April 2010 Grocery Challenge

cw18

I'm in for April. Doesn't look as if I'll have DS1 here at all this month (spending his leave with a friend), and DS2 is away for 4 days.

This means I have a teeny-tiny budget for April of just £95 :eek:

lizziebabe

Hi everyone, 1st post for April.

Trying for less than £175 for this month.

Thanks to all those who run the thread, it is my 3rd month and really keen still. It feels like a family :T

I'm pleased with my NSD and it isn't that hard, but I do miss wandering around the shops. Still it is good to save and I also like my bargains.

All the best for everyone this April

slowandsteady_2

Evening,

well my planned shop for milk and rissotto rice included a few extras and i spent £10.74

2 x milk £3
gravy granules 27p
newspaper 44p
3 x packs of fromage frais for dd £2 (offer)
arborio rice x 2 £1.88
reduced yoghurts for me 60p
reduced strawberries £1.18
cauliflower 50p
and a bag for life 5p

I had to have a cauliflower, beautiful it is, and British from Cornwall, im looking forward to having it.

Im off to soak some pulses now, im doing a sort of pulse and sweet potato/or butternut squash stew tommorow for a change, will cook the pulses in the pan cook them through and then chuck everything else in the slow cooker for the day. Havent used these pulses before so no idea if we will like them, my lame experience with pulses only extends to lentils and pearl barley lol.

Night all x

PennyGrabber

Hi all!

Not been on for about a week now I don't think. My month started on the 23rd (last Tuesday), and since then I've only had 2 SDs!! I'm so proud of myself - I think it's some kind of a record. AND, today I realised that we only have one banana left, but I thought "Tough!" and we're going to make do with other fruit until i go shopping again! Check me out - I'm growing!
I've spent the grand total of £54.70 so far this month on my 2 shopping days. This equates to 46% of my budget, with 29% of my month gone. That's much better than normal, as I decided during last month that big monthly shops just weren't working for me. Normally by now, it would be getting on for around 70% spent, so I'm really pleased with that.

I don't think (touch wood) that the Easter hols will cost me too much in food, as I have so much in that I could feed the 5000, so we may be having use-em-up lunches, and properly planned dinners. DD loves noodles, and I have quite a few packs of the 9p ones, so we may have some for lunches, also will be using staples such as beans on (yellow sticker then frozen) toast. Haven't actually had beans on toast for ages!

Having boiled ham tomorrow, one of my favourite dinners, then fish pie on Friday, traditional and all. Then, I don't have DD or DS for Sat pm til Tues am. Not looking forward to that, but will be an opportunity to eat whatever falls out when I open the pantry door!

I ate quite a bit today, as I had my first pregnancy bloods taken, and I had forgoten how much of a pathetic wimp I am, so spent the rest of the day eating to make up for it!!

Enough for now,
PG x

katenut

Hello everyone! Spent the evening doing my end of month sums, and I've decided on a budget of £170 in April please. Not really sure how this month is going to work out, getting married in 3 weeks and its all a bit chaotic so going to try some batch cooking to make sure we dont go mad on groceries in the wedding build-up.

Good luck everyone, I love going into a shiny new month with a nice new budget! xxx

topsyturphy

Can you please put me down for £160 for April please, going to try and bring my budget down even further, will be a tough month I think. Thanks to everyone that keeps this thread going.

Sunnyday

Moniker wrote: »

In case any of you missed my question on the March challenge here it is again!

"I have a quick question: just before Christmas I bought a pack of 50 frozen mini sausage rolls which I cooked ready to use at a party after DD2's wedding. However, fewer people turned up than anticipated and so I put the cooked sausage rolls back in the freezer. They have been there ever since. How much longer will they be ok? We have a party for my DH's 60th birthday at the end of July - can I defrost them to use then or will I poison my guests? It's just that I hate to waste anything and don't want to feel that I have to throw them away - though I will of course if there's any danger to health!

Any advice welcome!"


Thanks

Moniker

Moniker - I`ve cooked and frozen them ages ago when my freezer gave up the ghost, i froze them afterwards in a friends freezer and transferred them back to mine when the new one was delivered. I think that they were older than yours and perfectly fine.

HTH

SD

dreamingofmoney

Good Morning
A shiney new month and hopefully i have got my head screwed on right this month
£300 for April Please Mrs M

Good Luck to all
Dreamer

cookie9

As on holiday for one week so no food to buy then I am going to try for £70 for April.
Have a weeks worth of food in frezer plus tins of tuna and of sweetcorn. Saw some nice fishcakes recipes on the boards earlier so may try those out.

Coxy11

Mornin'

Small spend yesterday in M&S. Hot X Buns (2 packs), Bread, Custard Tarts (nom) and Green Beans (bogof). Total spends 49% so far with 32% of my month gone.

Easter hols start today and my Dad still staying between us and my sister. Have noodles, sandwich fillings etc. which should be okay for lunches for a couple of days. I'm working tomorrow and DH taking children to his Mum's so they will eat there. Don't know about anyone else, but I really struggle with lunches - children have school meals so I usually only have to worry about myself.

Still have 17 main meals to buy for. Didn't go for a big MrT shop at the beginning of the challenge as I've decided to do things differently this month.

Re: Able & C0le/school link up (sorry forgot who asked me) - the scheme is called Farmers' Choice. School gets 25% of sales. 5 type veg bag is £5, 4 type fruit bag is £6.50 and Combi 2 fruit/3 veg bag is £7. Bags are delivered to school for collection by parents, at which point you order and pay for the next weeks' produce. Sounds like a good deal. Will let you know how it goes.

Sorry for the long post!

Have a good day everyone.

Coxy
xx