April 2021 Grocery Challenge

Money_Choices

Hi 

On 19 April I spent £7.37 at Mr T's. This makes my April grocercy spending £58.65/£90.00.

Money Choices

JingsMyBucket

Evening y’all. OH and I are snuggled into our weekend away and likely going to turn in early because we’re both tired as heck. One spend today at the M & S in this town for hotel snacks: grapes, tangerines, cheese, bananas, egg mayo, a dessert, a YS mozzarella ball, and a mushroom garlic paste that @goldfinches recommended on another thread. 

OH fashioned his hotel room dinner from the egg mayo, the mozzarella, a couple bananas, and the dessert. I, on the other hand, had a nice soup and a fish cake with salad from room service. 

For anyone wondering how hotel food works in Covid, this hotel is not doing dining rooms or buffets. We have to order from the room service menu for dinner and request a specific time for it to be delivered. Then the staff comes to our room and drops off the food. Breakfast buffet is a no go as well. You get a choice of continental or full cooked/hot breakfast and then it’s delivered during the time slot you requested. Thankfully the prices for room service are the regular restaurant prices so we’re not paying exorbitant money for it. I’ll likely leave a tip for the hotel staff at the end of the stay to say thank you. 

£14.36 spent

£353.46 / £350.00 so we’re over and still need to get some staples this coming week. So it goes. At least I’m not into the 400s yet! Have a good night everyone and a lovely weekend. 

PipneyJane

Good luck with the op, @thriftwizard.  Hope it goes well.

@goldfinches - that is horrible, what happened to your bike.  Sorry to hear that you were the victim of theft.

Thanks @Pixiehouse55.  Yes, I am proud of DH. He’ll try his hand at just about anything in order to earn a living, which is how he ended up in IT Training. (He is a mechanical engineer by trade.)  This is a really good role, working for a software company, with plenty of room for growth.  He’s looking forward to starting on Monday.  We’re going on a reccie later, so that he knows exactly where his new office is before he has to drive there.  

(As an aside, and totally off topic, both DH and I are completely frustrated by the behaviour of an old friend, who was made redundant from a government clerical job in 2017 and has spent the last four years feeling sorry for himself/avoiding getting a job.  This man had 18 months notice that his job would be outsourced.  He did nothing during that time, no preparation for the inevitable, not even emotionally.  People have tried to help him find a job but he won’t help himself.  I’ve critiqued his CV - I categorically refuse to rewrite it.  It was so badly written but, if he followed up on what I wrote (and a I doubt it), then it would have helped him emotionally and grow his confidence - and pushed him to apply for a job at my work. DH pointed him to working on the census - DH did it 10 years ago, during a previous round of unemployment - but this friend only applied after seeing multiple ads on F-book.  The census and a couple of months working at Oxfam in 2019 are the only work he’s done in all that time.  The contrast between my friend’s attitude to finding a job and DH’s is gobsmacking.)

Right.  Enough of me venting.  Back on topic, I have two small spends to declare:  £1.85 in MrT’s on creme fraiche and £5.65 in L!dl on Wednesday.  The latter was spent on mushrooms, onions, garlic, a roll of pastry and a pack of Oaties biscuits.

The above shop brings our total spend for April to £118.74/£140, leaving £21.26 for the remainder of the month.  No doubt we’ll spend some of it later today.  (We need fresh milk.)

- Pip

ancientmum

I hope everyone is well and able to get out and enjoy the sunshine.  One trip to Adli,  one to Sains this week which cost me a total of £12.05.
I netted a YS pack of fishy mix so dinner last night was fish pie.  One portion left for tonight and two more to go in the freezer.  Love fish pie, love anything with a cheese sauce really..

Tightpants24

Quite an expensive shop for my weekly M0rri3sons click and collect at £98.47    But this does include a top up of some household stuff and toiletries.  I am still within my budget (just) for the month.  Might manage to scrape through by next weekend. 🤞 

PipneyJane

Have a nice weekend away, @JingsMyBucket.

Well, the reccie to DH's new workplace went well.  He was worried if there'd be anywhere nearby for him to buy lunch.  There's a C0-0p nextdoor, a mini Sainsbugs at the end of the street and a mini W8rose next to the Tube station, all within 3 minutes walk from the office.  (NB:  he won't be buying lunch often.  He always takes leftovers.)

On the way home, we stopped at L!dl.  The plan was to buy a weed-burner (£14.99), fresh milk and some salad... Ahem.... < cough >  After taking into account the Garden Fund contributing £17.98 for the weed-burner and an extra can of fuel, we spent £19.16 on a YS roast chicken (£2.79), YS Chinese pork steaks (£2.44), YS fish cakes (£1.39) YS peppered mackerel (£1.18), YS sausages (£90p), a £1.15 bag potatoes,  Chorizo (£1.49 x2), 4 boxes of breakfast cereal (on a 15% off offer), fresh milk, cream cheese and a head of broccoli.... < cough >

The pork steaks will be dinner tonight, baked with some sweet potato and served with broccoli.  The roast chicken will be Sunday lunch, with the salad, and a risotto later in the week.  The fish cakes and sausages are already in the freezer.  (I will eventually use the sausages in a Spicy Sausage and Lentil Casserole.)  The mackerel can't be frozen, so will probably be dinner on Monday or Tuesday, served with couscous and oven roasted veggies.  (This next week will be a horrible one for me at work, with long days guaranteed, so anything that doesn't need much thought or effort to cook will be appreciated.)

The above brings our total spend for April to £137.90/£140, with £2.10 left for the rest of the month until Friday.  Should be do-able.

- Pip

K9sandFelines

Hi everybody,
I've quickly caught up. 
Ive seriously underestimated what i was going to spend. All the nice shops nearby; and my birthday and DD2s 18th; means we have had some treats and birthday cake etc, but nothing lavish.
I am however over by about £100 which is shocking. So, i will maybe go from what i have spent this month and reduce from there. It should have been doable, just need to ease in gradually.
Hope everyones circumstancees are improving al round  

Suffolk_lass

Don't feel bad K9 - the advice in the original posts behind this thread always advised monitor and record what you are buying in month 1, aim to reduce by one change a month, aiming for about £20. Now that might be more like £50 now but the wisdom is good.

Record what you already have in
Meal plan from that
Write a list of things you need
Take your list shopping with you (it is b-all use on the fridge, I often find!) 
Stick to your list

Then you can improve again by repeating and

Look at what you did that made you buy more (Bogof, YS, off-spec, end of aisle etc) and don't do it next time
Drop a brand
Remove the "we always have" things
Only buy your "cannot live without" bits when they are on offer

t14cy_t

£3.25 left until weekend but have community larder paid for on wednesday, do able but the call of the supermarket is strong!!!

Mrs_Cheshire

Morning all,  had a few spends the end of last week. £4.50 at the community grocery (£3 for the usual selection, and £1.50 for the extras - 2.27kg d0lmi0 tomato & basil sauce and 200 individual mayo sachets). 
I'm going to use some of the sauce tonight for pasta bolagnese and then refridgerate the rest for another meal later in the week. 
Also went to Mr T £10.23 and Ald! £21.06 which includes 2 bottles of alcohol. 

This week I'll do 2 shops at the community grocery and probably a small Tesco top up.
Currently spent £228.77/£350 - hoping to keep under £250 if I can and then I'll move the excess to the bulk fund.