopping away straight away so that nothing spoiled, the fridge stuff in the fridge the potato in the dark cupboard and my lovely Spring Onions after a good wash, and having the very top tips chopped off, were stood in a jar of water … did you know that they continue to grow if you do this and it keeps them lovely and crisp.

Carried forward from yesterday  £2.72     

                                    Todays money           £2.75                      

   Total available to spend     £5.47 

                                Spent      £5.45

Carried Forward 2p.


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For the Price of a Coffee - Day Four - The Shopping

I had £2.72 to spend - and I didn't go shopping!!

Shopping every day is difficult if you're not used to that particular mindset.  I knew I had more than enough food in the Van so I wouldn't go hungry, I had no real need to go into Garstang, my nearest town for shopping … so I just didn't go.

It does of course mean that I have twice as much, or almost twice as much to go shopping with tomorrow so that really is something to look forward too.

As usual I start a Challenge all fired up and ready to do it properly and then let something slip, but I'm not beating myself up over it, instead I'll get stuck into my leftovers and my food already purchased and sit and plan the next shopping trip.

Ooh a whole £5.47 … now what should I buy?

  What would you buy with that amount that would give you three meals for one day?  Maybe that's what I'll do, if I eat all my spoilable leftovers today I could have a little Challenge within a Challenge tomorrow that means I have to buy three distinct meals for Day Five all within my £5.47 budget and I'm not to use any of my previously bought items to supplement them. Then I will go back to my normal Challenge of spending £2.75 a day for the final two days.

That's a plan then 😎

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For the Price of a Coffee - Day Three - The Shopping

I went out with only half a plan in my mind … and no proper list. 

 I knew I wanted some ready rolled pastry, shortcrust would have been best but all they had in Aldi was Puff Pastry, so that would have to do.  At just 85p a pack it was cheaper than anywhere else.  I did toy with the idea of making my own, but buying flour and fat would have been more expensive and I don't want to be eating too many things made with flour this week as I am trying to concentrate more on vegetables.

The other things were just bargains I couldn't resist.  A lovely fresh head of broccoli for just 39p and a butternut squash for 69p.

 The stuffing mix will be used to make some stuffing balls to have as a sort of roast dinner with some of the veggies, and the part baked brown baguettes will be eaten once with some dhal and once to make a salad sandwich ... after I've been shopping for some salad stuff later in the week.

My receipt, accidently crumpled and then rescued, it shows that I have overspent by 3p …. doing maths while wandering around a supermarket used to be my strong point, seemingly not so much these days!

Carried forward      12p

Todays money   £2.75

                 Total   £2.87  

I spent £2.90 - which is a 3p overspend … oops, so now I have just £2.72 to spend tomorrow!

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For the Price of a Coffee - Day Two - The Shopping

Day two sees me at the Van, and so I called for my shopping to Sainsbury's.  I wanted to have a browse around the shelves and compare the prices in this little branch to the ones I am used to, and luckily they are pretty similar ... although obviously the choice is a lot more limited.

I knew I wanted to have some rice and thought the ideal accompaniment would be a Lentil Dhal.  After doing the Ration Challenge a couple of months back I have become addicted to this cheap but tasty meal.  It's full of nutrition with lots of protein and is one of your five a day, which although I am not overly pushing this week I am aware of, and trying to make sure I have some fruit and veg each and every day.

My three items came to £2.63.

I paid for my shopping at the self serve tills and for some reason as well as my 2p change it spat another ten pence in 5p pieces at me.  I am not adding that to my 'cash carried forward' as it just wouldn't be right, so they have been popped into my little money I find on the streets pot here at the Van which will be donated to charity at the end of the year.

When I got home I put my lemon into the fridge for a while to chill it and then sliced it into seven equal-ish slices, squeezing the juice out of the two little end pieces into a little pot and then using the now squished ends to freshen my chopping boards. 

This was all popped into the freezer for a couple of hours.

Now the lemon slices are bagged and ready for my usual first drink of the day which is a lemon slice in hot water.  It's nice to be able to continue something I usually do even though I am doing a Challenge.

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For the Price of a Coffee - Day One - The Shopping

I was so pleased with my Day One shopping, it went exactly to plan … in fact it went even better.

Everything that I had on my list was available and at the prices quoted on the mysupermarket website, and then as I was walking down the aisle to get the onions I noticed that bulbs of garlic were on sale at just 16p each, and as you can see from the list I had 16p available!!

I double checked that my banana and my carrots were indeed at the prices per weight that I had written down by using the scales available for the 'Scan As You Go' customers  … and they were!

I boo-booed slightly in that I forgot to pick up the porridge oats at first, so I have two receipts one for £2 and one for 75p.

A total spend of £2.75.

I also picked up the free magazine - because it was free and added nicely to the feeling I had of getting a really good shop for a really good price.

Once I arrived at the Van I cut open the bag of onions to let them breathe and then wrapped the carrots in a damp piece of kitchen paper and a re-used bag to keep them as fresh as possible.

After another photo the potato bag was also opened to let them breathe and they and the garlic were popped into the dark, cool cupboard.  Not that I need to keep them fresh for any great length of time, but less nutrients will be lost if they are cool and in the dark.

Now it's time to start cooking.

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