May 2017 Grocery Challenge

purpleybat

2 small shops coming to about £10 and a main shop of £33.77. more than I wanted at this tme of the month, esp as dad wants coffee and that'll cost about £12 (tho will keep him going a few months).
I think my shop the other day cost so much cos needed cheeses to make moussaka, the recipe calls for 3 different types!
luckily tomorrow for morries I have a £5 coupon so the coffee binge won't cost too much, as long as I stick to the 4 items on the list. i'll have a quick peep at reduceds but I don't really have space for much.
fingers crossed

purpleybat

lynnejk wrote: »

You can grate it and pop in a freezer bag in the freezer. It doesn't go into a hard lump and you can just take out as/when you need it. It seems to keep for months. Keep any rind to add to soups etc
Lx

I have stew recipes saying you chuck it in as stew cooks, cos its sooooo rock hard it doesn't melt and you fish it out after. adds a savoury note without being cheesy

elsiepac

Loving the 70s birthday posts... to be honest I had very similar ones (that we threw and attended) in the late 80s/early 90s when I was little. ALWAYS chocolate fingers and party rings (which are vegan incidentally, so I can still enjoy them today lol), always crips in paper bowls, and white bread sandwiches - I think I remember cheese or ham, not pastes though. I remember being very excited at one I went to where the paper bowls had PRINGLES in them! Oh and hula hoops of course!
Our parties were always at home from what I remember and my mum used to make what we thought were the best cakes ever! Our favourite was the hedgehog cake - one big hedgehog and about 6 babies around it - iced in CHOCOLATE icing (what a treat!) and with half buttons stuck in rows for spines. We adored them!
My sister's birthday is July so she got the good weather, and mum did her a picnic party one year - she MADE little boxes, 15 or so, out of coloured paper and each had sandwiches, a few crisps and other bits I forget now. That was a fun one - only out in the garden but very novel!
Other kids parties were usually thrown at either the church hall or the village hall in my village, and as we got older and they turned into disco parties, I always remember the aeons old blue crockery that the adults would drink their tea from while they waited for it to finish. ( I never had a disco party but was lucky enough to go to a couple!). As I got older, from maybe 9 or 10, we had a "birthday treat" which we LOVED - a cinema trip with our closest friends. Dad would never come, he's not into that, so usually one of our friends mum's would come with mum, and depending on who our "best friend" little group was at the time would depend how many people we could ask - it was usually 3 or 4. And whether it was mine or my sisters birthday we were allowed to go too, but if it was the other one's birthday we weren't allowed to"steal the limelight" as such, so were usually allowed 1 friend as well so we didn't bother the birthday group!
It was such a treat, cinema trips were maybe 3 or 4 times a year including our birthdays which accounts for 2. So it was so special to us. I love the cinema to this day, and it always feels like a treat going. I'm really glad I was brought up that way, especially as the prices are so ridiculous now! It makes me a bit sad seeing how kids take it for granted nowadays (I know I'm talking like I'm very old here lol, but I'm not, I'm 33).

ANYWAY! That was a pleasant trip down memory lane!

Back to groceries lol.
This week I've had a couple of extras - Coriander, some YS melon and red onion, all bought on Wednesday.
I bought some vegan "meat"-y things from H&B - I didn't need them and they aren't in my meal plan, it was a stupid impulse buy, so I'm taking them out of my "spends" as punishment and because I am not counting them as groceries.

Did my proper shops yesterday - Ald1 and Mr T as usual. Pretty much stuck to my list but spent about £4 more than I was planning. About £2 on YS items. Wasted 70p on a bag of mint as had "lost" one in the fridge - annoying as I wanted it Wednesday and had to make do without when it was a key ingredient lol!
Anyway, I'm getting low on funds, but I'm stocked up till next week now, so doing a lot better than recently!



................................£150 Budget
Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining
27 Apr.....Wa1tr0se..£80.19.....£69.81
28 Apr.....H&B.......£00.08.....£69.73
28 Apr.....Tesc0.....£29.45.....£40.28
3 May......Co-0p.....£01.29.....£38.99
3 May......Tesc0.....£00.80.....£38.19
4 May......A1d1......£16.45.....£21.74
4 May......Tesc0.....£05.00.....£16.74



Date....Fresh/Frozen..Cupboard/Dry Goods..Cleaning/Toiletries..Treats..Bags
27 Apr..£24.14........£11.24..............£28.01...............£16.80..-
28 Apr..-.............£00.08..............-....................-.......-
28 Apr..£20.36........£09.04..............-....................-.......£00.05
3 May...£01.29........-...................-....................-.......-
3 May...£00.75........-...................-....................-.......£00.05
4 May...£16.45........-...................-....................-.......-
4 May...£01.66........£03.34..............-....................-.......-

maisymoo5

Can I join please? Th]is will be my first go at this. I have recorded my spends for the last two months and the average was £375.13. This seems an awful lot given there are just two of us and two dogs. We do like our wine though! Anyway thought I should start off with a realistic budget so I'd like to put myself down at £300 for May ]please?

spendaholic

Bit disappointed in my first attempt. It should be £75 per week, for 2 adults + 3 pets, including toiletries and detergents. But last night's shop came to £92.13. :eek: This included antihistamines (£4.75 - supermarket own brand) and magazines (£13.59). Next month, if this continues, I may take mags and meds out of the weekly budget and give them one of their own each.

kscour

I buy my antihistamines in wilkinsons - can't remember how much they are exactly but I'm sure it's less than £2 for a months supply

Cappella

Spendaholic I download free magazines on to my tablet from my local library. Does your library offer that service? It might be worth checking and it's not too hard to download the app. (I find technology a bit tricky sometimes as my grand nieces will confirm).

The supermarkets have been successfully negotiated this morning £26.00 in Liddlies bought 3 blocks of different cheeses (enough for the month) grapes, red onions, radishes, apples, bananas, mini dog treats, a piece of gammon to boil and some bedding geraniums.
Was very happy especially as a trip to the vets then cost me a further £20.00 for dogs flea and worm treatments. We get advocaat (spelling?) from the vet as it's effective - cheaper over the counter stuff isn't, as we know to our cost!!
So £46.00 and I've updated my signature.
The NSDs are paying dividends, but I've also joined the Live Food Hate Waste thread which is making me a lot more inventive where meals are concerned.

hex2

Xspender - another child of the 70s. Did anyone mention pink wafer biscuits? I think H&B still do them - now called pink panther biscuits. and the coconut mallow ones - like strips of cardboard with rows of pink or white marshmallow.

mm biscuits...

pesty grain free diet.

mcculloch29

My children were children of the Eighties and early Nineties, born 1978 and 1983 and Elsiepac's post brought back some lovely memories of birthday parties and cinema outings.

One year in the late 90s I did a Hallow'een party for my childminded children.
We had "decaying fingers" (breadsticks dripping with melted cheese), fairy cakes coloured black, green and purple with food dye, and eyeballs suspended in blood jelly (peeled grapes in strawberry jelly darkened with squash), plus mouldy pizza (covered in extra molten cheese).

I will be unexpectedly baking bread after I realised I forgot my Danish loaf. I can't reproduce Danish bread but at least it will be bread. I really don't want to go food shopping before I have to.

I never buy tablets (other than own brand painkillers) from the big four supermarkets. Savers do loperamide that is identical to expensive brand name troubled tummy tablets for 49p. My friend who has hay fever gets her tablets from there too. Wilko is great for cod liver oil in bottles.
I'm not counting any medications in with my grocery budget, it isn't possible to economise on them any more than I do and it wouldn't be wise not to take them when they are needed.

XSpender

hex2 wrote: »

Xspender - another child of the 70s. Did anyone mention pink wafer biscuits? I think H&B still do them - now called pink panther biscuits. and the coconut mallow ones - like strips of cardboard with rows of pink or white marshmallow.

mm biscuits...

pesty grain free diet.

I can't eat them either hex, I'm coeliac, so will just have to watch everyone else tuck in I did buy some snowballs instead of the mallow wafer sandwich thingys today though which are GF.

I did ask my mum this morning if she still had the orange swirly 70's table cloth we always had for parties but she has unfortunately chucked it out which, bearing in mind I am the youngest at almost 47, is not surprising!:rotfl:

Today's spends:

Mr T delivery - £61.54 including some beer for DH
Mr A - £5.63 on snowballs, party rings and hula hoops, GF flour and baking marg

My total is now £247.02/£400

This total includes a 3 course meal for 7 including wine and a party tea for 5. We have been eating out of the freezer all week and have hardly made a dent in it which goes to show how much is in there!

I still need to buy DS's birthday cake and DH will probably have another few bottles of beer tomorrow night but that should be it. I am aiming for no more than £40 on food next week excluding beer.