April 2012 Grocery Challenge

meanmarie

€180 for April please...just realised I never posted budget...hope that I can stay with it

Marie

FrugalLina

Since I started doing the grocery challenge, I have noticed something odd, I am buying a lot less obviously and I am discarding a lot less (uneaten food as well as packaging), but I am eating extremely well and never ever go hungry!

Curious.

I think maybe it is because I am only buying the basics to make food from scratch. Also, it may be because I make an effort to menu plan instead of dashing into the SM on my way home from work to willy-nilly buy stuff for dinner as I had no idea what to eat.

Still, although it is more effort to prepare the food, there is some time-saving involved as less time is spent shopping.

mummyyof5

A NSD again today thanks to snow lol xx

Florenceem

FrugalLina wrote: »

Since I started doing the grocery challenge, I have noticed something odd, I am buying a lot less obviously and I am discarding a lot less (uneaten food as well as packaging), but I am eating extremely well and never ever go hungry!

Curious.

I think maybe it is because I am only buying the basics to make food from scratch. Also, it may be because I make an effort to menu plan instead of dashing into the SM on my way home from work to willy-nilly buy stuff for dinner as I had no idea what to eat.

Still, although it is more effort to prepare the food, there is some time-saving involved as less time is spent shopping.

Plus - cook more than you need for a meal - freeze some so you build up a stock of HM ready meals.

Florenceem

Managed another NSD.
We had salmon quiche, cous cous and roasted onions, mushrooms & tomatoes for dinner.




May have to spend tomorrow - need some milk.

DundeeDoll

First spend of april £4.18 on night-time medicine for my horrid cough. Then i forgot to take it d'oh and slept through hooray, but feeling rubbish again this morning so will have to buy some cough sweets to get me through this avo's meeting. If anyone knows of any OS cough cures i'm all ears

craigywv

DundeeDoll wrote: »

First spend of april £4.18 on night-time medicine for my horrid cough. Then i forgot to take it d'oh and slept through hooray, but feeling rubbish again this morning so will have to buy some cough sweets to get me through this avo's meeting. If anyone knows of any OS cough cures i'm all ears

hi, this works for us and is actually very os, as my granda used to do this, dont buy cough sweets too dear!!! get the medicine that you bought, boil the kettle put the allowed dose usually 2 teaspoons in a cup, pour in boiling water only about an inch or an inch and a half stir well and when its cool enough to drink like tea, coffee, neck it in one!!! dont let it go cold as it defeats the purpose. apparently it being hot "opens" the medicine vapours , menthol etc....and works inside you better. i hope this works for you.:)

craigywv

craigywv wrote: »

hi, this works for us and is actually very os, as my granda used to do this, dont buy cough sweets too dear!!! get the medicine that you bought, boil the kettle put the allowed dose usually 2 teaspoons in a cup, pour in boiling water only about an inch or an inch and a half stir well and when its cool enough to drink like tea, coffee, neck it in one!!! dont let it go cold as it defeats the purpose. apparently it being hot "opens" the medicine vapours , menthol etc....and works inside you better. i hope this works for you.:)

meant to say you will prob cough like a chain smoker for a few mins but it settles down then works.:rotfl:

franby64

Hi

I really need to keep updating this month as I need to take things seriously...

Total so far is £81.08/£400 and I'm doing a fair bit of using up and the freezer is emptying. I have an Easter order coming this evening with lots of basics for the month as well. The mealplan is coming along and will involve lots of soup and beans!

Does anybody have a recipe for chickpeas as I have a jar which I've just not got round to using. I also have an ageing bag of cornmeal and keep meaning to have a go at cornbread - I must do this before it goes out of date!

Hope the month is going well so far.

fozziebeartoo

Today will have my 1st frivilous spends of the month! :j

Going out with some girlfriends, ages since we met so loads to catch up with.......I am allowing £20 for the evening, £10 for 2 pitchers of Spoonies cocktails and a meal and maybe some diet pepsi to dilute it

I go out so rarely (30 odd year marriage ended recently so still trying to find a social life ) so I dont have a budget for leisure or entertaining or anything, so I figure if it comes out of my purse, it can be included in the Grocery challenge for me!

The lasagne I made on Tuesday fed DGS and me for 2 days AND I have frozen the last portion so VERY pleased about that.

But I have a culinary disaster to declare......:(

I had granola that wasnt as fresh as I like, and had gone off anyway (loving the Lidl luxury one now) so made some granola bars, melted sugar, butter, bit of maple syrup (recipe said honey but didnt have any) and mixed in the granola and baked.

Smelt fantastic, looked gorgeous, so crunchy and golden.....

But OMG, so SWEET :eek:

Just couldnt eat it, I am not diabetic but 2 bites and I was nearly in a coma

Luckily the other ingredients were just languishing in fridge and cupboards, so I dont feel TOO bad about the waste and it filled the house with a wonderful smell - just a shame about the taste :rotfl:

I will update my signature tomorrow with my actual spends.

Have a great Thursday everyone!!