How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half – Week Three Report

I must admit, I am actually loving this ‘how to cut your grocery bill in half’ self-inflicted challenge. We are SAVING SO MUCH MONEY! This week we spent £18.05. Now, admittedly, this is above the <£14 that is the goal of Thrifty Lesley’s meal plans, but it is because we bought some items in bulk (as Lesley herself says you should do, if you can afford to). So we don’t feel too bad about this. Hell, less than £20 to feed two adults (and I’m pregnant so I’m eating a lot) and a 2 yr old lad is pretty good going I think. Typically, we would’ve spent more like £40ish per week on our original spending plan.

Highlights of Week 3’s Super Frugal Meal Plans

This week had loads of highlights. Lesley, you are a genius! We didn’t stick to the plan exactly, as we forgot about the cauliflower, but that was because we had some veg from our own allotment and ate that instead e.g. this soup we made instead of Lesley’s cauliflower and chickpea soup:

Mixed vegetable soup — ‘allotment surprise’ soup – chuck in any veg you like!

This was epic. We chucked in loads of veg we grew and then some of the ingredients from Lesley’s original recipe. If you can grow your own, you will save money, eat healthy, and it will (probably) taste delicious!

Another highlight of the week, and one which I was previously super sceptical about was gnocchi made from dried potato – something I swore I’d never, ever buy. I’m Irish – dried potatoes held an almost blasphemous quality to me. However, after I read the packet ingredients I was a bit more okay with it – I’d assumed it’d have been full of weird preservatives etc. but Sainsbury’s basics variety kept it real at least. The gnocchi is slightly time-consuming to make (but quicker than doing it completely from scratch), but we were rewarded with a totally delicious end result (DO USE MILK don’t think you should just use water in the recipe):

homemade gnocchi — check it out, I actually made my own gnocchi

So it was a fun experience and everyone devoured it:

homemade gnocchi - it's almost too good to be true — gobbled up gnocchi and homemade tomato sauce – with grated cheese on top

Our son has been asking for gnocchi almost every day since we made this. They were so delicious! They are really filling, but they are so moreish so we the whole lot and then we were a wee bit bloated!

So overall, an excellent week. I am still thinking about the gnocchi…

Do try out Lesley’s meal plans – they are so cheap and you won’t be disappointed. By all means, adapt them to your own tastes and add a few extras if you like. We do that, and I don’t think it’s beyond the spirit of what Lesley is trying to accomplish with the £1 – 1 person – 1 day challenge.

Now, as you will soon be saving lots of money on groceries, do put it to good use and at least earn yourself some passive income!

Cheers