April 2021 Grocery Challenge

scandimore

Am I too late to join in?

We usually spend (takes cover) £600 a month at least for 2 adults one child and two cats This can obviously be reduced right down with proper planning so my target for April if I can join in, would be £400, then hopefully less next month.

So far not spent anything on food as store cupboards and freezer full to bursting so made a thai green curry for the adults using a variety of frozen veg - it was actually quite nice.

PipneyJane

Good evening All

First shop of the month today.  After Easter last year, we struck it big on legs of lamb in MrT’s - they were a quarter the original price - so today we went to see if we could do it again.  Sadly, no such luck.  They didn’t have much lamb on the shelves, so I can only assume that this year they weren’t overstocked, and nothing was marked down.

What they did have were 2kg bags of dried pulses at a discounted “Clubcard” price.  We got a bag each of split red lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans.  Headline price £11.10; Clubcard price £9.25.  The Bulk Fund will pay for those.

The rest of the shop came to £30.92/£140, so that leaves us with £109.08 for the rest of the month.

- Pip (Now to catch up with what everyone else is doing.)

pamsdish

Welcome @scandimore, it`s never too late to make a plan.
Do you know what you have in your freezer(s) an inventory is great, we are all guilty of buying on impulse, I went shopping Tuesday ?, saw what I thought was a good deal on fabric conditioner, knew I needed some, although not on my shopping list on my phone, when I got home 1 1/2 bottles in store cupboard, on the other side loads of y.s. sausages so got 4x6 packs, sausage always useful.
If you have a rough idea of what you have you can meal plan, using what you already have in, or just shopping for what`s on your list to make meals.

joedenise

I haven't been too good with posting this month!  Have been shopping 3 times this month and have £166.01 left for the rest of the month.  The bills definitely seem to be creeping up, will have to watch what I'm spending a bit more for the rest of the month if I'm to come in under budget.

We are away in our motorhome next week but will be taking as much as we can with us so we don't need to spend too much (hopefully!).  We only have a very small ice box in the fridge so unfortunately can only get a few HM ready meals fitted in but I will try to get at least 3 or 4 evening meal in there plus some sausages for weekend breakfasts.

ancientmum

I hope you enjoy your time away in the motorhome, joedenise.

I've totted up my spends since 1st April, and it comes to £16.45. This is over several shops and includes laundry pods that I shopped around for to try to get the best price, and should last well into July.  I'm still eating mainly from  the stores and freezer, but will have to get some meat next week.

Finstickle

A big spend day for me - Lidl, Tesco, Amazon & Musclefood!

Lidl was £90 - £80 which was ok, especially as it included £1.8kg of chicken which I normally get on my meat order but I can't get a delivery until Wednesday.  I also bought two packs of jumbo prawns for £6 - this will probably only do one meal with the teenagers but will be a nice treat as I don't often buy things like that when they're here.

Tesco was a stock up on the non-Lidl items, including whole wheat noodles, egg whites, rock salt and a YS tenderloin of pork for £2.15.
 
Amazon was some blackbean spaghetti to complement the OH's new found love of exercise and all things healthy - can't complain though as he's not had a beer in a couple of months and that's definitely helped the budget.

Musclefood is std every few months, should be 60 portions for £72, sometimes I get more / less than recommended but generally evens out.

Total for the MTD - £290.58/£550 - £259.42 left.

I think that should be OK as Musclefood will last a couple of months and only 2 big shops to do.  I'll probably need top ups of veg etc as we have the stepkids from today until a week Sunday and teenagers can eat!!!

thriftwizard

Oh deary me, another £69.70 gone at the market this morning, on fish, cheese, a small cake, pasties for OH & DS3, fruit & veg. There have been some swingeing price rises... it's Hungry Gap time for local produce, and imported stuff (aka "New Season") is mostly vastly more expensive than it was this time last year. Ouch. But there you go, we have to feed the hungry hordes anyway! So I have £200-odd left to feed 5 - 7 or 8 at times, in the garden! - for 3 weeks... but that said, stocks are high and there's still produce at the allotment - leeks, kale, kale, chard & rhubarb - so that should be do-able. OH is going to pick up a sack of spuds tomorrow for £8 too, which will keep us going for another 6 weeks. 

I need to get back into the swing of making my own bread etc. as I've been spending far too much at the bakery. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something addictive in his sourdough & flatbreads! They are superb, and I'm a great fan of supporting local traders when possible (after all, I am one) but not to the point of damaging our own household economy...

joedenise

@Finstickle - what's the quality of Musclefoods like?  I've had a few ads come up on Faceb**k a while back and wondered whether it was worthwhile!

zafiro1984

I'm trying for minimal spends this month.
Small supermarket shop arriving Sunday, just essentials like bread, milk, coffee, olive oil. hopefully enough to last for another couple of weeks with the help of things from the freezer and cupboards.

I did have one indulgence, I ordered some cheese from a local supplier, a bit more expensive than the supermarket but the range is much larger especially with goat cheese. I ordered some 'spenwood' which goes very hard and can be used like parmesan if left for a couple of weeks. I'll portion it into 50gm parcels and freeze it to stop me eating too much. 

Tightpants24

Another £75 spent on  M0rri3sons click and collect weekly order.  It would have  been less but I forgot to press confirm when I was editing it while watching Gogglebox last night 😆 
Anyway, at least I have a lot more toilet roll and coffee in the cupboard than I intended.   Hopefully I'll be more on the ball next week 🙏