The £5 Weekly Shop!

aug09 006

After last week’s shop, I spent another £5 on some items on sale (orange juice, cheese, bran, tomatoes) as a result I’ve given myself an interesting challenge this week, I’m going to eat out of my pantry and freezer! Now before you think I have a grand pantry, mine is a teeny tiny cupboard which fits exactly:

  • 2 bags of lentils
  • 4 tins (bean mix, chick peas, lentils)
  • tahini
  • tea
  • whole wheat pasta
  • bran
  • rice cakes

In my freezer I have:

In my fridge I have:

  •  orange juice
  •  carrots
  •  potatoes
  • peanut butter
  • cheese
  • orange juice
  • 1 pear
  • tomatoes

Needless to say this is going to be quite interesting! Using this system allowed me to do my weekly shop locally, I was encouraged after reading a post at reactive cooking, so I headed to one of my favourite green grocers on and bought the following:

  • Swede
  • Onion
  • Courgette aka zucchini
  • Pea Snaps
  • 2 plums
  • 4 nectarines
  • 2 clementines
  • handful of cherries

One thing I love about this fruit & veg shop is they have smaller fruit/veg which keeps the cost lower! I spent just under £5! (can’t be exact because they don’t give receipts and I purchased some veg for my mum as well, but it was around £4.17). I will need milk, but apart from that I’m hoping not to buy anything else this week! I’ll let you know how I do!

The Menu Plan This Week

Breakfasts

  • Bran cereal with milk, orange juice x 2
  • Bran loaf with tea, cheese, orange x 2
  • Homemade smoothie with rice cake & peanut butter x 2
  • 1/2 bagel with peanut butter, orange juice, pear

Lunches

  • Homemade carrot & lentil soup with rice cake & tahini x 2, fruit x 2
  • Meatballs, carrot sticks, homemade potato salad, fruit
  • Stuffed courgettes/zucchini (with cheese), swede and bean salad , fruit
  • Leek salad with homemade hummus on 1/2 a bagel, fruit
  • Chicken, homemade coleslaw, cheesy nutty biscuit, fruit
  • Lentil Dahl with homemade potato salad, fruit

Dinners

  • Veggie stirfry
  • Salmon with roasted leek and courgettes
  • Kale & potato bake with carrot & raisin salad and snow peas
  • Homemade chickpea burgers, garlic potatoes, swede mash, roasted tomatoes
  • Lentil bake over whole wheat pasta & peas, roasted tomatoes
  • Roast Dinner at my mum’s!
  • Out For Curry with friends!

I hope you all found good foods to buy in budget this week!  Thank you for all the questions by comment & email, I’m getting posts ready with replies & recipes (I’m very fussy about recipes so often tweak them before giving them out to ensure they are the best they can be :0) )

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About Frugal Trenches

I love the sweet nectar of life!
This entry was posted in Frugal Food, Groceries, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to The £5 Weekly Shop!

  1. mo says:

    this is different question. I just wonder why you find Christianity so – um – appealing. I can see that the teachings of Jesus are pretty good. But the rest of it. I find really hard to take on board. I am a spiritual person but I find it impossible to believe that Jesus is the son of God, for example. I don’t understand why he died on the cross and what that means to us. Sorry to be so deep in a random comment – or on an unrelated post.

  2. mac jordan says:

    Thanks for the plug!

  3. Katy says:

    Your menu looks delicious! I need to work on getting our grocery expenses down. Unfortunately, I have a family of picky eaters, which makes it much harder.

    To mo (in case you happen to read my comment): if you have access to a Bible, I would encourage you to read the Gospel of John in the New Testament. It should answer some of your questions. You can read it online here:
    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=50&chapter=1&version=31

    Blessings to you both,
    Katy

  4. Oh good planning and all sounds so healthy and nice – can I come for tea!

  5. Shoestring says:

    Great plan :) I recently had a week of living out of the freezer and storecupboard myself! Particularly handy if you’re having a busy week. I also make my own meatballs but I always make a tomato sauce to go with them – I’ve never thought of making a fruity one! Maybe I’ll give your recipe a go. It sounds good…

  6. lucid says:

    Mmm, good luck on your tasty challenge! I’m sure you’ll pull it off and can’t wait to read all about it!

  7. Lisa says:

    Good luck on your food challenge. I normally stick to a weekly menu plan, but with the summer hols and sickness at home I seem to be running out of everything and have been picking up bits these past couple of days which is an expensive way to do it. Oh well, next week is another week!
    My lovely husband is putting up shelving in our utility room which I’m going to use to store more of the foods which we use most frequently so I can benefit when the supermarket have good deals and also cut down on shopping trips in general.
    Lisa x

  8. I was wondering what a swede was… I think we call it turnip here?

  9. Suzan says:

    Good wishes for your challenge. I need to get my spending under control. I am trying hard to eat what is to hand so I enjoy your refreshing outlook.

  10. Kathryn says:

    Your meals and food always look so delicious! How did you learn to cook?

  11. Frugal Undergrad says:

    Wow, only £5 this week! You have everything well planned, I’m sure you’ll be able to complete this ‘challenge’.

  12. Pingback: Reclaiming Simple Sabbath Sundays « Notes From The Frugal Trenches – A Downshifting Journey

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