April 2014 Grocery Challenge

icontinuetodream

I have fell so far off the wagon I'll need to get out the satnav and order a taxi just to find it!!:o

I have no idea what has been spent but most of it has been on alcohol!! I have not bothered looking at what I have in so have just gone to the supermarket and bought stuff - absolutely unnecessary and foolish :mad:

But, tomorrow is another day....will do a food inventory and a weeks meal plan, get figures from dh and declare spends and what I have left for the month....I will do better!!;)

Mrs_T_M

physicsgirl wrote: »

Monday: sweet potato and chickpea curry with popadoms and rice - bought a jar of Sainsbobs Basics curry sauce to try it out, but I really didn't like it, especially the way it wobbled in the jar... It was 26p so very cheap, but will be sticking to Aldi's 79p jars in future, the Korma one especially is lovely.

We just tried the Korma curry sauce from Aldi last week, and I have to say, it and the Tikka sauce (our favourite) from there are definitely worth it! Still cheaper than name brand stuff, and way easier than spending 3 hours cooking the sauce from scratch (at least that's how long it took me last time! ).

I had a basics jar knocking about in the pantry from late last year, and I didn't want to waste it. Turns out it isn't too bad over mushrooms and simmered!

As for me - £18.22 spend in various places plus the market yesterday.

Was able to get 4.5 kg of yellow plums for jam for £3 at the market, and I discovered that the spices and herbs stall charge WAY less than anyone else for garlic granules. 60p/30g (which is the usual size of the supermarket £1 jars!). With as much garlic granules as we go through in a month, this will save us quite a bit, plus get me a bit more exercise. I didn't count the spends I made in Tesco, because they are still going on the gift card, but we lucked up on the way home last night. Head of broccoli 12p, kiwi fruit 4p, bag of salad 16p, new potatoes 24p for 2kg. Also ended up having to buy a smaller jar of molasses than I wanted. The health food store was out of their large jars, which are a much better value than the little ones. Ended up getting 54 eggs for £3 in Essentials Norwich (used to be Budgens) on the way home as well. That's about half the price I usually pay.

Found out that the 99p store here has angel delight 3 packs for 99p, so bought 3 to use in ice lollies. The poundworld (new store in the mall here) had ice lolly moulds, so bought two packs. Made strawberry and chocolate ice lollies last night. Doing this has definitely made an impact on how much we spend on sweets, chocolate, and ice cream!

The only downsides to being out all day yesterday: I'm sore today and can barely walk , and dinner wasn't finished until 10pm last night, by which point DH and I were too exhausted to even eat!

I was planning on spending today cooking for the freezer, but I don't know if I'll be able to without a bit of pain killers now. But the main fridge is full, the little fridge is full, and our freezer is bursting!

kayester

I am very impressed with my first home delivery from Sainsbobs. 10 times better than mr A. driver was very friendly, it was all bagged up neatly, and like for like all in similar bags.
no substitutes and very well organised, i will defiantly use again!!

with all discounts it came to a total of £86.84
Will do some batch cooking today and try not do a shop next week

Mrs_T_M

kayester wrote: »

Will do some batch cooking today and try not do a shop next week

What will you be cooking? We are kind of stuck in a rut here, so I'm looking for ideas. Thanks in advance!

kayester

Mrs_T_M wrote: »

What will you be cooking? We are kind of stuck in a rut here, so I'm looking for ideas. Thanks in advance!

meat and potato pies.
lasagna
cottage pies

all from scratch going to hoover round the house and get cracking!

Mrs_T_M

kayester wrote: »

meat and potato pies.
lasagna
cottage pies

all from scratch going to hoover round the house and get cracking!

Those all sound so good! Too bad my health trainer wants me to cut down on my carb intake...

kayester

Mrs_T_M wrote: »

Those all sound so good! Too bad my health trainer wants me to cut down on my carb intake...

yeah im on a diet....i just do smaller portions and be good for the rest of the day
Saves us money so im happy

Mrs_T_M

kayester wrote: »

yeah im on a diet....i just do smaller portions and be good for the rest of the day
Saves us money so im happy

I'm really loving the little ice lollies I've been making. In the new moulds, I can do 8 lollies from one packet of angel delight. The regular ones (not sugar free!) have 52 calories and 5.5g carbs per lolly (no sugar added ones are 45 calories and 5.75g carbs), so that is definitely better than ice cream or chocolate, for our budget AND for my waist!

kayester

haha nice ile have to try that

Ladyluck1

2 NSDs here...
Need bread and milk though so will pop to lidl later
3rd dinner from the roast chicken today, risotto made with the carcass stock and some leftover chicken and peas etc.
yum!