9/6/13 – 15/6/13
From Tescos with £2 off voucher
2 x 5l sunflower oil – will last for months £10
4 x frozen king prawns @ half price £2.50 each
so £18 in total – leaving me £10.57, the money left over from last week
1/2 loaf bread 65p
4 x reduced price crumpets £1.80 (2 straight in freezer)
1 head chinese cabbage £1
1kg glutinous rice £1.99
Black and white sesame seeds 67p each
500g soya beans £1.30
Dried shitake mushrooms £1.80
Total £27.88 (with £8.57 from last week)
3/6/13 – 8/6/13
Tried really hard to only spend a small amount this week, as I need to get some cooking oil soon, and the cheapest place is a bulk buy from Tesco’s.
From Lidl’s I bought a bottle of olive oil, £2.19 for 750ml, 2 packets of English muffins, reduced price 45p each – split them and froze them straight away, pack of 4 unwaxed lemons, 89p, 2 tubes of tomato puree, 35p each – don’t know which kind I picked up the other week, but it was much more expensive.= £4.68
1 loaf of bread £1.35 from Wall’s the local bakers, and 1 litre of milk 80p = £2.15
On Saturday, I bought fruit and veg from NM & sons on the market in Bethnal Green Rd – bag of baby spinach £1, 1 cantalope melon £1, bowl of organic bananas £1, 2 cucumbers, 50p each and 60p worth of button mushrooms. = £4.60
I also went to the brilliant fish stall on Roman Rd, Downey Bros, to see if they had any samphire – he said he didn’t, because the French stuff was too small and the English hasn’t come in yet (that’s why he’s so good, he won’t buy anything that isn’t up to scratch). He gave me some salmon and cod bones for stock – there was enough fish on them that me and Curdle had a free sushi dinner!
Total £11.43, so £8.57 to carry over to next week.
27-5-13 to 2-6-13
From the market I bought 1 melon 50p, 1 cucumber 50p, bunch of coriander 60p, £1 bowl carrots, £1 bowl bananas, £1 bowl tomatoes, 2kg potatoes, £1.50 = £6.10
My Tesco clubcard points came through, which was a voucher for £3 and some money off coupons…bought 1 tub ricotta, 1 tin Island Sun condensed milk, 1 litre Alpro almond milk, 1.5 kg plain flour 56p – split bag, reduced price, 2x2l fizzy water 19p each and a bottle of red wine on special offer (£4.99) – £9.58 after coupons were deducted.
In Sainsbury’s 1 pack reduced price red chillies 60p and juniper berries £1.72 = £2.32
In Lidl, 1 kg sugar 87p
In China Ark 1 pack beansprouts 45p, and pack of Sichuan pressed tofu snack strips 60p
Total £19.92 – obviously, some of the things I bought this week and last week are: a) not essential, and b) will last for some time, but it’s getting scary how close to the bone I come each week – ‘cos I only keep a vague running total in my head when I’m out shopping.
20-5-13 to 26-5-13
From NM & sons, the market stall on Bethnal Green Rd, I bought 2 heads of white chicory, 1 bulb Florence fennel and 1 big celeriac =£2.43
In Longdan Supermarket I bought Trung Nguyên Vietnamese Coffee, 500g £5.00, 500g yellow split mung beans 70p, 1 pack mung bean (also known as glass or cellophane) noodles – contains 6 little packets £1.45 = £7.15
In Sainsbury I bought 1 pack ‘basics’ fair-trade coffee £1.69, 1kg Anya potatoes £1 and 1 pack silken tofu £1.29 = £3.98
On the market I bought 1 Asian aubergine 38p (long and thin, bright violet colour) and £1 bowl of tomatoes = £1.38
In Lidl I bought 6x 600g packs of spaghetti, 59p each, pack of English muffins, 65p and a tube of tomato puree 80p = £4.99
Total £19.93 – by the skin of my teeth
13/5/13 – 19/5/13
While in Lidl I bought 2x vacuum pack beetroot 44p each, 1 cue 50p, 2x aubergine 50p each, 1 pack English muffins 65p, 6 x jars of polish celeriac salad 49p each (they’re a little too sweet, but they’re good to have as a standby) and one mozzarella 44p.= £6.41
In Tesco, I bought a reduced price chicken £2.85 – straight into the freezer and 2 bottles of fizzy water, 19p each = £3.23
From a market stall, I bought 2 small honeydew melons, 50p each, a £1 bowl of avocadoes (6), a bowl of tomatoes £1, a bowl of bananas £1 and a 10p piece of ginger= £4.10
In China Ark, my local Chinese shop, I bought a pack of beansprouts 45p and a pack of Chinese sweet potato noodles £1.35 – apparently, the Korean ones are better but they’re more expensive. =£1.80
In Sainsburys, bought a bottle of red wine £3.50
Also bought half a loaf of bread at the bakers, 65p
Total £19.69
6/5/13-12/5/13
Went and bought some asparagus from the market stall on Bethnal Green Rd, N&M Sons on Tuesday £1.50
Went to the West End on Thursday – spent £21.43 in Chinese stores – which technically means I went over budget by £2.93, but seeing as I had change left over from the week b4, I’m not going to be o.t.t. about it.
In Soho, I bought 2 packs of wheatflour dumpling wrappers, ½ kilo minced pork, 1 pack Chinese sausages, 1 pack Chinese bacon, 1 pack fresh shitake mushrooms, ½ kilo shungiku greens, 1 pack candied winter melon and 5 packs of flavoured pressed tofu strips (50p each) plus a tub of mushroom bouillon, Totale brand £2.35 – sounds excessively extravagant/meat laden, but sausages and bacon (cut up) went straight in the freezer, and will last several months. Made a big batch of dumplings, both meat and vegan with shitake and wild garlic, which were also mainly frozen
total £22.93
28/4/13 -5/5/13
I went to Lidl to buy catfood on Sunday – so I also bought 2 x cans of butter beans (65p each), 2 cans of baked beans (34p each), potatoes (1.35) and a can of smoked herrings in tomato sauce (£1.20) – not the one in tomato cream!!, and 1 kilo carrots (65p) – running total £5.18
Update – spent £3.57 on veg for Jamaican pepperpot on thursday – the makings of a huge pot, and 50g of oyster mushrooms for 25p
Spookily, exactly a tenner….my veg for the week was mainly experiments with wild garlic and garden weeds
There was a bit of a cyber silence, but I did keep to the budget – bought a £7.50 bag of Jasmine Rice (Cambodian, really fragrant,) and 6 packs of linguine from Tesco, special offer 50p a pack, some short grain rice £1.99 a kilo for the cupboard as well as day to day stuff.
3/3/13-9/3/13
Last week I bought 6 free range eggs £1(Iceland), 1 head of chinese cabbage £1.20 (China Ark), 3 packs pork bones and 1 of chicken bones £4 (Dewhurst, Stratford), limes(16), avocado (10), red onion, baby plum tomatoes from Whitechapel market, all £1 a bowl/bag – the red onions weighed 3 kilos, reduced 4 pack of little gem lettuce 69p and reduced parsnips 19p from Sainsbury, a bumper bag of unwaxed lemons and 1.5 kilo bag of oranges from Lidl- so about £14.
Yesterday I bought aubergine, garlic and mouli radish from Whitechapel market, all £1 a bowl, a bottle of fizzy water from Sainsburys, 20p, and a bottle of light soy sauce, Pearl River brand from China Ark, £1.75.
If not exactly ‘pop goes the weasel’, my weasel is half popped! At least the garlic and soy will last for some time.
Monday update – 45p on reduced price english muffins – 6 pack
Thursday – 10p for a piece of ginger about the size of a packet of polos.
Friday reduced bag of winter casserole 39p down from £1.50, and a bottle of wine £4.29
3/3/2013
Well, if I waited until my cupboards were completely bare, I’d never get this thing started, so for the next few weeks I’ll probably be spending closer to a tenner instead of twenty, which in turn will help me pay off that enormous utility bill 😦
doledrumdiva 