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May 2021 Grocery Challenge
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Tesco sent me a voucher for £6 off £40 spend. This is much more than I would normally spend one go, so as well as my normal shop I bought toilet rolls and stocked up on tins, baking stuff etc..Grocery challenge 2025: £650/1500 annual budget8
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£41 spent at the market this morning, on fish, cheese & two pasties (for OH's lunches; they're 100% nicer than supermarket ones) fruit & veg, which should see us right through until next Thursday. Only £1 above the target I had in my head, so that's just about ok. But I've had to haul the chicken back out of the freezer as DD1's boyfriend will be with us tomorrow & Sunday (he lives alone so is "bubbled" with us) so that's altered the menu plan somewhat. I expect some cooked chicken will get frozen early next week instead!
I was also given an entire box of avocados "for the chickens" plus a crate of cauliflowers, all frost-damaged. Turns out chickens adore avocado; so do I, so I had avocado on toast for lunch, as they weren't that bad once I cut into them, plus I trimmed off some better bits of some of the caulis & we had cauliflower au gratin with our trout & refried Harissa potatoes; spuds left over from earlier in the week, Harissa from an imaginative & very welcome hamper I was given at Christmas. There are several days-worth left for both the chickens and for us!
Angie - GC Jul 25: £225.85/£500 : 2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 26/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)9 -
That’s very sweet of you to share with the chickens @thriftwizard
especially when the girls are so good at giving eggs.
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To all those of you who feel you have blown their budgets, I join the ranks. Will update my totals tomorrow, but suffice to say I went to Poundland with the best intentions of getting some cheap basics, then went to M&S to get some of their food deals and then hit JS. Buying and shopping for yummy food gives more pleasure than eating it.
- Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
6 - Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
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£4:58 spent yesterday on bread and milk. making my total so far £29.58 out of £300 (£270.42 left)
In it was the following.- May 2021 Grocery Challenge : £198.72 spent / £300 Budget
- June 2021 Grocery challenge : £354.19 spent / £300 Budget
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I’ve tallied up this morning. Here goes:
£18 £land
£53.70 M&S
£66.95 JS
A grocery spend up of £138.65, but I have some yummy stuff in the larder, including a raspberry ripple Mary Berry cake from JS, currently £2 (norm £3)
I know it’s easy to shun places like M&S but they have some good deals, like 3 for £10 across meat and chicken. I got some fantastic breaded chicken which we had last night and it was better and much cheaper than a KFC bucket. The M&S £10 pizza deal is for tonight, and will stop us getting a takeaway as we feel like we’ve had one, but it will save at least £10/£15.
BTW £land have Flash and Harpic cleaners for £1, which are normally around £2 in JS
Yesterday spent £138.65, plus previous spend gives total spend £144.64. Leaves £175.36 for rest of May.- Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
6 - Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
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Good afternoon All
A quick trip to L!dl this morning to stock up on fresh veg, cooking bacon, puffed pastry, etc. £26.69 spent. We scored YS garlic-and-herb steaks (£2.09) and YS chicken Kiev’s (83p). Also bought a packet of Dr Beckmann’s washing machine cleaner for £1.99. (Even after a pure-vinegar wash, our washing machine is leaving dirty streaks on some washes. Hopefully this will fix it.)
You may remember that I bought a couple of chickens at the C0-0p last weekend, in order to take advantage of an offer. Both were “roast in the bag”. (You roast it sealed for the first hour and then open the packaging up to crisp up the skin, for the last half hour.) I roasted one and froze the other. I am not impressed. Unlike their L!dl equivalent, which come seasoned with garlic and herbs, this chicken was not pre-seasoned and was virtually tasteless. When I opened the packaging for that last half hour, I did grind salt over it, but that made no difference. Lesson learned.
The above brings our GC spend to £67.75/£142, leaving £74.25 for the remainder of the month.
- Pip"Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.'
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!
2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 25.5 spent.
4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
4 - 1 pair "combinations" (Merino wool thermal top & leggings)
6 - Ukraine Forever Tartan Ruana wrap
8 - 4 x 100g/450m skeins 3-ply dark green Wool Local yarn
1.5 - sports bra
2 - 100g/220m DK Toft yarn7 -
Hello Pip, I had similar problem. Do you have hard water?
You can try rinsing stuff under tap before putting in DW, but I got fed up with this. I now buy JS rinse aid, it’s the cheapest I can find (sometimes out of stock) but I’ve had no streaks. The rinse aid amount in DW tabs is not enough
- Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
5 - Grocery Challenge: April £263.60 / £250
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Sallyp2 said:Hello Pip, I had similar problem. Do you have hard water?
You can try rinsing stuff under tap before putting in DW, but I got fed up with this. I now buy JS rinse aid, it’s the cheapest I can find (sometimes out of stock) but I’ve had no streaks. The rinse aid amount in DW tabs is not enough
We have extremely hard water. To combat it, I dilute my washing up liquid with vinegar half-and-half, in a pump-action hand-wash-bottle and use 2-3 squirts per wash. Without added vinegar, I’ve had glasses go milky. (To fix that, soak in vinegar over night.)
- Pip"Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.'
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!
2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 25.5 spent.
4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
4 - 1 pair "combinations" (Merino wool thermal top & leggings)
6 - Ukraine Forever Tartan Ruana wrap
8 - 4 x 100g/450m skeins 3-ply dark green Wool Local yarn
1.5 - sports bra
2 - 100g/220m DK Toft yarn5 -
£24.34 at Wh01ef00ds onlineDo I need it or just want it.2
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