May 2020 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

carolinerunner said:

btw I know these are not  relevant Qs but I know someone here will know and I can't find an answer (not to #2 anyway):
1: how do you get a green pepper to go red/orange/yellow before it wrinkles beyond being edible?
2: how do I stop getting emails every time someone posts, I  do love to know but I can't cope with all the emails!

The best way is to put a green pepper next to a banana in a fruit bowl and turn it every few hours. The ethanol used to turn the banana yellow means it emits a gas that causes fruit and vegetables to ripen/rot more quickly. It is why people don't leave bananas in with other fruit normally

lantanna

Closing for May came in under budget. See you on the June thread.

PipneyJane

Good morning everyone.  

For the first time in ages, we’re over our Grocery Challenge budget! < hangs head in shame>  

We spent £41.57 in L!dl yesterday morning.  Did we go a bit mad? Possibly, although we filled our basket with fresh veg.  The expensive stuff was on top of that.  We didn’t need to spend 41p on Oaties biscuits or 88p on Stroopwaffels or £3.16 on chocolates or £3.38 on mixed nuts.  They will get eaten eventually.  (Actually, knowing my husband, they won’t last the week.).  Oh, and DH picked up the wrong brand of spaghetti so we spent 45p/pack instead of 20p.  Luckily, I had my wallet with me so I put an extra £20 into the GC purse at the till.  

Talking of Lidl, our local branch opens at 11am on a Sunday.  We walked down there, arrived at 10.15 and were 6th in the queue.  What surprised me were the people that drove into the car park, saw the queue and then drove out again.  They had plenty of veg in stock; most of their other supplies were back to normal levels, but still no 800g blocks of cheddar and very few eggs.


The above spend brings our totals to £130.13/£123.60, so we’re currently £6.53 overspent.

- Pip

Aliliva

I keep on having a good feeling about this challenge this month: we've spent £212/£300 so far, and are well stocked up - but again, I always think we are and then by friday the fridge is empty while freezer and cupboard are missing key staples
Where does all that food go?!

joedenise

A top up shop form mainly fruit and veg in Lidl with a spend of £13.27 and some soft drinks from Morries at £15.30.  This brings my total to £129,36 leaving £115.20/£250.

Doom_and_Gloom

£35.10 spent on and A&C delivery today.

Small fruit and vegetable box £14.25

Potatoes 
Carrots 
Asparagus 
Pak choi
Red pepper
Cherry tomatoes 
Pineapple 
Bananas 

Cooks ingredients box £19 (again not the best picture for this) 

Sweet potatoes 
Round courgettes
Flat beans
Mixed exotic mushrooms; nameko, oyster and shitake
Heirloom tomatoes 
Watercress 
Black garlic 
Ginger root
Chives
Raspberries 

Of course OH got his milk as well and the toilet roll we needed was also in the delivery so all is well.
We did have a treat items delivered for my birthday later in the week; tiramasu desert pot each (these look delicious) but they were out of a different budget. 

I have a full meal plan for myself for this week already. OH has an idea of what he's doing for meals.

£269.06/£300. 
£30.94 left.

We need to look at our grocery budget and up it to afford the mostly organic diet. We've noticed a difference in my health, even slightly OHs health as well, since going mostly back to organic produce again. Duh as I did this in the past and had the same result but we had a money lean period and couldn't afford the organic. We aren't exactly flush now but we both think our health is important (OH is more concerned with mine due to my disability and immune system problems and that I'm still working right now) so we will juggle the budgets and work it out.
Of course OS is still our focus. 

chirpychick

Hey everyone, I’ve not had chance to log on until now. £59.48 spent on this weeks groceries. (Just waiting for 40p refund).
we did run out of a couple of things that hubby got from the garage again he spent under £10 but game from his wallet rather than grocery budget. 

I didn’t know this would happen so will account for this next month.  Mind you we are way under anyway either way you look at it. But need to ensure the emergency garage runs come out of grocery spends. 

I struggled this week to keep the budget low but we are doing ok and definitely adapting.
small person is asking for food less often and the weekly treat is going down well. The Diet Coke habit has been reduced but not yet eradicated. 

So far spent is £239.87 / £375 we have 1 more shop left this month before payday. 

At first I was so worried when I started at the beginning of the month but I’m really proud of us so far. 

We made waffles from scratch for sons breakfasts and some pancakes rather than premade. We got gifted an ice cream maker from a neighbour so have today made ice cream. 

Hubby actually said he would make a curry sauce rather than rely on a jar and everyone is overall consuming less rubbish like crisps and chocolate which has almost disappeared from our shopping. 

We are dieting as well so I have paid slightly more for things like 5% mince and disabled son consumes huge amounts of fresh fruit. But I’m feeling positive about reducing the monthly overall even more next month. 

Have a good week. 

Stay safe x

XSpender

Way, way over budget this month £542.19/£400.  My budget was more of a wish and an aspiration than a firm goal I think.  This includes a few bulk buys, too many snacks and treats and too much booze for DH.  He is back to work this week which should cut down some of the spending and I have so far stuck to the meal plan (since Friday) and not been to a shop.  It is only Tuesday though 

DH and I have spoken quite a lot about our food spends and how we want to bring this down as it is ridiculous for 3 people and a small dog and have agreed this is our main focus for the rest of the year as it will derail our debt payoff plans if we don’t stop wasting money on buying too much food.

SJAllicat

I’ve definitely given up on this month and hoping to keep below £300 😳 and that’s terrible since it’s only 2 of us. What I have to keep telling myself is that we’re not spending on any coffees, meals or drinks out atm so the food budget is going to be higher. 

We’ve been to the shop 3 times this week so far and totals come to £35.54. 

We stocked up in Moggies on gf oats, and their groundcoffee that’s cheap atm and is pretty good and we’re tempted by some other things that happened in the basket as always happens. 

So total is £.

Will try to limit anymore spends to just milk and fresh fruit and veg as have plenty staples not to mention of gin and sherry in the house for the next couple of weeks till end of month. 

What I’m taking away from this month is:

We eat very healthily overall, and I make things from scratch, and like trying new recipes so sometimes overspend buying for unplanned ahead meals and lots and lots of fresh stuff. 

Next month I’ll choose recipes ahead of time, so I shop for them in main shop, and pick ones that are more budget friendly.
Make sure I shop mostly at Al*i or Li*l as so many of our buys are so much cheaper there, and just visit Moggies when we need gf products we can’t get in there. Things like basmati rice, palm oil free peanut butter, nuts, dried fruits, free range eggs and chicken etc are so much cheaper. I’m very lucky our small town has all 3 shops as well as B&M, Iceland and A local butcher so I should be able to shop around a little quite easily. 

Maybe I should contemplate doing a huge start of the month freezer filler/ dry stock shop but we tend to eat hardly any meat or ready prepared stuff that I’m not sure that would be feasible 🤔. 

But will definitely carry on the challenge and attempt June and try to do better. 

Suffolk_lass

Sent DH with an extensive list for our first shop in 2 weeks. I have taken to writing "if on offer" and added the IOO abbreviation. Had the inevitable smart-a**e slightly scathing remark about wanting 100 of something. Good grief. At least that was before he left as I suggested he read the list to query anything he did not understand before he set off.

I know he thinks I make a big deal about it but the difference is about £20 each time he shops. He went off spec and came back with a small packet of Jacob's CC for £1 instead of the own brand ones that are two large packs for 80p, only bought one box of DW tabs and completely ignored the wine I asked for. I will not make a big deal out of it (and repeat).