April 2019 Grocery Challenge

Lauralozzle

I'm going to make it! First time ever! Will have a shop (last of the month) tomorrow but I have lots to spare in the budget and we don't need that much! :j

cuddlymarm

Well this month I have totally lost the plot. I’m £62 over my £120 spend for the month, but my cupboards and freezer are full again. £20 of it is booze which I don’t normally buy and some is down to sending OH because I hadn’t time to go but next month WILL be better.
Time to get control.
Anyway better get on
Have a good day guys
Cuddles

pamsdish

£37.16 today, between wilkos, b&m, £ shop and home bargains.

PipneyJane

Puddleglum wrote: »

I've just spent another £7.30 which brings me up to £76.43 for the month. I may need to spend a bit more on Tuesday but equally, may not.

Will have to do a second month of £80 but after that I hope that things will be getting easier. When I moved to London in 1991 and got my first proper paid teaching job I celebrated by raising my food budget from £20 per fortnight to £20 per week. Has food got cheaper or was I eating luxuriously?

Puddleglum, I think some food got cheaper in the intervening years. Certainly, I reckon I wasn't paying anything more for fresh veg in 1991 than I am now but the quality, etc, that I'm getting now is better. (I now buy most of my fresh veg from the farm shop at a local National Trust property, where they grow it on the premises.)

We're just back from MrT's, where whole legs of lamb were on sale for £8.30-something. They were already marked as being "half price", originally costing over £11 each, so the normal price would be £22 something. (Yesterday, our butcher was selling legs of lamb for £35.) This was a bargain I couldn't resist. The Meat Fund coughed up £19 for two legs of lamb and a 620g gammon roast. The remainder of our MrT's shop came to £3.80.

Also popped into Lidl to buy some cheddar. There must be an offer on this weekend; our usual 800g extra mature cheddar cost £2.39.

Mention of the butcher reminds me: we spent £45 in his shop yesterday on 1kg lean minced beef, a whole shoulder of lamb (£23 on its own), four lamb loin chops and four huge pork chops. Half of the shoulder of lamb is destined for the slow cooker tomorrow; the other half was frozen. I don't officially track the Meat Fund spend but we've spent £65 in two days and shouldn't need to buy any more meat until June or July.

Anyway, the £3.80 and £2.39 spent in Lidl and Mr T's brings our total Grocery Challenge spend for April to £120.99/£120, so I'm declaring for the month at 99p overspent.

- Pip

BrassicWoman

Today I set off for the much anticipated vegan festival with my £25 in hand ready to buy treats.It was really busy, too busy for a proper browse. And there were really loud and out of tune musicians. So I lasted about 10 minutes, didn't get a chnace to speak to any of the lovely jewellry/cosmetics makers or activists. I felt very sorry for all the stallholders who had made an effort and yummy stuff - really they needed to dicth the musicians and use the space for stalls. No chance if you were in a wheelchair or had a little 'un with you!



So off I went to the farm shop where I got fancy bread, lentil and walnut pate, fruity crackers, hummus, some amazing semi dried mango and some bananas. I have a tenner left after those treats, and I think all I may need is some peas if I fancy a risotto; or I can eat from the cupboards.



So I am going to call it at that and say "budget met", and start thinking about what I would like for my 1st of the month shop. I'm still working through stack of £3 off £20 at sainsbobs, so probably there this week.



There, Aldi, M&S (YS only!) and Mr T are on my way home from work so no extra petrol to shop. I am very lucky!


See you on the next thread.

tighteningthebelt

BrassicWoman wrote: »

Today I set off for the much anticipated vegan festival with my £25 in hand ready to buy treats.It was really busy, too busy for a proper browse. And there were really loud and out of tune musicians. So I lasted about 10 minutes, didn't get a chnace to speak to any of the lovely jewellry/cosmetics makers or activists. I felt very sorry for all the stallholders who had made an effort and yummy stuff - really they needed to dicth the musicians and use the space for stalls. No chance if you were in a wheelchair or had a little 'un with you.

Such a shame. Is it worth giving this exact feedback to the organisers? I wonder if it will affect how many traders they get booked next year? Traders do network and different festivals have reputations.
I often wonder where people get their bands and sound engineers from. I'd be quite happy without!
Farm shop haul sounds good though.

thriftwizard

Plot lost here! My surgery went well & I'm recovering now, which is proving to be a little more - exhausting - than I'd bargained for. I have absolutely no idea what the troops have spent but there's still cash in the pot. I may need not to be too ambitious next month as I'm banned from a number of normal activities (not to stress the hernia repair) and general galloping around, but I'm pretty much back in the driving seat & in control of the reins - as of today!

pamsdish

£4.77 in Aldi which should finish April.

flubberyzing

I did a Lidl shop yesterday, spending 12.81, which is me done for the month, with a grand total spend of 59.91/70.00.

I used a little of the leftover cash for a coffee in Sainsburys caf! yesterday, while I waited for an appointment. Looked at getting a new cafetiere, but didn't, and just got a couple of multipacks of crisps instead.

Doom_and_Gloom

We have spent £13.79 since last post, yesterday and today are no spend days.

I'm having a vegetable chilli for dinner; cooking right now in my multi cooker, as typing has an hour left.
For dinner OH is having pasta and cheese sauce.

I'm declaring April as done.
£173.72/£180.
£6.28 left.
Woo a whole day budget left :beer:.

Tablet not allowing me to do font or colour change. Sorry.